Mars exploration

On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 09:59:37 +0100, Andrew McKay
typed:

Could someone please advise why we suddenly seem to have 3 launches
taking place for sending craft to land on Mars? This seems a bit too
much of a coincidence!

It is no coincidence as you've pointed out below:

I am fully aware that Mars and Earth are at the closest they have been
for a considerable period of time, however surely the distances
between the two planets as they swing past each other in their
respective orbits are in very general terms broadly similar? What's a
few million extra miles on a journey that will take six months, it's
not as if additional rocket fuel will be burnt.

Less fuel = lower weight = cheaper to launch. Also faster to reach
Mars. I'm sure there's better reasons but I'm not looking deeper into
this other than the fact Mars and Earth will be at the closest at the
end of Augest.

--
All viruses and spams are automatically removed by my ISP before
reaching my inbox.

Impmon wrote:

" All viruses and spams are automatically removed by my ISP before
reaching my inbox. "



Who is your ISP?

Ralph Hertle

In message , Ralph Hertle
writes
Impmon wrote:

" All viruses and spams are automatically removed by my ISP before
reaching my inbox. "



Who is your ISP?

Ralph Hertle

Well judging by the headers on his message it's TDS.NET Internet
Services www.tds.net. If they really do that I might move. Are you
listening, Freeserve? :-)
--
"Roads in space for rockets to travel....four-dimensional roads, curving with
relativity"
Mail to jsilverlight AT merseia.fsnet.co.uk is welcome.
Or visit Jonathan's Space Site http://www.merseia.fsnet.co.uk

On Tue, 8 Jul 2003 19:37:42 +0100, Jonathan Silverlight
typed:

Who is your ISP?

Ralph Hertle

Well judging by the headers on his message it's TDS.NET Internet
Services www.tds.net. If they really do that I might move. Are you
listening, Freeserve? :-)

Yes it is tds.net and here's the link to the spam and virus protection
info:
http://portal.tds.net/announcement_asav.php

I haven't reieved a single virus in my Inbox since the anti-virus
screening was set some months ago. Before that, I was getting hit by as
many as 10 viruses per day! Those darned klez virus multiplies faster
than rabbit on Viagra.

Spam's way down to maybe once a week vs about 10 a day before the spam
filter was added. All of the filtering is done transparantly so you
don't need to do anything other than to subscribe to tds.net.

If this sounds good to you, you can go to
http://www.tdstelecom.com/tdsnet/modempool_inc.asp and see if you have a
local dialup or not. (ISDN and DSL also available in limited area) A
basic dialup account is for $20/mo with 5MB web space and 5 email
accounts. I don't know if they are available in UK area though.
--
All viruses and spams are automatically removed by my ISP before
reaching my inbox.

and I thought it was Hoagland finally getting through to them! :0) g


"Impmon" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 09:59:37 +0100, Andrew McKay
typed:

Could someone please advise why we suddenly seem to have 3 launches
taking place for sending craft to land on Mars? This seems a bit too
much of a coincidence!

It is no coincidence as you've pointed out below:

I am fully aware that Mars and Earth are at the closest they have been
for a considerable period of time, however surely the distances
between the two planets as they swing past each other in their
respective orbits are in very general terms broadly similar? What's a
few million extra miles on a journey that will take six months, it's
not as if additional rocket fuel will be burnt.

Less fuel = lower weight = cheaper to launch. Also faster to reach
Mars. I'm sure there's better reasons but I'm not looking deeper into
this other than the fact Mars and Earth will be at the closest at the
end of Augest.

--
All viruses and spams are automatically removed by my ISP before
reaching my inbox.

I'm trying to remember if any Russian probes ever were successful. I
remember reading they lost about 3 in a row because they lost
communication with them. A joke went around that Mars little green men
were breaking the antennas. Well I did post about a year ago that mars
dust storms could create magnetisim(much like earth's lode stones),and
if a probe landed next to a magnet that might not be good. Another
feature Mars has to help this theory is "Mars for the most part is cold"
Magnetisim likes the cold,fact is the colder the better. Bert

On Mon, 14 Jul 2003 10:11:51 -0400, "BenignVanilla"
wrote:

I wonder if this can reinforce the Moon base argument. Maybe we should be
experimenting with smaller, simpler probes that we can test land on the
moon. It's closer, and we could do more tests quickly.

That would make a lot of sense to me anyway. There are bound to be
questions raised this coming January if the probes currently on their
way end up in the martian junkyard through the deployment mechanics
not doing their job.

Andrew

Do you need a handyman service? Check out our
web site at http://www.handymac.co.uk

"Andrew McKay" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 14 Jul 2003 10:11:51 -0400, "BenignVanilla"
wrote:

I wonder if this can reinforce the Moon base argument. Maybe we should be
experimenting with smaller, simpler probes that we can test land on the
moon. It's closer, and we could do more tests quickly.

That would make a lot of sense to me anyway. There are bound to be
questions raised this coming January if the probes currently on their
way end up in the martian junkyard through the deployment mechanics
not doing their job.

Certainly failure are expected, but as you mention, we can only have so many
before the funding gets cut. I wonder...does NASA even consider the concept
that the probes are not failing, but being prevented from succeeding?
Seriously, isn't it possible there is life there that does not want to be
probed?

BV.

On Mon, 14 Jul 2003 12:52:37 -0400, "BenignVanilla"
wrote:

Certainly failure are expected, but as you mention, we can only have so many
before the funding gets cut. I wonder...does NASA even consider the concept
that the probes are not failing, but being prevented from succeeding?
Seriously, isn't it possible there is life there that does not want to be
probed?

More likely could be the little green men from the other side of the
universe who might not want to see us succeed in getting off our
planet, so introducing a high failure rate to an otherwise perfect
mission might do the trick - especially if they realise (as they would
no doubt) that the "bucks for missions" arrangement gets too costly.

(I've been reading far too many science fiction novels.....)

Andrew

Do you need a handyman service? Check out our
web site at http://www.handymac.co.uk

"Andrew McKay" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 14 Jul 2003 12:52:37 -0400, "BenignVanilla"
wrote:

Certainly failure are expected, but as you mention, we can only have so
many
before the funding gets cut. I wonder...does NASA even consider the
concept
that the probes are not failing, but being prevented from succeeding?
Seriously, isn't it possible there is life there that does not want to be
probed?

More likely could be the little green men from the other side of the
universe who might not want to see us succeed in getting off our
planet, so introducing a high failure rate to an otherwise perfect
mission might do the trick - especially if they realise (as they would
no doubt) that the "bucks for missions" arrangement gets too costly.

(I've been reading far too many science fiction novels.....)

Andrew

The main problem in getting humans from Earth to Mars remains radiation
exposure and time spent in space travel. There is way too much radiation
exposure between here and Mars to even think about sending humans. I'll
wager that by the time the radiation problem is figured out, the landing
will seem easy by comparison.

It's a long, long way to Mars, and transversing that void is going to
require some leadership, imagination, and funding. None of those seems
likely from my government, how about yours?

Bob Doyle


--
"...the appalling void that separates the very few things there are in the
universe from one another."
- Douglas Adams
"Life, The Universe and Everything"