MER Rovers disappointment so far..

Sure, but sea travel is pretty basic, and we dont all stand
around and clap every time a ship docks at Portsmouth.


"Derek Lyons" wrote in message
...
"Mike Morris" wrote:

I know it hasnt been the goal of the MER missions; but if we are going
to become a consistent spacefaring civilisation, then Mars landers
should look easy.

Why? We are a sea-faring civilization, and have been for centuries,
yet even today doing something significant on the surface of the ocean
is far from easy.

D.
--
The STS-107 Columbia Loss FAQ can be found
at the following URLs:

Text-Only Version:
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In article , Mike Morris wrote:

Sure, but sea travel is pretty basic, and we dont all stand
around and clap every time a ship docks at Portsmouth.

We don't all stand around and clap every time Intelsat or NOAA puts a
new satellite up, either - but we do clap when the QM2 or one of the
long-distance yachts come in.

We're a seafaring civilisation, but it's still a gamble (albeit a
reliable one) if you'll ever *hear* from an ocean-going ship again after
it heads out into the Pacific; there are hydrological systems we only
dimly understand that can knock holes clean through the hulls of bulk
carriers, and it's only recently been realised how cleanly a misplaced
asteroid strike in mid-ocean could flatten a ship. People still haven't
quite decided how to model surface waves yet, even...

And has been said before - but I've never checked - we have Venus mapped
to greater accuracy than the seabed...

--
-Andrew Gray

Andrew Gray wrote:

And has been said before - but I've never checked - we have Venus mapped
to greater accuracy than the seabed...

Hmm... I think a more accurate statement would be 'we have Venus
mapped to a greater accuracy than any unclassified map of the seabed'.

That being said; AFAIK there are lots of areas that *are* mapped to a
high level of detail, but the basic problem of getting even 1m
resolution across the entire ocean bottom is staggering.

D.
--
The STS-107 Columbia Loss FAQ can be found
at the following URLs:

Text-Only Version:
http://www.io.com/~o_m/columbia_loss_faq.html

Enhanced HTML Version:
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Corrections, comments, and additions should be
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discussion.

February 1, 2004

Andrew Gray wrote:

We're a seafaring civilisation, but it's still a gamble (albeit a
reliable one) if you'll ever *hear* from an ocean-going ship again after
it heads out into the Pacific; there are hydrological systems we only
dimly understand that can knock holes clean through the hulls of bulk
carriers, and it's only recently been realised how cleanly a misplaced
asteroid strike in mid-ocean could flatten a ship. People still haven't
quite decided how to model surface waves yet, even...

I can't speak for the pacific, but we lose people, boats and planes all the
time in my little corner of the 'Bermuda Triangle'. I've seen several really
large bright (brighter than daylight) unreported fireballs over the years.
The cosmos is a really difficult place to live in, especially out in the
boondocks. But I'm not afraid. In fact, I don't even have a choice. I'm
stuck. I don't even remember being asked to come here in the first place.

The crux of the matter is that life is 100% fatal for everyone.

So please, don't make it worse than it already is.

Everything depends on these 'little rascals'.

Mars Express will really help a lot too.

Thomas Lee Elifritz
http://elifritz.members.atlantic.net

"Andrew Gray" wrote in message
. ..

And has been said before - but I've never checked - we have Venus mapped
to greater accuracy than the seabed...

As fate would have it, it is considerably less expensive to map Venus than
to
map the sea floor to the same resolution.