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129 Comments
- sheetrock, on 06/28/2009, -13/+155TIRED OF SPACE EQUIPMENT THAT WORKS FOR MONTHS ONLY TO SHUT DOWN WHEN IT GETS COVERED WITH DUST?
HI, BILLY MAYS HERE WITH THE MARS ROVER. HERE, WATCH THIS. OTHER ROVERS DRIVE AROUND IN CIRCLES UNTIL THEY CATCH ON A ROCK, ONLY TO SPIN THEIR WHEELS HELPLESSLY FOR DAYS ON END.
NOT THE MARS ROVER. THE MARS ROVER IS MADE OUT OF SPACE-AGE POLYMERS. IT'LL TAKE ORDERS AND SEND PICTURES HOME MORE THAN FIVE YEARS AFTER YOU THINK IT'D TURN INTO A SLAB OF SPACE JUNK.
OTHER ROVERS COULD COST YOU AS MUCH AS A BILLION DOLLARS. BUT YOU CAN GET THE MARS ROVER NOW FOR THE LOW LOW PRICE OF 19.95.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE. ORDER IN THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES AND WE'LL THROW IN ANOTHER MARS ROVER AND TWO CARRYING CASES. THAT'S OVER A $40 VALUE. DON'T WAIT ANY LONGER, ORDER NOW. - RupertPupkin22, on 06/28/2009, -1/+127Spirit has a cockroach for a best friend and a girlfriend named EVA.
- Haoie, on 06/28/2009, -4/+121Too bad consumer electronics are designed for failure.
I want a NASA designed ipod. - rframpton, on 06/28/2009, -1/+88NASA, ***** YEAH!
- AzzidReign, on 06/28/2009, -15/+102THROW SOME OXYCLEAN ON THE ROVER AND IT WILL BE GOOD IN NO TIME!
ALL CAPS DAY. HONOR THE GREAT BILLY MAYS. - mugicha, on 06/29/2009, -2/+79FTA:
"Every year, NASA reviews the rover program to see if it's worth $20 million to keep it going another year."
Wow. We should all just sort of sit back a moment and ponder how ***** up our priorities are when we've indiscriminately given away hundreds of billions of dollars to the financial industry but find it necessary to think long and hard about whether or not we want to spend $20 million a year on one of the coolest, most important things we could possibly do with our money. WTF? - kingofinternet, on 06/28/2009, -3/+72NASA should run GM
- TroyPDX, on 06/28/2009, -0/+55FTA "it's had to drive backward, dragging the useless wheel behind it"
Did this choke anyone else up a little? - hawkspur, on 06/28/2009, -3/+56Then our cars would cost billions of dollars and be delayed by rainstorms.
- rframpton, on 06/28/2009, -0/+45..but they'd be ROCKET CARS!
- EddiePotato, on 06/28/2009, -0/+37Humans have been stuck on one for a lot longer.
- inactive, on 06/28/2009, -0/+35This should be the next Pixar script. Imagine the end, where they 'die' alone on Mars. Little kids crying everywhere.
- irkalla, on 06/28/2009, -0/+34I hope you don't mind an iPod with a 20 MHz processor and 256 MB of storage. >_>
That's how much horsepower the Spirit and Opportunity probes are packing. - O8SERVER, on 06/28/2009, -1/+34I BET YOU COULD FIX SPIRIT'S WHEEL WITH SOME MIGHTY PUTTY
- spookyttws, on 06/28/2009, -0/+31"The 5.2-by-7.5-foot rovers landed three weeks apart in January 2004, on opposite sides of Mars."
I didn't realize they were quite that big. I guess because we only get shots from far away they just seemed smaller. They literally are the size of golf carts. Really, really expensive golf carts. - sexybobo, on 06/28/2009, -0/+30It only needs a 20 mhz processor and 256 meg of storrage. Try getting power for any more on ***** mars.
- MajesticBeaver, on 06/28/2009, -0/+30LOOK AT THE AWESOME AUGER MAKE QUICK WORK OF THAT MARTIAN SOIL!
- Screwy1138, on 06/28/2009, -0/+29Voyager 1 and 2 as well. While some robots fail, some blow away our wildest expectations.
We need to treat space exploration like a manifest destiny. Though, it's not really that, it's really for our species' survival. - TroyPDX, on 06/28/2009, -0/+25But no! At the last minute some highly evolved alien robots will come and fall in love with them and their cute pluckiness and fix them and happy endings all around!
- Patori, on 06/29/2009, -0/+24He does know. The comment was intentional.
It's the new meme.
And I loled at the "WE'LL THROW IN ANOTHER MARS ROVER" - smcavoy, on 06/28/2009, -0/+21no problem, got a half billion?
- SirBruce, on 06/28/2009, -0/+21It was EVE, you know. He just pronounced it EVA.
- hybridcreation, on 06/28/2009, -0/+21They were supposed to last 90 days and are still going 5 years later. How's that for ROI?
