Slashdot Mirror


Terrestrial Garbage On Mars

An anonymous reader writes "The garbage left behind by the twin Mars rovers was highlighted this week by the close-up view in panorama of the Spirit rovers' heatshield. Not including the various Viking, Pathfinder and some crippled probes, the human contribution of rover hardware to the martian surface now includes a few odd nicknacks, parachutes, heatshields, back shell,landing petals and many wheel tracks. It may be September before the rovers themselves become part of the red planet's debris field."

5 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Interplanetary dumpster diving time! by Thrymm · · Score: 2, Informative

    Theres a lot of debris on Venus too from the US and Soviets...

  2. Re:Hmm.. by hookedup · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually, it was a reference to Space Balls :)

  3. Re:yeee haw by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Informative

    and when we get there we'll find them rednecked martians with our rovers up on blocks.

    Pepsi shows how: (click "Night Watch")

  4. Re:Life on Mars by unitron · · Score: 2, Informative

    You may wish to consult the Arthur C. Clarke short story "The Sentinel" for prior art on that concept.

    --

    I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  5. Re:Life on Mars by unitron · · Score: 2, Informative

    "The Sentinel" is basically what became the part of 2001:A Space Oddessy where they dig up the monolith on the moon and it blasted everybody with that signal to the aliens who buried it in the first place advising them that humans had gotten advanced enough to get to the moon and find the thing. It was this story that lead to the collaboration of Clarke and Kubrick on the screenplay and movie and then Clarke wrote the book afterwards. Clarke was, if not the first, among the first to have the idea of an advanced alien civilization setting up a "tripwire" to alert them when we reached a certain level of scientific development.

    --

    I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.