NASA Announces Robust Multi-Year Mars Program; New Rover to Close Out Decade of New Missions

NASA releases its plans for exploration of Mars in the article linked below.

NASA Announces Robust Multi-Year Mars Program; New Rover to Close Out Decade of New Missions

reply to post by ProfessorChaos

The 2020 mission will constitute another step toward being responsive to high-priority science goals and the president's challenge of sending humans to Mars orbit in the 2030s.

Hopefully I will be able to see this happen. Judging by the leaps and bounds we humans have come in such a short time, it isn't hard to think we could get there sooner.

reply to post by iamhobo


Well, with this and Voyager set to leave the solar system, we could be seeing all kinds of interesting space-related news.

Building on the success of Curiosity's Red Planet landing...,[...]

What success? What new discovery? I miss something recently?

A Big FAIL at the moment....

Originally posted by Arken

Building on the success of Curiosity's Red Planet landing...,[...]

What success?

To help you understand why the Curiosity landing was a success, contrast it with this example of a landing that wasn't a success:

Mars Polar Lander

on December 3, 1999, after the descent phase was expected to be complete, the lander failed to reestablish communication with Earth. It was determined the most likely cause of the mishap was an improperly ceased engine firing prior to the lander touching the surface, causing the lander to impact at a high velocity.

The curiosity landing procedure was a little complex and risky, and was one which had never been tried before, so there was no guarantee of success...a lot could have gone wrong in the landing, and still could on a future rover mission.

A Big FAIL at the moment....

So what does it take to make it a success in your view? Little green aliens coming out of their underground bunkers to wave at the camera?

The next rover sounds like it will probably be very much like the current rover (it will even use some of the leftover extra parts), but at least it will get to see a different part of the planet. The surface of Mars may not be as diverse as that of Earth, but it's not the same everywhere.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


I Confirm: Curiosity Mission, at this moment, is a Big FAIL.

Nothing new from Curiosity. Only entertainment for children, cartoons, CGI movies, and fake announcements.

Oh, the "little" green men, they are not so "little"...