Curiosity landing

[thom]

Honest on-topic question, from a science noob:

 

Excuse me the ignorance, but I read that this whole operation costs $2.5 billion, and that the main purpose is to find out wether there is/was/will be life on Mars...Right? So why is that answer worth so much money? I'm assuming most of it is tax payer's money, right? Don't want to start preaching about america's deficit/crisis, and don't want to start a {censored} storm with this, I'm not judging or taking sides or whatever...Just genuinly curious (pun not intended) about the official and/or unofficial motif/justification for these space programs, and this Mars adventure in particular. Don't suppose someone could shed a light?

[PKTrono]

uh oh

 

at the most basic level, we can't stay here forever and at some point will have to leave this planet, which makes any space exploration important.

beyond that, if we find out mars once had life or even just an atmosphere like ours, we could study what happened there exactly, which would help us understand more about our own global climate.

i haven't kept up with what this rover is supposed to be doing, so someone that has can probably answer your question more exactly.

 

edit: also, the technology developed and the information gathered goes much further than the mission itself.

most innovations find their beginnings in "unjustified" research.

[hotmess]

It's a part of the human condition to try to find out what is beyond our little realm of Earth. But it's more than that. Besides just sampling and trying to figure out if Mars could sustain life, it's trying to figure out what happened to Mars to where it cannot now. This is also to understand our own world and its possible fate.

[Ryan.]

also, nasa is a blip on our spending map. these two wars in stoneageland have cost us enough to land Matt's pitbull on Mars.

[ToonHollow]

For techinical reasons why Curiosity is on Mars:

The Mars Science Laboratory mission has four scientific goals: -Determine whether Mars could ever have supported life. -Study the climate of Mars. -Study the geology of Mars. -Plan for a human mission to Mars. To contribute to these goals, the Curiosity rover has six main scientific objectives:[6][7] -Determine the mineralogical composition of the Martian surface and near-surface geological materials. -Attempt to detect chemical building blocks of life (biosignatures). -Interpret the processes that have formed and modified rocks and soils. -Assess long-timescale (i.e., 4-billion-year) Martian atmospheric evolution processes. -Determine present state, distribution, and cycling of water and carbon dioxide. -Characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation, including galactic radiation, cosmic radiation, solar proton events and secondary neutrons.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_rover#Goals_and_objectives

[PKTrono]

dig

[RadioSilence]

We don't know what the benefits will be. We can't know what the benefits will be. But we know there will be benefits.

They took the spending for the Apollo missions, and compared it to the value of all the new industries and technologies that were direct spin offs of technology developed to get man to the moon. I can't find the figure right now, but for every dollar spent we (humans) got back millions.

 

Go and read this 1970 letter from NASA's Ernst Stuhlinger to a nun who wrote him asking how he could suggest spending billions of dollars on such a project at a time when so many children were starving on Earth.

He explains it so much more clearly and brilliantly than I could.

[Zappa74]

 

Honest on-topic question, from a science noob: Excuse me the ignorance, but I read that this whole operation costs $2.5 billion, and that the main purpose is to find out wether there is/was/will be life on Mars...Right? So why is that answer worth so much money? I'm assuming most of it is tax payer's money, right? Don't want to start preaching about america's deficit/crisis, and don't want to start a {censored} storm with this, I'm not judging or taking sides or whatever...Just genuinly curious (pun not intended) about the official and/or unofficial motif/justification for these space programs, and this Mars adventure in particular. Don't suppose someone could shed a light?

 

 

Because it's unbelievably cool.

[thom]

 

Because it's unbelievably cool.

 

 

lol, damn straight, I'll agree on that.

 

Seriously though, the way I see it now: We go to space/mars because it's {censored}ing cool, and end up with a ton of useful knowledge that eventually justifies the space program and the following space programs. Thanks radiosilence for that reply/link btw.

[ToonHollow]

Go and read this 1970 letter from NASA's Ernst Stuhlinger to a nun who wrote him asking how he could suggest spending billions of dollars on such a project at a time when so many children were starving on Earth. He explains it so much more clearly and brilliantly than I could.

 

 

Fantastic.

[christianatl]

[Zappa74]

f'ing nasa...anybody else think this thread was going to be about the short lived soap opera about a group of gay seamen gone to port?

 

 

This was worth quoting.

[christianatl]

Benefits?

 

 

Ground Processing Scheduling System

 

3-D Semiconductor Stacking

 

Structural Analysis

 

News Exchange Reader

 

Air Quality Monitoring

 

Advanced keyboard Design

 

Database Management System

 

Laser Surveying

 

Aircraft Controls

 

Expert System Software

 

Microcomputers

 

Advanced Imaging and Design Graphics

 

Enriched Baby Food

 

Water Purification System

 

Scratch-Resistant Lenses

 

Pool Purification

 

Ribbed Swimsuit

 

Golf Ball and Composite Golf Club Design

 

Portable Coolers/Warmers

 

Sports Training

 

Athletic Shoes

 

Dustbuster

 

Shock-absorbing Helmets

 

Home Security Systems

 

Smoke Detectors

 

Flat Panel Televisions

 

High-density Batteries

 

Trash Compactors

 

Sports Bra Design

 

Hair Styling Appliances

 

Fogless Ski Goggles

 

Self-adjusting Sunglasses

 

Hang Gliders

 

Art Preservation

 

Quartz Crystal Timing Equipment.

