How Do You Land a Nuke-Powered Mini-Cooper On Mars? 218
tcd004 writes "Miles O'Brien narrates this video simulation of NASA's next Mars shot, which promises to out-gun all previous efforts. The Mini Cooper-sized Mars Science Laboratory, which is now named Curiosity, will crawl the Martian surface under steam from a nuclear powerplant — but it's a gentle giant compared to its predecessors. Recent theories have emerged that previous attempts at identifying organic compounds in Martian soil may have actually cooked away any signs of life-giving elements. Curiosity will go to great pains to avoid scorching the Earth ... erm ... Mars."
RTFA (Score:3, Funny)
Yo dawg we herd you liked mini coopers so we put a mini cooper on yo mars planet.
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Yo. stupid mods. you missed the typo in the story title.
"How Do Yo Land a Nuke-Powered Mini-Cooper On Mars?"
Re:RTFA (Score:5, Insightful)
"How Do Yo Land a Nuke-Powered Mini-Cooper On Mars?"
Clearly, it's a pun on the word "Yo-yo".
Since the plan is that it does down, but not back up again, it's just a "yo".
Oy vey (Score:5, Funny)
>gentile giant
What, it's an uncircumcised, nuclear powered Mini Cooper?
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Genitle Giant? (Score:4, Informative)
As opposed to what, "Semitic Softie"?
+1 (Score:5, Funny)
+1 for the great headline!
Otherwise, I'll state the obvious: Carefully!
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Today's article editing brought to you by Firefox Spellcheck.
Yo, Slashdot editors, cmon! :|
Gentile Giant? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Gentile Giant? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Gentile Giant? (Score:5, Funny)
Personally, I don't think the space lab's religion is any of our business.
I dunno... it could be a problem if it's a strict 6000-yr Creationist.
NASA: Okay MSL, send us the data from the last sample analysis.
MSL: I'll save some bandwidth and just give you the summary. No life, no precursors.
NASA: Okay, but if you could please just send us the raw data, that'd be great. This sample looked really promising and...
MSL: I said NO LIFE!
Well... (Score:2)
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I'm not sure that's originally attributable to an F-4 pilot. I've heard that quite a bit in the past, and always understood it to be a rocket reference.
You may want to check RFC 1925 for probably the longest version I've seen.
Car Chase (Score:2)
This is a good plan. I saw that one movie, the Italian Job, I know how sturdy Mini coopers can be. I'm sure they can handle the harsh environment of mars.
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That movie also taught me Mini Coopers can handle much more powerful engines than you'd think. A nuclear-powered model is quite possible.
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Um, Smokey and the Bandit? Bullitt? You could fit more scientific gear in a Firebird or a Mustang. Or hell, how about a Blues Brothers cop car? From those flicks, Firebirds, Mustangs, and cop cars are invincible!
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Um, Smokey and the Bandit? Bullitt? You could fit more scientific gear in a Firebird or a Mustang. Or hell, how about a Blues Brothers cop car? From those flicks, Firebirds, Mustangs, and cop cars are invincible!
Not possible, although there are clearly no roads on Mars, they just can't take the risk that the rover might one day need to turn a corner - what a way to waste millions of dollars if the thing gets stuck at a corner millions of miles away with no way for us to free it.
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Long live the ability to read ... (Score:2)
It's always fun when you misread titles like this and end up with:
Not that I have any idea just how a land-powered vehicle would work, but the imagery was intriguing.
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It's always fun when you misread titles like this and end up with:
Not that I have any idea just how a land-powered vehicle would work, but the imagery was intriguing.
Obvious, really. You nuke it from orbit...
Re:Long live the ability to read ... (Score:5, Funny)
Simple... (Score:2, Redundant)
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Well, you could roll it down a hill.
Corporate sponsorship... (Score:3, Interesting)
One wonders how much BMW paid to have "the Mini Cooper" used to describe this thing... :)
Re:Corporate sponsorship... (Score:5, Funny)
One wonders how much BMW paid to have "the Mini Cooper" used to describe this thing... :)
Two libraries of Congress.
And a ping-pong ball.
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Hmm.. A BMW to the right person in the NASA Communications dept. would do the trick, I imagine.
Re:Corporate sponsorship... (Score:5, Interesting)
One wonders how much BMW paid to have "the Mini Cooper" used to describe this thing... :)
Well they could have said "small car", but that is kinda subjective as what amounts to a small car in the US is gi-friggining-normous everywhere else in the world. Instead I'm guessing that the news program just went with a recognized make/model that is in use all over the place, and that no money changed hands.
Mini Cooper - the new Library of Congress for volume measurements!
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They could have said "X by Y by Z", where X is the length, Y is the width, and Z is the depth.
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That requires more thought to understand. If you say "the size of a mini cooper" you get it in less than a second, with dimensions it takes me 5 or 10 seconds to process it all and get an understanding. As much as football fields, mini coopers and libraries of congress are ridiculous and imprecise, they are pretty decent references for public, non-technical descriptions.
