Curiosity Finds Water On Mars

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Water on Mars is cool and all but I'm waiting for pictures of Martian footprints, or better yet, an actual Martian caught on camera. ;)

There is a surprising amount of water bound up in the soil of Mars, according to an analysis done onboard the US space agency's (NASA) Curiosity rover. When it heated a small pinch of dirt scooped up from the ground, the most abundant vapour detected was H2O.
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Waste of money imho. Should just wait 100 years when tech so cheap everyone is going up there.
 
Steve said:
Water on Mars is cool and all but I'm waiting for pictures of Martian footprints, or better yet, an actual Martian caught on camera. ;)
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Whoohoo! Martians gone wild!
Err, probably not as appealing as I thought it could be at first...
Nevermind.
 
Inu said:
Waste of money imho. Should just wait 100 years when tech so cheap everyone is going up there.
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space faring explorations imho has sped up the technologies you use today, not the other way around.
 
Inu said:
Waste of money imho. Should just wait 100 years when tech so cheap everyone is going up there.
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Right, that's make sense. Because 60 years ago we should have just stopped making computers, so in 100 years we could just all of a sudden make a super computer for super cheap without any previous experience with building, designing, and using something like it. :rolleyes:
 
triarii3 said:
space faring explorations imho has sped up the technologies you use today, not the other way around.
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Should the government pay for it though? Why can't we just let Elon Musk figure it out and let his investors front the risk and the bill?
 
Inu said:
Waste of money imho. Should just wait 100 years when tech so cheap everyone is going up there.
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This comes to mind:

realistic_criteria.png

I'm leaning towards fifteen. There are a lot of them.
 
HAQattaq said:
Should the government pay for it though? Why can't we just let Elon Musk figure it out and let his investors front the risk and the bill?
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The government wastes a shit ton more money on shit that's a lot less useful than the money it spends on NASA. I can assure you of that.
 
Skillz said:
The government wastes a shit ton more money on shit that's a lot less useful than the money it spends on NASA. I can assure you of that.
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+1
Google this and it will make you sick.

The 1.4 Billion Dollar Man: Costs of the Obama White House
By John F. Groom :eek:
 
Inu said:
Waste of money imho. Should just wait 100 years when tech so cheap everyone is going up there.
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LOL, I assume you are just joshing, if not, buahahaha, you do realise tech gets cheaper because you spent a lot of money learning how to make it cheaper and developing the tools to make it cheaper. :p
 
They spend more on the military in a two year budget than they have on NASA for it's ENTIRE existence.

They spent 20 billion on air conditioning in the military whereas NASA's annual budget for that time was 19billion.
 
Stiler said:
They spend more on the military in a two year budget than they have on NASA for it's ENTIRE existence.

They spent 20 billion on air conditioning in the military whereas NASA's annual budget for that time was 19billion.
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Yeah, and the amount of money spent on both Iraqi wars, Afghanistan and Pakistan combined would have been enough for multiple more moon landings and a possible outpost on there.

It's actually really disappointing for the god awful amount we spend on the defense budget for the sake of "national security", "defense of our allies", and "counter-terrorism". Yet, we have idiots in Congress that want to cut funding to food stamps, welfare, Social Security, VA benefits, Affordable Health Care Act and they still complain we have no more money to spend. We have a lot of problems in this country that needs money and funding-- our national infrastructure such as aging bridges and highways; our education system to keep us competitive against China and Europe; our healthcare system; the rising costs of education; and so on and so forth.

It's sickening on how many wrong decisions we have made over many decades.

At the same time, it is amazing how much NASA has achieved on such a shoestring budget. If we spent the same amount on NASA as we do on defense, I would bet we would have probably have had a base on the Moon and Mars; an orbital outpost in Jupiter or Saturn; possibly a research and mining facility in the Asteroid Belt; and possibly our first nuclear fusion powered spacecraft in the amount of time between the Vietnam War and now.
 
Well, when you consider the military is one of the very few things Wash DC is allowed to spend money on, then ...

In any case, NASA was just a cover for military missile research. Mercury and Gemini missions used ICBM's.

The mistake was pretending NASA wasn't a part of the military. If they didn't do that, NASA would still be well funded. The Shuttle wasn't for growing soybeans at zero g's, it was for deploying and recovering military satellites.
 
HAQattaq said:
Should the government pay for it though? Why can't we just let Elon Musk figure it out and let his investors front the risk and the bill?
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Yes because space exploration do benefit the nation. Neil Tyson made several good points on these benefits during a senate hearing which can be viewed on Youtube.

Investors will never front the risk because that's not how business work. Private sector will only come in once something has been done, and you can make a calculated assessment of the potential return. For example, going to the space station or sending cargo into orbit is where private enterprise are interested in because we've been there and done that. Now they can come in and find a more efficient way of doing it. But they will not be the first venturing into unknown territory.
 
octoberasian said:
It's actually really disappointing for the god awful amount we spend on the defense budget
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It's funny (not really) how you americans always use this word instead the real one. You guys are so good at doublespeak
 
dgz said:
It's funny (not really) how you americans always use this word instead the real one. You guys are so good at doublespeak
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What is the real word then?

"Pension fund for defense contractors and lobbyists"?

