What is Digg?61 Comments
- josepablos, on 07/27/2008, -3/+34Someone give the controls to a 10 years old kid plz!
- rsHoratio, on 07/28/2008, -0/+30Its ok Marslander, lots of guys have this problem...
- inactive, on 07/27/2008, -2/+31Is it in yet?
- michaelrsa, on 07/28/2008, -1/+14Just send a certified Sears technician, he can either fix it or we have one less Sears technician, win-win.
- jaymzdean, on 07/28/2008, -0/+10They should have attached an ice cream scoop with that little arm that swooshes through the spoon to free the ice cream.
- inactive, on 07/28/2008, -1/+8No. Send in the Geek Squad. GEEK SQUAD ROLLOUT!!
- jerwin, on 07/28/2008, -2/+9Obama could fix this. Really. No, seriously. He could.
- MrFurious2k, on 07/28/2008, -1/+7Trust me, after four kids I found out you don't always want to place your sample in the oven (yes, I'm a slow learner).
- Pfkninenines, on 07/28/2008, -1/+5Didn't this already happen at least once already this mission?
- jaymzdean, on 07/28/2008, -0/+4Maybe finding unbound carbon molecules is a better indicator of life?
- danesis, on 07/28/2008, -0/+3It's really disturbing how many billions in research go into these missions yet we are still lacking the mechanical engineering knowledge to design a robot capable of performing such a miniscule process. Why not design a suction system (like a vacuum) to suck the dirt directly into the oven? Or build a heating system directly on the scoop to analyze the soil during retrieval?
I'm no rocket scientist, but with all the money that goes into research you think they would've build a redundant system in case these issues happen. You are bound to fail when you only have ONE backup system. - psevium, on 07/28/2008, -0/+3Oh yeah, you were the one that landed the other rover on Mars weren't you? How's that going for you?
- dungar, on 07/28/2008, -1/+4Earth to Mars Lander: use KY Jelly
- jerwin, on 07/28/2008, -0/+2Worse than that, the frigging thing blasted off from earth, flew through space, bounce landed on Mars and it shorts out when they vibrate the scoop thing?
KInd of like getting an iPod wet.... - biofreak12, on 07/28/2008, -0/+2No it didn't. Last time it failed to fall all the way into the oven.
Suggestion, make the wholes bigger =] - spore, on 07/28/2008, -0/+2Sure more redundancy = better.. however you have to pick and choose which systems get redundancy. More mission-critical components will get better backup than ones that are not.
- TylerM, on 07/28/2008, -1/+3http://twitter.com/MarsPhoenix
If you subscribe to the Twitter feed, you can follow the lander and its status. Then we might not have scooping errors on Digg all the time. - spore, on 07/28/2008, -0/+2Quite possible. Anyone know for sure?
Anyway the article says "no signs of carbon" which, if there's carbon dioxide should constitute as a "sign of carbon".. wouldn't it?
I may just be nitpicking, but i genuinely want to understand this :) - revyn, on 07/28/2008, -0/+2That's exactly what I was going to suggest.
Truly, more diggers should be involved in this serious business. - Nintendesert, on 07/28/2008, -0/+2I would have never gotten that joke had you not explained it. Thank you.
- DoscoJones, on 07/28/2008, -0/+2Um, right. Three working rovers and two working Viking landers. How is that "all"?
- DoscoJones, on 07/29/2008, -0/+1Right. So you don't have an answer then. Nice try, McFly. Bzzzt, thanks for playing.
- robweber, on 07/28/2008, -3/+4Millions of dollars and the thing short circuits when shaking the scoop to get dirt out of it. How did they plan this thing out and never come up with a solution to the scenerio where dirt sticks to the scoop? Apparently the NASA engineers have never had any experience actually picking up dirt with a shovel or scoop before. I know this thing has to survive in harsh conditions, plus the trip through space, but seriously; these robots just seem incredibly puny when they can't perform basic tasks.
- miggyb, on 07/28/2008, -1/+2My sentiments exactly.
- DoscoJones, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1Duh, of course it does. They've apparently found a soil type that wasn't on the extensive list of test samples. If you think you can do a better job then please get a job at Cal Tech and get to work.
- hexydes, on 07/28/2008, -2/+3I guess this is one piece of evidence against the "stop sending humans to space" argument. If a human were there, they could just tap the side of the scooper and solve the problem.
- Zoltair, on 07/28/2008, -1/+2You're right, you're not a rocket scientist......
- liuite, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1I had a problem once with a GE microwave oven which had 10 year magnetron warranty...the magnetron failed after 5 years so I called for service. the guy who was dispatched said the company service bulletin said it is a job to be performed by two techs, so he came back with another guy...how many GE techs does it take to remove/replace a microwave? ans: two!
- spore, on 07/28/2008, -1/+2Okay please forgive my ignorance.. but if the previous sample contained Carbon Dioxide, wouldn't that mean they found Carbon? The article says they found Water Vapor and Carbon Dioxide but no Carbon. Someone smarter than me explain?
- Gimpishi, on 07/28/2008, -3/+4An easy bake oven and a poop scooper could have accomplished that, while seriously helping the budget.
- legendxx, on 07/28/2008, -2/+3:[
- DoscoJones, on 07/31/2008, -0/+1And they have it working. All those of you who bitched and moaned from the back seat of ignorance: Suck it.
- skoles, on 07/28/2008, -2/+3Maybe Stephanie from LazyTown can show up and figure it out through some sort of cake making song.
- Culyt, on 07/29/2008, -0/+1More advanced robots would do the trick.
I think we are more likely to have mind uploading and artificial bodies before we get any real space travel happening. Maybe we will get people on Mars, assuming the US economy doesn't kill it and there was actually an intent for that to happen rather than Bush making ***** up (they have been lowering the NASA afaik). - sonicularulus, on 07/29/2008, -1/+1never said i could do a better job. probably can't do a better job, but at least i would've thought of a way to get crap out of the scoop.
- LilRabbitFooFoo, on 08/11/2008, -1/+1"I'm sorry, Dave. I can't do that." - HAL
- cavie2002, on 07/28/2008, -1/+1should of sent wall-e
- rrouse, on 07/29/2008, -1/+1What need is something like an ice cream scoop with a level arm to remove the material that sticks to the scoop.
- LilRabbitFooFoo, on 08/11/2008, -1/+1All little Martians are taught in school that a wrench in the right place at the right time can save their planet from invaders from Earth.
- danesis, on 07/28/2008, -1/+1Apparently the scoop wasn't one of them. Usually the simplest task is the one that requires the most complex thought.
- h0ser, on 07/27/2008, -4/+4its life! its hanging onto the edge cause it doesn't wanna go in.
- Zoltair, on 07/28/2008, -2/+2What they would give for a can of PAM right now......
- jaymzdean, on 07/28/2008, -2/+1I propose, rather than calling this contraption, "NASA's Phoenix Mars lander", we just call it "GW".
- sonicularulus, on 07/28/2008, -3/+2didn't this stuff get tested before sending it out to mars?
- mttyd, on 07/28/2008, -2/+1You can only leave the hot pocket out for an hour... Otherwise you have to throw it out and there is no point trying to get it into the oven if it's bad...
- biofreak12, on 07/28/2008, -2/+1System error...
- shadowman99, on 07/28/2008, -2/+1When I was young I was lucky to even find the oven.
Ah, memories. - pitchblack16, on 07/28/2008, -4/+2seems like all these mars landers seem to have problems, maybe they need to talk to someone
- DeFex, on 07/28/2008, -3/+1Bloody typical, they've gone back to metric without telling us.
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