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Spaceballs Could Invade Mars
Byteme writes: "CNN reports giant tethered inflatable balls that are being developed by NASA as a potential alternative to the unsuccessful roving robots. The balls apparently will inflate and deflate to catch favorable wind directs and to stop on location. Not quite the fast, cheap and out-of-control solution... but it could be fun to watch!" I wonder if there are any MPEGs of the test this article talks about -- it sounds pretty fun to watch.
Aw shit, there goes the planet!
One future, two choices. Oppose them or let them destroy us.
Are you sure this 'space ball' idea isn't the work of the european space agency... because those things look like giant soccer balls. Could you imagine the soccer riots that british and german soccer fan astronauts could get into when they finally land on mars! :)
===> An eye for an eye makes everyone blind - MG
They have to start out at Mars; If they jumped directly to Spaceballs on Uranus, it would scare the US Taxpayer into calling their congress-critter.
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
...Martians across the globe are boarding up their windows, in anticipation of the thousands of so-called "soccer hooligans" on their way to see the semi-final match.
Residents are advised to stay off the streets, and if meeting one of these British soccer fans, not to claim loyalty to any particular team.
Well, at least it's innovative. Gotta admit that.
It may look like I'm doing nothing, but I'm actively waiting for my problems to go away.
--Scott Adams
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giant intelligent inflated ball... "rover"... aiiiiiiieeeeee!!!!!
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
I like the idea of a sperical object not having to worry about getting hung up on rocks and all, but what are they going to announce?
"We have successfully landed our balls on Mars!"
and in a notoriously bad quote
"Remote vehicle landing specialist John Doe says he feels so lucky to have his job in that he gets to play with NASA's balls everyday."
Sorry, but that just sounds wrong.
I posted to
NASA builds this huge ball that can roll over anything. Packs it with cameras and sensors. Launches the thing from way behind the three point line, and gets it to Mars. Only then do they realize the ball is opaque!
Or, if there really was anything to learn from the arrangement of the planet's surface, we'd be compromising the integrity of the research by plowing it all over (however gently we may do it with this massive lightweight ball)
A few Pathfinders are one thing, but can you imagine if an alien ship came above New York City, dropped house-sized balls and had them "blow around in the wind"? Say there is a living creature on one of these planets that is small enough to be crushed by one of these things, but measurably intelligent? The balls seem like overkill.
That was my first thought. It would be more mobile that way.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
This reminds me of the polymorph from Red Dwarf (BBC TV) series.
At one point, the shape-changer flips through different object shapes until it settles on a basketball and goes bouncing down a corridor.
Now all we need are robots that can mimic shrinking boxer shorts and we're set!
NASA has no balls, and now they come up with this...
Alright, here is a link with a little more info and a couple more pictures:e d1.html
e ed_rovers.html
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/behind/tumblewe
And here is a place with a video of a test(Realplayer):
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/technology/tumblew
Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Nice idea in theory, but Mars' atmosphere is much thinner than Earth's. One would need a damn big balloon to lift a payload of any practical size. Researchers working on airplanes for use on Mars have similiar problems.
Ok, I'm Mr. Joe schmoe here who is relatively unimpressed with NASA. It seems like we've hit a dead end or perhaps rather slowed down to a snails pace when it comes to space and planetary exploration. Why aren't we concentrating on simply getting a large payload up into space? Perhaps if payload wasn't such a large factor, we wouldn't have to depend on inventions like "Spaceballs." Isn't it something like $10000 a pound for space shuttle cargo? Utterly rediculous IMHO.
The rolling Mars robot could reach speeds of 35 km/h (22 mph) and come to a halt by releasing gas.
And I though only conversations could be brought to a halt by a release of gas....
Screw you all! I'm off to the pub
Are your balls are belong to us...
(Sorry, but somebody had to say it)...
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
First man? Yeah, Yuri Gagarin is a fine American name... :P
:P
Now, go read a history book and find out why your White House is white...
Karma: Good. I'm hoping in the same way as pizza is 'good'...
If I recall correctly, the atmosphere of mars is one percent of that of earth. Which basically means that for the wind to have as much effect on you as a one mile an hour breeze, it has to be going one hundred miles an hour.
An example of this is the effect on dust in the atmosphere. The normal winds are simply not adequate to raise dust in any way. So the question then is, where do the famous martian dust storms come from? The answer seems to be meteor impacts, which would throw up enough junk into the atmosphere that it could take a while to clear out and settle down.
And so the red surface of the face of Mars makes more sense, when you imagine the impact of iron dust from the core thrown up and attracting all the free O2 in the atmosphere.
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Radio Free Nation
is a general news site based on Slash Code
"If You have a Story, We have a Soap Box"
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"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
So, yes, it's a considerable challenge to fly a balloon, let alone a plane, in the Martian atmosphere, but it's not impossible.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Dark Helmet: Who is he?
Colonel Sandurz: He's an asshole, sir.
Dark Helmet: I know that! What's his name?
Colonel Sandurz: That is his name, sir. Asshole, Major Asshole!
Dark Helmet: And his cousin?
Colonel Sandurz: He's an asshole, too, sir. Gunner's first mate, Phillip Asshole.
