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Why Mars May Be Difficult

Posted by timothy on from the or-rather-is dept.

An anonymous reader writes with a link to this "dramatic article leading up to the three Mars probes for December/January at NASA's JPL (also hosted at Ames) on Mars risks: Two out of three missions to the red planet have failed. After 300 million miles of deep space, 'One colleague describes the entry, descent and landing as six minutes of terror,' says Dr. Firouz Naderi, manager of the Mars Program Office. Descending at 1,000 miles per hour, with only 100 seconds left at the altitude that a commercial airliner typically flies -- things need to happen in a hurry. Doesn't mention solar flares, electronics shielding, signal snags or budget tightening. The previous account listed the top 10 reasons Mars was hard in 1976."

5 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. Top 10 Reasons Mars is Difficult by AtariAmarok · · Score: 4, Funny

    10. "Damn cell phone won't work up here!"
    9. Mars needs women. Stay home, Joe.
    8. It's the Red Planet. Capitalist running-dog lackey not welcome.
    7. Ever since I saw that awful movie that had Arnold with the bug-eyes, I just can't look at the place again.
    6. The hassle of Martian businesses having to change 24/7 on their promotional material to 25/7.
    5. Disney owns it already, why bother.
    4. When you get a hole in the housing module, you can't go to Wal-Mart for ductape.
    3. SCC got their first, just in case a mars mission tried to use Linux.
    2. They don't take American Express.
    1. Val Kilmer's rabid robot dog is still running loose, last time I heard.
    0. "Angry Red Planet"? Forget it, I have too much stress already.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
    1. Re:Top 10 Reasons Mars is Difficult by kalidasa · · Score: 4, Funny

      -1. 545 months a year - you've GOT to be kidding me?
      -2. Whaddya mean, less than 2 days a month.
      -3. Whaddya mean, those are both the LONG month?

  2. the REAL problem with Mars... by Tumbleweed · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...is those Martian "evil-doers" that keep shooting down our spacecraft. It's time to assemble another Coalition of the Willing(tm)!

  3. Re:idjits working in English units by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Besides England uses metric not imperial these days.

    Speak for yourself.. I'm English, 6'4" tall, weigh 13st, and drive miles to work each day.
    Metres? Kilos? Kilometres? Pshaw, I can't be bothered to use them or figure out what they're worth in "real units", despite the best efforts of the BBC pro-metric propaganda unit..

  4. Re:idjits working in English units by linoleo · · Score: 3, Funny


    My "7 inch schlong" sounds so much more manly than my "14.5 centemeter prick".

    Agreed...

    especially since 14.5 cm is less than 6 inches.

    - nic

    --
    Be faithful to your obsessions. Identify them and be faithful to them, let them guide you like a sleepwalker. JG Ballard