Exactly.  I've heard stories (which I don't know if they're true or not) of pharmaceutical companies that have effective drugs for cancer treatment, but they're not marketing them because there's no profit in them.  If THAT'S true, then lots of priorities need to change!

It is quite an astonding feet...

When you consider the following

A.  the AVG distance between the Earth and Mars is 140 Million miles
     as, the two planets travel on an eliptical orbit at separate speeds
     around the Sun.

B.  at their CLOSEST they are 35 million miles...which has not been observed               since we began keeping records.

C.  the TIME it would take for a RADIO wave to reach the Earth would be,
     at their CLOSEST POINT,  34 days...given that the speed of sound at
     Sea Level is 700 mph.  ( I know that "space" is different ) just using this
     as a reference point.

D.  I realize that space is a "vacuum" so am not quite sure how that effects
     the transmission of "radio waves"  or "microwaves" for that matter.


My point is...if you are trying to land a vessel on a planet that is AT IT'S CLOSEST
POINT some 35 million miles away, factoring in LAG TIME (let's call it "latency" ) for ANY SIGNAL, even LIGHT, to reach Earth.  The landing would be impossible for someone HERE on Earth to perform....let alone observe, as, by the time Earth observes the landing, it should have ALREADY taken place quite a while PRIOR to the observation HERE on Earth.

I'm sure they have some SCIENTIFIC jargon to throw out there..
And I know the landings are COMPUTER controlled.   But to say 
we are WATCHING the landing in "real time" is a misnomer at best.

Which kind of makes you wonder if they ARE even doing it at all!!!

But, hey, you can put on a big show for 2.6 billion dollars!!!

cclarry

But, hey, you can put on a big show for 2.6 billion dollars!!! 

The Stones do it all the time. Those Steel Wheels ain't cheap.

bapu

cclarry

But, hey, you can put on a big show for 2.6 billion dollars!!! 

The Stones do it all the time. Those Steel Wheels ain't cheap.

+1  


If ya start me up....

It takes half a billion just to animate Keef...

Just a little info for some of you getting all hot and bothered about this. This project was funded and started in 2006. These things do take a little time ya know.

And just in case you are curious, the party in control of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives were the Republican Party.

Now, you were saying?


Randy

rsp@odyssey.net


Just a little info for some of you getting all hot and bothered about this. This project was funded and started in 2006. These things do take a little time ya know.

And just in case you are curious, the party in control of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives were the Republican Party.

Now, you were saying?


Randy

That it was a much better use of tax payer money than going on vacations!  (But I wasn't one getting hot and bothered about it.)

craigb

rsp@odyssey.net


Just a little info for some of you getting all hot and bothered about this. This project was funded and started in 2006. These things do take a little time ya know.

And just in case you are curious, the party in control of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives were the Republican Party.

Now, you were saying?


Randy

That it was a much better use of tax payer money than going on vacations!  (But I wasn't one getting hot and bothered about it.)

I don't have a problem with Presidents taking vacations. They've all done it and it's expensive. It's not like they can just hop in the car with the family and go tooling around the country. And it's not like they can just leave and leave someone else in charge. It's a 24/7 job with pressures none of us can relate to. Actual leisure time is probably 4 or 5 hours a day while on vacation. This big old world doesn't stop just because the most powerful guy in the world wants to get out of town for a few days.
 
Randy

What they haven't told you is that they when they sent it, there was a cat on board. They figured it was the best way to find out if there really were Biker Mice from Mars.

Unfortunately, the cat jumped out too early in the landing process and was squished by the Rover.


Curiosity killed the cat.