NASA team loses contact with Mars rover

Snide

Illuminator
Snide
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Dec 21, 2001
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Article I can't wait to hear Hoagland say this is proof they found something and are covering it up!


(Or is Hoagland even doing that anymore? I haven't checked in on him in months...)

edited typos
 
Damn... Maybe a dust storm on Mars came up during the Australian storm? Hopefully they'll regain contact soon. *I'd put a fingers crossed smilie here, but I can't find one*

Bluegill said:
Farnsworth: Dear Lord, that's over 150 atmospheres of pressure.
Fry: How many atmospheres can this ship withstand?
Farnsworth: Well, it's a spaceship, so I'd say anywhere between zero and one.
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*creeeeaaaaaaak* Is somebody bending girders? :D I love that episode.
 
shemp said:
Yeah, we'd never lose contact with a manned mission! They can just bring a really big megaphone with them. :rolleyes:
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The difference is that a man on Mars could do something about the problem. Spirit can't. The problem may just be a speck of dust in the wrong place, or a a fault in the antennae positioning or a faulty connection or...

The point is that the problem could probably be fixed by a knowledgable human who is on location.
 
So did we get anything of value, aside from that cool footage, out of this? Or is it just $400,000,000 down the tubes?
 
I am still holding out that they will regain full signal. as it stands right now, they DO have contact. It rover has sent up tones indicating that 'yes, I'm still here. Yes, I'm still working. But, my tummy hurts, and I need some attention'. It has a problem, and possibly a serious one. No way to be sure how serious, yet.

There are two more orbiter 'swing-by's tonight, and if there is still nothing more then the tones for 'serious anomolies' THEN I'll start to worry.

As far as what we have gained, I think it has done a fair amountof true science inthe last 2 days that hasn't been released because they are busy trying to get it running again. Also, a LOT of science was accomplished just by getting the damn thing to land SAFELY, open, operate it's instruments, and roll. It means the airbag idea works, NASA can do a DAMN good job of aiming a rover (it landed EXACTLY where it was supposed to) and they have a design that, essentially, works.


Oh, and I do agree that if it was manned, the problem that is occuring now, whatever it may be (aside from the martian army attacking it) would stand a MUCH better chance of gettingfixed/resolved if there was a human or 5 present to fix it. I'm not saying by any means that manned missions are unflawed, but they are FAR mroe capable of dealing with problems as they arise. The rover can't really tell us what is wrong, nor cna it fix 90% of the things that may be damaged/inoperable.
 
DanishDynamite said:
The difference is that a man on Mars could do something about the problem.
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Unless the reason for loss of contact was that the man was dead. :p
 
Apparently they had this type of problem with the previous lander a few years ago. Sorted it out then sooo. Good news is that they are in contact with it, its not just dissapeared!
 
shecky said:


Unless the reason for loss of contact was that the man was dead. :p
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Or an explosion that destroyed the ship while the men were not in it. Or any of a hundred other possibilities.

Using possible equipment failures as justification for manned missions assumes a low probability for robotic equipment recovering from failures and a high probability that humans can correct failures. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. On the other hand, because a manned mission is far more complex, there are many more things that can go wrong, and catastrophic failures are far more tragic.
 
BTox said:
Maybe Spirit and Beagle2 are off playing together?
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This week on Robot Wars, it's an international and interplanetary bout.

Spirit
Weapon: Arm with drilling implements
Strengths: 6 wheel drive
Weaknesses: RF problems

Beagle 2
Weapon: British National Secret
Strengths: European
Weaknesses: Control issues.

Neither have very devastating weaponry (that we know about), it should be a close match...

;)
 
Larspeart wrote:
I'm not saying by any means that manned missions are unflawed, but they are FAR mroe capable of dealing with problems as they arise.
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That may be, but for the cost of a manned mission, we can send up literally hundreds of these rovers, and chances are that at least several of them would be able to complete their mission.
 
Update:There are reports of the Martian rover trying to download porn to the surface of the planet.Hmmmm,:p
 
It's been hijacked by spammers! Aaaiiiiigghh!

AFAIK, they were able to elicit a response from the little 6x6, which is quite good. 10:1 odds it's got the rover equivalent of the Blue Screen Of Death...

did
 
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