Comments on: The InSight has landed

By: Bryan Lovely

Bryan Lovely — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 08:54:29 +0000

The really important thing is that none of the landing control crew were wearing inappropriate shirts.

By: ymarsakar

ymarsakar — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 13:21:30 +0000

They have to go to mars for economic exploitation because you know, the moon is too close and the tech they used to go there they destroyed, and Antarctica’s resources are off limits.

All of that makes perfect sense that they would spend that much money on a Mars probe, instead of laundering it for other more reasonable projects.

By: Chester Draws

Chester Draws — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 09:11:41 +0000

$850,000,000 to send an unmanned probe that won’t return?

Imagine how much a manned mission might cost! Because it’s 100x that price. Which is why it ain’t gonna happen.

I suppose we might send a one-way mission for less.

By: om

om — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 06:03:33 +0000

Is there a “Flat Mars” theory to explain it? Wheels within wheels and all that.

By: ymarsakar

ymarsakar — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 04:57:39 +0000

At least the cgi onion cover they are using to launder the Never a straight answer funding looks better now a days.

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 02:52:45 +0000

Mikek on November 26, 2018 at 3:41 pm at 3:41 pm said:
Already some NASA SJW has complained that Mars probes are colonialism.
* * *
Expecting Tars Tarkas to take up the matter any day now.

By: MikeK

MikeK — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 23:07:29 +0000

An even older post about microbiology and genetics.

By: MikeK

MikeK — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 23:05:23 +0000

I was hoping some soil would be dug up from well (6 feet) below the surface and analysis of such things as 16s fragments would be done by an automated process. That its how Carl Woese discovered Archea. I posted a bit about him and his research a few years ago.

By: TommyJay

TommyJay — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 21:19:27 +0000

From the AP.

The self-hammering mole will burrow 16 feet (5 meters) down to measure the planet's internal heat, while the seismometer listens for possible quakes. ---- By examining the interior of Mars, scientists hope to understand how our solar system's rocky planets formed 4.5 billion years ago and why they turned out so different --- ---- InSight has no life-detecting capability, however.

I thought it would look for life or its remnants. Guess not. In-Sight, it's looking inward. Actually, Wikipedia says the name is short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. The original name GEMS was too boring perhaps. I was wondering if it was going to plant small explosive charges for its seismograph, since it has a boring or jackhammer tool. Apparently not. Although it plans to use random atmosphere burst explosions from incoming meteors to do roughly the same thing. I'd guess meteorite ground strikes would be especially nice, but there's no mention of that. Maybe they are too rare.

By: Mikek

Mikek — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 20:41:34 +0000

Already some NASA SJW has complained that Mars probes are colonialism.

I would just like to see a digger go down several feet into the surface to see if there are Archea or similar organisms there.