[Ratmagiclady]

I am not sure that I understand. Your GF is on board the Mars rover thingy? Surely you jest.

No, I don't know a thing about the recent history of Nasa appropriations, I just need to answer flippant semantic queries like it proves something.

Tou-smurfing-che, big guy.

Obbviously, we were in danger of someone's random opinion being pointed out as non-factual, if you hadn't cast suspicion of me thinking I thought my sweetie was on the Mars lander you cons tried to stop budget for... It's not like sweetie and I didn't nearly move to Cocoa Beach like some kind of I Dream Of Jeannie gone ghetto several times, but even Google Earth of the place is pretty depressing. What do you want?

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Last edited by Ratmagiclady; 08-06-2012 at 10:52 PM.

[Jonathan Mac]

[kswier]

Oval is the planned landing area, little circle is approximate actual landing area:

Forget full frame. I now know what camera I need.

[ihasa]

The only problem there is... That's not true. Yes, this is heavy, but what's on board is *why.* Back of the napkin calculation says it landed pretty soft for something that can take eleven or twelve gees. (Yes, I watched the telemetry.) Not only is that about the *size* of A 73 Civic, it also landed more gently than those bumpers were designed for... If said Civic landed on its nose. In Mars gravity. On a truck.

Not bad.

Actually, there's a *lot* of stuff on board. You know that sweetie of mine you've been trying to deny me rights to help her now when she needs?
You know who we've been chasing around the country working for half the time since Bush said, 'Let's go to Mars! Cancel all life support research!' (Kind of like he said, 'All you NYPD and FDNY people are heroes, that's why I'm taking your pensions away."

Yeah. NASA. Or what's left.







While it's not a mission parameter, yes, that's reasonably likely. I give it one in five. (that they find it soon. ON this mission. LIke they weren't equipped to on the still-working eight year old rovers)

One thing they're surely right about: all this is a lot cheaper than a lot of movies people spend less time thinking of but still find 'worth the money.'

Trying to cut through the hep-cat stream-of-consciousness-ness and wild accusations; what are you actually trying to say, RML? Who's been trying to deny your rights to help your sweetheart? Someone on this forum?

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Last edited by ihasa; 08-07-2012 at 08:19 AM.

[boriscleto]

I don't think Steve Guttenberg is going to show up on Mars.

[Medium FormatPro]

The $1.45 Trillion Fighter Jet?and the Florida Deficit Hawks Who Love It | Mother Jones you do realize that if we build them, service and maintain them, but never use them, it is equal to just a "stimulus"..........

There are a few different variations of the F35 JSF; including the vertical take-off & landing version.

A considerable amount of people in the Navy hate this plane; and more than a few officers are literally refusing to fly it under penalty of UCMJ action. Being a licensed pilot I'm not sure what of the following three is worse: trying a normal catapult assist even though there is only one engine - no room is something goes wrong on take-off - which it will. Trying a missed hook take-off when "missing" on a landing. Again that single engine thing leaves zero room for margin of error. And then there's the vertical take-off and landing issue.

Anyone with any mechanical background could also tell you... Imagine placing a jet engine on a (actually two) collumnS of air and then having one of several hundred parts fail in a mechanical driveshaft. Oops

The F35 places new meaning into the term last manned jet fighter for america

[boriscleto]

Science is Awesome: Curiosity Rover Lands on Mars Seeking Signs of Life | Alternet

[boriscleto]

As I said earlier.. keeps us from building a few more tanks (well since tanks are cheap maybe I should just use fighter jets)


The $1.45 Trillion Fighter Jet?and the Florida Deficit Hawks Who Love It | Mother Jones

you do realize that if we build them, service and maintain them, but never use them, it is equal to just a "stimulus"..........



Read more: NASA's Curiosity Rover Blasts Off for Mars - TIME

the Pentagon currently estimates each plane will cost $135 million to build and maintain.
X 20= 2.7 billion... hmm tough choice..............

..........

In 2010, NASA's budget was about $8.7 billion. In its entire history from 1958 to 2011, the total budget was $526.18 billion. In 2010, the U.S. military budget was $663.85 billion. That means that in one year, the military spent $137.67 billion more than NASA has in more than 50. So despite the fact that Earth is in constant need of defense from the dangerous universe, I guess "defense" will no longer be a reason to pursue a space program. Unless of course China double dog dares us to meet them by the flagpole after school, on Mars.

[wombat2go]

Doing some nasa searches today I found this bit of history about the Nikon F4 with a digital back (Shuttle flight StS-48 was in 1991):
The comment about post processing by the astronauts is interesting.

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-48/sts-48-press-kit.txt
Extract:

During the STS-48 mission, NASA will evaluate the on- orbit and
downlinking performance and capabilities of the Electronic Still Camera
(ESC), a handheld, self-contained digital camera developed by the
Man-Systems Division at Johnson Space Center. The ESC is the first
model in a planned evolutionary development leading to a family of
high-resolution digital imaging devices.

Additionally, through a Technical Exchange Agreement with NASA's
Office of Commercial Programs, Autometric, Inc., Alexandria, Va., will
assess the utility of the camera for commercial applications in close
range photogrammetry, terrestrial monitoring and near realtime
capabilities.

The basic photographic platform is a Nikon F4 35mm film camera
converted to a digital image storing device by placement of a 1 million
picture element (pixel) charge coupled device (CCD) at the film plane.
The battery-operated ESC retains all the available features of the F4
and will accept any lense or optics with a Nikon mount. Lenses used on
STS-48 will include the 20mm AF Nikkor, 35-70mm zoom AF Nikkor, 50mm
f/1.2 AF Nikkor and 180mm AF Nikkor.

Images obtained during the STS-48 mission will be monochrome with
8 bits of digital information per pixel (256 gray levels) and stored on
a removable computer hard disk. The images may be viewed and enhanced
on board using a modified lap-top computer before being transmitted to
the ground via the orbiter digital downlinks.

During STS-48, the ESC will be used to image areas of interest to
commercial remote sensing users. Scenes of Earth, such as major cities
and geological formations will be used to compare the ESC to other
Earth-looking sensors. Images of Shuttle crew member tasks in the
middeck and payload bay will be taken to test the camera's use for
documentation and support to missions. Attempts will be made to
collect stereo pairs at close and far ranges to test the camera's
photogrammetric capabilities.