Mars Rover Spirit Falls Silent ...

[Verto]

Originally posted by Agathon


You owe us all ten bucks compensation for having to read that.

Don't we already have a thread about reparations?

[Japher]

You owe us all ten bucks compensation for having to read that.

We'll call it reparations

[chequita guevara]

I call it gas. I fart in your general direction.

[MrFun]

Wow -- I think I have just been lynched.

[Gatekeeper]

I agree with whoever it was who said robotic probes would be a good way of preparing a site on Mars for eventual human habitation. Perhaps ferrying advance supplies and the like. Right now, the probes that do succeed in reaching Mars are mainly scientific in nature.

As for NASA funding, it sounds like prretty much every other program will be gutted in order to even approach the dollar amount needed just to get to the moon and establish a permanent presence there. If Bush is genuinely serious about this, he's going to have to cough up a lot more funding, IMO.

Bad thing with the Hubble. That's a real nice asset to have. Too bad we shall likely lose the use of it within a few years (its gyroscopes — critical to the telescope's function — are failing ... one is already down, and the other two are wearing out).

One thing's for sure ... even if Earth were destroyed tomorrow, and humanity taken with it, there'd be relics of us left scattered throughout the Solar System (and beyond, what with Voyager somewhere near or beyond the Oort Cloud by now).

Gatekeeper

[Winston]

Regarding the Hubble Telescope, I read that after the decision was made not to service it further, it is now estimated it will continue in service until 2008. And in 2011 (or was that 2014, I'm not entirely sure), a new international telescope should be in place orbiting and exploring the deep space with a vastly improved capacity and data quality compared to Hubble. So it's not like that part of space exploration will be terminated, it'll just be on hold for a few years because the US have now also decided on more ambitious programmes.

[Winston]

It's called the James Webb Space Telescope, and will indeed be going up in 2011 according to The Hubble Site.

Plans are still underway for the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble's successor, which would be launched in 2011. JWST will be designed to view objects in visible light and infrared, and its mirror will have six times the area of Hubble's mirror. Its goal is to study the first stars and galaxies that formed in the early universe. JWST will operate 1 million miles (1.5 million km) away from the Earth, and will not be serviceable from orbit.

[dannubis]

Originally posted by yavoon


yes lets abolish a program that accomplishes something and replace it w/ a program that gives money to ppl who accomplish nothing.

I bet thats how all great nations are built.

I hope you never find yourself in a situation where you become dependent on this kind of support...

[Gatekeeper]

Winston:

That's the first I've heard of the JWST ... if it stays on track, then losing Hubble won't be so bad.

Right now, apparently the public and some senators aren't too happy with the idea of Hubble being left to its own devices. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Calif., I think) is among those ranks. It's even gone so far as to suggest that maybe Russia could help, or that Hubble could be brought to the ISS for repairs. All interesting stuff, but it the JWST is an almost guarantee, well, maybe the fuss over Hubble will fade away.

Gatekeeper

[alva]

without NASA, we ouwldnt have Postropedic Matresses!!! Or those pens that can write upside down! How dare you ask what has NASA done for you

Pencil.

[CerberusIV]

The problem with Hubble and the JWST is that Hubble will almost certainly go down before JWST is up leaving a gap of probably about 4 years.

And they have yet to figure out how to stop any bits of Hubble that don't burn up on re-entry landing on someone's head.

[Eli]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2004/29.cfm

NASA's Spirit rover communicated with Earth in a signal detected by NASA's Deep Space Network antenna complex near Madrid, Spain, at 12:34 Universal Time (4:34 a.m. PST) this morning.

The transmissions came during a communication window about 90 minutes after Spirit woke up for the morning on Mars. The signal lasted for 10 minutes at a data rate of 10 bits per second.

Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., plan to send commands to Spirit seeking additional data from the spacecraft during the subsequent few hours.

[Brundlefly]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara

Yeah, cuz the Democrats have sure spent so much money on the poor. When has the United States ever had any kind of social democratic pretentions? The only time the U.S. came close, the so-called War on Poverty, it got derailed, not by the space program, but the WAR ON VIETNAM!

I think we were moving towards Socialism in early 20th century until Bolshevik revolution scared people away.

FDR is the closest thing we've ever had to a socialist democrat.

Certainly Democrats today, at least the moderate Clinton Democrats, pay too much lip service to social programs, but at least they show more concern than Republicans.

Democrats are the lesser of two evils. I think it is more worthwhile to work on them to become more liberal than to throw my lot in with a weak also-ran organization like Libertarians or Communists who have no chance of getting their agenda pushed through in American politics.

You always act like it's this either or propoistion. Either we explore space or we feed the poor. NASA gets a pittance. Half the Federal budget is taken up paying for past and future wars (some of which goes to NASA). Then there's all the money spent on corporate welfare. If you kvetched abuot the moeny we spend on everything else, maybe you'd at least be logically consistent when it comes to NASA's budget. As it is, you only trot out this argument for NASA.

