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Mars Express Beams Back Images of Ice-Filled Korolev Crater (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: The stunning Korolev crater in the northern lowlands of Mars is filled with ice all year round owing to a trapped layer of cold Martian air that keeps the water frozen. The 50-mile-wide crater contains 530 cubic miles of water ice, as much as Great Bear Lake in northern Canada, and in the centre of the crater the ice is more than a mile thick. Images beamed back from the red planet show that the lip around the impact crater rises high above the surrounding plain. When thin Martian air then passes over the crater, it becomes trapped and cools to form an insulating layer that prevents the ice from melting. The latest picture is a composite of five strip-like images taken from the European Space Agency's Mars Express probe, which swung into orbit around the planet on Christmas Day 2003. On the same day, the orbiter released the Beagle 2 lander, a British probe built on a shoestring budget, which touched down but failed to fully open on the surface. Mars Express photographed the Korolev crater with its high-resolution stereo camera, an instrument that can pick out features 10 metres wide, or as small as 2 metres when used in super-resolution mode.

104 comments

  1. No commons on Mars. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So how long until corporate exploiters destroy it for profit, as retarded-growth-economic paradigms dictate as the only suitable outcome?

    1. Re: No commons on Mars. by bobstreo · · Score: 1

      So how long until corporate exploiters destroy it for profit, as retarded-growth-economic paradigms dictate as the only suitable outcome?

      I'm sure plenty of Martians won't want their domestics and ice miners to be robots. /s

      As far as destroying Mars for profit, it's way closer than Earth to the asteroid belt which is much more useful for raw materials.

    2. Re: No commons on Mars. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You'd have to colonize Mars before you could mine the asteroid belt. Logistical reality. They would no doubt start doing that at this crater packed chock full of ice unless they found a better one.

      I'm sure China is already making plastic flags to plant there, because for our retarded species on this planet we're destroying for economic failed paradigms, that's the important milestone.

      Maybe we'll find that monolith and evolve instead, but some days I just hope humanity just goes extinct before we fuck up the rest of the galaxy with our head-in-ass priorities and petty exploitation regimes.

      I guess we'll see.

    3. Re: No commons on Mars. by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      So how long until corporate exploiters destroy it for profit, as retarded-growth-economic paradigms dictate as the only suitable outcome?

      No, you people believe that we'll never get there, and that if some team miraculously achieves a flags-and-footsteps landing, we'll never colonize the place because of the impossibly difficult conditions.

      You can't have it both ways, dammit.

    4. Re: No commons on Mars. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      but some days I just hope humanity just goes extinct before we fuck up the rest of the galaxy with our head-in-ass priorities and petty exploitation regimes.

      The rest of the galaxy, the part we can reach anyway, is just a bunch of rocks.

      I'm not worried about us fucking up a bunch of rocks, even giant rocks like Mars. How do you fuck up Mars? It's already completely unlivable. By anything.

      Calm down.

  2. Re:SpaceX by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    What does this have to do with SpaceX landings? (They're still more successful than Martian probes, BTW.)

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  3. Re:SpaceX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No one else in the world has been able to land a (spent) rocket on its tail until SpaceX. No one has repeated it. Falling in the ocean is default behavior for everyone, including SpaceX. They reuse the hulls either way.

    At least you weren't trying to pretend you were some kind of aeronautical wunderkind like a Trumptard might do. "I'm best at rockets"

    Stick to digging yourself deeper I guess.

  4. Re:SpaceX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    VTL was demonstrated 40 years ago.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39cjZTCay24
    You Muskies think everything is new. And guess what. It is a tunnel. Just a tunnel. Not even a good tunnel.

  5. Re: SpaceX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Meanwhile Boeing/Lockeed Martinâ(TM)s United Launch Alliance (ULA, a.k.a., Unlimited Loss Alliance) scrubbed yesterdayâ(TM)s launch from Vandenberg. Funny how they use Russian RD-180 engines too.

  6. click the link by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's one of the sweetest pictures of Mars I've ever seen.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:click the link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's a rendering. Real MEO data, but the image is CGI.

      These images are an excellent celebration of such a milestone. Taken by the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), this view of Korolev crater comprises five different ‘strips’ that have been combined to form a single image, with each strip gathered over a different orbit. The crater is also shown in perspective, context, and topographic views, all of which offer a more complete view of the terrain in and around the crater.

