Anyone else wonder if they are being too careful...

On mars? Those landers dont appear to be doing a lot, and therer life is
limited anyway by the environment. I am a little concerned they will die not by
carelesness but do little by being over cautious. I think its time we go look
at the next hill and do some traveling.

"Hallerb" wrote:
On mars? Those landers dont appear to be doing a lot, and therer life is
limited anyway by the environment. I am a little concerned they will die
not by
carelesness but do little by being over cautious. I think its time we go
look
at the next hill and do some traveling.

Then... the first time that one breaks down because of a *preventable*
mistake, you'll be the first one to pipe up and say "NASA management should
of (sic) known!"

If you're going to be a doofus, Bob... at least be a *consistent* doofus.
smirk

Roger
--
Roger Balettie
former Flight Dynamics Officer
Space Shuttle Mission Control
http://www.balettie.com/

(Hallerb) writes:

On mars? Those landers dont appear to be doing a lot, and therer life is
limited anyway by the environment. I am a little concerned they will die not by
carelesness but do little by being over cautious. I think its time we go look
at the next hill and do some traveling.

You're such an hypocrite. You whine endlessly about the safety of the
shuttle and its crews, yet don't care if NASA loses a MER because they
did something hasty and screwed up big time.

Jeff
--
Remove "no" and "spam" from email address to reply.
If it says "This is not spam!", it's surely a lie.

You're such an hypocrite. You whine endlessly about the safety of the
shuttle and its crews, yet don't care if NASA loses a MER because they
did something hasty and screwed up big time.

ahh the difference is no one dies....

cant say that about columbia

If you're going to be a doofus, Bob... at least be a *consistent* doofus.
smirk

Ahh those landers are going to quit one way or another. Sad if they hardly got
to travel far. who knows over the next hill might be a venusian lander.....

(Hallerb) writes:
You're such an hypocrite. You whine endlessly about the safety of the
shuttle and its crews, yet don't care if NASA loses a MER because they
did something hasty and screwed up big time.

ahh the difference is no one dies....

cant say that about columbia

NASA cannot throw away money and tell the public "We're sorry we blew
$800 million dollars on MER-1 and MER-2 by accidentally,
simultaneously telling them to turn themselves off.

A quick web search shows that someone with a Master's degree will earn
about $2.5 million in their lifetime.

In terms of earning power, the MER's are worth the earning power of
320 people with Master's degrees. I know you hate to equate people
with money, but there it is. Throwing away the MER's would be like
throwing away the lifetime productivity of hundreds of highly educated
people. That would be a waste.


There are far better ways to measure a person's contributions in life
than simply measuring the number of years they have lived.

Jeff
--
Remove "no" and "spam" from email address to reply.
If it says "This is not spam!", it's surely a lie.

"Hallerb" wrote:
Ahh those landers are going to quit one way or another. Sad if they hardly
got
to travel far. who knows over the next hill might be a venusian
lander.....

Brad? What are you doing on Bob's USENET account?

(I sense a trend here... all we need now is a post from Guth talking about
51L videography and we'll have come full circle!)

Roger
--
Roger Balettie
former Flight Dynamics Officer
Space Shuttle Mission Control
http://www.balettie.com/

Brad? What are you doing on Bob's USENET account?

(I sense a trend here... all we need now is a post from Guth talking about
51L videography and we'll have come full circle!)

I thought it funny when I piosted it. Was looking for a ET lander and figured
why not venus, someone will noice it.

On 06 Feb 2004 11:04:48 GMT, (Hallerb) wrote:

On mars? Those landers dont appear to be doing a lot,

I'm satisfied with the pace they've established for Opportunity.
Spirit, I think, they dragged their feet with -- spending far too much
time studying that damned air bag in the way of egress. That was a
contingency they should have been fully prepared for, in my opinion.

and therer life is limited anyway by the environment.

Aviation Week reported that JPL now thinks Spirit will be operational
much longer than predicted pre-launch. There's talk of a full (Earth)
year on Mars before winter kills it. Even so, it might wake up again
the following spring.

I am a little concerned they will die not by
carelesness but do little by being over cautious.

They will almost certainly increase the pace of activity as they
become more familiar and confident with both rovers. They were just
about at that point with Spirit before the flash memory problem, so
we've lost a couple of weeks there and they are probably a tad gun-shy
from that near-death experience. Even so, Opportunity has really made
great progress in the two weeks since it landed, and its not yet at
the point Spirit was when it went on the blink.

I think its time we go look
at the next hill and do some traveling.

Opportunity is going to that bedrock outcropping and will spend a lot
of time there... *that* is exactly what they went to Mars to look for.
It's a gold mine, to them. After that, it will certainly drive out of
its crater and give us our first good look at its surroundings.
Opportunity may be life-limited by the thermostat glitch, but should
still easily make 90 days,.

Spirit is supposed to head for the large nearby crater (seen in the
DIMES image) soon. That will take a few weeks, stopping at interesting
rocks along the way. Then it will indeed head for the hills.

Brian

Brian Thorn wrote:

Opportunity is going to that bedrock outcropping and will spend a lot
of time there... *that* is exactly what they went to Mars to look for.

Coming down in a shallow crater was a piece of luck that they must of
only dreamed of, and the new views of the layered rocks are
fascinating... I can't wait till we get some microscopic views of the
area where different layers in the rock meet; at the moment, it looks
more like layered volcanic ash deposits to me than water-created
sedimentary rock...but it would be quite a find if the latter were the
case.

It's a gold mine, to them. After that, it will certainly drive out of
its crater and give us our first good look at its surroundings.
Opportunity may be life-limited by the thermostat glitch, but should
still easily make 90 days,.

Spirit is supposed to head for the large nearby crater (seen in the
DIMES image) soon. That will take a few weeks, stopping at interesting
rocks along the way. Then it will indeed head for the hills.


Boy, I hope this all works well- this is the most fun since the Voyager
probes!

Pat