While 5 or 10 seconds may not be much in the grand scheme of things, if you're reading a news article, you're likely to ignore measuremen
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Time has nothing to do with it. Absolutely nothing.
It's all about making an analogy. For some reason, cars are a particularly common choice.
The advantage of the analogy is that almost anybody can understand the meaning at a glance and with very little effort. Time plays a part of the effort, of course, but it's not the core component. In the end, a person will try to imagine how big X, Y, and Z are and realize, "So X by Y by Z is about the size of a small car ... maybe a Cooper?"
Why not just make that l
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As much as football fields, mini coopers and libraries of congress are ridiculous and imprecise, they are pretty decent references for public, non-technical descriptions.
What, so they're gonna drop a mini cooper the size of a football field onto the library of Congress? I didn't get that from the video...
Relative sizes (Score:2)
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Mini Cooper - the new Library of Congress for volume measurements!
Actually, the old volume measurement was "Volkswagens" (as in a Volkswagen Bug). So the Mini Cooper is the new Volkswagen Bug.
Land? (Score:2)
Re:Land? (Score:4, Interesting)
Over-rated? The Mars Polar Lander [wikipedia.org] didn't fare so well during its landing.
Granted, that was a different system, but I'm not sure an airbag system will work for something over five times heavier than Spirit or Opportunity. Landing is definitely a hard thing to do.
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DJ used nature's perfect shock absorber: a twinkie [full-house.org].
It didn't work.
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If playing hero system has taught me anything, it's that just putting plate armor on it will keep it safe from impact.
Just like an egg put in a steel box and dropped for 500 feet.
Almost exactly like it, in fact.
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Land it? You'll be lucky to get it off the ground after the eco-weenies hear the word "nuclear". But hey, nice try!
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You'll be lucky to get it off the ground after the eco-weenies hear the word "nuclear".
Whenever I see a statement like that, it makes me sure that the person saying it is too young to remember what it was like before the Clean Air act and the Clean Water Act, a high-ranking executive of a polluting industry like ADM or Monsanto or BP, or is just brainwashed by the second group.
Yes, there are extremist environmental nutjobs, but your "eco-weenies" suggests that you are a wingnut yourself, just on the other w
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I always thought "landing" was over-rated. Give it a parachute and external airbags then just crash it into Mars and be done with it...
Agreed. Heck, they could even dispense with the parachute, airbags, and expensive science package and just crash a real mini cooper into Mars and be done with it.
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To big to bag [Re:Land?] (Score:2)
Give it a parachute and external airbags then just crash it into Mars and be done with it...
"Crashes" would be right. MSL is too heavy for airbag landing, I'm afraid.
We had real problems with the airbag system for even the MER, and MSL is twice as large in all dimensions.
It's that cube-square thing-- "a horse splashes". (--Haldane [ucla.edu])
English-to-metric conversion? (Score:3, Funny)
How many Volkswagens equal one Mini-Cooper?
rj
Re:English-to-metric conversion? (Score:5, Informative)
You just made the same mistake NASA did once; a Mini-Cooper is smaller than a VW.
Nuclear powered Mini Cooper (Score:2)
When can I get one? This solves all the foreign oil and global warming problems with current automobiles.
Also how do I fill it up, or does it come with a full tank that lasts 10 years?
cost NASA an extra billion to develop (Score:2)
With Rockets (Score:2)
and a parachute. After laning, have it drive 10 Kilometers from the landing sight to get away from the effects of rocket assisted landing.
that'd be COOOL!!! (Score:2)
Easy. Here is a demo: (Score:4, Funny)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_KXgFpguE0 [youtube.com]
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No, here [youtube.com] is a demo of the prototype, constructed from a Reliant Robin to keep costs down.
Appropriate narrator (Score:3, Interesting)
For those who don't know, Miles O'Brien [wikipedia.org] is also the name of the transporter chief on ST:TNG and Chief of Operations for DS9. I clicked the link really hoping that they paid the actor to narrate this. Oh well. :-(
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If it had been Colm Meaney who narrated it it wouldn't have said "Miles O'Brien", now would it? BTW, Meany did a good job in Die Hard 2: Die Harder. It would have been better if, after he crashed hi airplane, somebody would have said "He's dead, Jim."
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If it had been Colm Meaney who narrated it it wouldn't have said "Miles O'Brien", now would it?
I dunno, this is Slashdot, you know.
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Ditto, especially hit me hard since I am playing STO and subseqently decided to re-watch DS9 in its entirety which I am halfway through (Netflix ftw). My first thought was "Hmm, shouldn't they say Colm Meaney instead of Miles O'Brien?" Then I started watching and was like, "Oh."
This experience has made me realize something though. I'm never going to get laid ever again.
A better question (Score:3, Funny)
How do we stop submitters from using questions for headlines?