      Mars Express gets festive: a winter wonderland on Mars

      But I agree, it is one of the greatest Martian images ever.

    2. Re:click the link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is also fake. It is a composite picture overlaid on a digital model of the crater.

  7. it will melt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That glacier won't last long with global warming.

  8. What the hell? by BringsApples · · Score: 1
    From TFA:

    A composite picture of the Korolev crater in the northern lowlands of Mars, made from images taken by the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera overlaid on a digital terrain model.

    Anyone know why they had to, or chose to, use a digital terrain model, rather than just give the complete real pictures?

    --
    Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
    1. Re:What the hell? by magarity · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Anyone know why they had to, or chose to, use a digital terrain model, rather than just give the complete real pictures?

      Because the real picture is from orbit, straight down. Which is rather boring compared to the image produced by the terrain model.

    2. Re:What the hell? by BringsApples · · Score: 1

      Ahh. Makes sense.

      Ok, so... water on Mars! Now what? Should we go taste it?

      --
      Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
    3. Re:What the hell? by Immerman · · Score: 1

      Well, that's also pretty enormous reservoir of easily worked raw materials for construction (ice is pretty strong stuff, whether you're building "igloos" or melting ice-tunnels. Or both - if you're mining water you may as well make a useful hole, and vice-versa), and feed-stock for growing a sustainable ecology (along with CO2 from the atmosphere) for food, air scrubbing, oxygen production, and various wood and cellulose-based raw materials.

      I'm curious as to how well graphene filters would do for removing Martian contaminants from water. There's a lot of pretty nasty stuff blowing around Mars, but graphene seems to be pretty good at blocking almost everything except water.

      Even more interesting might be to take core samples first. How long has that crater been gradually filling with ice to become a mile thick? You've got an incredible record of Martian atmospheric conditions just sitting there waiting to be studied. Probably some great information about the solar wind to be found as well, without a substantial magnetosphere to deflect it. There might even be traces of life lingering within it, just waiting to be found.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  9. So why doesn't it by fredrated · · Score: 1

    sublime away?

    1. Re:So why doesn't it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would have to look at a phase diagram but I imagine it is cold enough that the low vapor pressure cooker isn't a concern. It likely varies a but in size. Subliming and condensing. But the crater holds the damp air in place. And with neglible atmosphere...

    2. Re:So why doesn't it by Immerman · · Score: 1

      Quite so. The triple-point of water is at about 273K (0C, 32F) and 612 Pa(0.006atm), Below roughly that temperature water is solid except at even lower pressures.

      Meanwhile, Mars' atmospheric pressure at the surface hovers around 600Pa, and noontime temperatures on a tropical summer day on Mars only gets up to ~293K (20C, 68F), meaning most of the time, across most of the surface, Martian water will tend to be solid, though it may sublimate on a warm day, especially in direct sunlight. But it won't take much of a localized cold spot to keep it firmly solid.

      With warm Martian days hovering so close to the triple point, it's also interesting to consider that local weather conditions could easily allow liquid water to exist temporarily.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  10. Great story. Glad for the break from politics. by Seven+Spirals · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What a cool picture, even if it is a bit fabricated. Also, thanks to whoever posted/accepted the article. This is much better than the latest political horror show and more reflective of "News for nerds, stuff that matters."

    1. Re: Great story. Glad for the break from politics. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But are the native martians doing enough to help disadvantaged peoples? Are they creating a warm caring and inclusive environment for people who do not believe in the Martian Gods?

      If the answer is no. We need to kill those dam Martian Racists with a swarm of interplanetary nuclear weapons. We humanity will not accept prejuidice and discrimination anywhere in the solar system.

  11. Politics = a story because the nation is in danger by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All images are "fabricated" - Or did you think the original galactic photons flew out of the film and onto the paper, then into your retina where your "brain" processed them into an "unfabricated" image?

    Whining about politics while pretending not to be talking about politics a is different kind of "fabrication" also. If you want to omit it, omit it. If you want to pretend it's not news, go fuck yourself.

