MARS, BITCH.

That still seems pretty difficult to quantify and also seems hindered by structural issues that prevent the possibility for everyone to explore their passions. I don't think human nature is as much a constant as it might seem basically... we are like birds, the environment shapes our calls.

  On 8/7/2012 at 12:36 AM, data said:

[youtubehd]UcGMDXy-Y1I[/youtubehd]

Cool stuff but, this is really the best footage we can get?

Thumbnail images? Does that mean we are gonna get really good video in a few days or wha?

of course we're going to get good quality images. Did you ever notice Spirit and Opportunity? Jeebus.

This thread went from really good to really bad.

I for one think the design that went into the landing process is fascinating because it was an effective solution to a difficult problem.

And for everyone complaining about how NASA isn't saving the world: posting on watmm is a noble and entirely selfless act. I applaud you.

No, but it takes awhile for information to travel some 352 Million Miles... probably in a few days/week I think we will get 720p footage.

  On 8/7/2012 at 12:52 AM, compson said:

No, but it takes awhile for information to travel some 352 Million Miles... probably in a few days/week I think we will get 720p footage.

  On 8/7/2012 at 12:50 AM, lumpenprol said:

of course we're going to get good quality images. Did you ever notice Spirit and Opportunity? Jeebus.

I've seen really quality pictures but never good quality video, so I dunno, wondered if there was a reason top shelf video was impossible or somethin.

the rover has a video camera capable of 10fps video, it just hasn't been deployed yet. same with the 720p colour camera.

With 4KB/s data transfer speed, a 400 MIPS CPU and a rather limited amount of memory, it's understandable they're not shooting 720p video at 30 frames a second.. They can't just put run-of-the-mill hardware in such a machine.

Space exploration is pretty awesome. With every NASA/ESA project new problems are solved and new data is gathered for future missions. If we could find some simple life like prokaryotes or their remains. Who knows what we could find in other places like Jupiter's moon Europa. Even simple life coming from a different source and evolving in drastically different circumstances sounds very interesting. It could broaden our horizon on the nature of life and evolution.

I'd die a happy man if scientists could figure out what this universe is and where it's going.

but, once they did figure it out, everyone would get bored and impatient to "skip to the end!"

also, I think we do know a bit about the universe already. Like, it's going to expand infinitely and progressively faster until all matter dies in the cold death of space and we can't even see neighboring solar systems because they'll be traveling away from us at faster than the speed of light. In other words, a cold, black deadness. Kind of shit. Doesn't answer where the universe came from, tho.

Full breakdown of the Curiosity's functions with some amazing pictures

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/08/curiosity-just-days-away-from-mars/100346/#

    Quote

A closeup of Curiosity's "head" atop the remote sensing mast. Instruments on the mast include two science instruments for studying the rover's surroundings and two stereo navigation cameras for use in driving the rover and planning rover activities. This photo was taken April 4, 2011, inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, For scale, the width of the white box at the top is about 0.4 meter (16 inches). The circle in the white box is the laser and telescope of an instrument named Chemistry and Camera, or ChemCam. The instrument can pulse its laser at a rock up to about 7 meters (23 feet) away and determine the rock's composition by examining the resulting spark with the telescope and spectrometers. Just below that circle is the square opening for a wide-angle camera that is paired with a telephoto camera (the smaller square opening to the left) in the rover's Mast Camera, or Mastcam, which can take high-definition, full-color video with both "eyes." Each of the two Mastcam camera heads has a wheel of filters that can be used for studying geological targets at specific visible-light and infrared wavelengths. Farther outward from each of the Mastcam cameras are circular lens openings for the rover's stereo navigation camera and its backup twin. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Cool stuff!

  On 8/6/2012 at 10:51 PM, Dan C said:

sirch is a dumbass

  On 8/7/2012 at 12:41 AM, lumpenprol said:

Does a duck "give as much as it takes"?

I dunno about that, but they sure taste good with orange sauce.

  On 8/7/2012 at 5:27 AM, chenGOD said:

  On 8/7/2012 at 12:41 AM, lumpenprol said:

Does a duck "give as much as it takes"?

 

I dunno about that, but they sure taste good with orange sauce.

Fellas, the lana del rey thread is that-away!

Imagine eating duck a l'orange on Mars. Bitch.

Imagine eating a Mars bar while riding a duck!

My mom went to China recently and she said the duck she had over there was scrumptious, they ate the entire bird, even the bones.

  On 8/7/2012 at 5:37 AM, chenGOD said:

Imagine eating duck a l'orange on Mars. Bitch.

I don't like duck very much, to be honest. But I'd slice of my dick to go to Mars. Maybe not my dick. I'd slice off someone else's dick to go to Mars, and I'd fuck Lana with that dick. I'm losing my train of thought. On Mars, on Mars, on Mars, on Mars.

Haven't we had this conversation? Take the kids, leave the wife - go to Mars? Raise IDM colony of superhumans.

  On 8/7/2012 at 5:59 AM, chenGOD said:

Raise IDM colony of superhumans.

Botany Gay!?

Yeah well... my plan ended prematurely recently. Wife found out before we had the kids... we had just started trying and the excitement had me having this recurring dream where me and my future children had landed on Mars and we found the Sandisons in their bunker up there. It was this turquoise hexagon door that was hidden at this one spot in the middle of a huge crater beneath the surface... I would wake her up with enthusiastic comments.... I kept calling it my IDM paradise and how one day they too will realize that most women just aren't down with IDM and it was a necessary sacrifice etc.. etc... She eventually recorded it because I kept denying it and the discussion about it prompted more recurring dreams there after.

  On 8/7/2012 at 6:05 AM, baph said:

  On 8/7/2012 at 5:59 AM, chenGOD said:

Raise IDM colony of superhumans.

 

Botany Gay!?

No thank you, kapitan - I prefer wodka.

On the list of current NASA missions that someone posted here, there were at least 2 or 3 missions studying climate change, roughly twice doing weather phenomena surveillance and many others are scientific research missions. If the public went beyond the tiny fraction of their work that gets media coverage, they'd find NASA is doing a lot more than the ocasional picture taking of Mars and Moon surfaces. I was surprised to find that Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes, which were launched in 1977, are as of June in the process of leaving the solar system to become the first man-made objects to reach interstellar space - they will keep transmitting data until 2025. It seems the general media doesn't find this newsworthy, so I'll probably have to keep checking the NASA site if I want to know about these things.

NASA would be able to do unbelievable things nowadays if they had the political interest and public support (ie funding) they had in the 60's and 70's. A human presence (or even colonization) on Mars would eventually happen. I've read somewhere that it is theoretically possible to terraform Mars to Earth-like conditions in less than 50 years, but I'm not 100% sure this is accurate. I'd be happy to see any of this happen in my lifetime.

amen brother!

even if it took 500 yrs, why not start? Shoot some antarctic lichen up in dat ass!