traveling 15,000 miles per hour, and coming to a complete stop in only 7 minutes.

[waterdog101]

if you like reading about the star's and such, this is interesting. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/...g-mars-landing

[HURRICANEBOB]

If the title was a riddle, the answer is:

"The Obama Administration".

[waterdog101]

If the title was a riddle, the answer is:

"The Obama Administration".

I like the way you think, and have had lots of laughs at some of your comments. buts to me this is something special, being able to control something that far away. I just find it interesting that man is smart enough to send a rover that far away to take pictures and send them back here. yet on the other hand they aren't smart enough to solve the world hunger problem.

[RoadToad]

I love it too, and follow what's going on at NASA pretty closely. I remember back when the Spirit and Opportunity rovers landed back in '04, I downloaded and saved those first pictures they sent back. The landing will be tomorrow night around midnight, so I'll be checking the news Monday morning.

I'm also following the Juno mission to Jupiter. Here's a really cool link on that, especially for teachers or schoolkids: http://missionjuno.swri.edu/ It'll make you download a plugin, but it's worth it.

[MrSplitshot]

Don't get me wrong, the Space Program has done some great things for technology over the decades...but we're spending biiillllllions and biillllllions of dollars to go dig around in the sandbox on Mars...

The only thing good it has done so far is create some high dollar NASA jobs, probably some private tech company contracts that have worked on the equipment. I sure hope we bring something back that we can turn for a profit or learn how to make something grand with the technology that changes the world. Maybe we'll dig up a Martian diamond that we can flip for a couple million at the pawn shop when we get back...or maybe a Mickey Mantle rookie card!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch on this planet....will there be any money left in Social Security when I hit retirement? What happens when we hit the fiscal cliff at the end of the year? We've got 8.3% unemployment, droves of underemployed, and a metric crap-ton of people that have given up looking for work altogether. We need jobs. We need American manufacturing. Welfare...healthcare...bailouts, are we broke, are we not...Europe debt crisis...oil prices...record drought driving up food prices...homeless and hungry all over the world, including here at home...

Hey, I know, let's spend a few billion to go to Mars! And I few billion to go to Jupiter!

one billion dollars.jpg

That would be kinda like me taking all the money out of my savings account to put in a swimming pool while my roof had a gigantic hole in it and it was raining in my living room.

But I'll agree, pictures from Mars are cool to look at.

I keep hoping a little red guy will run out and wave.

If we discover that Mars is inhabited by millions of little red people that look and act like Snookie from Jersey Shore, can we just fly the rover home and pretend it didn't happen?

[waterdog101]

Don't get me wrong, the Space Program has done some great things for technology over the decades...but we're spending biiillllllions and biillllllions of dollars to go dig around in the sandbox on Mars...

The only thing good it has done so far is create some high dollar NASA jobs, probably some private tech company contracts that have worked on the equipment. I sure hope we bring something back that we can turn for a profit or learn how to make something grand with the technology that changes the world. Maybe we'll dig up a Martian diamond that we can flip for a couple million at the pawn shop when we get back...or maybe a Mickey Mantle rookie card!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch on this planet....will there be any money left in Social Security when I hit retirement? What happens when we hit the fiscal cliff at the end of the year? We've got 8.3% unemployment, droves of underemployed, and a metric crap-ton of people that have given up looking for work altogether. We need jobs. We need American manufacturing. Welfare...healthcare...bailouts, are we broke, are we not...Europe debt crisis...oil prices...record drought driving up food prices...homeless and hungry all over the world, including here at home...

Hey, I know, let's spend a few billion to go to Mars! And I few billion to go to Jupiter!

one billion dollars.jpg

That would be kinda like me taking all the money out of my savings account to put in a swimming pool while my roof had a gigantic hole in it and it was raining in my living room.

But I'll agree, pictures from Mars are cool to look at.

I keep hoping a little red guy will run out and wave.