  12. Re:SpaceX by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Successes at powered landings on other bodies of the Solar System predate successes at powered landings on Earth from space, so you'd expect the landings on other bodies of the Solar System to be more successful today. But in fact, even though the landings elsewhere got better over time, they're still not perfect. Meanwhile powered landings on Earth have gotten better withing years instead of decades. It might have something to do with the frequency of attempts, though.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  13. Oh poooooor Trumptard, he still wants respect? aww by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Butt-hurting Nazi traitor tries hand at creative writing, fails harder than Melania. News at 11"

  14. Learn to read, GOP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I specifically said spent rocket booster hulls, which 100% of fall into the sea before SpaceX. If you need help reading, let a teacher know that. Musk did not invent rocketry, that's true moron. Nor did he invent literacy.

    If you think you're not digging a hole yourself, then you won't be affected when I just shovel over and bury you there. Nobody here mentioned Musk until you did. Man-crush status approved.

  15. Might make for some good books by willoughby · · Score: 1

    Now I'm eager to read some of the next wave of "man on Mars" books from Kim Stanley Robinson and others.

  16. Re:SpaceX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    " so you'd expect the landings on other bodies of the Solar System to be more successful today. " - Until you realized how far away they are, then you'd probably reevaluate your linear math for cosmology as required.

  17. Re:SpaceX by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    The video claims the LLTV had no computers. In fact, it had a fly-by-wire computer system.

    Also, it's not a space-bound launch vehicle re-entering from hypersonic velocity at Mach 8, which is the novel aspect here. I don't think that anyone ever claimed that it was the first time someone shortly hovered for a while.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  18. Re:SpaceX by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    No, I realized instead that distance is not a factor for landing success.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  19. Re:SpaceX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah it is.

  20. I guess those pictures of your mother are fake too by Seven+Spirals · · Score: 1, Funny

    Good thing. Those shots of your mom dick-riding a orangutan were frighting. It's reassuring to know they were fabricated.

  21. Re:SpaceX by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 0

    Yep, an airplane landing in Melbourne from Tokyo will have it way harder than the airplane landing from Canberra. The local weather conditions always change when Mother Nature detects a long-distance flight. /s

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  22. "You people believe..." = FAIL, try again idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Robots can plant flags, which will happen long before humans arrive. There's no point in putting anyone on Mars right now except proving it can be done. Will humanity survive long enough to colonize it? Unknown.

    At this rate, potentially unlikely.

    Stay in school kid, then pretend to control what other people think - once your homework is done. Run along now, space isn't going to tolerate a blathering slacker, there's NO EXTRA AIR for it!

  23. Re:SpaceX by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    Yeah it does take more technology to make a plane go further actually. But beyond that, one is Earth and ONE IS MARS. There is no difference between Tokyo and Melbourne, but a big difference between Earth and ANOTHER PLANET. Musknuts!

  24. Re:SpaceX by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Also, cosmology has nothing to with contemporary space travel in any case. Cosmologists are not concerned with such puny items as solar systems, not to mention out Solar System's planets.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  25. Your mother raised a liar by whoring herself? Wut by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My mother died in 1986. Her last words were "Don't let that lying faggot Seven Spirals blather his bullshit, own his punk ass with logic." - and I've lived every day to her words, QED.

  26. Re:SpaceX by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Yeah it does take more technology to make a plane go further actually.

    And so does making upper stages inject their payloads onto higher energy trajectories, but neither of those things has anything to do with landings.

    But beyond that, one is Earth and ONE IS MARS.

    That's exactly the point. The procedure of landing on Mars and it comparative difficulty is determined by conditions on Mars, not by how far away the conditions are located.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  27. Better late than never by ngc5194 · · Score: 1

    Statement from NASA spokesman Mark Watney, "Now you tell me. If I had known this earlier, I might not have lost my eyebrows."

  28. Re:SpaceX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The point is you're willing to pretend it's as easy to land on Mars as it is to land on Earth. Wrong, as lander failures have indicated. You don't work in the field obviously, but your dishonesty to defend ego is admirable, in a Trumpian sense.

  29. Re: SpaceX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My mars rover says there is ice everywhere and my computer says it is all extremely low temperature. My attack bot says all the ice is covered in deep doo doo and only to drink water if we find it. My main computer says not all the ice is covered in deep doo doo. There is a clean patch in one place. My main computer also produces a correlated result suggesting warm water may be found in Martian canals. How do you like that for robotic professionalism?

