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comment by thenewgreen
thenewgreen  ·  4964 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Mars Curiosity rover just launched.
The Rover looks a lot like Johnny 5 from that 80's movie with Steve Gutenberg. It's exciting stuff!

There are two rovers there waiting for some company, right? As I recall, one of them is stuck. Is their a plan to use Curiosity as a rescue rover at all? It does have a laser!





mk  ·  4964 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Opportunity is still going. Spirit died last year.

Considering that Mars is a planet in size, I don't think Curiosity will be anywhere close to the other two.

thenewgreen  ·  4964 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I guess I assumed that they were positioned where they were due to some sort of strategic importance which might mean curiosity was headed there for the same reason. It really is exciting, isn't it? I look forward to it's findings. Safe travels!! 9 months is a while.
mk  ·  4964 days ago  ·  link  ·  
The landing site is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Science_Laboratory#Landing...

It's about 14 sq miles. So even if they did shoot for one of the previous rovers, they might have a very long drive ahead of them.

Here's a map of the previous Mars landings, and crashes:

http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/astro/marsprobemap.html

Curiosity will be closest to Spirit, but not in driving distance:

http://toolserver.org/~geohack/geohack.php?pagename=Gale_(cr...

Jay  ·  4961 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Very cool that the launch was successful but am gonna hold breath till landing...
mk  ·  4961 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Yeah, it freaks me out. Landing a car on Mars is not simple stuff.

It will be so amazing if they pull it off.