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6 New Mars Missions

Posted by Hemos on from the back-to-the-red-planet dept.

JM_the_Great writes "Seems NASA is planning 6 new Mars Missions. They'll try to answer questions about Mars' past and the possibility of life there."

9 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. More weird news... by superdoo · · Score: 4

    What I find kinda of humourous is that we're whizzing all these satellites around and have hundreds of telescopes, thousands of astronomers staring at stuff 24/7/365.25 and yet we just found 4 more moons around Saturn and a possible planet between Neptune and Pluto. Does anyone else get the feeling that the more we know the more we know how little we know?

  2. Unmanned missions? Bah! by thesparkle · · Score: 4

    6 missions, the best of which will get us some rocks. If we are lucky?

    I have learned a few things by watching late night movies. Obviously more than those pencil-heads at NASA.

    * The best way to get to Mars is on a V2 rocket. The kind with fins developed by the Germans during WWII and used extensively during our 1950's, RKO pictures-sponsored manned space program.

    * Why only get rocks? What about one of those beautiful Martian women? You know, the kind that lives in that city where there are no men, kissing or Coca-Cola?

    * Why all the science? You can tell that Mars is habitable because of those canals that line its surface. Mars looks like a big version of Venice, Italy!

    * Is the air breathable? You don't need a bunch of gizmos to find out. Have the mission's captain take off his fish bowl helmet and take a deep breath after he tests the oxygen content with his cigarrette lighter.

    We'd better quit this probin' pussyfootin' around business. Anyday now one of them Martian saucers will land in New Jersey and start deathraying us!

  3. Sending pathfinders to Mars by Hairy_Potter · · Score: 4

    I see the link talks about sending pathfinders to Mars.

    Great, they'll be full of overweight soccer moms drinking Starbucks and running econoboxes off the road.

    Unless the Firestones blow halfway to Mars.

  4. Martians by bmongar · · Score: 4

    What makes them think the Martian Defense Force won't shoot them down again like they did the polar lander

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    As x approaches total apathy I couldn't care less.
  5. They'll never make it. by jd · · Score: 5
    If Bush becomes President (likely, despite the high probability that it'll bring on the end of the world), there won't be any more NASA. It'll be replaced with a coca-cola bottling plant, on the grounds that it's cheaper, more profitable and actually works.

    IMHO, the first REAL Mars missions will come when Ozrock or one of the other major national hobbyist groups manages to get to (and past) orbit. These guys are doing more R&D these days than the US, Europe and Chinese combined on rocket technology. No great surprise, there. When was the last time you saw a politician encourage people to branch out and create something novel?

    My revised timetable for space science is as follows:

    • 2001
      • NASA loses another probe. Space Station suffers first major GPF. Reset switch is inside.
      • Chinese land dissidents on moon. Fail to provide return ticket.
      • Commercial sector puts more adverts on the side of rockets. Doesn't really catch on with customers. Further attempts are abandoned.
      • Hobbyists reach Low Earth Orbit. Apart from a mention on Slashdot, nobody really notices.
    • 2010
      • NASA finally gets a probe to land on Phobos. Unfortunately, a navigation error places it in Phobos, Virginia, USA.
      • Europe launches Arianne VII, amid great publicity. It explodes on take-off, destroying a multi-billion dollar deep-space probe and three slices of lemon. The lemon is blamed for the fault.
      • Hobbyists reach the moon, and build an Open Source base there.
    • 2020
      • NASA's board of directors is replaced by two white mice. ("It can't hurt to try", said the President.)
      • The Russians consider bringing Mir down. The Mir Telethon raises more money, and it's kept up "another year". The fungus develops intelligence and cracks the Telethon's bank account to ensure survival.
      • Hobbyists colonise the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Eric Raymond and Richard Stallman argue over the licences new bases should be released under.
    • 2100
      • NASA completes the International Space Station, which promptly disintegrates from old age.
      • The commercial sector launches three orbiting bill-boards, claiming that nobody will ever need more bill-boards than that.
      • The Free Software Foundation moves it's main database to the Greate Magellanic Cloud, which it now controls. The Open Source Initiative counters with forming a major empire in the Andromeda galaxy. Linux vs OpenBSD debates in the M25 galaxy reach no firm conclusion, after it is discovered that there are no translations into local dialects and that nobody there really wants to learn any Terran languages.
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    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  6. Too optimistic by Ektanoor · · Score: 5