If we discover that Mars is inhabited by millions of little red people that look and act like Snookie from Jersey Shore, can we just fly the rover home and pretend it didn't happen?

here are a few things that came from all the wasted NASA money. 1. SATELLITE TELEVISION: Our world would not be the same without the satellites now in orbit around the Earth – all thanks to the space programme. They not only give us satellite broadcast television and radio but also power telecommunications including mobile phones and terrestrial TV networks.2. SAT NAV: The global positioning system on which our in-car navigation systems are based was developed by the US Department of Defense. They would not exist without the space satellites.
3. GOOGLE EARTH: Mapping was never as accurate as the images we can now get thanks to satellites which from space can even see a dog in your back garden.
4. VIRTUAL REALITY: Nasa-developed research and advanced technology devices allow users to project themselves into a computer-generated environment. When coupled with a stereo-viewing device and appropriate software, it creates a feeling of actually being there.
5. ARTIFICIAL LIMBS: Prosthetic limbs are not new but advancements in space robotics are being adapted to create more lifelike, functioning limbs.
6. DIALYSIS: Modern machines to do the work of the kidneys – for patients waiting for or unable to have transplants – were developed as a result of a Nasa-developed chemical process.
7. MRI AND CAT SCANS: Nasa did not invent magnetic resonance imaging but it has contributed to major advances thanks to research into computer enhancement of pictures sent from the moon. Digital image processing has led to enhanced images of human organs.
8. BREAST CANCER SCREENING: A silicon chip originally developed for Nasa’s Hubble Space Telescope makes the testing process less painful, less scarring and less expensive than traditional biopsy methods.

[MrSplitshot]

here are a few things that came from all the wasted NASA money. 1. SATELLITE TELEVISION: Our world would not be the same without the satellites now in orbit around the Earth – all thanks to the space programme. They not only give us satellite broadcast television and radio but also power telecommunications including mobile phones and terrestrial TV networks.2. SAT NAV: The global positioning system on which our in-car navigation systems are based was developed by the US Department of Defense. They would not exist without the space satellites.
3. GOOGLE EARTH: Mapping was never as accurate as the images we can now get thanks to satellites which from space can even see a dog in your back garden.
4. VIRTUAL REALITY: Nasa-developed research and advanced technology devices allow users to project themselves into a computer-generated environment. When coupled with a stereo-viewing device and appropriate software, it creates a feeling of actually being there.
5. ARTIFICIAL LIMBS: Prosthetic limbs are not new but advancements in space robotics are being adapted to create more lifelike, functioning limbs.
6. DIALYSIS: Modern machines to do the work of the kidneys – for patients waiting for or unable to have transplants – were developed as a result of a Nasa-developed chemical process.
7. MRI AND CAT SCANS: Nasa did not invent magnetic resonance imaging but it has contributed to major advances thanks to research into computer enhancement of pictures sent from the moon. Digital image processing has led to enhanced images of human organs.
8. BREAST CANCER SCREENING: A silicon chip originally developed for Nasa’s Hubble Space Telescope makes the testing process less painful, less scarring and less expensive than traditional biopsy methods.

As I said in paragraph 1, sentence 1, the Space Program has done some good things over the decades.

However, we are friggin BROKE. Push pause. Use the billions to repair our house, then resume when times (and funding) are more plentiful. I'd like for my daughter to grow up in a better economy and better times. Quite frankly, I don't give a crap if there is life or was life on Mars, unless they want to come down here and buy some goods and services.

With so much to fix, I just have a hard time justifying billions being shot into outer space. Call me old fashioned.

[Tom523]

I have a better ides. Let's send our tax dollars to people that will use common sense in spending them.

[waterdog101]

I have a better ides. Let's send our tax dollars to people that will use common sense in spending them.

I kinda see what your saying, it does seem like going to space is a waste of money. but look at it like this. if all the jobs in the USA, or the world. that are there for people to work at, because they came from the NASA program. like satellite tv, satellite internet, cell phones, surveying equipment, hospital equipment. the list goes on and on. there would be hundreds of millions of people from around the world out of work. and the job loses from another country effect this country as well. I think the NASA program has done it's part to help mankind.

[waterdog101]

Mars rover landing was a success. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...f6d8_blog.html

[kygorski]

Another project, maybe discontinued now, but woth looking at, an artificial sun, to provide more day light to grow crops. But someday most of this technology will come from other countrys, While we are cutting funds for education, some countrys are not. Heck if we can afford wars to make thye world love us, we can burn billions on space.20 yrs ago. how many of us had or knew how to use a cell phone? 30 yrs ago how many home computers were there.

[Chubminnow]

20 yrs ago. how many of us had or knew how to use a cell phone?

Not me...I've only had mine for about nine years now.