Is the Mars rover ever coming back

Nuclear power??! Isnt that very dangerous? Do we have the technology to use nuclear power safely?

Would we use nuclear power to power our cities if we couldnt use it safely?

Navy's around the world use nuclear power to power their submarines.
If its good enough and safe enough to use in the oceans of our own planet then why cant we us it in space???

ESA has plans for a sample return mission to launch in 2013 as part of Aurora.

Because of challenger and the like.

If a nuke sub runs aground or gets blownup, its bad, but not that bad. If a nuke engine explodes in orbit, it all comes raining down on everyone. If it blows up during take off, well, the property values in florida drop.

Space Tech is just too dangerous, even tho its been around for a while now.

Originally posted by balon0
America has no money

Or the technology. You don't just send a guy to Mars overnight. I think it's been said we can't even send a man to the Moon right now. I sure wouldn't want to send some astronauts out in a rushed, unsafe plan just 'to prove we can do it'.

I agree and it costs just too much. I remember ther was going to be a space station build on the moon so it would be possible to launch a shuttle from there (much easier than on earth) however for reasons I am not sure (I believe either we had no more money to fund it because of the war in iraq or theres aliens there and told us to leave them alone :puz It would be cool to build a nucleared powered rocket in space and then it can get to many other planets. We are driving/controlling the rover at Mars from Earth am im correct? (raiod satellite comunication or something?) Send a monkey in a rocket and have it travel aroudn the solar system and back. I wonder what would happen

Originally posted by Nygdan
Because of challenger and the like.

If a nuke sub runs aground or gets blownup, its bad, but not that bad. If a nuke engine explodes in orbit, it all comes raining down on everyone. If it blows up during take off, well, the property values in florida drop.

Space Tech is just too dangerous, even tho its been around for a while now.

Eh???

If a nuke sub explodes on Earth its not that bad???

So i take it you believe Chernobyl was just a minor mishap?

And it would be alot safer to use nuclear power in space as:

1. If it was being used on a mission to Mars, then if there was an accident, the likelyhood is that it will be millions of miles away from Earth.

2. Even if there was an accident near Earth, any radioactive rubbish would either bounce off our atmosphere or drift off into outerspace to be with all the other radioactive stuff in space.

Fair enough if it exploded on lift off there would be major concequenses, but if nuclear power was to be used for space craft then a suitable launchpad miles away from civilisation would have to be built.
I hear theres some lovely dry lakebeds situated in the Nevada desert that would suit this project just fine.

No, Nygdan is right. The danger is vastly increased if the ship is over the Earth. The odds are great, in fact, the material and fallout with return to Earth and spread over a large portion of the globe, affecting far more people than anything we've seen here. That's why we try to destroy missiles when they're very close to the launch pad, not when they're coming right at us.

Nuclear power is a huge hassle for a space ship. It's NEVER a simple process, never, and should anything go wrong it will be many many times harder to rectify compared to Earth. The power itself is extremely hard to control, especially in an environment that demands conservative use of space and resources. And the waste is a drag to deal with out there...

current news states that the mars rover will come back to earth in 2015.

So 10 years from now we will have the technology to finally reach Mars? I wonder how much longer can any ordinary person be able to travel in space like going to the supermarket

Originally posted by krunal8000
current news states that the mars rover will come back to earth in 2015.

Really? I've not heard of it. Link?

And, balon0, there's a huge difference betwen having the technology and doing something. We've the technology to reach the moon and come back. Hell, we did it a few times 30 years ago. We're a while away from being able to do it again, however.

www.exploremarsnow.org...

It says we will be able to get to mars by 2015

[edit on 15-4-2005 by balon0]

from www.exploremarsnow.org...

Our goal is to inspire learning about the space sciences & technology through this web-based Mars simulator. Using ultra realism in site content and graphics, we present plausible concept for near future Mars missions drawing upon the depths of knowledge from experts around the world.

It's a site about possibilities and hopes. A very nice site, but not an authority.

Going to mars is very different from returning. You need roughly twice the resources to make the trip, not to count a large bay for holding two large rovers.

People keep saying it is too expensive, but I'm sure that if every country that could spare money did, then there would be enough. I would rather have that. instead of the International Space Station. Maybe I'm being dumb but what does the ISS actually do?

If we did discover life on Mars, Im sure we would stop feeling so divided, and stop having meaningless wars over oil. The cost of buying weapons and funding a war, would certaintly help