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Window on Mars - Can Orobes Dig Out More Info?
OldTurkeyBuzzard writes "
All telescopes are tuned to Mars as it draws nearer Earth than at any time in recorded history. The record-setting date is Aug. 27......
This newspaper article throws more light on the efforts to gather more information about the red planet when it approaches very close to us.
"
How can people not see that Microsoft is a Monopoly?! Now Bill is going after the Martians!
What?
Oh wait... shit.
Mike
the satellite we slammed into the surface a few years ago!
or, since its so close, hit em with another one!
"If everything goes as planned, by January 2004 there will be a total of seven spacecraft sniffing around Mars."
Let's hope those little green men have a concept of deoderant or NASA is going to be in for a real surprise.
In C++, friends can touch each others private parts.
I think this is a pretty big missed opportunity to actually send a manned mission to Mars. It won't be any closer for a _long_ time...
...a party at Grover's Mill!
Astronomy and astronomical records are known to have existed during that period, although reliable ones can be said to exist only since Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo.
Maybe you should have said "in recent history", or "in modern history". That would have been a lot more accurate!
If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
You'd want to be closest when the astronauts were coming back. It's (relatively) easy to launch them with lots of fuel and supplies to get there, but it's simply not possible to launch similar amounts from the surface of Mars. Ideally, the astronauts would be coming back around August 27th, not launching on their way there with a long journey back.
It is nice to see that we are still going out into space and even more importantly undertaking useful missions, instead of just sticking a couple of Astronauts into space because we can.
37 - what does it stand for really...
The picture has already been referenced by /. and a bunch of other resources, but the Astronomy Picture of the Day has a nice blow up of the picture today.
Beware this is just a distraction, with all eyes towards Mars, Venus is planning a sneak attack!
Use your head, can't you, use your head,
You're on earth, there's no cure for that - S. Beckett
At least they're not sending probes. That would be offensive.
I couldn't find anything in the article, but does anyone know just how close it's going to be compared to usual? Just because it's the closest in 60,000 years or whatever it is doesn't mean that the majority of people could even notice a difference.
Windows on Mars? Will that result in a Red Screen of Death (RSOD) or do we have to refer to it as the Blue Planet in the future?
All telescopes are tuned to Mars [..]
not to pick nits, but can you "tune" a telescope to mars? is that what they do with radio telescopes?
Will there be any noticeable gravitational effects near Earth? Moon? Asteroids? Space junk?
I guess I'm asking if there is any remotely-possible-disaster angle that the press will be able to play up on this. 2 years ago, we had the summer of the shark. I'd love to see this summer be "The Summer of Colliding Worlds". We need something. Hollywood is going all sequel on us this year.
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
--CTH
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
Is that like golden probe?
Geez, I can understand not proofreading the post (all those words and everything), but the TITLE?
Or is an OROBE some sort of cross between an OREO and a PROBE?
What the hell is goi...
oh, sorry, I should have read more carefully the headline!
it is a very short distance and you never know what are those little green men sending through space...
And are they good diggers?
there are relatively close Martian approaches on a regular basis.
Tell me about it. The other day, there was this guy...
The coolest voice ever.
PLEASE: Can't we get it working on Earth first?
I can only assume Orobes is the latest codename for the 128bit windows AE (AlienEdition).
Or do you mean that we are going to send all the copies of windows to Mars? I've never been a fan of using space as a giant garbage dump, but in this case....
c - a blessed +5 grain of salt
Note the clever use of 'O' instead of the letter following 'O' to get the headline through the TrendMicro 'letter after O' filter re : http://slashdot.org/article.plsid=03/05/23/0521222 &mode=thread&tid=126&tid=128
I hope they're more careful about what they type when they program their probe. And stay with metric units, too.
where's all that Karma?
I think that, out of all the missions the article mentions, Mars Express is the most exciting. This mission, which is backed by the European Space Agency (rather than NASA, as the article implies), carries the British-built Beagle 2 lander, targeted at looking for evidence for Martian life, past and present. Beagle 2 (named after Charles Darwin's ship) is far more sensitive than the old Viking Missions, which were the first (and so far, the only) missions to look for life. It's worth noting that the more-recent Pathfinder mission was a proof-of-concept for the two upcoming Mars Exploration Rovers, which are for geological surveys rather than life searches.
One partcularly cool feature of Beagle 2 is its "Mole", which can crawl across the surface (at 1cm/s) and burrow imto the ground or under boulders. The Mole will be able to take samples from locations which the Viking landers couldn't reach; these samples may provide conclusive evidence that life once existed on Mars.
Mars Express, carrying Beagle 2, is due to blast off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 2. Fingers crossed!
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
Mars is all well and good, but I really think we should be focusing on the Moon! Mars is so much farther away it takes half a year to get there. The Moon, on the other hand, only takes two days. And if anything goes wrong, the Moon is actually close enough we might be able to get there in time to do something about it.
I don't see a problem with sending "orobes" to Mars, because it's always good to know something just for the sake of knowing, but knowledge of the Moon is much more practical. We've had the technology for decades to establish a Lunar colony . Why didn't we? There's water, and therefore oxygen, and most of the metals you could possibly desire all on the Moon. We should establish a Lunar colony first, and then worry about manned missions to Mars.
A space elevator wouldn't hurt either.
