Comments on: Mars rovers: 10X the specs

By: Srinivasa Ramanujam

Srinivasa Ramanujam — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 06:00:45 +0000

That was really a remarkable feet of the rover on mars. It gives scientists more details to study the martian topology etc, which will help them when they reach out to mars by 2017.

By: MaDeR

MaDeR — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 14:45:24 +0000

Erm. They don’t project rovers for 90 days. They project rovers to last AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. 90 days was given for monetary reasons (next 90 sols = some more milions $ to operate rovers) and as a worst-case scenario.

By: Russ

Russ — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 20:21:05 +0000

If you want power tools that last don’t buy the Sears, Black&Decker, etc. store brands. I learned a long time ago, that it is well worth buying the industrial quality tool even though they often cost 5X more.

I think Bosch has the best routers but Milwaukee, Ridgid and Porter-Cable all make good equipment. If you buy the best, you only have to buy it once.

By: Mark Martin

Mark Martin — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 17:21:40 +0000

Hi Jim,

It might’ve been O’Keefe who uttered the original version of that quote. And you’re right, the cost of putting a geologist on Mars would be orders of magnitude higher than what’s being spent currently.

Now of course, I do hope to see people exploring Mars on foot in my lifetime. I have no idealogical problem with it. But it’s a fact: modern remote probes allow us to explore the planets now, instead of after we’re all dead.

A real irony of the hardline pro-astronaut camp is that once astronauts do walk on Mars, what will those astronauts do? They’ll operate scientific instruments. But that’s what’s being done already. The rovers are on Mars, carrying scientific instruments, which are being operated by people.

By: Jim Hammond

Jim Hammond — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 17:04:46 +0000

Mark Martin says: One guy uttered the much overused, derisive mantra, ‘The Mars rovers accomplished in two weeks what a trained field geologist can do in two hours.’”

Does anyone remember that it was Sean O’Keefe (former administrator of NASA) who said something similar on TV not long after the Rovers were on the surface. If I remember correctly his version was something like: “A manned mission could do in 90 minutes what the Rover will do in 90 days.”

Even if this were true, what is the multiplier to go from an unmanned mission to a manned mission with the same goals?

Was it just an outsider’s impression or was O’Keefe a genuine jerk?

By: Elliott

Elliott — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 16:34:04 +0000

I got 240,000 miles out of an old Yamaha I had, but nothing like that! Oh, those clever engineers!

By: Berlie

Berlie — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 15:56:04 +0000

Mark Martin, I’ll have to remember that one. I can relate, but I hope my wife doesn’t find out.