[X] My Assistant

[djellison]

I know this picture doesnt look like much. It's grainy, it's bleached out quite a bit

But you owe it to yourselves to look at that picture, and think.

There is a rover climbing a hill on mars.

Isnt that amazing?

If you think hard enough - you can actually imagine being there. Walking with a rover, that we sent half a billion km's to a whole other world.

Sometimes, an image will just catch me off guard and I'll go "wow - LOOK at what we can do!"

Doug

[Phillip]

I view it as almost a moral imperative to log onto the Nasa website (or exploratorium) every day to view the newest raw images and spend a moment just to admire. I do it in honor of the thousands and millions of eight year old children and grown adults who for centuries peered into the night sky and wondered and imagined and wished they could see those points of light up close. All of a sudden we have a chance to not just see a planet up close, but everyday see new rocks, new horizons, new features on that planet. I try to soak it in for the benefit of those who never could. How lucky we are!

And I wholehearedly concur in the kudos to Nasa for the foresight for making information so readily available to the public!

[Marcel]

I too hope that they read this forum, as there are sometimes valuable reflexions which could be a real help for the MER teams or to interpret what they see. But they also have specialists in geology, so perhaps they do not think useful to read this forum.

If that's true, they better start to join also, because there're some great geology -(and morphology-, and mineralogy-) professionals at this forum as well

[Guest_Myran_*]

Cant but agree with djellison, and thats the reason I browse the images at Exploratorium, every time it gives me a sense of wonder seeing the new images and I use this forum (and at times astronomynow website) to get the interpretation of what im seeing.
Regardless, these two rovers did turn me from a person with a general space interest to one hard core spacebuff that follows this dual rover mission in detail - who could have imagined that!

[djellison]

Well - there's a LOT of lurkers here. The give-away was when I accidentally made several forums members-read-only, registered member numbers increase by a third in a space of 48 hrs Having AS and GL post a few times is a major shot in the arm

There's a lot of forums out there, the HZ, Space.com, Mark Carey's board, the New Mars board etc etc. Some are firmly in the kookey, some are closer to what we have here, some are in the middle and I'm sure they all get a visit from the odd mission scientist or engineer for either a bit of comic relief, or enjoyment

Doug

[ustrax]

Well - there's a LOT of lurkers here. The give-away was when I accidentally made several forums members-read-only, registered member numbers increase by a third in a space of 48 hrs   Having AS and GL post a few times is a major shot in the arm

There's a lot of forums out there, the HZ, Space.com, Mark Carey's board, the New Mars board etc etc.  Some are firmly in the kookey, some are closer to what we have here, some are in the middle and I'm sure they all get a visit from the odd mission scientist or engineer for either a bit of comic relief, or enjoyment

Doug

Well...If there is someone lurking out there at this moment...
Take us to Ultreya!!!


Doug, I must say thank, Mark Carey and others providing a home for all of us Mars and beyond fans...
I believe that in all of us there's the same ingredients that are in staff back at NASA/JPL, people who in their childhood dreamt of the distances, of new worlds, of the thrill, people seeking in the far bright of stars, in the dark emptiness between them, answers.
Answers that make us, Humanity, move higher and further.
The only difference is that they get paid to do it...
I remember my dossier, filled with news from space exploration back in the eighties...Then Highschool and another road: advertising...
And now, thanks to the MER mission I'm back in space and I guess I'll never leave it...
So...Guys at NASA, guys at JPL, guys with their heads in distant worlds but with their feet on the ground, guys...Thank you so so much for following the dream of us all.

[stevo]

One of my favorite images has the Hubble telescope docked with the shuttle, and two astronauts out there doing repairs, all with the Earth providing a backdrop. Visually stunning, and it reminds me that what was imaginative fiction in my youth is now, if not commonplace, at least a practical reality.

But now ... Consider, we have rovers (rovers, plural!) traversing the surface of Mars, multiple orbiters around Mars, another at Saturn, another craft about to crash into a comet just to see what is inside and many more in planning. And Voyager reaching the boundaries of the solar system. What extraordinary times we live in today and yet I also envy my children for what they will see tomorrow.

Finally, as a regular lurker I want to thank Doug for providing an exemplary forum; informed, intelligent discussion utterly devoid of grandstanding and petulant arguments. Well done.

[djellison]

an exemplary forum; informed, intelligent discussion utterly devoid of grandstanding and petulant arguments.  Well done.

I wish I could take credit - but the ammount of times I've had to get out the big bat marked 'Moderator' can be counted on one hand...in more than a year of the forum existing. It's down to the members.