 

Microspheres

 

Solar Energy

 

Weather Forecasting Aids

 

Forest Management

 

Sensors for Environmental Control

 

Wind Monitor

 

Telemetry Systems

 

Plant Research

 

Fire Resistant Materials

 

Radiation Insulation

 

Whale Identification

 

Environmental Analysis

 

Noise Abatement

 

Pollution Measuring Devices

 

Pollution Control Devices

 

Smokestack Monitor

 

Radioactive Leak Detector

 

Earthquake Prediction System

 

Sewage Treatment

 

Energy Saving Air Conditioning

 

Air Purification

 

Digital Imaging Breast Biopsy System

 

Breast Cancer Detection

 

Laser Angioplasty

 

Ultrasound Skin Damage Assessment .

 

Human Tissue Stimulator

 

Coolant Suit

 

Programmable Pacemaker

 

Ocular Screening

 

Automated Urinalysis

 

Medical Gas Analyzer

 

Voice-controlled Wheelchair

 

Arteriosclerosis Detection

 

Ultrasound Scanners

 

Automatic Insulin Pump

 

Portable X-ray Device

 

Invisible Braces

 

Dental Arch Wire

 

Palate Surgery Technology

 

Clean Room Apparel

 

Implantable Heart Aid

 

MRI

 

Bone Analyzer

 

Cataract Surgery Tools

 

Magnetic Liquids

 

Welding Sensor System

 

Microlasers

 

Magnetic Bearing System

 

plasma Sprayed Engine Lubricant

 

Interactive Computer Training

 

High-pressure Water Stripping

 

Advanced Welding Torch

 

Gasoline Vapor Recovery

 

Self-locking Fasteners

 

Machine Tool Software

 

Laser Wire Stripper

 

Lubricant Coating Process

 

Wireless Communications

 

Engine Coatings and Design

 

Radiation Hazard Detector

 

Emergency Response Robot

 

Pen

[christianatl]

Plus it's awesome.

[Ryan.]

Didn't NASA invent Whores?

[Zappa74]

 

Methane-powered Vehicles

 

 

You had me at fart car (van).

[christianatl]

Loobs' band is awesome.

 

Go listen to them.

[Reaganomics!]

I guess more abstractly, science/technology R&D has a pretty good return on investment if you're thinking in terms of growing the economy? Probably hard to accurately measure, but that's the generally accepted theory.

[Zappa74]

[thom]

 

Plus it's awesome.

 

 

You had me at 'Advanced lubricants'.

[RadioSilence]

lol, damn straight, I'll agree on that. Seriously though, the way I see it now: We go to space/mars because it's {censored}ing cool, and end up with a ton of useful knowledge that eventually justifies the space program and the following space programs. Thanks radiosilence for that reply/link btw.

 

[tape]

..also, we have to (eventually) plan to move to some other rock in the neighborhood. on a planetary/geological scale, earth gets the {censored} beaten out of it on a "regular" basis. the rock that took out the dinos was far from the only one, or the biggest. even a much smaller rock can set us back 300 years.

it might not happen for a hundred-thousand years, or millions (in which case we'd probably be extinct or on other solar systems anyway), but wouldn't suck if it happened in only 100?

we do this by launching stuff at mars to figure out how.

yeah it's a lot of money. but it's still a fraction of what "defense" costs a nation, of which a lot of people (myself included) are pretty against but still keep on paying taxes for. sacrifice several modern jets or an aircraft carrier or two and we could be sending actual people to mars.

plus space exploration inspires and awes the {censored} out of people, and that's {censored}ing cool!

[christianatl]

[PKTrono]

..also, we have to (eventually) plan to move to some other rock in the neighborhood. on a planetary/geological scale, earth gets the {censored} beaten out of it on a "regular" basis. the rock that took out the dinos was far from the only one, or the biggest. even a much smaller rock can set us back 300 years. it might not happen for a hundred-thousand years, or millions (in which case we'd probably be extinct or on other solar systems anyway), but wouldn't suck if it happened in only 100? we do this by launching stuff at mars to figure out how. yeah it's a lot of money. but it's still a fraction of what "defense" costs a nation, of which a lot of people (myself included) are pretty against but still keep on paying taxes for. sacrifice several modern jets or an aircraft carrier or two and we could be sending actual people to mars. plus space exploration inspires and awes the {censored} out of people, and that's {censored}ing cool!

 

yes

[Ryan.]