Phoenix mars probe at death's door"

Phoenix mars probe at death's door"

www.msnbc.msn.com

By Irene Klotz
Discovery Channel
updated 1:59 p.m. ET, Wed., Nov. 5, 2008

Compared to NASA's long-lived Mars rovers, still scurrying around the Red Planet almost five years past warranty, the ice-sampling Phoenix Mars Lander, now in a communications coma five months after touchdown, may appear to be a bit of a dud.

But there is nothing engineers could have done to fix the fundamental problem. Phoenix, which is stationed near the planet's northern pole, is running out of sunlight, a death knell for a solar-powered probe.

When Phoenix landed on May 25, it was the start of summer on the Martian arctic circle, land of the midnight sun.

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And how much did this mission cost?
It is all quite amazing that we can send probes to other planets and beyond, with photos sent back and physical tests
with analyzed data.

However if half of the funds spent in the last 10 years on space exploration(including Russia,China,India and U.S.A.) had been put to use on Mother Earth mayhap our sickly planet would be healthier allong with its inhabitants.
Not to mention the fact that there is so much on Earth that has not been explored and all that we do not understand yet.

First things first. !!

www.msnbc.msn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by azureskys


I disagree

It is a fact that sooner or later life on this planet will come to an end, either through our own hands or at the very least when our sun dies. Its vital for the continuation of the human race that space is explored, examined and eventually colonised if the human race is to go on -whether it deserves to is a different story

And despite mine and others beliefs on UFO's, so far we are the only known life in the entire universe and as such we should give it everything we have got to survive after everything the universe has done for us. Maybe we should take better care of the planet, but dont you think that lessons learned on other worlds will be useful to us? Suppose we find a way to terraform mars and from that technology we find a way to heal our Earth. Then would it be money wasted? If we found a microbe that lived there that killed cancer cells, would it be money wasted?

Space exploration is the way forward to not only better mankinds knowledge, but also to better our spirituality. The lessons we learn will hopefully benefit future generations for millenia to come.

If we can't take care of this planet and infact are messing it up as we speak. How Are We going to survive elswhere? Should we be taking our distructive ways to other planets.
Just look at the trash left floating around outside our planet all in the name of space exploration.
Will we trash the whole Universe? Is it nothing but a big garbage dump to us ?
Don't we Ever Learn ??!!

[edit on 6-11-2008 by azureskys]

reply to post by azureskys


Would should we do then, spend BILLIONS AND BILLIONS tidying up earths orbit of the bits and pieces we have left floating around? Or have you got a brilliant answer for fixing the ozone layer short of getting rid of all cars, computers, fridges and airplanes?

I would prefer to be optimistic about the future rather than sit around feeling sorry for myself over problems we cant fix You might be happy to live in a cave with no power, i wouldnt be. I like my car, i like my fridge, i like my lynx bodyspray, i like getting on a plane to go on holiday, i like having satellites so i can watch TV. Unless you go without all those things yourself (which i doubt as your using a computer to respond!) then you just as much part of the problem as everyone else.

Technology knackered this planet and only technology will save it. That or the complete abcence of it, which short of all out nuclear holocaust you are not going to get. Personally, im glad we are looking at the stars and hopefully by the time we get there we will have grown up a bit as a race

Duplicate post

[edit on 6-11-2008 by expatwhite]

reply to post by azureskys

However if half of the funds spent in the last 10 years on space exploration(including Russia,China,India and U.S.A.) had been put to use on Mother Earth mayhap our sickly planet would be healthier allong with its inhabitants.

I disagree. If the funds weren't spent on space exploration, then the US would have just used them to fund another war somewhere else on earth.

I say lets keep diverting as much funding as possible to the space programs. The less funding available for military campaigns, the better.