NASA Preps Mars Underground Mole

Roland Piquepaille writes "People at NASA never cease to surprise me. Searching for water or presence of past life of Mars obviously needs drilling beneath the surface. So NASA is developing the Mars Underground Mole (MUM), based on a previous device used for the European Beagle 2 mission. But here is the twist. MUM will include sensors which were previously used to collect spectral imagery of Earth from pilotless aircrafts, especially Hawaii, according to NASA. While the Mole will stay on the surface on Mars and drill up to 5 meters deep, it will transmit data via a fiber optic cable to a digital array scanning interferometer (DASI). And the spectral images produced by the DASI will enable researchers to identify possible water, ice, organics and minerals under the surface on Mars. And this MUM will be a small one, weighing less than a kilogram for a length of only 50 centimeters. For more details and pictures about MUM, please read this overview."

Comments

OMFG Insightful?

[PatientZero]

He posted the text of the summary ... which is directly above his freakin' post! Funny, absolutely, but insightful?

I think the moderators themselves need a systems upgrade.

How Many Moles?

[MooseByte]

I wonder how many of these little robo-critters they could deploy in a single landing? Sure seems like a swarm of the little buggers spreading out for not only redundancy but increased geographical coverage would be a big plus.

Looks like that base station each is tethered to would put a kink in that idea though.

And of course if the subterranean residents interpret the swarm as an invasion, Lucy's gonna have some 'splainin to do...

A _real_ mission??

[acceber]

Now, let's wait until a real Mars mission comes to see if MUM really works.

Is that implying that the Mars exploration mission of Spirit and Opportunity was NOT a REAL mission? Spirit and Opportunity has been one of the most successful missions that NASA has ever undertaken, those rovers have surpassed their use-by-date by more than 3 months!

If that wasn't a real Mars mission, then what exactly is considered to be a real Mars mission?

Re:Call me cynical . . .

[ergean]

Space eploration is nothing compared to military expenses.
So get out of your hole - there is no haven on earth .

Any evolution in medicine would make us whis we invested more in space eploration. You'll cry for space in 30 years from now. Overcrowd -> lack of resources -> war. So cure more people to wipe them out with bombs.

Any way you have it, we need space exploration more than an instant cure for all desises.

So stop listening to what your grandmother says, and start thinking for youself.
Think about weather forcast, internet, teflon, n's thousand of tv channels, asteroids, aliens and mostly about space.

And what the hell would you do with 1.000 billions you save in 40 years?
Trust me you don't want to know. You have no assurance that the money would be used in a better way.

Re:Call me cynical . . .

[johannesg]

Your grandmother evidently thinks space exploration is useless and should be stopped until _all_ problems here on Earth are solved. That is, until we have no more terrorists, peace in the middle east, cures for all diseases, no more corruption, hate, violence, or spam; no more drug problems, no more traffic accidents, plentiful resources for everyone, and little girls taking care of all the kittens. Presumably she also wants us all to live in a utopian world without government or money, where people are nice to each other from the goodness of their hearts?

Presumably, once we have achieved all that we will finally be allowed to explore the heavens. Can your grandmother provide some sort of timescale? I'm asking, because I want to *see* that first man on Mars. Right now I think the chances of that are about fifty/fifty, but if she has her way I doubt there will ever be a generation that does.

Finally, look up how much money your country spends on defence, how much it spends on healthcare, and finally how much it spends on space exploration. I'm sure there will be readers who can provide these numbers, but I can already tell you that space exploration will be less than a percent of any of the other two.

Re:Call me cynical . . .

[argStyopa]

I wouldn't call you cynical, only naive.

Space exploration is a perfect example of the "give a man a fish..." paradigm.

The problems of humanity are endless. And frankly, we've solved most of them. Now it's a question of distribution and dissemination.

But does anyone doubt that in 1000 years we're going to be colonizing other planets and spreading the human race across the galaxy? We'll STILL have the same human problems of violence, greed, selfishness, etc. - I think they are endemic to the human animal.

I can see your grandma saying 80 years ago "why are we funding these silly things called airplanes? They are unsafe and barely can stay up in the air - what use are they? Use that money for something important, like feeding the starving."

And she'd be wrong.