  30. Re:SpaceX by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    I'm not "pretending", implying, spelling out, or in any way saying that the two are comparable in any way. If you re-read what I wrote, it becomes obvious.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  31. Re:SpaceX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cosmological maths are required for space travel. You don't work in the field and have proven yourself willing to lie unplausibly. Goodbye.

  32. Re:SpaceX by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 0

    Cosmological maths are required for space travel.

    No, it's not.

    You don't work in the field

    Perhaps, but I've known since the age of ten how cosmology differs from celestial mechanics. (Are you nine, by any chance?)

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  33. Re: SpaceX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are a fucking moron. A plane landing with a local pilot doesnt have the same level of demand as a remote controlled remote programmed landing. The local human pilot and correct for issues as they're happening locally. Issues that occur during landings on other worlds have to be pre dealt with in logic or best effort out by the computer on the vehicle.

    They're not even close to the same thing moron.

  34. Re: SpaceX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Right. They are not comparable. So what?

  35. Re: SpaceX by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Interestingly, local conditions on other interesting bodies of the Solar System such as Moon or Mars are also much more boring and easier to pre-program for; hence the difficulties lie elsewhere. But congratulations for completely missing the whole point yet again (I can only assume that you're trolling, since it's the most flattering explanation), given how I was NOT comparing a plane landing to a Mars landing, but rather two plane landings from different distances. In exactly the same way, a Mars landing does not care about Earth's distance at any point.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  36. Re:SpaceX by mrclevesque · · Score: 1

    If we could just as easily send a spacex rocket to mars as we can send one to an earth orbit, then I'd agree.

  37. Re: SpaceX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Delta IV doesn't use Russian engines, that is the Atlas V rocket.

  38. Re: SpaceX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You should take a selfie with your team of robots

  39. You have no idea lol. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At least you admit you don't work in the field, now that we've established you're willing to lie about the difficulty in landing on another planet vs. Melbourne.

    https://www.space.com/16042-cosmology.html - learn something real, bitch.

    1. Re:You have no idea lol. by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 0

      you're willing to lie about the difficulty in landing on another planet vs. Melbourne.

      I can only imagine that you have some kind of random text scrambler in your head messing with the remnants of your reading comprehension.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    2. Re:You have no idea lol. by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Cosmology is a branch of astronomy that involves the origin and evolution of the universe, from the Big Bang to today and on into the future. According to NASA, the definition of cosmology is "the scientific study of the large scale properties of the universe as a whole."

      Exactly, NOTHING to do with operating planetary probes, as I already pointed out.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  40. God dammit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now you idiots will whine about going even more. Fuck Mars.

    1. Re: God dammit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OMG you are preaching to the choir all of you. We have bigger problems, space madness for one

    2. Re: God dammit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OMG you are preaching to the choir all of you. We have bigger problems, space madness for one. Like a time bomb.

  41. Re: SpaceX by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    So that makes the top-level comment meaningless, as I immediately pointed out in my first comment.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  42. How many times have you landed on mars, faggot. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "local conditions on other interesting bodies of the Solar System such as Moon or Mars are also much more boring and easier" - known dishonest moron continues to blather bullshit, yadda.

    Do you even realize how dumb you sound trying to continue to defend your indefensibly stupid position lol? Of course you don't and cannot. Ignorance does not cure itself with facts, it doubles down.

    1. Re:How many times have you landed on mars, faggot. by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Those are simple facts known to anyone interested. I'm not the one who's ignorant here. The Lunar Module, for example, didn't have to deal with aerodynamics at all, so it had much simpler control logic and didn't need a heat shield or even thermal protection of the engine section necessary for a soft touchdown.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    2. Re:How many times have you landed on mars, faggot. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The simple fact is you're ignorant of reality. It's more difficult (and expensive obviously) to land on a foreign planet than on Earth. Fact. You're a moron who tried to gaslight everyone of the opposite. Fact.

    3. Re:How many times have you landed on mars, faggot. by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      It's more difficult (and expensive obviously) to land on a foreign planet than on Earth.

      Are you sure? Earth has one hell of an atmosphere to deal with. As for expense, most of that is fuel cost and rocket engines.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    4. Re:How many times have you landed on mars, faggot. by dunkelfalke · · Score: 1

      Exactly. It is easy to bring enough fuel for a suborbital flight and a powered landing, it is far more difficult to reach escape velocity and still bring enough fuel for braking and landing on another planet.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    5. Re:How many times have you landed on mars, faggot. by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      It's more difficult (and expensive obviously) to land on a foreign planet than on Earth.

