TWSS - Town Water Supply and Sanitation.

 

Duh!

TWSS - Town Water Supply and Sanitation.

 

Duh!

Come join the Toilet Party

 

Damn you LPL for not including a scalebar and forcing me to do math.

 

That image covers about a kilometer in width, if I've read LPL's scale bar correctly. So everything's a few hundred meters apart.

Oh wow. I didn't read up too much on this, but it sounded like they would be further apart. That's not far at all.

Oh wow. I didn't read up too much on this, but it sounded like they would be further apart. That's not far at all.

The skycrane wasn't going to fall that far away, it was right above the rover when it cut loose, and it just needed to get a little to the side. I am kinda surprised the others are so close, but remember how thin Mars's atmosphere is...there's no stron air current to deflect anything, the heat shield came down on a line at 1000 kph and the chute/shell came down at 200 kph, so not a lot of chance to change direction.

Mo' betta' images.

 

Mo' betta' images.

 

 

Those are creepy as hell.

Excuse my ignorance but what exactly is the point of this, I've always wondered.

Excuse my ignorance but what exactly is the point of this, I've always wondered.

The overarching goal of the Mars program is to understand whether Mars once hosted life. The fact that Mars had liquid water on its surface for a substantial time (established beyond any reasonable doubt by the last 2 rovers) shows that you have the most important ingredient, liquid water, in abundance.

 

This mission is effectively an organic chemistry laboratory. It landed in a place with evidence for both the presence of water and changes in the amount/composition of the water over time. Looking at the rocks here will hopefully answer questions about how much water there was, how long it was there, and what kind of interactions it had with the rocks.

 

If the goal is to understand Mars's potential for life, it's in a very good spot. The next step following this, if it ever happens, is hopefully sample return...which has been a goal for the Mars program for decades. The sample you want to bring back is the one that holds the evidence of life, if it was there, and thus you need to have some idea of what rock to go to if you want to find that evidence. MSL should hopefully tell us that.

 

Either way, its going to rewrite everything we know about the martian surface other than "There once was liquid water".

Excuse my ignorance but what exactly is the point of this, I've always wondered.

 

They want to know if a Walmart can be sustained

By the way, would be more than happy to type more geology details here if anyone would really like them. Trying to keep answers as jargon-free as possible.

Those are creepy as hell.

 

It's all fake. This is actually a remote desert location in New Mexico. I see no red planet.

 

Edit: And science agrees with me! http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/hea...4c85_story.html

 

 

(I don't really believe this btw).

Edited August 8, 201213 yr by Jenksismybitch

 

If I had to suffer, so do all of you.;

Two things:

 

1) Sad it's not in color.

 

2) Should have attached seeds to it, plant near water. LET IT PLANT LIFE TO BUILD OXYGEN.

Edited August 9, 201213 yr by Quinarvy

Two things:

 

1) Sad it's not in color.

 

2) Should have attached seeds to it, plant near water. LET IT PLANT LIFE TO BUILD OXYGEN.

There will be plenty of color images.

 

If you could find liquid water to plant next to...you'd be quite famous. You'd also have totally overturned thermodynamics.

There will be plenty of color images.

 

If you could find liquid water to plant next to...you'd be quite famous. You'd also have totally overturned thermodynamics.

 

Ok, I need a rocket, some pop-tarts, and a battery powered heater.

 

(The whole plant seeds thing was quite facetious. I know they want to find out if it can support life, most likely so they could terraform it)

Man, I now am stuck thinking about how cool it'd be to have a terraformed Mars.

 

Sad it won't happen in my lifetime.

Ok, I need a rocket, some pop-tarts, and a battery powered heater.

 

(The whole plant seeds thing was quite facetious. I know they want to find out if it can support life, most likely so they could terraform it)

You would need to increase the atmospheric pressure substantially. The surface cannot currently support life. At some point in the past, Mars had a denser atmosphere.

 

There is a possibilit of supporting life underground, but deep into the rocks.

You would need to increase the atmospheric pressure substantially. The surface cannot currently support life. At some point in the past, Mars had a denser atmosphere.

 

There is a possibilit of supporting life underground, but deep into the rocks.

 

Stop using geological knowledge to crush my dreams.

 

I'm currently in Wiki-freefall because I looked up Terraforming...then Terraforming of Mars...then Colonization of Mars.

Stop using geological knowledge to crush my dreams.

 

I'm currently in Wiki-freefall because I looked up Terraforming...then Terraforming of Mars...then Colonization of Mars.

and three hours from now youll end up on the wiki article for iphone having no idea how you got there.

 

 

Hate those stupid wiki sessions where you just keep clicking and clicking and end up on something that isn't even close to what you started with.

The Mars sunrise was an extremely cool picture. I cant link it at work because i saw it on twitter, but Im sure Balta will have it up in .00002 nanoseconds

Did any of you hear the quote from Sheila Jackson Lee regarding thr landing? Since the control center is in her district they apparently often have her there during important things. She asked them if it was landing near where our astronauts planted the American flag...........

That 'joke' is at least four years old.

This is all very intriguing to me now, thanks for the info shirtless Tim Tebow. From what I've read this thing is not going very far correct? Just millimeters at a time right?

So I saw a mars sunrise pic but it was in color. I thought all the pics were black and white? Was that one fake? I don't know where I found it anymore...get off my lawn.

It could have been colorized