- gcnaddict, on 06/28/2009, -1/+20Yeah. It's like forcing a cripple into slave labor, except in conditions thousands of times worse. :(
Thankfully, they've pulled through :D - TwoFootAfro, on 06/28/2009, -0/+19Coming Again to Probe the Mother ***** Space YEAH!
- rawnnie, on 06/28/2009, -0/+18Wow, you are correct. Glad I searched before asking you to provide a source (though that would have been a useful thing ;))
"Solar arrays generate about 140 watts for up to four hours per Martian day (sol) while rechargeable lithium ion batteries store energy for use at night. Spirit's onboard computer uses a 20 MHz RAD6000 CPU with 128 MB of DRAM, 3 MB of EEPROM, and 256 MB of flash memory. The rover's operating temperature ranges from −40 °C to +40 °C (−40 °F to 104 °F) and radioisotope heaters provide a base level of heating, assisted by electrical heaters when necessary. A gold film and a layer of silica aerogel provide insulation."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_rover - maeon3, on 06/28/2009, -0/+17I have this fantasy that they find some garbage on mars, left behind by some ancient alien civilization a million years ago. That would finally stimulate the space race that will finally get humans off this damn rock so nuclear war doesn't finish us off.
- EddiePotato, on 06/28/2009, -2/+18NASA would go broke buying them within a year.
- brownsound00, on 06/29/2009, -0/+16BILLY MAYS MAY HAVE PASSED ON, BUT WE CAN KEEP HIM ALIVE IN THE DIGG THREADS FOREVER
- frankdozier, on 08/10/2009, -0/+16THANK YOU FOR THAT WONDERFUL TRIBUTE TO BILLY MAYS.
- bkraj, on 06/28/2009, -1/+16That was deep, yo.
- EddiePotato, on 06/28/2009, -0/+15No, a Made in USA one. "America" can refer to either of two continents.
- bdpf, on 06/29/2009, -0/+15Made in USA
- sdipaola, on 06/28/2009, -1/+15renewable energy - what a concept
- apickle, on 06/29/2009, -0/+14@sexybobo: That's actually why the next Mars rover (the size of a bus) won't be using solar panels. The dust storm incident was enough to learn from, that solar panels are not reliable on Mars. The next one will be using a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (the Cassini spacecraft uses three of those).
- NoamChimpsky, on 06/29/2009, -0/+13ROVING ROVING ROVING
Though the dust is storming
Keep them wheelies rolling
NASA! - rframpton, on 06/28/2009, -1/+14WIN
- Polycarp87, on 06/29/2009, -0/+13DID ANYONE SEE WHEN BILLY MAYS WAS ON CONAN AND CONAN TRIED TO SHOW HIM A SHAMWOW? BILLY MAYS WAS PISSED!!! LESSON LEARNED: EVEN BILLY MAYS KNOWS THAT SHAMWOWS ARE A SCAM.
- hybridcreation, on 06/29/2009, -0/+13Sure does. And if we all possessed the motivation and discipline to go to school for 6-8 years we could be be doing it too.
- inactive, on 06/28/2009, -0/+12Spirit has been stuck on a rock for the past few months now.
- redmannine, on 06/28/2009, -0/+12Go Rovers!
- inactive, on 06/29/2009, -2/+12And bailing out wall street with billions is helping americans..... hhow?
- kjones555, on 06/29/2009, -0/+10YOU HAVE MARS DIRT ON YOUR SPIRIT WHEELS THAT WON'T COME OFF WITH WATER? SPRAY ON SOME KABOOM AND WATCH IT COME RIGHT OFF! SPRAY SOME ORANGE GLO ON OPPORTUNITY TO GIVE IT THAT CITRUSY SMELL!
- f0dder, on 06/29/2009, -0/+9Martian rovers fall outside of consumer protection laws so most likely your NASA ipod will be full of toxic chemicals, possibly highly radioactive. It won't be very user friendly as it's designed to be operated by rocket scientists.
- irkalla, on 06/29/2009, -2/+11"It only needs a 20 mhz processor and 256 meg of storrage. Try getting power for any more on ***** mars."
Actually, the problem isn't power generation, it's mostly the radiation-hardening. Mars doesn't have a magnetic field, and most Earth-based processors would get fried within minutes. But because there's such a limited market for radiation-hardened systems, they lag way behind consumer products and cost astronomical amounts of money. - Amazetbm, on 06/29/2009, -0/+9Not much difference in the old GM.
- kh103, on 06/29/2009, -0/+9I know it's not very scientific, but I want to see the rovers brought back to Earth. Maybe we can put them out to stud.
- MaskedSlacker, on 06/29/2009, -0/+9And they'd run 20 times longer than designed for. Spirit and Opportunity were supposed to be 90 day missions. This is like a car running for 4 MILLION miles.
- unusualbob, on 06/29/2009, -1/+10That's right, because apparently exploring another planet in-depth is not worth 1/650,000th of what it takes to attempt to fix our economy.
[ Source for estimated bailout funds http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&am ... ] -
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