Elon Musk is the new Thomas Edisson. And by that I mean that he's mostly a hack who profit from other genius. He didn't start Tesla (Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning), he didn't invent the hyperloop (that's a 100 years old concept), he didn't invent the reusable rockets (McDonnell Douglas Delta Clipper Experimental or DC-X) and even the spacex capsule had to be retrograded to using parachute, like those old 60's and 70's capsules.
I still remember the grainy pics and video of the first Moon Landing. Seeing those sharp high res pics and videos, is just unbelievable. Watching the sky crane delivering the rover, actually seeing it and than fly away, that is like a scifi movie. Blows you away what humans can do if they want. A little hope in a fooked up world.
There is some humor, too. The code in the parachute. The narrow outside ring is the latitude and longitude of JPL and inside the red and weight the motto of Nasa, all in binary code. I love it.
@dairyair Ref.: The oopsy bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital reported my non Western News 2 weeks before freedom Western news. I miss my Al Jazerra channel as well as I do, RT on my cable TV. I Do Not Need Protection from their propaganda Get It Or Not ! For Freedom sake Moi Don't Further ize
@MiaBleu So did 2 Viking Landers in the mid '70's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_program https://mars.nasa.gov/mars-exploration/missions/viking-1-2/ So, Whoopty Do! We can do what we did 45 years ago. Where is the Science? The only Press Releases I have found are orange pictures. Void of analysis. Oh, Look At The Pictures - Wow Moi father worked on Viking Landers
Viking landers were comparable RC toys you give your kids. Perseverance is more of a full size luxury SUV.
"Not Hardly", John Wayne 45 years ago those landers each had 4 exotic experiments focused on the detection of life. One of Eight is suspiciously positive if not a chemistry phenomena such as unexpected, "perchlorate". The Viking Landers were so much more than whooptity do pictures. And with so much less computer Consider the computer electronics those mid-seventies Viking Landers functioned to land and conduct their science. Let's see if Perseverance can give us some "science" and SHOW ME when it does. And SHOW ME the part we could not have done 40 years ago. Remember, after the Viking Landers, Mars seemed to shoot down intruders , we lost so many. Moi Californian Home to JPL And Edward's too.
I hope Perseverance gives us at the least one close up of a fossilized Mars creature. They supposedly landed it in a dry riverbed so wish them luck. I was hoping the Viking landers would find something on their missions but no. They were the first real explorers of Mars.
The objectives of the missions were different. Wonder how the sample collecting will go. I keep watching for reports from Mars as to what is happening there now.
@MiaBleu And Mars swallowed attempts for some 20 years. Check out the failures. 1976 - 1996! Successes reminiscent of the mid 70's landers are a newer phenomena. What took so long?
Sorry....I can't answer that one. But you do raise good questions. Failures can be discouraging....... and delay things.I will be doing some review of the period you mention ..for refresh of memory .
Just sayin' the successes of the Viking Landers are so overlooked. Even by educational channels on cable today The histories jump from a Mariner fly by to . . . <sigh>
The Vikings were my favorites. The leap from a flyby to two landers with life testing equipment marks them as being the greatest leap.
NASA’s Perseverance Drives on Mars’ Terrain for First Time https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-perseverance-drives-on-mars-terrain-for-first-time Those "firsts' are always so special.
The vikings were a huge step. But it is far "easier " to put something down on Mars, which will never move gain. Mars or any other planet is extremely difficult to land, because of the time lag, 11 minutes and some. Everything has to be automatic. With a lander you can built a little more robust and use landing gear for touch down. A rover does not have it, it has a suspension, which can not absorb the impact of a landing. It needs to be landed, softly. Each lander and rover has produced a huge science knowledge, about Mars. The last 3 confirmed that Mars was a water planet about 3 billion years ago Not just a theory, but a fact. Because we have seen the sedimentation rocks. Drilled into them, analyzed them, not just in 1 spot but in many spots, hundreds of meters apart. Perseverance landed next to bulls eye in a crater, which was once a lake, fed by a river. It is the river's delta which is of interest, the huge amount of sediments, deposited. If there was ever any form of primitive life on Mars you will find it there. Most of sciences is not spectacular enough to make the news, its very small steps and that is what all the landers and rovers on Mars have done, small steps
NASA’s newest Mars rover hit the dusty red road this week, putting 21 feet on the odometer in its first test drive. NASA's new Mars rover hits dusty red road, 1st trip 21 feet The Perseverance rover ventured from its landing position Thursday, two weeks after setting down on the red planet to seek signs of past life. The roundabout, back and forth drive lasted just 33 minutes and went so well that more driving was on tap Friday and Saturday for the the six-wheeled rover. “This is really the start of our journey here,” said Rich Rieber, the NASA engineer who plotted the route. “This is going to be like the Odyssey, adventures along the way, hopefully no Cyclops, and I’m sure there will be stories aplenty written about it.” In its first drive, Perseverance went forward 13 feet (4 meters), took a 150-degree left turn, then backed up 8 feet (2.5 meters). During a news conference Friday, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, shared photos of its tracks over and around small rocks. “I don't think I've ever been happier to see wheel tracks and I've seen a lot of them," said engineer Anais Zarifian. Flight controllers are still checking all of Perseverance's systems. So far, everything is looking good. The rover's 7-foot (2-meter) robot arm, for instance, flexed its muscles for the first time Tuesday. Before the car-size rover can head for an ancient river delta to collect rocks for eventual return to Earth, it must drop its so-called protective “belly pan” and release an experimental helicopter named Ingenuity. As it turns out, Perseverance landed right on the edge of a potential helicopter landing strip — a nice, flat spot, according to Rieber. So the plan is to drive out of this landing strip, ditch the pan, then return for Ingenuity's highly anticipated test flight. All this should be accomplished by late spring. Scientists are debating whether to take the smoother route to get to the nearby delta or a possibly tougher way with intriguing remnants from that once-watery time 3 billion to 4 billion years ago. Perseverance — NASA's biggest and most elaborate rover yet — became the ninth U.S. spacecraft to successfully land on Mars on Feb. 18. China hopes to land its smaller rover — currently orbiting the red planet — in another few months. NASA scientists, meanwhile, announced Friday that they’ve named Perseverance’s touchdown site in honor of the late science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler, who grew up next door to JPL in Pasadena. She was one of the first African Americans to receive mainstream attention for science fiction. Her works included “Bloodchild and Other Stories” and “Parable of the Sower.” ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. This is amazing. The soil looks red. Privacy & Cookies Terms of use
Photo From NASA's Mars Rover Shows Where Ancient Lake and River May Have Joined (newsweek.com) The video proves it.