Spirit reaches Martian hilltop

That little bugger just keeps going and going doesn't it! Check out the dust devil in the background and click on the CNN link to read the entire story.


(SPACE.com) -- The Mars Spirit rover has reached a milestone moment in its exploration of the Red Planet.



www.cnn.com...

[edit on 26-8-2005 by 12 12 2012]

Those two rovers are amazing. they were only supposed to be going for about 4 months yet its the best part of 18 months now! When we start building bases out there ( ) we will have to put them in a museum

I love these little rovers. They're working so well that they really should build quite a few more of them, making improvements as necessary, and explore yet more areas of the planet. Weren't they just $0.5 billion each? A bargain actually.

yeah, next time im at wal-mart I'll pick one up.



[edit on 28-8-2005 by evanfitz]

Great they reached the top of a hill... Why again is that so impressive? Nothing what so ever about this mission strikes me as overly impressive at all. Do you think NASA could have landed them in a more barren area so they could simply motor around and record nothing.

Originally posted by Whompa1
Great they reached the top of a hill...

Why again is that so impressive? Nothing what so ever about this mission strikes me as overly impressive at all. Do you think NASA could have landed them in a more barren area so they could simply motor around and record nothing.

Because it has reached a hill millions of miles away. Hehe... Miles. How primitive.

Great post

[edit on 8/28/2005 by Darkpr0]

They shipped this thing how many millions of miles and for what? It took pictures of a dust devils and rocks and thats it. Wait I forgot one of them got stuck for a month..You would think NASA would land them in an area that bears looking at.

Originally posted by Whompa1
Great they reached the top of a hill...

Why again is that so impressive? Nothing what so ever about this mission strikes me as overly impressive at all. Do you think NASA could have landed them in a more barren area so they could simply motor around and record nothing.

It's impressive because, it gives them a great view of the surrounding area from the ground. It's also impressive that the rovers have long past their expiry date. And most importantly, their should lots of differnt mineral samples to study in this area.

What don't you find impressive about this mission. Also, I hate to break it to you, but pretty much all of Mars is barren.

They shipped this thing how many millions of miles and for what? It took pictures of a dust devils and rocks and thats it. Wait I forgot one of them got stuck for a month..You would think NASA would land them in an area that bears looking at.

It's done a hell of a lot more than just taking pictures of dust devils and rocks. It's done lots of soil samples, climate studies and other geological things. If you're interesting in knowing there goals and objectives, here's a list.

Mars Rover Goals

Goal 1: Determine whether Life ever arose on Mars

Goal 2: Characterize the Climate of Mars

Goal 3: Characterize the Geology of Mars

Goal 4: Prepare for Human Exploration

Mars Rover Objectives

The scientific objectives of the Mars Exploration Rover mission are to:

1. Search for and characterize a variety of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity. In particular, samples sought will include those that have minerals deposited by water-related processes such as precipitation, evaporation, sedimentary cementation, or hydrothermal activity.

2. Determine the distribution and composition of minerals, rocks, and soils surrounding the landing sites.

3. Determine what geologic processes have shaped the local terrain and influenced the chemistry. Such processes could include water or wind erosion, sedimentation, hydrothermal mechanisms, volcanism, and cratering.

4. Perform "ground truth" -- calibration and validation -- of surface observations made by Mars orbiter instruments. This will help determine the accuracy and effectiveness of various instruments that survey Martian geology from orbit.

5. Search for iron-containing minerals, identify and quantify relative amounts of specific mineral types that contain water or were formed in water, such as iron-bearing carbonates.

6. Characterize the mineralogy and textures of rocks and soils and determine the processes that created them.

7. Search for geological clues to the environmental conditions that existed when liquid water was present. Assess whether those environments were conducive to life.

