And here I was thinking that science was supposed to be falsifiable, testable, and actually be a useful predictor?
Evolution scientists cannot predict exactly which changes to a species will happen, since there is a random part, namely which mutations will actually happen to individuals of that species. However, they can predict in certain cases which kind of mutations, if they happen, will likely be favored by selection, or weeded out by selection. But it's impossible to know for certain wether adaptive change will occur, or wether species will die out, given changed environmental conditions.
Re:While panspermia is possible...
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Space Lichens
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· Score: 1
Some people come together, but I doubt that many here have experienced that.
Autonomous navigation and operation. Both NASA's Deep Impact and Japan's Hayabusa missions rely on it, and so far it has worked out pretty well. The Mars rovers are also good examples. Signal lag is not a valid reason to add a crew to a comparatively simple mission like this.
About the "lag time counted in hours", I believe you are mistaken with Cassini/Huygens. Of course that probe is quite a bit further out than Mars:)
"If, as our new Hubble images indicate, Pluto has not one, but two or three moons, it will become the first body in the Kuiper Belt known to have more than one satellite," said Hal Weaver of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md. He is co-leader of the team that made the discovery.
Re:A little seriousness, a little fun...
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Martian Naming Madness
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· Score: 3, Informative
Please mod parent up, this story is utter bull crap. Please read this to get a little bit more info from NASA on this.
"We give names to features near the rovers for convenience," said Dr. Tim Parker, a JPL geologist working on the rover mission. "But it's important to remember they're all unofficial."
It's sad to see that such a piece of uninformed disinformation could make it past the Yahoo and LA Times editorial staff. It is nothing but a dumb rant from a clueless journalist. Then again, in science reporting that is nothing new.
Voyager has entered the heliosheath, which lies beyond the termination shock, so it's only now getting close to the point where the influence of the Sun is less than the effects of interstellar space. So, in one sense it's out of solar system (it's beyond Pluto), in another sense Voyager is still within the solar system. I know, it's only nitpicking. Interesting stuff anyway:)
It's only designed to work for X number of days. After that it might fall apart and they know it.
X = 90 sols (Mars days, which is a fraction longer than an Earth day). That was the intended lifetime of the rovers. The other rover, Spirit, just passed 500 sols.
It already struck a hole-in-one when it landed exacly inside Eagly Crater. Principal Investigator Steven Squyres was quoted as saying something like not even Tiger Woods could ever be expected to make that shot.
Next one is going up august 10 this year, actually. Not a lander though, this time it's a very capable orbiter with a) lots of new new and better instruments, and b) enormously increased bandwidth to send data back to Earth.
I know you are kidding, but on the off chance that anyone actually believes that: the impact is a bit like trowing a pingpong ball in front of a speeding truck. There is simply not enough kinetic energy to significantly alter the orbit of the comet, definately not enough to put it in an Earth intercepting orbit.
Read the last story on Deep Impact, it may be in the science section only. There most certainly were a couple of badly informed peeps whining about us possibly destroying a unique member of our solar system:)
please mod parent up, if anyone with modpoints is still reading this. The tiles and the carbon work, they just weren't designed to take mach 2 foam impacts, and rightly so. The idea is to keep the Shuttle light enough to carry it into orbit after all.
Are either of these intrepid little bots in an area even remotely near Odyssey or Beagle? It'd be kinda nice to see what happened to them.
I bet NASA would like to know too, since AFAIK Odyssey is still orbiting Mars and working just fine. Did you mean Mars Polar Lander? Anyway, none of the rovers is near the (anticipated) landing/crash site of another mission.
Right, thank you. Now conclude that line of reasoning, and you'll end the history of aircraft with the Wright Flyer. Because, it could only fly what, 100ft? How frigging many of those would you need to carry the people on a moderate sized sailship over the ocean? Why would we keep developing those moneysucking aircraft?
