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How Do You Land a Nuke-Powered Mini-Cooper On Mars?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the we're-gonna-need-a-bigger-boat dept.

tcd004 writes "Miles O'Brien narrates this video simulation of NASA's next Mars shot, which promises to out-gun all previous efforts. The Mini Cooper-sized Mars Science Laboratory, which is now named Curiosity, will crawl the Martian surface under steam from a nuclear powerplant — but it's a gentle giant compared to its predecessors. Recent theories have emerged that previous attempts at identifying organic compounds in Martian soil may have actually cooked away any signs of life-giving elements. Curiosity will go to great pains to avoid scorching the Earth ... erm ... Mars."

8 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. Genitle Giant? by The+Angry+Mick · · Score: 3, Informative

    As opposed to what, "Semitic Softie"?

    --

    I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.

  2. "Its" is possessive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    "It's" is a conraction. It means "it is."

    Please note that saying
    "...but it is a gentile giant compared to it is predecessors."
    makes no fucking sense.

    1. Re:"Its" is possessive by SBFCOblivion · · Score: 2, Informative

      Muphry's Law?

  3. Nuclear Powered by physburn · · Score: 3, Informative
    Its not a full reactor, just a RTG, radiothermal generator powered by radioactive decay.

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    Space Craft Feed @ Feed Distiller

  4. Re:Gentile Giant? by Michael_Burton · · Score: 3, Informative

    Oh, drat. My witty and insightful comment has been rendered nonsensical by an edit of the post. It really did say "gentile giant," honest!

    --
    When all you have is an axe, everything looks like a grindstone.
  5. Skycrane by Cally · · Score: 4, Informative

    Absolutely terrifying animations of the Skycrane EDL architecture : http://www.youtube.com/results?aq=f&search_query=MSL+skycrane&search_type=&hl=en-GB&gl=GB&oq= Skycrane's intended as =the= standard EDL system for all future Mars landers. Frankly MSL scares the crap out of me, because there's only one shot at getting it right, and so much riding on it. Apart from anything else it's the last Mars lander planned for the next decade, apart from the vapourware joint JPL/ESA dual-rovers nonsense supposedly pencilled in for 2016. IMHO that'll never make it past the Powerpoint stage. If MSL lands perfectly it should last years, certainly longer than the astonishingly long-lived MER rovers Spirit and Opportunity. If it fails - that's it until the 2020s.

    --
    "None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
  6. Re:English-to-metric conversion? by mcgrew · · Score: 4, Informative

    You just made the same mistake NASA did once; a Mini-Cooper is smaller than a VW.

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    Free Martian Whores!
  7. Re:RTFA by tomhudson · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yo. stupid mods. you missed the typo in the story title.

    "How Do Yo Land a Nuke-Powered Mini-Cooper On Mars?"