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Mars Rover Rolls And Turns

hcg50a writes "MSNBC reports that overnight, 'the golfcart-sized rover cut the final cord tying it to the landing platform that it came in on 10 days ago, then backed up about 10 inches (25 centimeters) and turned 45 degrees. These were the first maneuvers planned in preparation for having Spirit roll 10 feet (3 meters) down a ramp onto the Martian surface on Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.' The NASA Mars rover website has complete animations from numerous cameras of the 45-degree turn. Driver training was never this cool!"

11 of 339 comments (clear)

  1. GNAA rolls and turns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    GNAA / Google confirms: Linux is dying.
    By GNAA Staff

    Here you have it: it's official; Google confirms: Desktop Linux is dying.

    Now, you might be thinking this is just another cut & paste troll based on the typical *BSD is dying bullshit.
    It isn't.
    As you might have know, your favorite search engine, Google, has been running a little statistics service, called "Zeitgeist".
    Since about a year ago, they started providing statistics of the operating systems used to access their search engine worldwide.
    I will let the numbers speak for themselves:

    Operating Systems Accessing Google in January 2002
    Operating Systems Accessing Google in March 2002
    Operating Systems Accessing Google in April 2002
    Operating Systems Accessing Google in May 2002
    Operating Systems Accessing Google in June 2002
    Operating Systems Accessing Google in July 2002
    Operating Systems Accessing Google in August 2002
    Operating Systems Accessing Google in September 2002
    Operating Systems Accessing Google in November 2002
    Operating Systems Accessing Google in December 2002
    Operating Systems Accessing Google in January 2003
    Operating Systems Accessing Google in February 2003
    Operating Systems Accessing Google in April 2003
    Operating Systems Accessing Google in May 2003
    Operating Systems Accessing Google in June 2003
    Operating Systems Accessing Google in July 2003
    Operating Systems Accessing Google in August 2003
    Operating Systems Accessing Google in September 2003
    Operating Systems Accessing Google in November 2003

    If you've looked at even a few of these links, you don't need to be a Kreskin to predict Desktop Linux's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Desktop Linux faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Linux on Desktop because Linux is dying. Things are looking very bad for Linux on Desktop. As many of us are already aware, Linux on Desktop continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

    According to Google Zeitgeist, there are about 80% of Internet Explorer 6 users. The only platform supporting Internet Explorer 6 is, of course, Microsoft Windows. These statistics are consistent with the earlier presented graphs of the operating systems used to access Google, with the Windows family consistently taking the top 3 ranks. Out of remaining 20%, the split is even between MSIE 5.5, MSIE 5.0, both Windows-only browsers. Netscape 5.x

    1. Re:GNAA rolls and turns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Q: What do you call 10 gay niggers on Mars?
      A: A problem.

      Q: What do you call 100 gay niggers on Mars?
      A: A problem.

      Q: What do you call 1,000 gay niggers on Mars?
      A: A problem.

      Q: What do you call all the gay niggers on Mars?
      A: Problem solved.

    2. Re:GNAA rolls and turns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      You should pay more attention to the topic dude. Have you even read the article? Before you post, how about you keep it on topic? The reason slashdot is going down is people like you. -TBHY.

    3. Re:GNAA rolls and turns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      Slashdot's "down" because of the mindnumbing groupthink. Just take a look at the posts at +4 or +5.

      Personally, I visit Slashdot mostly because of the trolls.

  2. Oh my God! by CosmeticLobotamy · · Score: -1, Troll

    Ten feet? I'm so excited! OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGod! I hope it goes eleven!

  3. Latest Mars images available thru apt-get by Debian+Troll's+Best · · Score: -1, Troll
    Just a reminder to folks who might have missed this announcement earlier (it was buried in one of NASA's smaller research group home pages) that high resolution images of all images from the Mars Spirit rover are available through an apt-get interface for those interested. The URL to add to your apt.sources file is aptsource.spirit.downloads.nasa.gov. To grab the latest image updates, just issue this at the command line:

    apt-get update nasa-spirit-images

    This will download a .deb package containing all new updated images. This .deb also contains an installation script which will conveniently launch xpaint to view the images as a slideshow. Debian (and apt-get) are used pretty heavily throughout NASA, so it's no surprise the Spirit team has pulled off this little apt-get trick!

    Hope this helps lighten the load on the NASA web servers a little for those Debian users out there!

  4. Am I the only one? by eclectro · · Score: 0, Troll

    Seriously, call me when the rover is "on the ground" , trying to find signs of water.

    Nothing that they are doing now, i.e. preparation for egress, really isn't news.

    I'm tired of hearing that the rover has "moved 10 inches" on its pad or "turned" on its pad. What makes that "special".

    --
    Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
    1. Re:Am I the only one? by eclectro · · Score: -1, Troll

      These rover updates are BY FAR more newsworthy than the latest Scott Peterson updates

      You forgot anything having to do with Michael Jackson.

      If I need to know anything about Jackson, Jay Leno can tell me about it (and Scott Peterson for that matter).

      I just do not consider the rover moving 10"/45 deg news. Just like I do not consider "course corrections" by the cassini probe news, or when the Hubble flips open/closes its door news. Or anything having to do with the International Space Station (as much as NASA tries).

      When the probe starts meaningful sampling to find traces of water, that would be news.

      --
      Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
    2. Re:Am I the only one? by eclectro · · Score: 0, Troll


      Anyway you look at it, it's still a glorified RC car.

      --
      Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
  5. Easy - Rover is overpriced, overengineered by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I can build a better rover with 2 old TI calculators, a Tickle Me Elmo doll, a Lego set (moon edition) and a 1991 Ford Escort.

  6. Re:linux at nasa by mahdi13 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Linux? It looks like Windows 3.1 to me...

    Or Gnome in Red Hat 5.2!

    --
    "Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson