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Columbia Memorial Station

Posted by michael on from the risky-business dept.

EngrBohn writes "NASA has named the Mars Spirit landing site the 'Columbia Memorial Station'. They've obviously been planning this, as there's even a plaque at the CMS."

35 comments

  1. Memorial? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    But did they have the lander drop a 40 for it's fallen homies?

    1. Re:Memorial? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      But did they have the lander drop a 40 for it's fallen homies?

      Of course not. No more non-metric units at NASA. It was a 1182.96ml'er.

  2. happy it didn't auger by bandy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Consider the mega-bummer had they pre-announced and it had ended up augering into Mars like the last probe did.

    Bets on whether or not there's a plaque on Opportunity as well?

    --
    "You might as well get your son a ticket to hell as give him a five string banjo." -unknown minister
    1. Re:happy it didn't auger by AHumbleOpinion · · Score: 1

      Bets on whether or not there's a plaque on Opportunity as well

      Yes on second plaque, but rather than the "Columbia Memorial" it will be named the "STS-107 Memorial" or something else that differs slightly.

    2. Re:happy it didn't auger by obeythefist · · Score: 1

      The "Beagle" memorial perhaps?

      What about the Challenger?

      --
      I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
    3. Re:happy it didn't auger by bandy · · Score: 1

      My guess is that the second is a more generic memorial to our lost astronauts - perhaps for ours and the ones the Soviets lost, too.

      --
      "You might as well get your son a ticket to hell as give him a five string banjo." -unknown minister
    4. Re:happy it didn't auger by hlh_nospam · · Score: 1

      I sit and look at the picture of the Mars-scape that I downloaded from NASA with the same awe as I had when I downloaded it day before yesterday. Todays' picture of the memorial was a nice touch, and brings back some of the feelings I had last February (I live in the Dallas area, and heard the explosion).

      I wonder how long it will be before the wonder wears off.

      --
      Concealed Handgun License Courses in Plano, Texas
  3. A fine memorial by ferralis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What better memorial? A plaque on the first permanently occupied extra-planetary base, I guess, but this is definitely a close second. I just hope that we (humans) can get out there to put some flowers around it someday.

    --
    Any generalization is a stupid one.
    1. Re:A fine memorial by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have a predilection to have my initials carved into the Moon with nuclear weapons so that everyone on Earth can see them at night. But thats just me.

  4. They'll need an ISS plaque next ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If the leak from ISS continues they'll need a plaque to commemorate the two guys on ISS next.

  5. Martian weather by $exyNerdie · · Score: 1

    The plaque is aluminum and approximately six inches in diameter

    I wonder what would be the impact of martian weather on the aluminium...

    By the way, does anyone know what local store might carry 3D viewer to see the new 3D images of Mars?

    1. Re:Martian weather by Dark$ide · · Score: 1

      You'll find lots of online shops with a search of google
      http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF -8&q=anaglyph+glasses&btnG=Google+Search
      Folks in the UK should visit http://stereophotoworld.com/handtable5.asp

      --

      Sigs. We don't need no steenking sigs.

    2. Re:Martian weather by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hint: The key word was local.

    3. Re:Martian weather by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean Google isn't local!

    4. Re:Martian weather by kippy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      shouldn't be anything. CO2 doesn't react with aluminum, at least at the low temperatures of Mars unless I'm mistaken. Dust might wear it down after a while but that should be a really long time since the low pressure winds won't hit it very hard.

      I'm guessing that it will get dusty at most. They proably made it out of aluminum because it's light and plastic would probably degrade faster.

      --
      Blaze a trail to the New World
    5. Re:Martian weather by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Aluminum because its cheap and light. They could have made it out of magnesium and gtten it cheaper still.

      Some plastics, like ultrahigh molecular weight polyethelene have spectacular wear resistance, and while they'd certainly be degraded, I'd expect they would far outlast aluminum. But the uv radiation from the sun might have a little something to say about that too.