      If it is, it's because of local conditions. Not because because of distance, as some "cosmological" moron above tried to claim.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  43. Re: SpaceX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you look at it from a conservation of energy principle, the long flight analysis is correct. If you look at it from a safety of dissipation of rocket fuel perspective, the local analysis is right. I suppose you could optimize for individual parameters, especially if neither approach provided an optimal value for some important parameter. Either way the pilot will be safe, just do they get ejected forcefully or gently? Maybe break some bones in one case. Is that a parameter worth optimizing for?

  44. Re: SpaceX by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Delta IV is also unsustainable and won't fly anymore after April 2019, with the exception of the Heavy version that will have a few more remaining flights still until Vulcan can replace it.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  45. Re:Stop lying faggot. by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Why would I do something so nonsensical?

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  46. Re: SpaceX by iggymanz · · Score: 1

    Wrong, Newtonian mechanics work fine for getting a craft to Mars. Cosmologists use General Relatively and other more difficult maths

  47. Re:Politics = a story because the nation is in dan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The nation's in danger? Most of the shit going on today was happening under the Obama administration and you fuckers never said a fucking word. You don't give a fuck about people and principles, it's the party that matters to you most. Just like the little bitch ass Nazis you claim to be against. Keep goose stepping asshole.

  48. Re: Your mother raised a liar by whoring herself? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Until today...

  49. Teaching K.S. Kyosuke to read English by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Although NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is probably best known for its astounding images, a primary mission was cosmological. By more accurately measuring the distances to Cepheid variables, stars with a well-defined ratio between their brightness and their pulsations, Hubble helped to refine measurements regarding how the universe is expanding. Since its launch, astronomers have continued to use Hubble to make cosmological measurements and refine existing ones."

    "Cosmology is a branch of astronomy that involves the origin and evolution of the universe, from the Big Bang to today and on into the future. According to NASA, the definition of cosmology is "the scientific study of the large scale properties of the universe as a whole.""

    Only a willful retard (and above-caught liar) like you, Kyosuke, could possibly try to infer that accurate measurements are unnecessary for deep space exploration.

    Only a willful retard (and above-caught liar) like you, Kyosuke, could possibly pretend landing on Mars was the same as landing in Melbourne.

    You are a moron, not an astronaut, not a cosmologist, not an astronomer, not even an astrologist - you're not believable in any topic you lie about here, sorry.

    1. Re:Teaching K.S. Kyosuke to read English by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Cepheid measurements have nothing to do with Solar System navigation. Distances to Cepheids are immaterial since we don't travel over interstellar distances.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  50. So land on Mars already liar. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The simple facts include you lying about Mars being the same or easier to land on as Melbourne, Australia. The simple fact is you're a simple liar, not an engineer in any related field.

    1. Re:So land on Mars already liar. by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      I never compared Mars to Melbourne, so you're barking up the wrong tree.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  51. Re: SpaceX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wrong, you have yet to prove that. All probes sent to Mars have been sent since Relativity. Eventually your Newtonian orbital mechanics become out of sync with the proven relativistic mechanics.

    Even if you "could" get there with inertial guidance and old maths, Kyosuke claimed it was EASIER to land a craft there than in Australia. Contemplate this silly bitch for me, we're done.

  52. Kyosuke's ego is my new basketball. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What you in fact argued was that Cosmological MATHS were not required at all for deep space exploration. I accept your ego as my trophy, it will not be polished however. It is worthless and dishonest bullshit.

    Like your claim that Mars was somehow easier than Melbourne. Egotists like you need punched out by the likes of Buzz Aldrin, it's the only way to deal with it now that facts, science or honesty don't apply to you.

  53. Re: Your mother raised a liar by whoring herself? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Until today, when I owned you with logic AND invective simultaneously, very true. You will probably walk funny for a few days, that is normal when you're fucked so savagely. The ego may sting a bit like Kyosuke's. Par.

    But then again you seem oddly used to it. Maybe you can walk it off, we'll see. Either way you have no argument that heals your butthurt wounds. Good luck, heal up quick for the next round.

    I'm ready when you are.

