The Mars Opportunity mission was formally ended today, nearly 15 years past its planned duration and 44 kilometers past its planned range.
Please take a moment to look on in wonder at least one more time (https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer/multimedia/images/).
Maybe we'll eventually be able to get there with a mission that could fix it? We can hope, anyway.
Quote from: Unbeliever on February 13, 2019, 06:32:29 PM
Maybe we'll eventually be able to get there with a mission that could fix it? We can hope, anyway.
Ask Elon Musk for that one-way ticket?
Quote from: Unbeliever on February 13, 2019, 06:32:29 PM
Maybe we'll eventually be able to get there with a mission that could fix it? We can hope, anyway.
I'm not really sure what I think should be done with the manned and unmanned landing sites when we return to the Moon and go to Mars. I definitely think the Apollo 11 site should be preserved as-is, and I think I would definitely support an agreement among all the spacefaring nations to leave each others' firsts as historical sites.
But thinking hundreds or even thousands of years ahead, if we end up terraforming Mars, what do we do? Put a dome over the Viking 1 and Pathfinder sites to sort-of preserve the original Martian landscape around them? Just fence them off? Put up a historical marker and then haul the original objects off to a museum? I really don't know.
This Mars rover landed before some of the people who were recently in charge of it graduated high school. Let that sink in.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/02/nasa-mars-rover-opportunity-dead-what-it-gave-humankind/
Quote
While this may be the end for Opportunity, the study and exploration of Mars is far from over. The rover Curiosity is still chugging along, as are several Mars orbiters and the InSight lander. The European and Russian space agencies are readying their own Mars rover, recently named Rosalind Franklin after the pioneering x-ray crystallographer. And many alumni from Spirit and Opportunity are hard at work on the upcoming Mars 2020 rover, which will search for signs of past life and cache rock samples for future return to Earth.
In the meantime, Opportunity will stand as a monument to science for hundreds of thousands of yearsâ€"and maybe even a site where future explorers pay tribute. Perhaps in coming decades, humans will touch down in Meridiani Planum, Opportunity's landing area. Some scientists and engineers, including Seibert, have formally suggested the region as a landing site for crewed Mars missions.
“That would be such a powerful moment,†Harrison says, “to have humans come face to face with the emissary that they sent there before them.â€
Quote from: trdsf on February 13, 2019, 10:03:37 PM
I'm not really sure what I think should be done with the manned and unmanned landing sites when we return to the Moon and go to Mars. I definitely think the Apollo 11 site should be preserved as-is, and I think I would definitely support an agreement among all the spacefaring nations to leave each others' firsts as historical sites.
But thinking hundreds or even thousands of years ahead, if we end up terraforming Mars, what do we do? Put a dome over the Viking 1 and Pathfinder sites to sort-of preserve the original Martian landscape around them? Just fence them off? Put up a historical marker and then haul the original objects off to a museum? I really don't know.
We may end up building a virtual replica of Mars, as it is now, so we can use the non-virtual one for resources.
Quote from: Unbeliever on February 14, 2019, 01:31:50 PM
We may end up building a virtual replica of Mars, as it is now, so we can use the non-virtual one for resources.
That is safer. It is not true that ... no one can hear you scream in outer space ... when it is virtual.
Quote from: Unbeliever on February 14, 2019, 01:31:50 PM
We may end up building a virtual replica of Mars, as it is now, so we can use the non-virtual one for resources.
It really depends on what we find there. If (big if, but if) there is current native life on Mars, I think we should leave it alone, take extreme care how we operate on the world, ensure that it can continue existing. I mean, we have the ability to cause the smallpox virus to go completely extinct, and we haven't (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox_virus_retention_debate) -- if we can preserve a known and proven killer for study, we can
definitely preserve an alien life form for the same reason. If there are Martians, however humble, Mars is their world.
If there's no current life anywhere on Mars, we should set aside a few areas as Martian preserves, but otherwise there's no reason not to use the planet.
I don't give high priority to microbes.
Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on February 16, 2019, 07:19:18 AM
I don't give high priority to microbes.
If they're a separate form of life, then I do. Where else are we going to have an example of life other than ours to study? Even the simplest sort of microbe, if it's a separate kind of life from Earthly forms, completely deprovincializes biology. I don't think that means we leave Mars entirely alone, but I do think it means we proceed with extreme care for the maintenance and preservation of any native life, however humble. In a sense, it's their planet.
Opportunity, Over The Bridge, RIP... We will meet again.
Quote from: Cavebear on February 22, 2019, 05:38:20 PM
Opportunity, Over The Bridge, RIP... We will meet again.
When you get reincarnated as a Martian?