New Mars Forums

What can beat that? Not having people advertising companies and products on New Mars, that's what. One post is bad enough - four was just bad taste.

Suggestions please!

Steve: I believe one of the main reasons the landing sites were chosen was because they were 'safe' - they didn't have any big boulders or other things that might endanger the probes and rovers as they were coming down. Perhaps the ice caps are more troublesome in that respect (as the Polar Lander demonstrated).

There could be interesting things at the ice caps, but there are interesting things in the current landing sites as well - possible evidence of past water flow, that sort of thing. The fact is, when there have only been three successful landing attempts in the past decade, there are inevitably going to be some very promising places on Mars that will be missed.

I strongly hope that this isn't going to devolve into an 'is that an artificial formation' argument, because you know where to take it...

To get back on topic - Rxke: I think everyone here is very interested in the briefings and I know that following this thread and reading reports by people like you probably represents the best and most up-to-date way of keeping up with the rovers. The reason why people aren't talking that much about the science is, I suspect, because they don't know what to make of it. There's a huge flood of information coming in every day about mineral compositions, soil structure, plans, images and more, and it's difficult to digest all of it properly.

To be honest, at this point I'm more interested in the neat stuff the rover is doing, like digging holes in the soil with its wheels I wonder if the mission scientists had seriously thought they'd be doing this beforehand.

Heh, that's some serious destructive investigation

Does anyone know how NASA will handle the running of the two rovers when they're both on the surface? Do they have two semi-independent teams, or what? Someone mentioned that Spirit will quieten down while Opportunity lands; I hope that this doesn't mean NASA will have to make compromises between running the two rovers.

Power isn't the only challenge rovers have with longevity - the harsh temperatures, winds and clogging dusts and fines will eventually degrade the rover's scientific instruments, wheels and motors. It would be prohibitively expensive to design a rover that would be able to withstand Martian conditions for several years - you'd need so many backups and self-repair mechanisms that it wouldn't be worth it.

But as we can see, the rovers are getting tougher and bigger. Soon there won't be any need to have a permanent rover since we'll be sending rovers with longer lifespans more frequently - I'd expect the next rover to last for at least half a year.

Here are some links I'm thinking of including for the next issue:

Martian Soil weblog - [http://www.martiansoil.com]www.martiansoil.com

Two Wired articles about the politics of the new plan and SF writers comments - [http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,61932,00.html]http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,61932,00.html and [http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0, … 37,00.html]http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0, … 37,00.html

Any other suggestions for links, threads, tidbits, news or just thoughts?

I agree. Zubrin is not a perfect spokesman, and he has his faults like everyone, but as jadeheart says, there isn't a better person for the job than him. I haven't seen Zubrin much on TV - just on a few documentaries when he's wearing his cap - but I have seen him several times in real life, and I can vouch for the fact that he is one of the most charismatic, persuasive and powerful speakers I have ever seen. This includes a whole bunch of Nobel prizewinners and 'captains of industry' at other conferences.

On a related note, the International Herald Tribune wrote [http://iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?temp … eId=125148]an article advocating Mars Direct. They didn't mention the Mars Society or Zubrin, but I did find it heartening that the plan has its supporters and is gaining more visibility. No doubt Zubrin will be seen in DC a bit more often in the coming months and years.

Moved from New Mars Articles.

AJ, it was a dumb and troll-like post, never mind the French. I don't know why you bothered.

You got it in one, buddy 

Unfortunately I can't move individual comments to a new thread - if I could, I would seriously consider doing it in this case. Now, this digression has gone on for a bit too long and realmacaw has already said he doesn't want to get into discussion about life after death here. People are of course free to talk about the subject in a new thread I've made in Free Chat, but no longer in this thread.

Well, I did consider the fact that if I managed to destroy the forums, it would be at a really bad time. However, on balance there didn't seem like there was a real risk of that, and in any case it turned out well. There was never any chance of losing any data - one way or another, I would have finished the upgrade by tonight