Mars 2020 Missions

namloc1980

Some interesting looking rocks right next to where Perseverance landed.

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Turtwig

I fricking love the way they personify the rovers.

josip

Muahahaha wrote: »

Lads whats the end game of this Mars exploration? Would have thought it is too far and inhospitable for human habitation and the moon fits that bill better.

Bring little green men fossils back to Earth.

namloc1980

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured an image of Perseverance under parachute just before landing. Amazing.

namloc1980

Nice colour image here

Shlippery

namloc1980 wrote: »

Nice colour image here

God it's kinda mad how normal that looks. Super excited to see how this all unfolds over the coming days/months/years!

Capt'n Midnight

Turtwig wrote: »

I fricking love the way they personify the rovers.

Don't anthropomorphise them, they don't like it.

refusetolose

https://twitter.com/NASAJPL/status/1362944639624388610

fryup

seriously though, what do that do they expect to find there this time? that will be any different from the previous rover expeditions??

seems to me like a complete waste of resources

Ger Roe

fryup wrote: »

seriously though, what do that do they expect to find there this time? that will be any different from the previous rover expeditions??

seems to me like a complete waste of resources

Simple.... they hope to find signs of previous life, because they have much better equipment this time. They have also landed at a site that is more likely to provide evidence. It's called progress.

jackboy

fryup wrote: »

seriously though, what do that do they expect to find there this time? that will be any different from the previous rover expeditions??

seems to me like a complete waste of resources

I’m sure the guy who invented the wheel was seen as wasting resources at the time. The same for a vast amount of science over the centuries.

fryup

yes, but mars looks like a hole of a place, surely they should be seeking out Earth like planets

Dr. Bre

fryup wrote: »

yes, but mars looks like a hole of a place, surely they should be seeking out Earth like planets

Earth like planets are further away tho compared to Mars . Hopefully one day we will explore those planets

Turtwig

fryup wrote: »

yes, but mars looks like a hole of a place, surely they should be seeking out Earth like planets

If we somehow sent a rover to head off to these Earth like planets today by the time the spacecraft is halfway there a more modern spacecraft launched decades later will over take the original craft.

josip

fryup wrote: »

yes, but mars looks like a hole of a place, surely they should be seeking out Earth like planets

What exactly did you have in mind?

namloc1980

fryup wrote: »

yes, but mars looks like a hole of a place, surely they should be seeking out Earth like planets

What?

Capt'n Midnight

namloc1980 wrote: »

Some interesting looking rocks right next to where Perseverance landed.

twitter.com/NASAPersevere/status/1362831783444717568

fryup

josip wrote: »

What exactly did you have in mind?

they (NASA and ESA) should save up money & resources on a mission to the outer reaches of the universe, so as to find other earth like planets before this one goes ka-put

josip

fryup wrote: »

they (NASA and ESA) should save up money & resources on a mission to the outer reaches of the universe, so as to find other earth like planets before this one goes ka-put

I found a couple of Youtube videos that might help

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy7NzjCmUf0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiN6Ag5-DrU

fryup

Ger Roe wrote: »

Simple.... they hope to find signs of previous life, because they have much better equipment this time. They have also landed at a site that is more likely to provide evidence. It's called progress.

find signs of previous life? like what exactly? micrological life? and what benefit is that to us down here on earth?

Capt'n Midnight

fryup wrote: »

they (NASA and ESA) should save up money & resources on a mission to the outer reaches of the universe, so as to find other earth like planets before this one goes ka-put

To get that far you would need to survive a long time in space.

So it would be cheaper and quicker to build space stations here. Lots of material in the asteroid belt. Or from mines on the moon.

slade_x

fryup wrote: »

yes, but mars looks like a hole of a place, surely they should be seeking out Earth like planets

Mars is believed to have once been an earth like planet. That's the point. To see just how prevalent life might be even in our own solar system. Even finding evidence for past life on another planet would be one of mankind's biggest discoveries and to then later even be able to clarify if that life originated there or was spread there somehow. And ultimately even if life from Earth could have been seeded from elsewhere. At least to have a chance to test the Panspermia hypothesis eventually

This is an engineering mission primarily and a tech demo that will create oxygen from the martian carbon dioxide. a radar that will look for underground water/ice

........ And its got a freaking helicopter:P Will be the first controlled flight on another planet

MadYaker

Is the atmosphere dense enough for helicopter flight? I guess it's probably not a regular helicopter. A drone would be cool.

Capt'n Midnight

slade_x wrote: »

........ And its got a freaking helicopter:P Will be the first controlled flight on another planet

Up till now it's been cameras from orbit or the view from the ground.

Be nice to see proper aerial views with decent resolution.

Capt'n Midnight

MadYaker wrote: »

Is the atmosphere dense enough for helicopter flight? I guess it's probably not a regular helicopter. A drone would be cool.

low areas in Mars are about 1% of sea level here so the spinny things have to spin really, really fast

It would be much easier on Venus if it weren't for all that acid and heat and pressure

tom1ie

slade_x wrote: »

Mars is believed to have once been an earth like planet. That's the point. To see just how prevalent life might be even in our own solar system. Even finding evidence for past life on another planet would be one of mankind's biggest discoveries and to then later even be able to clarify if that life originated there or was spread there somehow. And ultimately even if life from Earth could have been seeded from elsewhere. At least to have a chance to test the Panspermia hypothesis eventually

This is an engineering mission primarily and a tech demo that will create oxygen from the martian carbon dioxide. a radar that will look for underground water/ice

........ And its got a freaking helicopter:P Will be the first controlled flight on another planet

Amazing if we found evidence that supported the Panspermia hypothesis as it really does seem like the most plausible explanation as to how the first microbes were deposited here and then developed over the course of eons.

MadYaker

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

low areas in Mars are about 1% of sea level here so the spinny things have to spin really, really fast

It would be much easier on Venus if it weren't for all that acid and heat and pressure

Yeah I was thinking the RPM would have to be high and the propellers would have to look different. There's an entire science just about designing propellers for aircraft and boats.

josip

Only 38% of Earth's gravity though, so there's at least that.

Capt'n Midnight

tom1ie wrote: »

Amazing if we found evidence that supported the Panspermia hypothesis as it really does seem like the most plausible explanation as to how the first microbes were deposited here and then developed over the course of eons.

Way off topic but panspermia is turtles all the way down logic.

In theory it might be possible for microbes to travel on material ejected by the energy of a massive impact between planets. But not sure how you get it to travel out of the gravity well of a star. And even if you do it's not likely to have a huge velocity which makes travel time very long.

Also heavy elements such as carbon nitrogen oxygen sulphur phosphorous are created in the hearts of stars and only dispersed by supernova's so that puts an early limit to when life could start.

Str8outtaWuhan

fryup wrote: »

find signs of previous life? like what exactly? micrological life? and what benefit is that to us down here on earth?

If we find extinct life it means that life is abundant in the universe and that the great filer of Fermi's paradox lies ahead of us, not behind us.