Nasa Mars landing: Curiosity arrives on the Red Planet

[bijou]

Nasa lands its Curiosity robotic rover on the surface of Mars







By Nick Allen and Amy Willis in Los Angeles

7:23AM BST 06 Aug 2012




The $2.5 billion mission saw the one-ton, six-wheeled, nuclear-powered vehicle blaze through the pink Martian sky and touch down inside an ancient crater.

After a journey that had lasted eight months, and covered 352 million miles of space, Curiosity performed a series of aerial acrobatics before landing safely near the equator.





http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/s...ed-Planet.html

[Hubie]

Um, yeah. $2.5 billion to try to find evidence of something that never existed. Great. Starving children in Africa are thrilled.

[Bailey]

Um, yeah. $2.5 billion to try to find evidence of something that never existed. Great. Starving children in Africa are thrilled.

Sorry its not about a lack of money that those kids are starving, its their political situation that's causing it, besides its not my tax dollars job to feed them in any case since they cant seem to control their own population.

[SarasotaRepub]

Well done Nasa!!! We heard early this morning it had landed.

That's quite an accomplishment considering all the things that could have gone wrong.

[noonwitch]

Sorry its not about a lack of money that those kids are starving, its their political situation that's causing it, besides its not my tax dollars job to feed them in any case since they cant seem to control their own population.

Not just that, there is real progress being made in Africa because of charitable endeavors through individual churches, denominations, and other private charities, religious or otherwise. The movement to help people get clean water and irrigation systems their crops is probably the most cost-effective and the best way to help in places like that, anyways.

[Hubie]

Sorry its not about a lack of money that those kids are starving, its their political situation that's causing it, besides its not my tax dollars job to feed them in any case since they cant seem to control their own population.

But imagine what you could do with the money had the government not taken it from you in order to try to find alien life on a dead world that never had it to begin with. $2.5 billion is "only" about $8 per U.S. citizen, but if the commercials are to be believed, you can feed a starving child for "the price of a cup of coffee" or "about a dollar per day." You could spread that $2.5 billion between 100,000 children and feed them for over 68 years!

Priorities, I guess.

Seems more and more like we're basing our "scientific" endeavors on the same thing they based 1950s sci-fi movies.

[TVDOC]

But imagine what you could do with the money had the government not taken it from you in order to try to find alien life on a dead world that never had it to begin with. $2.5 billion is "only" about $8 per U.S. citizen, but if the commercials are to be believed, you can feed a starving child for "the price of a cup of coffee" or "about a dollar per day." You could spread that $2.5 billion between 100,000 children and feed them for over 68 years!

Priorities, I guess.

Seems more and more like we're basing our "scientific" endeavors on the same thing they based 1950s sci-fi movies.

Actually there are several fundamental flaws in your position regarding Africa, which is just a vast sink-hole that government funds should never be thrown into........Several steps must be taken before aid from US taxpayers should ever be sent to this area:

1. Develop a civilization that supports stable governments

2. Africa has vast natural resourses, the population must (through the aformentioned stable governments) develop those resources and provide infrastructure and education, as well as jobs and incomes of their own for their citizens.

3. Eliminate the corruption that enables any government aid to be siphoned off and exchanged for weapons and military hardware for warring factions.

Until these three fundamental conditions are satisfied, regardless of how much starvation and poverty exists there, not a dime of taxpayer funds should be spent there. I have no problem with private charitable organizations assisting the populace, however funneling billions to a continent of largely ignorant tribal savages is essentially a waste.

Please accept this from someone that has actually lived in Africa, and seen first-hand what goes on there......

OTOH, regarding NASA and the space program, you'd be amazed at the technology that you use every day that is/was the result of our efforts in that area.......it is the best investment that we can make in the arena of government funded research.

doc

[Starbuck]

But imagine what you could do with the money had the government not taken it from you in order to try to find alien life on a dead world that never had it to begin with. $2.5 billion is "only" about $8 per U.S. citizen, but if the commercials are to be believed, you can feed a starving child for "the price of a cup of coffee" or "about a dollar per day." You could spread that $2.5 billion between 100,000 children and feed them for over 68 years!

Priorities, I guess.

Seems more and more like we're basing our "scientific" endeavors on the same thing they based 1950s sci-fi movies.

And if you do it that way, you will be feeding said 'child' for 68 years, too!

Hubie has bought into the liberal nonsense. After all, NASA provides employment for educated people who will in turn educate their offspring, who will find gainful employment, and will educate their children, etc., etc.

Then the gainfully employed people, numbering in the thousands, will feed the starving children if they so desire.

There is no life on Mars to speak of. We already know that. The technology used to accomplish this mission will be applied in numerous - and unknown ways - in the future.

The $2B price tag? It's a pure stimulus package. American, through and through. American engineers, developing American technology. Compare that figure, if you will, to the $1,000B price tag of the 'other' stimulus package that produced nothing.

And some day NASA will have competition. Entire industries will arise because some young person was awe struck by what has happened today and will find a way to do it better; cheaper.

Provide gainful employment for Americans (with a 16 Trillion dollar economy) and they will give far, far, more than 2B to the starving children. In addition to contributing a portion of their earned money, they will give opportunity for education in fields that these previously starving children could not otherwise envision. Employ Americans and they will give inspiration. And there is no greater gift that that.

Feed the children? Good idea. But feed then and not inspire them? A waste of time.

[SarasotaRepub]

And Mars is a great place to test that new atomic powered Weapons Grade Phaser...I mean harmless laser device!!!!

[Rockntractor]

It looks nice and cool there.