Well you've done a good job right there explaining about the money we've wasted on everything else, so now I have nothing to add.

I guess I'm fixated on NASA because I see a stark contrast between astronauts walking on Mars and many of the social problems we face. I just dont see why Bush needs 15 billion for NASA to have us walk on Mars. Someone please show me the cost-benefit analysis.

[DanS]

The problem with Hubble and the JWST is that Hubble will almost certainly go down before JWST is up leaving a gap of probably about 4 years.

They're seriously considering moving JWST up one year, so the gap would be between 2 years and 4 years. Furthermore, they have to ramp up funding for JWST well before they launch it. If Hubble were in place as they ramped up funding, then the overall NASA astronomy budget would have had to be increased drastically.

[Whoha]

they got about 30 minutes of transmission with the rover today. I bet the other lander suffers the same problem this guy is going through.

[My Wife Hates CIV]

Originally posted by Whoha
they got about 30 minutes of transmission with the rover today. I bet the other lander suffers the same problem this guy is going through.

well maybe this time NASA will get that rover going before it falls apart. two weeks to turn and roll off the landing pad???

Can't wait! I'm sure flat plains with small rocks everywhere might look different on the other side. I'm sure that other $400 million digital camera will tell the story.

[Bereta_Eder]

Some alien propably pissed on it and shortcircuited it.

[Ned]

bfg9000, as a concerned socialist, do you also advocate a robust economy?

[asleepathewheel]

edit: nevermind...

[Jac de Molay]

Maybe Sasquatch ate the lander..

[Ned]

Asleep, is that a footprint?

[yavoon]

Originally posted by Sprayber



You assuming that I assume anything is a big mistake. Assumptions can be major ****ups


Just because I don't have a hard on everytime NASA sends up a probe doesnt mean you can act all smug and think you are somehow connected to the pulse of science. Sure space exploration is good, but perhaps we could start making life here on this planet a little happier.

what is w/ this infantile baseless and unsupported logic that removing NASA will make ur life better? I mean wtf. not only is it out on a limb it also flies in the face of all the achievements and advances NASA has made.

[yavoon]

Originally posted by dannubis


I hope you never find yourself in a situation where you become dependent on this kind of support...

wtf kinda bleeding heart posts are this. u act like we don't have a welfare program now, or that I am in favor of not having one

when all I'm doing is defending NASA from utterly myopic viewpoints that suggest that we should make sure that everyone gets paid for not working instead of venturing out human reach to the stars.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Ned
Asleep, is that a footprint?

I can't say....

[Winston]

Follow up on my earlier remarks on the decision to not continue the servicing of Hubble:

I just heard NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe on a press briefing say that this decision was made months ago, and had absolutely nothing to do with President Bush's new space exploration initiative.

He said it was purely an assessment of risk following the commitee investigation report on the Columbia disaster. Hubble would have to be serviced by the shuttle, and following the Columbia mishap, NASA is now obligated to have the capacity to perform a rescue effort when they return the shuttle to flight, either by way of launching a second shuttle or by having the astronauts transfered temporarily to the ISS. The decision was whether to focus solely on servicing the ISS or to include other uses for the shuttle, such as servicing Hubble (which has a completely different orbit path than the Station), and either option would involve fundamentally different priorities and safeguarding measures, so at the end of the day, NASA chose to focus on the ISS for the remaining period of time that the shuttle will be in operation. Purely for safety reasons, and not as a result of the recently announced plans to go back to the Moon and on to Mars.

Previous servicing missions to Hubble by the shuttle were made without realising the severe risks those missions exposed the astronauts to, but that has changed following the evaluation report on Columbia, and NASA can't take that risk anymore with the shuttle and its crew.

BTW, starting at 7:30 PM PST (3:30 AM GMT) there will be live commentary and footage from the Mars Rover Control Center, anticipating the touchdown of the Opportunity lander at 9:05 PM PST (5:05 AM GMT) at NASA TV, requires RealPlayer to watch.

[Edan]

Cautioning that they will need more time to understand what went wrong, project engineers said they have determined that Spirit has rebooted or tried to reboot itself more than 60 times a day since the failure.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/0...act/index.html

[DanS]

BTW, starting at 7:30 PM PST (3:30 AM GMT) there will be live commentary and footage from the Mars Rover Control Center, anticipating the touchdown of the Opportunity lander at 9:05 PM PST (5:05 AM GMT) at NASA TV, requires RealPlayer to watch.

Most amis get NASA TV on cable. Thanks for the heads up.

[asleepathewheel]

nasa tv?

hmm. I have directtv, don't think i get it (wasn't getting it through the old digital cable 6 months ago either)


Thank god they have a second rover, lets hope it doesn't screw up.

[Ned]

NASA TV is channel 376 on DirectTV. They have a newsconference right now, 6:10 pm, Pacific.

[Ned]

They are going to have a press conference on the landing of the Opportunity around 10:30 pm Pacific.