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Mars Race Heats up Further
anzha writes "It seems what was once the province of the superpowers is no longer so. ESA and the Japanese attempted their own Mars orbiters (successfully and not, respectively). The Brits fired off Beagle 2 and are talking of going for Beagle 3. Now the Canadians are talking about a probe for Mars in 2011. How long before we see the Japanese and Russians try again? Might India or China take a stab at it as well?"
Based upon the lessons learned from prior missions, others could be encouraged. But, based upon the numerous failures, just as easily discouraged. Then when you factor in the costs involved, you certainly can argue against it.
What Spirit and Opportunity discover will probably be the main factor.
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
Mars may not be a large planet, but it has roughly the same land area as Earth.
--Guns don't kill people, abortion clinics kill people.
Oh, and another thing.
Don't get too attached to this planet, or Mars either. Someday, we're going to be building gigantic structures in space. We'll be using the energy equivalent of many many stars total output. If you think that we're going to leave a planet in one piece, you're mistaken.
The ultimate future of Earth and Mars, and all the other planets in our system, is that they will be complete dissassembled for raw materials.
How will the world end? In fire? In ice? More like in a bunch of tiny pieces that were smelted into raw metals.
--Guns don't kill people, abortion clinics kill people.
You obviously fail to realize just how large the earth is. 1/2 the size of the earth is still a lot of land. Come to think of it, 2/3s of the earth is covered by water, so if you restrict landers to only land, there is more room on Mars. (assuming we accept your numbers, I don't feel like checking them and they sound right).
Space junk is a problem in orbit because it is moving very fast. Space junk on Mars is not moving. Everybody will avoid the functioning rovers, because there is a lot of area to cover so it is best to cover something far away. You wouldn't make claims about the goegraphy of the earth based on only samples from your backyard, and you don't make claims about Mars from samples from one area, you try to cover them all.
I applaud the rest of the world for becoming competitors in the space rafe and giving the US a new determination.
Might India or China take a stab at it as well?
Maybe they can out-source the labour to the West!
Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. - Henry Ford
With the North Korean situation the Japan and indeed the entire Asian penninsula faces, it would probably be wise of them to forego a true space program for the timebeing. It's bad enough that North Korea is already nervous about every flinch of the peace negotiators, how much more willing would they be to simply shut down the talks if Japan decided to launch a inter-planetary missile not 500 miles away from Pyongyang?
Leave launches to the Indians and Russians for now. When North Korea finally comes around to join the rest of us in the modern, civilized world there will be plenty of time for space exploration.
I have been pwned because my
China: Going to the moon and mars ===> \. Yeah, take that US!
India: Going to the moon and mars ===> \. Yeah, take that US!
Japan: Going to the moon and mars ===> \. Yeah, take that US!
ESA: Going to the moon and mars ===> \. Yeah, take that US!
BFE: Going to the moon and mars ===> \. Yeah, take that US!
<random 3rd world country>: Going to the moon and mars ===> \. Yeah, take that US!
US: Going to the moon and mars ===> \. Never going to happen. It's only political showmanship.
Norris/Palin 2012
Fact: We deserve leaders who can kick your ass and field dress your carcass.
They're too busy to fool with this. They have jobs.
We bought a water rocket kit from Wal-Mart. We're launching in April, hopefully on the first. Target: Io, moon of Jupiter. Finally anyone can enjoy the thrill of space exploration.
Odd that the article didn't link to this.
http://www.marsrocks.ca
Slashdot:
...the CSA is interested in receiving include an orbiter, a single lander, or a network of small landers.
Now the Canadians are talking about a probe for Mars in 2011.
Website Link:
Imagine that. A Beowolf cluster of Mars Landers. I wonder if they would run on linux?
Frink: Nice try floyd, but you were designed for scrubbing, and scrubbing is what you shall do.
I keep hearing people saying that a new space race won't start because the cold war is over.
What this is shaping up to be is a land grab which should be healthy for Mars exploration. Here's hoping. There's a lot of land up there to grab. Now let's get those crazy space treaties rewritten by some people who aren't "citizen of the world" hippies.
Blaze a trail to the New World
I think all space programs should be collected under the United Nations as the United Nations Space Agency. The ESA serves as an example. Cooperation would accomplish more for more people than competition.
Oh sure, there'd be lots of collisions between agendas and between individuals. That's to be expected. But when it happens those responsible should me marked for replacement rather than placation. It's time we grew out of that sort of nonsense and space exploration is the perfect venue for that.
If the US and the USSR can come together in the Apollo-Soyuz project, surely today's more enlightened countries can set aside differences much less than mutually assured nuclear destruction.
The major problem would be the same problem NASA has: professional administrators and politicians. When engineers ran things we got to the moon. When managers ran things we got "My God, Thiokol, what do you want me to do, wait until April?" and no more Challenger.
Space exploration should be the right, responsibility and heritage of all humanity, not just those who can pry enough GNP away to put together their own team. This is not sports, this is science, and if done right, a chance to evolve socially as a planet.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Now the Canadians are talking about a probe for Mars in 2011.
They do know that liquid beer can't exist under Martian atmospheric pressures, don't they?
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
While it's great that these other countries are providing some type of competition for the US, we have a pretty big edge for Mars right now. Only a handful of other countries have been able to get in orbit around Mars so far (Russia and the EU?), and isn't the US the only one to get a working rover on the surface (3, in fact?). Now that we have a proven method for getting rovers to the surface, I don't doubt that we'll be sending quite a few more in the near future. We'll have the most survey information about the surface, the most scientific data, the most proven methods, and are the only country that has successfully put a man on another celestial object... that sure would give us a head start for a manned mission.
:)
Good luck to the rest of you countries... I hope you catch up to make it more interesting.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
How will the world end? In fire? In ice? More like in a bunch of tiny pieces that were smelted into raw metals.
.sig I see here on Slashdot: Earth First! We'll strip-mine the other planets later...
While I see your point, I hope it wouldn't come to that. I don't have a problem dismantling "dead" planets like Mercury and Mars, maybe even Venus, and certainly the asteroids.
But the Earth has so many unique features that you can't preserve outside an Earth-sized gravity well. You're not going to be able to recreate Yellowstone's hot springs and geysers on the surface of a Dyson Sphere, for example.
On the other hand, there's the
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.