I'm sorry to hear that you find it all unimpressive and borring, but NASA's goal wasn't to return aesthetically pleasing photos for you to look at (although I really like the pics that i've seen so far). They picked those areas for a reason. They wouldn't have been able to land them in an extremely rocky or mountainous area, the chances of it landing properly or even intact would have been very slim. Also I believe the chances of finding signs of water or past water would be greater in the lower, flatter regions where there could have once been oceans.

[edit on 29-8-2005 by jra]

Had you brainiacs watched the documentary on those tow little rovers, the work that went into getting them there, and how difficult it was to decide where to put them, you wouldn't be so quick to criticize from your comfy little computer chairs while slurping your cokes and shoving pizzas in your garbage collectors!

My hat is off to the engineers who made it happen, nad the ones who designed those Dura-last roaches!!!

Originally posted by Whompa1
They shipped this thing how many millions of miles and for what? It took pictures of a dust devils and rocks and thats it. Wait I forgot one of them got stuck for a month..You would think NASA would land them in an area that bears looking at.

Dust devils and rocks. Interesting enough for a mission, in my book..
I live in Dust devil, and rock heaven..here on Earth..So it reminds me of home.

Let's not forget, the spectrometer data, showing Mars' watery past.
Let's not forget extreme microscopic closeups, of the soil, and the minerals,
again, providing proof that there was standing water, for a decent amount of time.
Lets' not forget the pictures of atmospheric clouds, cirrus style showing water in the atmosphere.
Let's not forget beautiful color panorama's of an alien landscape.
Let's not forget, that we learn something more, with every picture. Which to date, is over 100,000 images..
Let's not forget, that these Rovers are also engineering testbeds, for future, more complicated missions.

Where would you have landed a Rover?
Remember, it has to be a mix of INTERESTING, and FAIRLY SAFE.

Amen to CROWNE and SPACEDOUBT!!!!

Lots of money spent, yes.
Lots of time invested, yes.
Lots of knowlegde of Mars, getting there yes.

As far as them landing in a barron, boring place.....they landed exactally where they needed to ....MARS!

Well, I'm still impressed. And, NASA did it and it actually worked well... that's even more impressive given the recent record of most unfortunate screw-ups. Each screw-up normally means many years go by before another mission is attempted, so its most awful when those happen.

Landing sites seemed pretty interesting to me, esp since we're new to this so anything at all there should be interesting. Although if I had to pick other possible sites (which NASA would never go for of course), I'd go for Cydonia, some craters/cliffs that show seepage out the sides, as well as those areas that appear to contain mile-high "trees". Although landing in the "trees" would prove to be way too dangerous, especially if they turn out to be gigantic spiky crystals that promptly impale the balloons they inflate around the rover as it comes in for a bouncing/landing. (How embarassing that'd be!)

I was mentioning how dustdevils, and rocks, reminded me of home..
Check out this pic..From today..
What do you think?



just a little?

Originally posted by Thomas Crowne
Had you brainiacs watched the documentary on those tow little rovers, the work that went into getting them there, and how difficult it was to decide where to put them, you wouldn't be so quick to criticize from your comfy little computer chairs while slurping your cokes and shoving pizzas in your garbage collectors!

My hat is off to the engineers who made it happen, nad the ones who designed those Dura-last roaches!!!

Agreed. The sheer distance is incredible enough, let alone the math necessary to 1)fly there, 2)survive a remote re-entry, 3)land within the target area, 4)ensure they make it to the ground in one piece. Then they had a mountain of difficulties from dust on the solar collecters, to what they thought was a burnt out motor on one of the wheels (if I remember the NOVA special correctly). The data gathered from these missions will aid future missions. The most important thing of sending the rovers there is that they can make mistakes without losing human life.

Originally posted by spacedoubt
I was mentioning how dustdevils, and rocks, reminded me of home..
Check out this pic..From today..
What do you think?

just a little?

Dude, is there a rover outside of your living room window on top of a hill? if so...you may live on mars! Great pic, I see exactly what you mena!