The Curiosity rover / Mars Science Laboratory has landed safely on Mars and is returning data! So now we have two rovers on Mars again, Opportunity and a new one of unprecendented size and instrument sophistication. Curiosity has a laser gun that allows it to measure emission spectra at a distance, an instrument that allows it to identify minerals directly without inference via their elemental composition, and more. Looking forward to new discoveries!
More like this
Those of you who know me know that I'm unhappy living here in Arizona.
People love to speculate that Mars was once a great place for life to form, and claim that there is plenty of evidence that there used to be oceans and rivers there. But this isn't true.
"Years of science fiction have produced a mindset that it is human destiny to expand from Earth, to the Moon, to Mars, to the stars." -Barney Oliver
Ethan Siegel calls Mars "the obvious first step in our journey to the stars" and "part of our dreams for reaching out into the Universe." Last year thousands of people applied to join Mars One, a proposed colonization effort slash reality show that plans to put
I'm not a scientist but what a great day to be a human being! Kudos to the men and women who got that great beast to the surface of a planet 156,000,000 miles from earth! I think that math is right. 186,000*60*14. Whatever...an incredible achievement!
What the first Curiosity image really showed http://poof.hksr.us/iiouwrhx
Robots, archaeology and barren worlds:
Drones map ancient Peruvian ruins http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/08/drones-map-ancient…
Two separate extinctions brought end to dinosaur era http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22137-two-separate-extinctions-br…