If NASA had that attitude, Congress would drag them in for testimony and then cut their funding. Don't forget that Musk is playing with private funds, while NASA is not.
given that Musk seems to be VERY well capitalized, I don't see them taking their ball and going home any time soon.
Elon musk had previously said that they would pack it in if they had three launch failures. He now says that "I consider DemoFlight 2 to be enough of a success, given that it provides us the data to go operational, to put my "three strikes" rule to bed. I'm in this to make SpaceX the world's leading launch provider and then some."
So while they aren't giving up, it isn't inconceivable that they would.
Sources say the new data do not indicate the discovery of existing or past life on Mars. Rather the data relate to habitability--the "potential" for Mars to support life--at the Phoenix arctic landing site, sources say.
Bear in mind that while AW&ST is generally a pretty decent source of news, they do have a weak spot for sensationalism.
The Apollo guys are either very old or long gone, and that program didn't leave us much in the way of useful records. Much of that knowledge has been lost.
The guy touted a lunar sample mission by the Russians and they certainly didn't bring any lunar rocks back during the height of the space race and quite honestly I don't think anyone has brought anything back since the astronauts picked them and returned them.
The responsibilities of news agencies and a random person should, therefore, be different.
Right, but we have a gray area in the form of bloggers, 'citizen reporters', and maybe even wikis. Their responsibility and claims to credibility haven't been settled yet.
So why hasn't it been determined that that was water ice yet? Have patience, it's a 90 day mission. That specific test hasn't been run yet. Wait until they take a grinding. That will generate ice particles that are small enough to fall through the screen.
the lander doesn't have an "ice" experiment/module on board TEGA has that capability. Verifying the presence of water ice is an explicit science objective of this mission.
So they're trying to make it look like they are committing copyright infringement... Back up one step. They are not trying to make it look like they are committing a crime. What they are doing is showing that some of the information that the RIAA uses to haul people into court isn't as definite as has been claimed, and probably shouldn't be used for that purpose.
In fact, isn't it a crime to try to fool the police into thinking you're committing a crime? It might be. I think it's also a crime to try to fool the police into thinking someone else committed a crime.
Petition my local congressman/senator/governing body for. Please remember to do this. The many people that have brought Phoenix this far (fingers crossed) have been at it for quite some time. It takes many man-hours to do it right. If the funding isn't there, it can't happen.
Because there was never enough volume (numerical) to justify a modular approach. Modularity carries a weight penalty in the form of interfaces, unused slots, underutilized features, etc. A modular platform will generally be heavier and bulkier than a custom-built system. That can be unattractive when you're dealing with the mass, volume, and cost constraints of a launch vehicle.
Ice is the goal. There's no such thing as "too icy" here.
The scoop has a rasp on the end of it that will be used to grind some of the icy soil into the scoop. The robotic arm will then dump those ice shavings into the analysis instruments (TEGA and MECA).
I thought the hop shortage was more of an economic thing than an environmental thing. The way I read/heard it, stored pellets and hop extract from previous boom years have finally run out, so the industrial brewers are buying up everything in sight. The stored stuff had been keeping demand artificially low, so the growers can't cope now.
At any rate, you can't get Cascade for love or money.
Lunar dust is especially nasty - more so than your everyday grit. It is interlocking and highly abrasive. During the Apollo missions it scratched lenses, made suit joints very difficult to move, and compromised the seals. Some astronauts complained of irritation and difficulty breathing.
At stake is whether Saturn's moon could support alien life and is thus a worthy target for a NASA exploratory mission to detect it. I can think of plenty of outer planet exploration missions that don't have detection of life as a goal. I think the presence of liquid water will keep a mission to Enceladus on the roadmap. Astrobiology is strapped for cash anyway.
I also worked for a company whose lifeblood was SBIR, and that never sat quite right with me. My impression is/was that the SBIR program was supposed to be a transitional thing for a small company with a great new idea - not a constant source of cash flow for a company that has gotten good at cranking out SBIR proposals. In my eyes, SBIR mills like the guys in NH are gaming the system. Look through the award archives, and you'll notice that some of the multiple award winners have been at this for quite a while. If the concepts aren't headed for Phase 3, SBIRs can become a dangerous dependency for a small company. They're "proposal crack".
