They should send a couple of those Mars rovers to the Moon

I was just watching this National Geographic special about the Mars rovers. They were saying that the rovers had explored Mars in a way that no other planet has ever been explored besides Earth. I'm thinking that would be a cool way to explore the far side of the Moon.

Of course we can't afford to do that anymore because we need that money now for blowing stuff up on Earth. Ah whell.

never saw the show, but if they jacked up the AI a little bit, and ensured that the about 1oo of them, do as much of a surface geological study as possible

java wrote:

I was just watching this National Geographic special about the Mars rovers. They were saying that the rovers had explored Mars in a way that no other planet has ever been explored besides Earth. I'm thinking that would be a cool way to explore the far side of the Moon.

Of course we can't afford to do that anymore because we need that money now for blowing stuff up on Earth. Ah whell.

What I would like to see is them come up with a way I could operate my snow blower from inside the house. That I could use. We could also spend the money on looking at putting a snow machine at the north pole so we keep the ice deep enough for the polar bears.

Alberta Boy wrote:

never saw the show, but if they jacked up the AI a little bit, and ensured that the about 1oo of them, do as much of a surface geological study as possible

These two rovers worked partly but AI and partly by remote control. They had a NASA study team working on them around the clock and kibitzing all their moves, making decisions, like, choosing the alternative paths they might travel in order to try to optimize the sun angles on their solar panels, and such things. The things remained operational for months and stayed in service long past the time they expected them to break down and become unusable. I found this link and video about the show or it might have been a different show on the same subject...



http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/science/space-sci/exploration/mars-rovers-sci.html?source=pincl

joe wrote:

Alberta Boy wrote:

never saw the show, but if they jacked up the AI a little bit, and ensured that the about 1oo of them, do as much of a surface geological study as possible

These two rovers worked partly but AI and partly by remote control. They had a NASA study team working on them around the clock and kibitzing all their moves, making decisions, like, choosing the alternative paths they might travel in order to try to optimize the sun angles on their solar panels, and such things. The things remained operational for months and stayed in service long past the time they expected them to break down and become unusable. I found this link and video about the show or it might have been a different show on the same subject...



http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/science/space-sci/exploration/mars-rovers-sci.html?source=pincl

It's pretty cool that we sent something to Mars, buy why? What will it really matter.

Answering unanswered questions, piquing scientific curiosities, that's a big part of what the human race is all about. The Mars Rovers are not only much less expensive than sending human astronauts, they are also more effective... they last longer and can do more and they can do things that would not be practical for humans to attempt. In a lot of cases, they can do things and go places that would simply not be possible for humans.

joe wrote:

Answering unanswered questions, piquing scientific curiosities, that's a big part of what the human race is all about. The Mars Rovers are not only much less expensive than sending human astronauts, they are also more effective... they last longer and can do more and they can do things that would not be practical for humans to attempt. In a lot of cases, they can do things and go places that would simply not be possible for humans.

But Bush wants to send humans to Mars

Maybe we can send him

are we running low on that government cheese?

c/thru wrote:

are we running low on that government cheese?

We are running low on government brain cells!