Wait, that's more than one word.
 
If they can't extract any booze out of those rocks I'm not going.
 
My friend just wrote a large dissertation on the Curiosity rover and what it will potentially discover. He's got to be one very happy student.

In time when we continue to shrink the budget for scientific discovery in this country , its good to see such discoveries on even a shoe string budget compared to 20 years ago. Disappointing that we waste so much money on the military industrial complex.
 
dgz said:
It's funny (not really) how you americans always use this word instead the real one. You guys are so good at doublespeak
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...

Defence and defense are different spellings of the same word. Defense is preferred in American English, and defence is preferred in all other main varieties of English, including Australian, British, and Canadian English.
...
Though defense is now the American spelling, it is not American in origin. The OED and Google Books reveal examples of the spelling from as long ago as the 1300s, many centuries before the United States existed. That spelling continued to appear a fraction of the time through the 19th century, when it was taken up by American writers. Today, to the chagrin of those who dislike American English, the spelling is gaining ground throughout the English-speaking world.
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Godmachine said:
My friend just wrote a large dissertation on the Curiosity rover and what it will potentially discover. He's got to be one very happy student.

In time when we continue to shrink the budget for scientific discovery in this country , its good to see such discoveries on even a shoe string budget compared to 20 years ago. Disappointing that we waste so much money on the military industrial complex.
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Its funny how much misunderstanding there is about what astronomy actually is. To the disinterested, its about taking pictures of planets and cataloging space rocks. But the truth is its the search for ourselves. Its like adopted children going out and searching for their real planets. Man's search for meaning yada yada.

And anyone with even elementary cosmological knowledge or interest understands what a big deal the discovery of water is. It means that A) its not divinely unique to earth, B) its the singular common denominator required for life. Meaning if its not unique to earth and exists on other planets then by extrapolation it exists in the entire universe. Do the math.
 
dgz said:
It's funny (not really) how you americans always use this word instead the real one. You guys are so good at doublespeak
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murica'

you need to get on our level. sip our kooooool aid :cool:
 
DPI said:
Its funny how much misunderstanding there is about what astronomy actually is. To the disinterested, its about taking pictures of planets and cataloging space rocks. But the truth is its the search for ourselves. Its like adopted children going out and searching for their real planets. Man's search for meaning yada yada.

And anyone with even elementary cosmological knowledge or interest understands what a big deal the discovery of water is. It means that A) its not divinely unique to earth, B) its the singular common denominator required for life. Meaning if its not unique to earth and exists on other planets then by extrapolation it exists in the entire universe. Do the math.
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Uh. I'm going to need you to stop right there. You're making too much sense. :p
 
Space exploration and understanding is the most important goal that we have. From that goal, many many other aspects of technology and understanding will evolve.

Most of the so called problems that we face are completely derived in our imagination. War, poverty, social issues. These are completely man made issues, that can be stopped at any point that we decide to change our thinking. But there are real problems out there that are not man made, but are something we can deal with.

The only way that life can survive is through proliferation. Man kind has always spread out, it's in our nature as life forms. Now, we are at a unique point in our existence where we know we can continue to spread out, but we choose not to. The longer we continue to limit ourselves to this one location the more we are putting our existence in danger.

We have no idea how long it will take to conquer space travel. There is a good chance that we will never figure out faster than light. But the longer we wait, the closer we put ourselves to not being able to react to a life ending event. There are many ways we can think of that life on Earth could be destroyed, but mostly it's the way we can't think of that are a problem.
 
dgz said:
It's funny (not really) how you americans always use this word instead the real one. You guys are so good at doublespeak
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After WWI & WWII they wanted to call it the "Clean up the Europe's messes" department but it didn't have the same ring.
 
HAQattaq said:
Should the government pay for it though? Why can't we just let Elon Musk figure it out and let his investors front the risk and the bill?
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The same reason the government had to pay to survey the Louisiana Territory. The cost is extremely high and the risks are unknown. The first manned Mars program is going to cost $200-500 billion. Elon Musk is rich, but he's not that rich.
 
westrock2000 said:
Space exploration and understanding is the most important goal that we have. From that goal, many many other aspects of technology and understanding will evolve.

Most of the so called problems that we face are completely derived in our imagination. War, poverty, social issues. These are completely man made issues, that can be stopped at any point that we decide to change our thinking. But there are real problems out there that are not man made, but are something we can deal with.

The only way that life can survive is through proliferation. Man kind has always spread out, it's in our nature as life forms. Now, we are at a unique point in our existence where we know we can continue to spread out, but we choose not to. The longer we continue to limit ourselves to this one location the more we are putting our existence in danger.

We have no idea how long it will take to conquer space travel. There is a good chance that we will never figure out faster than light. But the longer we wait, the closer we put ourselves to not being able to react to a life ending event. There are many ways we can think of that life on Earth could be destroyed, but mostly it's the way we can't think of that are a problem.
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We hate supersonic and hypersonic flight. We hate nuclear power.

We are stuck on Earth until we grow the fk up.

It is totally ridiculous to think of human exploration of our own solar system unless we come up something more powerful than vertical launch chemical rockets. Period.

That is where the research funding should be aimed at.
 
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