Slashdot Mirror
Spirit and Opportunity each have a microscopic imager, so that's two. Any more?
Drink!
If NASA had that attitude, Congress would drag them in for testimony and then cut their funding. Don't forget that Musk is playing with private funds, while NASA is not.
Knowledge and know-how don't come cheap in the rocket business.
Which raises the question of whether or not a private organization can afford the learning curve.
given that Musk seems to be VERY well capitalized, I don't see them taking their ball and going home any time soon.
Elon musk had previously said that they would pack it in if they had three launch failures. He now says that "I consider DemoFlight 2 to be enough of a success, given that it provides us the data to go operational, to put my "three strikes" rule to bed. I'm in this to make SpaceX the world's leading launch provider and then some."
So while they aren't giving up, it isn't inconceivable that they would.
Bear in mind that while AW&ST is generally a pretty decent source of news, they do have a weak spot for sensationalism.
Devil's Advocate: Then pay for it your damn self.
In that case, I for one would like my Iraq money back so that I can transfer it to NASA.
The Apollo guys are either very old or long gone, and that program didn't leave us much in the way of useful records. Much of that knowledge has been lost.
The guy touted a lunar sample mission by the Russians and they certainly didn't bring any lunar rocks back during the height of the space race and quite honestly I don't think anyone has brought anything back since the astronauts picked them and returned them.
Luna 16, 20, and 24 were successful Soviet lunar sample return missions. Luna 24 took place after Apollo 17 (which was the last time an astronaut was on the moon).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_programme
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_17
The responsibilities of news agencies and a random person should, therefore, be different.
Right, but we have a gray area in the form of bloggers, 'citizen reporters', and maybe even wikis. Their responsibility and claims to credibility haven't been settled yet.
Better yet, skip the tech blogs and go to the source: http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/phoenix/main.php
...or "overzealous staffer".
This will show you location and local (Mars) time for Spirit, Opportunity, and now Phoenix.
This concludes my Sally Struthers moment.
You could also just go to the mission page.
Because there was never enough volume (numerical) to justify a modular approach. Modularity carries a weight penalty in the form of interfaces, unused slots, underutilized features, etc. A modular platform will generally be heavier and bulkier than a custom-built system. That can be unattractive when you're dealing with the mass, volume, and cost constraints of a launch vehicle.
Ice is the goal. There's no such thing as "too icy" here. The scoop has a rasp on the end of it that will be used to grind some of the icy soil into the scoop. The robotic arm will then dump those ice shavings into the analysis instruments (TEGA and MECA).
I thought the hop shortage was more of an economic thing than an environmental thing. The way I read/heard it, stored pellets and hop extract from previous boom years have finally run out, so the industrial brewers are buying up everything in sight. The stored stuff had been keeping demand artificially low, so the growers can't cope now. At any rate, you can't get Cascade for love or money.
Lunar dust is especially nasty - more so than your everyday grit. It is interlocking and highly abrasive. During the Apollo missions it scratched lenses, made suit joints very difficult to move, and compromised the seals. Some astronauts complained of irritation and difficulty breathing.
Lunar dust on NASA's technical reports server: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?N=0&Ntk=all&Ntx=mode%20matchall&Ntt=lunar%2Bdust
I also worked for a company whose lifeblood was SBIR, and that never sat quite right with me. My impression is/was that the SBIR program was supposed to be a transitional thing for a small company with a great new idea - not a constant source of cash flow for a company that has gotten good at cranking out SBIR proposals. In my eyes, SBIR mills like the guys in NH are gaming the system. Look through the award archives, and you'll notice that some of the multiple award winners have been at this for quite a while. If the concepts aren't headed for Phase 3, SBIRs can become a dangerous dependency for a small company. They're "proposal crack".
You're thinking of JTrack:
science.nasa.gov/realtime/jtrack/3d/JTrack3D.html