    6. Re:Martian weather by babbage · · Score: 4, Informative
      They proably made it out of aluminum because it's light and plastic would probably degrade faster.

      Well, that, and the plaque is stamped on the back of the probe's high-gain antenna. Space & weight are at a steep premium on these probes, and there really isn't room to add an extra slab of metal for any non-scientific purpose, even if most people would find the gesture fitting.

      By way of comparison, read about the Marsdial project, which does basically the same thing: mount a "frivilous" device onto one of the key components of the rover, done in a way that there's substantially no additional hardware (extra mass to require fuel, additional parts to possibly break down, etc).

      Sentimentality is nice, but pragmatism is critical here.

      --
      DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
  6. Re:wonderful by dnahelix · · Score: 1

    ...and let me be the second.

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  7. On a related note, a question.... by KarMann · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I first noticed these jack-o'-lantern faces on the propellant tanks of the cruise stage while taking a look at the craft with Celestia, and at first I was thinking it was just some humour on the part of the person creating the skin for Celestia. But then I saw the picture linked to above, and obviously it wasn't just the programmer having a lark. I haven't been able to find anything on the Web about who came up with the idea, and why, though. I've developed a pet theory of my own, which would be that they needed a certain amount of dark surface on the gold-foil-wrapped tanks to maintain the proper thermal balance, and decided to do something more catchy than just a big bulls-eye dot on them or something like that.

    Anyway, anybody know just what the real story is, and whodunnit?

    --
    ProofReading Markup Language - and yes, I find typos.
    1. Re:On a related note, a question.... by NanoGator · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's like a gargoyle. Damn martians keep messing with the equipment.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    2. Re:On a related note, a question.... by shadowbearer · · Score: 1

      I don't know anything about the real story, but I'd guess that it was some engineer with a sense of humor and really imaginative design skills.

      SB

      --
      It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
    3. Re:On a related note, a question.... by fstanchina · · Score: 1

      They wanted to scare the Martians so that they would leave the craft alone this time. Apparently, they were successful.

    4. Re:On a related note, a question.... by eglamkowski · · Score: 1

      The NASA equivalent of "Killroy was here"?

      --
      Government IS the problem.
  8. Columbia Memorial by QuantumFTL · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's very interesting... Many many people at JPL knew all about this, however the information was not known to be secret until yesterday, when it was announced that there'd be a bit of "unvieling" of the disk.

    I"m surprised news didn't get out to the public before.

    Cheers,
    Justin Wick
    Science Activty Planner Support Staff
    Mars Exploration Rovers

    1. Re:Columbia Memorial by applemasker · · Score: 1

      Spaceflightnow.com has pre-launch and in situ pictures of the plaque here: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/040106colu mbia.html

      --
      Bush Lies On the Record.
  9. I have to admit... by kendoka · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    that's pretty cool...

    14...
    15...
    16...
    17...
    18...
    19...

  10. Which reminds me.... by gnalre · · Score: 2, Informative

    I had totally forgotten until I read this story that also on the rover is a DVD containing the names of millions of people who could register via a website

    http://spacekids.hq.nasa.gov/2003/disk.htm

    I only remember it because my daughters name is on the disk.(Well I hope so, its a little difficult to check)

    --
    Choose your allies carefully, it is highly unlikely you will be held accountable for the actions of your enemies
    1. Re:Which reminds me.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But do the Martians have an MPAA approved DVD player to see the names? I'm thinking intra-solar lawsuit.

  11. First Ninnle Post! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Won't somebody think of the Ninnles?

  12. re: high gain antenna ??? by pbhj · · Score: 1

    ... not wanting to be cruel, but isn't that just a CD (AOL?) ... small flat disc with a hole in centre, about 6" [where did I read that] made of aluminium, bet it has a handy plastic coating ...

    [PS: CDs are only about 5 inches but can't remember where I read it was 6. Is it flat> It looks like it in the picture, how's it work if it's flat?]

  13. This guy called it... by Gudlyf · · Score: 1

    albeit a tad early.

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