121–130 of 176 posts
Two billion dollars and they couldn't put a color camera on it :-(
Within a week we should see some full-color images coming in.
Two billion dollars and they couldn't put a color camera on it :-(
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So the UK could have had 6 Curiosity rovers for the price of the Olympics.... NB I do think the Olympics has been a good thing - but I do wonder about the value for money....
That the price was 10 billion does not mean the cost was that. They might even make a profit since they sell the sponsorships, broadcasting rights and tickets not to mention the stimulus of the local economy. Sinking 2 billion into something that yields no direct monetary profit, that's a bold move for any country. They did not even sell broadcasting rights!
Great historic event; congratulations to all involved. As for the images, hate to be a party pooper, but wasn't this thing supposed to be state of the art technology? What's with the shitty image quality?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, wish Australia would take a more active role in space exploration.
Some of the tracking stations for the project are in Australia, including the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex. Perhaps it's a small contribution but Australia is definitely involved.
I would imagine that a lot of the communications stuff has a lot to do with geography and would probably happen without Australian government funding.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life? Or do you want to come with me and change the world?"
I figured a paraphrasing along the lines of "Do you want to sell shiny phones..." or "Do you want to work on ways to share cat pictures..." would be more appropriate.
I took those during landing sequence.. http://i45.tinypic.com/353eemc.jpg http://i46.tinypic.com/ej95s5.png http://i49.tinypic.com/2qicoqq.png http://i50.tinypic.com/2hd8j13.png edit: its just fun to watch those. also, according to NASA there is 500,000 lines of code behind those 38 steps.. would love to see some parts of it!
HN has dozens of people capable of creating a nice lunar lander / mars lander sim.
I took those during landing sequence.. http://i45.tinypic.com/353eemc.jpg http://i46.tinypic.com/ej95s5.png http://i49.tinypic.com/2qicoqq.png http://i50.tinypic.com/2hd8j13.png edit: its just fun to watch those. also, according to NASA there is 500,000 lines of code behind those 38 steps.. would love to see some parts of it!
Why are these not games yet? HN has dozens of people capable of creating a nice lunar lander / mars lander sim.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, wish Australia would take a more active role in space exploration.
Australia has always been a backend operator. Similar for NASA other missions. It has provided the third contact point for when earth spins around which puts the other two contacts point out of reach.
This is amazing. I hope that school children are given time to watch this. I hope that parents and teachers have the skills and knowledge to foster the Curiosity-driven curiosity of those children.