What will "Curiosity" do on Mars?

[walnutred]

Based on the pictures they've posted Mars looks oddly like New Mexico.

 

[pharmer]

Maybe it will end the quest for the Illudium Q 36 explosive space modulator. Joe

 

[Fat Old Guy]

Your GPS, TV signals, and a host of other things (including velcro!) would not exist without the space program.

Like Teflon, Velcro was not created for or by the space program.

Velcro is a company that produces the first commercially marketed fabric hook-and-loop fastener,[1] invented in 1948 by the Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral. De Mestral patented Velcro in 1955, subsequently refining and developing its practical manufacture until its commercial introduction in the late 1950s.

However, many advances in general and commercial aviation were developed by NASA as were advances in many other fields of technology. The wonderful thing about government research is that it is all in the public domain so everyone can take advantage of it immediately. That is not the case with private companies and technology.

 

[Fat Old Guy]

On Mars, Martians are not aliens. They are natives, aboriginals, indigenous peoples, or First Peoples. We would be the al...
Never mind.

NO! We're Americans so they would be aliens. Just like when you go to Yurrip, you got all them furriners over there.

 

[Fat Old Guy]

. . . that money was better spent elsewhere's.

Yes, spend it on public education so people know how to use apostrophes.

 

[Gunslinger808]

They seek the Illudium Pu-36 modulator.

 

[Straightshooter2]

Velcro is a company that produces the first commercially marketed fabric hook-and-loop fastener,[1] invented in 1948 by the Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral. De Mestral patented Velcro in 1955, subsequently refining and developing its practical manufacture until its commercial introduction in the late 1950s.

I know that's not what happened. We got it from the Vulcans. TuPol's grandmother sold velcro when their spaceship crash landed on earth. I saw it on an episode of Star Trek:Enterprise and I know they wouldn't put anything on TV that wasn't true.

CW

 

[Dagnabitjim]

Was wondering if one our long distance shooters could figure out the dope on the shot?

 

[photoman]

NASA has been one of the very few things the US government has ever done well. Unfortunately, politics have just about ruined NASA just like everything else.

 

[cowart]

I just say the Billions and Billions sent up in space could be better used here on Earth.

NASA has never "sent up" any money to space. Everything they do gets paid for on the surface of the planet Earth. Contractors, suppliers, employees, etc.

 

[Ethang]

I'm just hoping there are no cats on Mars......they won't last long.

Took me a minute but that was funny..

 

[usaadjuster]

Amazing that they can do all of that with not one glitch to date. Now, why can't they make a set of boat trailer lights that will work for more than six months?

 

[7tenz]

That is an urban myth. Teflon predates NASA by more than a decade.



However there have been many other useful things that have come directly and indirectly from the space program.

I think teflon wasused in the first uranium atomic bomb test, Trinity site. At the time it was the slipperiest artificial substance.

Other than that, if they want to look for what could be classified as life on other worlds we should be sending stuff like this to Europa.

 

[Fat Old Guy]

I think teflon was used in the first uranium atomic bomb test, Trinity site.

Yep.

we should be sending stuff like this to Europa.

Baby steps.

 

[7tenz]

I had it right the first try before I editied that reply. The first time teflon was ever used was for the first thermonuclear test. There's some relationship between developement of teflon and the Manhattan Project. If true, then Teflon wasn't an accidental discovery.

Pardon my loose description. I'm trying to put together from memory bits of a Scientific American article by Phillip Morrison back in the 90's. He was a member of the project.

As to the second comment, that's pretty expensive baby steps, billion or so per step.

 

[jkc]

Yes, spend it on public education so people know how to use apostrophes.

There's no need to squander taxpayers' funds to educate people about apostrophes --- I was taught all about all twelve of them in Vacation Bible School, at no public expense whatsoever...

 

[chud333]

NASA has never "sent up" any money to space. Everything they do gets paid for on the surface of the planet Earth. Contractors, suppliers, employees, etc.

To benefit a "chosen" few with our tax monies. Please
don't have any misconceptions about NASA's "projects"
stimulating our economy.
And while we may not send any money up in space
it sometimes seems to rain back down to Earth at
very inappropriate times, or blow up on a launching
pad.

Chuck

 

[Fat Old Guy]

To benefit a "chosen" few with our tax monies.

It benefits the entire world.

NASA - Space Program Benefits: NASA?s Positive Impact on Society

50 years, 50 giant leaps: How Nasa rocked our world - Science - News - The Independent

The IEEE Computer Society

 

[David LaPell]

Yes, spend it on public education so people know how to use apostrophes.

Sorry, I went to private school and they're my apostrophes and I will put them where I like even if they don't belong there. Most kids in public school now can't spell apostrophe let alone know where they belong.

 

[Fat Old Guy]

Sorry, I went to private school . . .

Your parents wasted their money, you would have been just as far behind if you had gone to public school.