  54. Water on Mars, no big deal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I though the question for decades was "Is/Was there water on Mars?"

    Either I was wrong about the question or we've somehow missed this frozen lake 50 miles wide?

    1. Re: Water on Mars, no big deal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is smaller than that. Around 8 square km. Did I kiss something funny?

    2. Re: Water on Mars, no big deal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *miss

    3. Re:Water on Mars, no big deal? by Immerman · · Score: 1

      It's a matter of terminology. The actual question is "is/was there *liquid* water on Mars" - but water is relatively special in that there are common names for its gaseuos and solid phases, so that "water" often implies "liquid". We've known for a long time that there's water-ice on Mars - the polar icecaps clearly contain both water and CO2. Now we're mapping and characterizing particular deposits that might be of interest to future researchers and colonists.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  55. Erbas Medya Smm Bayi Paneli 2019 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

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  56. Re: SpaceX by iggymanz · · Score: 1

    what bullshit, no relativistic corrections needed for Mars trip. All of us who studied orbital mechanics for our physics degree know this, you want proof pick up any of the standard texts.

  57. Re: SpaceX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So how many times before General or Special Relativity did you visit Mars? How many probes have you sent using your ancient Newtonian understandings alone? Exactly bitch. Zero. Keep studying.

    You may lie plausibly some day about your math skills, but not today.

  58. Re:SpaceX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're fucking retarded, OP here, you stuck to your guns and that's worth a buck but wow... dumb to re-read this shit. Dumb. You put your name on it.

  59. Mandela Effect... by wolfheart111 · · Score: 1

    How did anyone miss a 50 mile wide lake on Mars? WTF. Open our fucking eyes I guess. lol

    --
    [($)]
    1. Re:Mandela Effect... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think I'm from the same timeline you are...

      Wasn't the big question whether there was ever water (H2O) on Mars? And it was big news when some rover found compelling evidence that liquid water had flowed on Mars?

      But we're just now hearing about a 50 mile wide lake of ice (H2O not CO2)? What am I missing here?

    2. Re:Mandela Effect... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wasn't the big question whether there was ever water (H2O) on Mars?

      Not quite. Mars has polar ice caps made (largely) out of ice, and this has been known for a long time (and we have pictures). The big issue was did liquid water ever flow on the planet. And there are signs that it may have. So that is what all the past excitement was about.

    3. Re:Mandela Effect... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think I'm from the same timeline you are...

      Wasn't the big question whether there was ever water (H2O) on Mars? And it was big news when some rover found compelling evidence that liquid water had flowed on Mars?

      But we're just now hearing about a 50 mile wide lake of ice (H2O not CO2)? What am I missing here?

      Are you sure the Mandela effect is to do with different timelines? Is it not just conceivably possible that all of these ignorant, racist little yankee cunts have confused ideas about the former president of South Africa for some other, completely unknown reason?

  60. Re:SpaceX by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    Distance has nothing to do with it. All that travel is completely passive, barring the odd correction burn. You need energy to establish an orbit but not to maintain one. Mars could be right next to the moon or out past the orbit of Jupiter and it would be exactly as hard.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  61. Re:SpaceX by Immerman · · Score: 1

    >No, I realized instead that distance is not a factor for landing success.

    Actually it is - in two big ways:
    - The lander is subjected to much longer thermal and radiation stresses during the long slow flight to Mars (since for whatever reason we haven't landed on the moon much), which means more probability of hardware failures.

    - Since we've abandoned MAnned spaceflight beyond orbit, the lander must be pretty much fully autonomous - since any human interaction is subjected to light-speed delay - 2.6 seconds round-trip to the moon, which is difficult to deal with for any but the most minor of problems, and 6-45 light-minutes to Mars, which makes any intervention during the landing routine completely impossible.

    It's also a major factor in the cost and frequency of the attempts, and well as the demand for them. There've been a grand total of 48 launches to Mars spread across 56 years (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_Mars), several governments, and multiple generations of scientists, engineers, and administrators. Not all of those launches even included a lander, and of those that did, they couldn't learn anything from the previous several landers launched, since those hadn't yet reached Mars by the time the current one departed.

    Contrast that to the 46 Falcon 9 booster landings SpaceX has attempted in just the last six years, all under the guidance of one man, by one mostly-coherent team. All completed sequentially, so that any lessons learned from one landing attempt could be immediately applied to the next.