    2000 - We plan to send 6 missions to Mars
    2001 - We are planning to send 6 missions to Mars
    2002 - Due to economy plans and cuts, missions will be 5.
    2003 - Send one mission. Ooops...
    2004 - Well someone forgot the scredriver in the engine. That will not happen again. So now we will send three missions.
    2005 - We said three? Well two. The Senate was too furious to cut only one...
    2006 - We are reading the new missions. Yeah we had to loose one year due to all these studies, controls and checks.
    2007 - Launched another one. Ohhhh Daaaamnnn...
    2008 - Well either the thing touched a meteorite or it fell in a canyon. No of course we don't believe in "alien conspirations"...
    2009 - We are planning one mission.
    2010 - We are still planning it.
    2011 - Planning.
    2012 - I ALREADY TOLD YOU! THERE ARE NO GREYS THERE!
    2013 - Well... Hmmm... Launched another one. We made everything we could... Even choosed a lsower path just in case... Cross fingers...
    2014 - Hurrah!!!!! ?????????!!!!
    2015 - Well... it seems we got something anyway. Now we are planning six more missions...
    ...
    9999 - Ladies and Gentlemen. I am proud to announce... Man made his first step on Mars. A small step for a man a LONG step for Mankind... OH DAMN!

  7. Re:Of course, the BIG question... by Mindwarp · · Score: 5

    It would be nice if we'd spend tax money on feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, and protecting the environment before defense and space missions.

    You know, we could do all that right now without having to cut back on spending on scientific research. The reason that this isn't done now is that there's not enough political capital in writing off third world debt, and there's certainly not enough corporate capital in giving away the various technolgies (genetic/chemical/information) required for the developing nations to feed and house themselves. I don't believe for a moment that any money cut from the NASA and scientific research budgets would ever go toward helping the poor.

    People often consider money put into scientific research and these 'big science' projects to be lost, as if the tens of billions of dollars allocated just falls into a huge black hole, never to be seen again. This isn't typically the case. The dollars put into research end up fuelling the growth of the high tech industries within this country, creating new jobs and increasing the demand and requirement for a highly skilled high-tech workforce. This in turn can only help the research efforts that are currently concentrating on finding solutions to the world's more mundane problems such as poverty, starvation and illness.

    The stimulation of high-technology industry within the U.S.A. can only be good for this country in the global economy. Who knows, with the increase in foreign trade income that the growth of technology industries should produce, maybe the U.S.A. will feel generous enough to forget foreign debt?

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    The gift of death metal does not smile on the good looking.
  8. Re:On the move again by Smitty825 · · Score: 5

    This isn't the right direction for NASA. I think that they are doing this "Astro-biology" thing just so that they can get publicity. IMHO, adding six new Mars missions and then canceling (uh, I mean postponing) the Pluto-Kuiper misson is a big mistake. The reason is that Pluto has an athmosphere right now, which is expected to freeze over for 200 years in around 2015. If we don't get a probe there before that date, then we will lose lots of scientific data about Pluto.

    The important fact to remember is that we can launch to Mars every 2 years, but we only get 1 opportunity to reach Pluto. For more information, check out Pluto Mission.

    ...but I do it would be cool to send a person to Mars, though!

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    Doh!
  9. Re:NASA, please stop! by Vociferous+Troll · · Score: 5
    You idiots are funny. I get a kick out of you.

    The US government spends billions upon billions of dollars studying things such as cow farts (this is true) and how mice react to having their nads shocked. The military budget this year included billions of dollars for a couple of naval vessels that the Pentagon didn't even want -- simply because a key Congressman on the Armed Services Committee happens to reside in a state that has a large defense contractor who needs the money (corporate welfare, anyone?) The amount of government waste is incredible.

    And yet when you "don't-waste-my-taxes" buffoons come blubbering along, it's the space program you complain about. You're going to have to forgive us if we don't take you seriously. You're much more fun to laugh at.

    Space exploration is not cheap. Nobody is saying that it is. But the space program is a veritable island in a sea of pork. The fact that you single it out suggests that you are not against government waste, but against the space program itself -- which would seem to suggest that you're some kind of bumpkin or religious extremist. In either case, your opinion is noted, but completely and utterly devoid of worth.

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    The New World Order is upon us, and it's about damned time.