So much happening in the world right now – and off world too. Landing on Mars – with Curiosity being lowered to the surface of the red planet like a puppet on a string – some stunning images coming out of NASA. There are a couple of videos out there – one of the heat shield being dropped on the surface of the planet (great – one of the very first things we do is drop some trash in shitty great heap). Then the stage B thingy lowers the Curiousity out on a steel wire, and then without touching ground itself, flies a short distance away and crashes. All very odd.
There must be some reasons why they did the landing this way this time – last time they just bounced along in a giant bubble, which in itself would have surprised the heck out of any Martians who may have been watching from behind a rock.
I mean, seriously, what sort of a looney throws a satellite at another planet wrapped in bubblewrap?!? I think that in some way we are all hoping to see something like this:
certainly more so than seeing these little pigeon-hating critters:
Ack Ack Ack AaaaacKKK! Best Mars film ever made. And you can’t blame then for hating pigeons.
It’s curious that we haven’t been back to the Moon, but then again: we’ve been there and done that. Yet, we’ve been to Mars before, and they’re not saying been there and done that one. Much more dead red planet to explore. Here’s the little curious chappie who is going to be doing the exploring – fair bristling with cameras, and packing a plutonium packed lunchbox, he won’t run out of voodoo juice for some time yet:
The curious thing to me, is how much he looks like this happy little chappy:
Which just can’t be a co-incidence…. Perhaps, just perhaps, they’ve been here before and stolen the blueprints…
The proof of contact cannot really be ignored…
“… last time they just bounced along in a giant bubble, …”
Couldn’t do it with Curiosity. It’s to heavy for the bouncing ball trick.
What would have been really cool is if they could have send one of the old rovers to film the landing.
D.
Diessoli – aah, that makes sense, thank you. The new craft is about the size and weight of a new car I think I read. A billion dollar Corolla, so to speak. I did read that they think that they caught photos of the dust cloud caused by the heat shield / other bit crashing in the desert nearby. I think the old Spirit rover has finally kicked the bucket – mind you, it did very wel. Was meant to last only a couple of weeks, but lasted a couple of years. This one is meant to last a couple of years, so fingers crossed it lasts a decade! It has certainly got enough gizmos on board to do some serious work.
And to keep it in the spirit of this blog: somebody already identified some architecture on Mars: http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/news/ufo_extraterrestrials/2012/03/08/3291.html
Either Martians are into bonsai pyramids or are really small:)
Back here on Earth I was wondering if anybody knows what happened to the wind turbine in Waitangi Park? It seemed to be gone last time I went past.
D.
Well, the wind turbine never really worked, did it… most useless piece of machinery I’ve ever seen. The wind would blow, and it would swing around and go backwards. Pointless, pointless, pointless…
Laser beams! They’re using freaking laser beams to attack Mars already !
http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/7509701/Curiosity-zaps-laser-on-Martian-rock
“The Mars rover Curiosity has zapped its first Martian rock with a high-powered laser gun designed to analyse its mineral composition, and scientists declared their target practice a success. The robotic science lab took aim at the fist-sized stone with its laser beam and shot the rock with 30 pulses over a 10-second period, NASA said in a statement issued from mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles. Each pulse delivers more than 1 million watts of energy for about five one-billionths of a second, vaporizing a pinhead-sized bit of the rock to create a tiny spark, which is analyzed by a small telescope mounted on the instrument.”
It’s about this time that you realise that all the stories of Aliens doing strange things on earth are true. Abduction is the least of it.
Rectal probes are next. Anything even Looks like having an anus, they’ll be up there like a pig after truffles. Let’s hope there are only rocks!@%$**!!
>Laser beams! They’re using freaking laser beams to attack Mars already !
Talking about laser beams… Here is a guy who had a bit of a problem with burglars and overcame it by setting up some harmless red lasers that swirl randomly around his property. Apparently the burglars think he has some sort of Mission Impossible security system and leave the place alone.
http://www.amazon.com/Globallink-Security-171-25-Laserscan-Deterrent/dp/B005K0DWTQ
And the comment from the helpful reviewer at the very bottom of that page – absolutely classic. Thanks for that David!
FYI: I’m enjoying that little bouncing martian GIF I made soooo much, that I think I might just stop right there for the foreseeable future, just so that every time i go to the website, I can see the happy expression on his little three-eyed face. Love them Martians!
The orbiting probe got a pic of Curiosity in its parachute descent stage
http://floccinaucinihilipification.tumblr.com/image/28927972936
I believe that the signals from Curiosity are beamed back to Earth via the Mars orbiter satellite?
The first two rovers went very well with solar panels but they whacked a nuclear battery into this one to go for a longer lifespan – from memory 10 years is the powerpack life but if some numpty puts it into a ditch then it’s, as they say, all over red rover..