Dark Helmet: How many assholes we got on this ship, anyhow?
Most of Crew: (raising hands) YO!
(beat)
Dark Helmet: I knew it! I'm surrounded by assholes!
(helmet goes down)
Dark Helmet: Keep firing, assholes!
"And like that
I believe I've found [some pictures] of the NASA prototype!
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
far cry from small astronauts on the moon, spacesuits for goalposts, mortal fear of russians. Who can blame them? Mission controllers in the hutch, hmm? Possibly, don't quote me on that. But, you know, haven't we failed the youth? Haven't given them a postive direction. Self respect. Self belief. I can do it. I can do it. I can do it, I can do it, I can really move, from my head right down to my blue suede moonboots. Isn't it? Rubettes, 1973? Marvellous.
If you're not british, you probably won't get it
Screw you all! I'm off to the pub
As this story about Fossett demonstrates, we cannot even fly lighter-than-air craft around this planet with any sort of reliability and precision. What makes us think we can do it remotely around another planet? I guess if we don't care where it lands after take off, then ok.
Some people have a way with words, and some people, um, thingy.
...if they'll find life on Mars.
Donate background CPU time to fight cancer.
But will they travel at LUDICROUS SPEED?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
What's next? Comb?
"Comb the desert!"
"We ain't found sh*t!"
From Spaceballs movie. I hope I got the lines right...
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
If one ball hangs lower than the other, how will that affect reentry?
The pressure of wind is proportional to the square of the windspeed relative to whatever its hitting. Martian winds are faster than on Earth. This thing doesn't have to be light either. Changes in the weight would affect acceleration, but have little impact on the top speed.
Repeal the DMCA!
How much you want to bet there'll be a few "NASA Ate My Balls" pages thrown up over this?
"I may not have morals, but I have standards."
Mars is going to take care of any Spaceballs landing there... Unless, of course, they take along a CD of that awful creaking music.
I doubt, therefore I may be.
The ball has some advantages when compared to a balloon:
The payload can be much larger, as there is no need to actually make it fly.
Control of the balloon is probably much harder.
That is something I would like to see. Rapid exploration of large parts of the Martian surface, and not only a few small pathces here and there every two years. Currently we are stuck with the latter.
Cheap and vast numbers are equivalent. I think the costs of any new space equipment is mainly research and development. After it is done, you can make dozens of units with a price that is small when compared to the initial costs.
Launch costs are still the biggest problem of space operations, and this has nothing to do with that.
See, that sort of headline is the kind of thing that could raise slashdot to a new level. No more of this "IBM Wants Linux" drivel. Clever, makes a geek culture reference AND is accurate. I say, CT, put a few more seconds of thought into your headlines. Kudos!
--hongpong.com
In a few years we will be able to select the optimum place for the first Lunar base. After that, we should send a few robotic landers to study the places in more detail. And after that, we should get a base over there. I think it would take less than one decade to get the base there. Perhaps we should start lobbying the politicians, as otherwise they will do nothing.
It looks like they have worked out some kind of AI Unit to manipulate the ball.
It looks pretty promising.
Novel theory: Modern Man evolved from psychopath
using only the thin, but robust, winds of Mars.
Ok this has got to stop, if I hear the word "robust" one more freaking time im going to have a non-synergetic event of proactive office buzz lingo breakdown. Can these drones not scribe inventive and original prose? Why does everything I read sound like its been poured through a corp-speak PR sieve?
Sheesh.
"You're one of Number 2's spies, aren't you? Well, I'm not going to tell you. Be seeing you!"
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)
Gee that's great.
If you have to know, the White House is white in order to protect the locally-quarried sandstone used for the exterior against deterioriation. The poster you are replying to is probably confused by
a popular urban legend, though.
-no broken link
Did you read the link? It doesn't question if the white house was burned down. In fact, it states that it was burned down when Washington was taken in 1814. But it clearly states that it was white before this happened. It even has a quote from a letter in 1811 refering to it as "the White House".
-no broken link
I'm sorry, but could you imagine being a Martian and watching this thing fall from the sky, bounce, then roll around, deflate, inflate, roll around, etc, etc?? It'd be hillarious!
But a good idea! =)
If God gave us curiosity
Dude, I think you need to pick up a history book. Yes, the war of 1812 was started by the Americans invading what we now call Canada (yes, I'm Canadian). Both the French and the British fought the US in that war because they had land stakes in that area. The war went to December 24, 1814. In 1814, the British took Washington. Undoubtedly there were French militia with them since they were fight with the British in the war.
Even if we suppose that there is a global conspiracy to cover up a different burning of the White House not in 1814 but during the war of 1812 prior to that which happened during the British occupation of Washington in 1814, it still doesn't explain why there is a letter from 1811 refering to it at the White House (did this burning of the pink house happen both during the war of 1812 and before 1811?). If you don't trust snopes, then the encyclopoedia britannica, which is a British publication, states that the term "White House" was commonly used in 1810.
Quite frankly, your version of history does not make sence (starting with the sentance "It happened during the war of 1812, not in 1814") because it isn't reality. You were duped by an urban legend. It happens.
-no broken link