Re:A better question (Score:4, Insightful)
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How do we stop submitters from using questions for headlines?
Thats simple, you just employ editors who have the professional knowledge to bring headlines and summaries into the best format
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What's wrong with questions?
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questions are a burden to others
answers are a prison for one's self
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All of science is based on questions. All of technology is based on answers.
Nuclear Powered (Score:4, Informative)
---
Space Craft [feeddistiller.com] Feed @ Feed Distiller [feeddistiller.com]
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Re:Nuclear Powered (Score:4, Funny)
I want one! (Score:2)
I want one! Here, on Earth... It can even be bigger in size than a mini-Cooper — so as to be able to accommodate passengers and cargo. But, on the other hand, it does not need to be so sturdy as to survive a landing on Mars — only the reactor needs to be protected so as to not explode upon falling into Grand Canyon.
Will I ever have one? Ok, if not me, maybe, it can be produced in an 18-wheeler form-factor? No? A rail-road locomotive?
Talk about eliminating dependency
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There's nothing that can explode on an RTG. Nothing is pressurized. It's basically a hot rock with a bunch of wires stuck to it.
Not so gentle, it has a Nuclear powered LASER! (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know why they claim it is a "Gentle Giant". It's got a nuclear powered LASER used for remotely zapping targets of interest to determine their composition!
I mean, how would you like it if a giant robot dropped out of the sky and started shooting frikking laser beams at you! ;)
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Depends, is the nuclear powered LASER Gentle?
Skycrane (Score:5, Informative)
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That device seems to need a lot of on board material for the thrusts. I didn't see where it could old that much material in the device that was shown.
Put it in the back of a nuclear-powered Hummer? (Score:2)
What do you expect - ask a stupid question ...
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There are no stupid questions, only ignorant questions, and all questions are ignorant. But there are stupid answers; any answer that doesn't alleviate the questioner's ignorance is a stupid answer, especially since the questioner is looking for alleviation of ignorance.
Going Home to Mars. (Score:2)
We all migrated from Mars. The ecology went south, so we moved to Mars. It was a giant meteorite, not man's pollution.
This is why there are two creation stories in Genesis! It also explains why we used to have such great tech to build the pyramids.
[/sacarsm]
Show of hands... (Score:4, Interesting)
Who was disappointed not to see Colm Meaney? Yeah, me too.
Re:Show of hands... (Score:4, Insightful)
For not knowing, you'd have to turn in your Trekkie card.
For having to ask, that'll be your Google license.
I suggest... (Score:2)
From Orbit... (Score:2)
Yes! (Score:2)
How Do Yo Nuke a Land-powered Mini-Cooper On Mars? (Score:2)
I'm not sure, but we'll need to make one much bigger than the regular 58 grams size.
Are we going to wrong way about it? (Score:2)
Instead of sending a single, big, expensive unit, shouldn't we increase our chances and areas of exploration by sending dozens if not hundreds of smaller, cheaper units?
If the landing of that Mini-Cooper goes wrong, we lose the only unit. If the landing of 300 small units goes wrong, we still have a chance that some units may still be intact on landing not to mention that less mass equals less impact force. And even if all goes well, we can explore a lot more area with 300 small units than with a single big
How to Land Safely? (Score:2)
Following that, the rest should be a piece of cake.
And the answer is.... (Score:2)
Very Carefully!
Re:"Its" is possessive (Score:5, Funny)
"It's" is a conraction. It means "it is."
I think you mean't "contraction"
Re:"Its" is possessive (Score:5, Insightful)
The law of correcting typos: attemping to correct a previous poster's typo creates a typo from the current poster.
Re:"Its" is possessive (Score:5, Funny)
The law of correcting typos: attemping to correct a previous poster's typo creates a typo from the current poster.
You meant "attempting", apparently it's recursive...
Re:"Its" is possessive (Score:5, Funny)
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Comma goes inside the quotes.
It's the typographical equivalent of physics 101: typos can not be created or destroyed; they can only change from.
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Ah, yes. The Conservation of Accuracy, as it's known. The total number of typos being committed in a particular language at a particular time is constant. This is why I do not lose heart when I see some of the writing atrocities you come across on the internet. With them doing their part to consume the number of available errors, the way is left clear for someone, somewhere, to produce some of the most beautiful English prose we will ever see. It's the reason it takes 1e6 monkey-typewriter-years to pro
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Con'raction?
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Con'raction?
She was the lead Vulcan in a Star Trek novel with gold lettering and bad airbrushed artwork on the cover.
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"it's a gentle giant compared to its predecessors" is correct, did you misread it or did they correct it?
For people who think "oh, possessive, you need an apostrophe in a possessive" (the cat's feet) it's
he's she's it's
his hers its
Talking about funny misreadings... (Score:2)
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Use DS9's tractor beam?
They would have to first build all the remaining eight Deep Spaces to get to Deep Space nine in the first place, and only then would they be able to pull this one off.
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