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
So this is what all the crashed probes were running.
bill gates expanding his reach into new markets, I hope the Martians will be forgiving and not wipe us out after reading the EULA.
...keep up the good work.
oh I got it... BSODing them into extinction ok
We haven't managed to genetically engineer flying, firebreathing lizards yet.. let alone ones that can teleport.. if the red planet is on it's aproach, we're screwed!
Oh.. sorry.. red planet, not moon.
G
Windows on Mars? Hope they will get the units in order this time! LOL! Not that it matters, cause it will crash anyway! Hahahaha! And then it will be a BLUE planet! Get it? Not a red planet, but BLUE, because of BLUE screen of death! Oh god, I can't believe how funny and original I am. Probably because I'm NOT.
With all theese telescopes pointing at Mars, wouldn't Mars be slashdotted?
For a nice date: Call strftime(3C)!
I am happy to see that of the several projects heading to make this window, they are all focusing on different aspects of mars research. I would hate to see the effort of more then one group on the same 'problem', it would be a terrible waste of resources.
On another note, it's nice to see some more world involvement in space/mars research. More eyes, and maybe even more important differently organized eyes looking at Mars will only improve our results. It's very reasuring to see.
"The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away" -Tom Waits
Linux to Mars before it's too late!
Red Hat for the Red Planet!
The coolest voice ever.
A source close to the Pentagon claims to have seen evidence of a Martian plot to destroy vital U.S. interests around the globe. He spoke to us on the condition that we refer to him only as "Bugs".
"They have an Illudium Q36 explosive space modulator, and we're the ones who sold it to them" explained Bugs. "Back in the fifties, there was an American company called Acme who would sell anything to anyone. The Martian leader, a looney little guy named Marvin was a regular customer. He's hell bent on destroying the Earth. It's all he ever talks about. Something to do with his view of Venus." Some research into the Acme company seems to confirm Bugs' allegations.
But Martian Information Minister, Wyle. E. Coyote, told us a different story. "There is no Illudium Q36 explosive space modulator. This is a myth being spread by the evil ones. "Sure, they sold us some rocket powered roller skates, and giant magnets, but we only use those to control the roadrunner population." He went on to deny the existence of tens of thousands of freeze-dried Martian warriors.
So get out your telescope on Aug. 27, but wear some earplugs. There just might be an earth-shattering kaboom.
Probably just an unstable orbit.
The coolest voice ever.
I googled the "Mars Attacks", but could find a lot of info on the sequel film that's in the works... Supposedly Warner Bros has put up $45mil for it, but I can't find a damn thing on "The WarnerBros" website.
The original didn't do so well in the box office, but it seems to have caught on as a cult hit. Most everybody I know has seen in on DVD or tape. I saw a link here (or perhaps on Some other news site for the complete set of images of the original trading cards, and had them printed up on card stock at a local print shop. My boy took them to school, and they were a big hit with the kids. (Although the teachers had a few things to "say" about them, haha)
Anyways, if you have more info on the sequel movie, please post it. I'd love to see what they have planned. Thx!
No one would have believed in the last years of the twentieth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the twenty-first century came the great disillusionment.
(See also the online version of the book.)
We really would apreciate if you keep your planet's scum to your own. We have no need for arrogant, warmonging, head-up-their-ass, fanatic, religious cowboys. Shall you insist on sending your trash here, be advised we are ready to finance his re-run campaign.
Your truly,
The Martians.
So all those probes we crashed into it weren't "close" enough?
___ alwaysBETA.com - Hey, you've got nothing better to do.
It's too big to be a space station.... I've got a bad feeling about this!!!
"For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert"
What does circle have to do with anything? The configuration of Mars and Earth orbit is important not the shape of a particular orbit. It is unfortunate how often journalists demonstate complete misunderstanding of basic ideas.
The very second I saw this headline on Slashdot, I knew people would feel the overwhelming need to make Windows jokes, and the crackhappy Slashbot moderators would be falling over themselves to mod it up fast enough.
What a clever and original joke. The effort exerted to make such a connection left me in utter awe at the fact. And the way he lets you know it is a joke with the "Oh wait" part at the end! Gets me every time they do that...every single time, in every single article with the word "window" in the headline.
"Sufferin' succotash."
Oops looks like someone forgot to do NASA approved public relations unit conversion. So let me take a stab at it...
Mars Mass =~ 6.4185E21 VWB's (VolksWagen Bugs)
Orbital Distance (near) 5.9602E9 FbF's (Football Feilds)
Orbital Distance (far) 43.887E9 FbF's
Data Collection* =~ 127E-3 LoC's (Library's of Congress)
Enjoy the bliss of understanding with "real world" reference units
That lame scientific crap can be found here
* denotes a number pulled out of my ass
Someone wasn't oroofreading oroperly...
I have nothing to allude to, and I am alluding to it.
*sigh* Spiral= bad.
holman orbit=elliptical= lowest energy orbit= happy engineers because you don't have to waste all your mass on fuel. And for an elliptical orbit you'd still want to go at about the time Mars is closest- you want to treat both Mars and Earth as the focii for the ellipse.
in an effort to combat the Microsoft mission to Mars, Steve Jobs commissioned a Titanium shuttle to go to Mars and install the first version of MarsOS X on all Marian systems. He also gave Martiansoft computer company a license to make Mac clones, though he is expected to revoke it as soon as he gets back.