    --
    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  62. Re:SpaceX by Immerman · · Score: 1

    No, it really isn't. You don't even need relativity - plain old Newtonian mechanics is quite sufficient for navigation within the solar system by anything yet built by Man. You'll get some discrepancies if you pay close enough attention, but nothing that wouldn't be corrected by dead reckoning, if not lost in the noise of other imperfections in your rocket.

    You need orbital mechanics to hit what you're aiming for, but that's still simple stuff, and it'd be a real stretch to call that "cosmological maths" (what exactly do you mean by that phrase?) - neither dark matter, dark energy, nor any other cosmological-scale factor manifest noticeably in something as tiny as a solar system. And very little in cosmology cares about things that happen on human timescales, other than the explosions.

    --
    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  63. Re:SpaceX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    LOL. That lander wasn't even American.

    joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian space agency Roscosmos

    Try again.

  64. great. by SuperDre · · Score: 1

    So they found a first landing place for humans?

  65. Re:SpaceX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "You'll get some discrepancies if you pay close enough attention" - Or if you play your model forward 100 years on Newtonian alone... but mankind has NEVER landed on ANY planet before relativistic physics. Fact.

    MAYBE you could, but it never happened. It's a hypothetical. We've had a lot of advancement in instrumentation as a result of refining the physics. To deny that plays a role in deep space travel is idiotic.

    And I wasn't talking about just Mars, that's the nearest body. It's also beyond our means now for human development really. That ought to be a clue, none of this is easy. He tried to say it was harder to land in Australia.

    You decide.

  66. It's harder to land on Mars than Australia. Fact. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "All that travel is completely passive" - bullshit, that's if everything goes perfectly. It doesn't always. And when communication takes several minutes that adds difficulty and reduces control. There's no getting around it.

    He's an idiot, you're coming to his defense because you're illiterate apparently. It is harder to land on Mars than in Australia, final answer, you are wrong. I know because I have myself landed in Australia, and not Mars.

    Fact. Deal with it.

  67. Re: SpaceX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your bullshit assertions about Australia being harder than Mars are the unsustainable non-flying part here, right now. Keep shoveling kid.

  68. Re:SpaceX by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Obviously, equipment lifetime is the one thing that can be a factor here. But I don't see how how non-autonomous nature would have helped you here. Pretty much all time-sensitive operations such as vehicle ascent and reentry are pre-programmed and under computer's control. Even on manned vehicles, even on Earth, where real-time ground control *could* be an option, we still opt for pre-programmed scenarios, since you don't want to entrust anything more complex than an abort switch to people under the circumstances of time-critical flight sequences. Frequency of attempts I already mentioned above - it's logical that we'll gather it more quickly here.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  69. Re: SpaceX by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Kyosuke claimed it was EASIER to land a craft there than in Australia

    I claimed no such thing. I said that places don't care about the distance from which you arrive to them. Mars won't make you landing easier just because you're only departing from Deimos either.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  70. Re:SpaceX by Immerman · · Score: 1

    Just because the pilot is probably a robot, doesn't mean there's no use for a human captain.

    Even if it's only an abort switch under the control of human judgement, that's still a potentially big improvement over full autonomy, since even the best-programmed/trained AI won't have the same understanding of abort-worthy situations as a human.

    And in reality, it's quite likely that other things benefit from human judgement as well. For example, landing on unfamiliar territory where additional information is becoming available with every passing moment. Maybe best to let the computer do the flying, but quite likely an advantage to have a trained human at a real-time landing-target adjustment screen e.g. displaying the rapidly improving terrain map of the potential landing zone overlayed with the rapidly shrinking potential landing zone and current target, along with both AI and human-flagged hazards to avoid and most-promising landing points.

    It will be interesting to see just how much the landing experience gained here will actually help elsewhere. I'm strongly hopeful, I mean it *should* be a lot easier to land on Mars, the moon, etc. where atmospheric variability isn't a confounding factor. Whether it actually *is* or not? We shall see - reality has a way of laying bare unsuspected assumptions and oversights. I'm sure the experience will translate to a much better starting point - but I still wouldn't want to be on board the first BFR to try landing on the moon. But hey, sign me up for the companion BFR in lunar orbit, serving as a micro-lag orbital "ground control".

    --
    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.