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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."

3 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Land? by c++0xFF · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Over-rated? The Mars Polar Lander didn't fare so well during its landing.

    Granted, that was a different system, but I'm not sure an airbag system will work for something over five times heavier than Spirit or Opportunity. Landing is definitely a hard thing to do.

  2. Show of hands... by theghost · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Who was disappointed not to see Colm Meaney? Yeah, me too.

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  3. Re:Corporate sponsorship... by OzPeter · · Score: 4, Interesting

    One wonders how much BMW paid to have "the Mini Cooper" used to describe this thing... :)

    Well they could have said "small car", but that is kinda subjective as what amounts to a small car in the US is gi-friggining-normous everywhere else in the world. Instead I'm guessing that the news program just went with a recognized make/model that is in use all over the place, and that no money changed hands.

    Mini Cooper - the new Library of Congress for volume measurements!

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