Comets impacting Earth have given us water. It's one of the prime factors enabling us to exist. Anyway, thusfar comets have been hitting us lots more than we have been hitting them. It's about time for some revenge:)
Exactly. I seem to remember that Galileo did not go through the very intensive sterilization process that the rovers went through. But there's always a chance of course...
At the risk of trollbating... Missions like Pioneer 10/11 and Voyager 1/2 were fly-by missions. They were accelerated to tremendous speeds by one or several gravity assists, and thus merrily went their way out of the solar system. More recent missions are designed to enter orbit around the targeted planet, and to achieve orbit they have to slow down a lot. It would cost a huge amount of fuel to get them going again fast enough to exit the solar system, and all that fuel would have a big impact on how much instruments could be carried along.
Some missions (like Galileo) were indeed crashed onto the target planet to prevent them becoming a problem later, or to use the impact as a science data point. Other missions were crashed quite unintentionally.
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In case you're still wondering, Mars has lost most of its magnetic field, which protects against loss of atmosphere caused by solar wind.
Some people come together, but I doubt that many here have experienced that.
About the "lag time counted in hours", I believe you are mistaken with Cassini/Huygens. Of course that probe is quite a bit further out than Mars :)
It's sad to see that such a piece of uninformed disinformation could make it past the Yahoo and LA Times editorial staff. It is nothing but a dumb rant from a clueless journalist. Then again, in science reporting that is nothing new.
Voyager has entered the heliosheath, which lies beyond the termination shock, so it's only now getting close to the point where the influence of the Sun is less than the effects of interstellar space. So, in one sense it's out of solar system (it's beyond Pluto), in another sense Voyager is still within the solar system. I know, it's only nitpicking. Interesting stuff anyway :)
X = 90 sols (Mars days, which is a fraction longer than an Earth day). That was the intended lifetime of the rovers. The other rover, Spirit, just passed 500 sols.
It already struck a hole-in-one when it landed exacly inside Eagly Crater. Principal Investigator Steven Squyres was quoted as saying something like not even Tiger Woods could ever be expected to make that shot.
Does it cover shoving cigars up private parts, and performing performance art on blue dresses?
FYI, there is a mission to land on a comet already on its way. Google for Rosetta . Another 9 years before arrival tho :(
Next one is going up august 10 this year, actually. Not a lander though, this time it's a very capable orbiter with a) lots of new new and better instruments, and b) enormously increased bandwidth to send data back to Earth.
Read another_henry's post. It applies to you too.
Just curious, are you on drugs? If so, which?
I know you are kidding, but on the off chance that anyone actually believes that: the impact is a bit like trowing a pingpong ball in front of a speeding truck. There is simply not enough kinetic energy to significantly alter the orbit of the comet, definately not enough to put it in an Earth intercepting orbit.
Read the last story on Deep Impact, it may be in the science section only. There most certainly were a couple of badly informed peeps whining about us possibly destroying a unique member of our solar system :)
please mod parent up, if anyone with modpoints is still reading this. The tiles and the carbon work, they just weren't designed to take mach 2 foam impacts, and rightly so. The idea is to keep the Shuttle light enough to carry it into orbit after all.
*sighs*
I sincerely hope that Hubble can be repaired and upgraded, if only for the UV science.
I bet NASA would like to know too, since AFAIK Odyssey is still orbiting Mars and working just fine. Did you mean Mars Polar Lander? Anyway, none of the rovers is near the (anticipated) landing/crash site of another mission.
It was a pointless comparison.
quite friggin many.
Comets impacting Earth have given us water. It's one of the prime factors enabling us to exist. Anyway, thusfar comets have been hitting us lots more than we have been hitting them. It's about time for some revenge :)
Exactly. I seem to remember that Galileo did not go through the very intensive sterilization process that the rovers went through. But there's always a chance of course...
Some missions (like Galileo) were indeed crashed onto the target planet to prevent them becoming a problem later, or to use the impact as a science data point. Other missions were crashed quite unintentionally.
Alright, I ignored the white inner circle part.