Doug

[aldo12xu]

Following through with what Ustrax said, I got hooked on space exploration in high school during the Viking missions and thoughts of a career with JPL danced around my head. But as Phil pointed out, the 1980s were not very good for planetary missions, so the second best thing for me was geology, specifically gold exploration. By the early 90s, though, I got out of geology. But here I am more than 10 years later doing what I most enjoyed when I was in high school, all thanks to NASA's open source policy! No wonder I'll never grow up

But, seriously, it's this innate curiosity, desire to explore, to learn, that raises the human spirit above the baser instincts of greed, exploitation and desire for power (on individual and nationalistic levels) that is constantly depicted in the media in one form or another. If we can land on the moon, visit the outer planets, land a probe on Titan, have two robots bring a distant a world to our finger tips, then there is hope for us and our kids' kids.

[Bill Harris]

And these planetary missions are about as pure as science can get. Whereas the Lunar Landings started largely a nationalistic p-ing contest between the Americans and Soviets, the Rovers (et al) are science for the sake of science.

[glennwsmith]

Marcel, yes, I wonder also why more people -- and especially young people -- are not excited about what is happening in science these days, and especially space scientist. Astrobiologists have already accepted the idea that if simple life is discovered on Mars the public will just give a big yawn.

[Guest_Richard Trigaux_*]

Whereas the Lunar Landings started largely a nationalistic p-ing contest between the Americans and Soviets, the Rovers (et al) are science for the sake of science.

With my opinion, such nationalistic contests will appear really childlish with time. Anyway, for aesthetical and philosophical reasons, and at least for financial reasons, large space projects can be only on an international cooperation basis. Look at the american Cassini bearing the european Huygens, or the american MER using european Mars express as a radio relay, Russia assuming the transportations toward the ISS... And it is only a beginning, Russia will come back, and soon we shall have the participation of India, China, Japan, and perhaps even Brazil...

Marcel, yes, I wonder also why more people -- and especially young people -- are not excited about what is happening in science these days, and especially space scientist. Astrobiologists have already accepted the idea that if simple life is discovered on Mars the public will just give a big yawn.

I think everybody, especially youngsters, are really excited about finding life on Mars, or what else unexpected. But if you hear at the medias speaking in their name, you will not know it. For instance, in France ALL the medias said that the Frenchs refused the european constitution project because of xenophobia, but this is simply a terrible lie. There are many other such lies, and the problem is that even the concerned people end to think how the medias tell them to think. So, today, the hype is being cynicist and disenchanted, and I am afraid that if life on Mars is announced the same day than a law authorizing homosexual marriage, the medias will not speak of life on Mars. But History will retain life on Mars.

[MichaelT]

So, today, the hype is being cynicist and disenchanted, and I am afraid that if life on Mars is announced the same day than a law authorizing homosexual marriage, the medias will not speak of life on Mars. But History will retain life on Mars.

A wonderful example for that was the coverage of the Huygens landing on German TV. The day before a freaky German fashion designer was murdered, and left behind a little Yorkshire terrier... Huygens came last in the news (with a few exceptions, though) right behind the report on that murder case and the fate of that little dog and just before the weather forecast... There happens one of the greatest feats in science and technology, landing a spacecraft more than a billion km from home, and the media don't care . It's so disappointing!

Michael

[Nix]

I have my own fair of frustrations as to how the media handles spacenews. It IS dissappointing. On the other hand, it's the masses. Without meaning to be arrogant and I know I might have grown cynical in this,.. but a great deal of people really just like to hang on to tv at night and let there lives or at least too big a part of their FREE time being led by it...I stopped bothering, and watching tv. I only occassionally watch BBCworld, CNN and NGC..Oh, and Cartoon channel, but that is an 'obligation'

Nico

[ustrax]

I have my own fair of frustrations as to how the media handles spacenews. It IS dissappointing. On the other hand, it's the masses. Without meaning to be arrogant and I know I might have grown cynical in this,.. but a great deal of people really just like to hang on to tv at night and let there lives or at least too big a part of their FREE time being led by it...I stopped bothering, and watching tv. I only occassionally watch BBCworld, CNN and NGC..Oh, and Cartoon channel, but that is an 'obligation'

Nico

Here in Portugal, the major priority of the recently elected government is to expose the country to a 'technological shock', and that includes space science...
Knowing that the science minister, Mr. Mariano Gago is such a dedicated, inteligent, and look-ahead person, I'm optimistic. Maybe they'll throw us again on new sailings...

[djellison]

Truth be told, the media would rather have a failure to moan about, than another success. Spaceprobe fails - they're like vultures. They can criticise, say it's a waste of money, then leave it alone.

Doug