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Posted by: lordtup Aug 7 2012, 04:26 PM

Hardly a rant more a commendation of man's endeavour . Just viewed the recent photographs that the NASA beach buggy ,aptly named curiosity , has relayed back from Mars .The mere fact that it took the gestation period of a human to get there , land , and then start photographing everything in sight , really does emphasise a technological achievement of some magnitude .
I know it cost more than the national debt ,will have little or no practical application to our well being but I for one think it's a bit special.

Just waiting for the "local" Martian hoodies to nick the wheels .

Posted by: Strafin Aug 7 2012, 04:49 PM

I am totally fascinated with it. A real achievement by NASA.

Posted by: Penelope Aug 7 2012, 07:50 PM

It is without a doubt a technical tour de force, when I first heard the plan, well I laughed, I mean you would wouldn't you? Sky cranes on mars? Yeah right. But they did it, beautifully. Wonderful. Now if only someone can explain why then I'd be happier still.

Posted by: On the edge Aug 7 2012, 08:03 PM

Far, far better investment than wars! Really great event; all sorts of spin offs likely.

Posted by: lordtup Aug 8 2012, 04:12 PM

One can only surmise because we can.....

I am sure future earthly developments will trace their origin to this little adventure . Indeed the science in the getting there and back along with the data collation is of far more relevance than knowing if Mars could at some stage support life.
Personally I would love to think that at some stage in the distant past little green men did what little green men ( and little green women ) do , but I am afraid it would pose more questions than answers.

Posted by: JeffG Aug 8 2012, 06:59 PM

Like Newton messing around with prisms, and Galileo chucking things off the tower in Pisa. Surely these people could have found better things to do with their lives?

Posted by: Darren Aug 9 2012, 10:35 AM

Speaks to one of humanities greatest character traits...


..To see what is over the next hill.

Posted by: dannyboy Aug 9 2012, 10:44 AM

We got teflon saucepans thanks to the Apollo programme, so there is sure to be some other great boon for mankind to be has as a result of the Martian endeavours.

Posted by: JeffG Aug 9 2012, 11:01 AM

Funny you should say that. I thought that too, so I looked it up earlier before posting to this thread, and it's a little more mundane that that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytetrafluoroethylene

Posted by: dannyboy Aug 9 2012, 11:09 AM

I think the urban myth is used to illustrate the rather 'pointless' nature of human space exploration.

The other is that there is more computing power in a tv remote than NASA had at its disposal to send a man to the moon.

Posted by: JeffG Aug 9 2012, 11:26 AM

Oh, so your earlier comment was ironic, rather than perceived fact? Passed me by.

Posted by: dannyboy Aug 9 2012, 11:29 AM

In what way did mankind benefit from the moon landings? Well, we got non stick saucepans.......

you can get the same effect by 'seasoning' a pan btw.

Posted by: Andy Capp Aug 9 2012, 12:21 PM

It might be an instance where the benefits are not apparent now.

Posted by: JeffG Aug 9 2012, 02:28 PM

I repeat my comments about Newton and Galileo in post #6. Humanity progresses by probing the unknown.

Otherwise we'd still be living in caves and hunting animals with sticks.

Posted by: Nothing Much Aug 9 2012, 04:40 PM

Agree with JeffG
And where did the pan come from, and why am I still glued to this keyboard.
I guess a lot of Cunard folk were a bit miffed when the Wright brothers took off.
Who hasn't been up in the air over the last 60 years? We do move on. And knowledge is everything.
Even the bosun under Geneva.
ce

Posted by: lordtup Aug 9 2012, 04:54 PM

Exactly , the single factor that places us aside from other species in the evolutionary race is not simply our our enquiring mind but our ability to reason our way through to an answer. It matters not when the non stick frying pan was available in the high street or what greater scheme it conceived it , the important point is that it , and a hundred and one other quite useful innovations , did .
History records that those who stand in the way of progress may have both a noun and an adjective associated with their name but that's all.

Posted by: Simon Kirby Aug 9 2012, 06:56 PM

One of the many things that fascinate me about the Mars mission is the near certainty that, while it's possible that we're the most advanced species to have evolved on Earth so far, we're not the most advanced species in the universe. It would certainly be interesting if the Mars mission found traces of life. I doubt it will, but I think it's worth having a look. I find it intriguing to think that there is intelligence out there somewhere, unimaginably more advanced than our own.

I also think we over-estimate our own species' development over that of other species here on Earth - we're more or less the same monkeys that walked out of Africa 150 thousand years ago when we were just another knuckle-dragging primate. We've made technological progress, but that's a lot to do with the evolutionary accidents of speech and writing, allowing each egneration to see further by standing on the sholders of the last. I don't think our intelligence and awareness is so very much more than that of other extant species, and it's possibly less.

Posted by: Andy Capp Aug 9 2012, 07:27 PM

I wonder if perhaps man might be too advanced for our and the galaxy's own good? Kind of like a intergalactic virus!

Posted by: Simon Kirby Aug 9 2012, 08:07 PM

The rest of the galaxy is such a long way away from Earth I'm not sure mankind will ever be advanced enough to do it any harm, I think the worst that we could manage would be to make the Earth uninhabitable. Not great for the Earth obviously, but not anything to trouble the galaxy.

Posted by: Andy Capp Aug 9 2012, 08:24 PM

Think how old mankind is, then consider we've only been flying for about 230 years! Now we are thinking of going to Mars! We also need somewhere to dump our waste, and perhaps somewhere else to live!

I shan't lose any sleep over it though!

Posted by: dannyboy Aug 10 2012, 02:01 PM

First images are in - they seem to be showing 8 ford transits & some caravans parked up in a crater.......