!!!!Mars Rover Breaks Down!!!!

[TheBlueRaja]

Oh Dear - Look - heres the FACT's whether you like it or not.

Columbus discovered america - we (Brits) then colinized it - then along came americans, they killed the natives and claimed it as their own.

Built lots of McDonalds and got fat, claimed they ruled the world - nobody listens.

Its true.

Were just bad parents tiz all.

 

[XpGuy1]

Good point BR.. we as american are fat and McDonalds is the cause. we as americans eat way to much on a whole and if this trend continues we are going to be a bunch of big fat bloated people.

 

[Dubbin1]

we are going to be a bunch of big fat bloated people.

That rule the world

 

[XpGuy1]

oh yes i forgot about that dubbin.. we will rule the world.. but be fat a$$'s doing it.. LOL

 

[Perris Calderon]

Oh Dear - Look - heres the FACT's whether you like it or not.

Columbus discovered america - we (Brits) then colinized it - then along came americans, they killed the natives and claimed it as their own.

hmmm

seems to me america was discovered by the natives that lived there

anyway, for arguments sake, if you want to disqualify the natives as the discoverers of their land, then you'd have to look to the vikings as the next discoverers

 

[TheBlueRaja]

- Meanwhile back on mars....

Nasa said two signals were captured on Friday shortly after the Martian dawn by an antenna of the international Deep Space Network near Madrid, Spain.

The US space agency said the first communication with Spirit occurred at 1234 GMT and lasted for 10 minutes. The data rate was weak at 10 bits per second.

The second contact came at 1326 GMT and lasted 20 minutes. On this occasion, the data was fed at a rate of 120 bits per second.

"The spacecraft sent limited data in a proper response to a ground command, and we're planning for commanding further communication sessions later today," said Mars Exploration Rover project manager Pete Theisinger.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3423717.stm

Things are looking a little bit better...

 

[TheBlueRaja]

And these are cool as.... Pictures taken of mars by the recently arrived Mars Express probe in orbit.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3423301.stm

You gotta love the beeb...

You can get superhuge pictures of them here...

http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/SEMFEB474OD_FeatureWeek_1.html

 

[Perris Calderon]

I also seem to think I saw a headline that water is found

 

[TheBlueRaja]

Beat me too it - here's the scoop....

http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/index.html

 

[Dubbin1]

They have contact again http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3855168/

 

[Dubbin1]

Mars rover is back

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3855168/

 

[Geffy]

I guess NASA (btw if you put an E in there like NASEA it almost makes you feel ill) needs a break now after the shuttle thing, so I hope all returns to normal, but I do think they are sorta cheating by using Rockets to get into space, look at us brits we are going to get there in balloons

 

[Perris Calderon]

needed a reboot

must be a milenium they sent up

 

[NerdUprising]

needed a reboot

must be a milenium they sent up

L. O. L.

 

[TheBlueRaja]

Looks like its dodgy Flash memory thats causing the problem....

Hours before NASA's Opportunity rover will reach Mars, engineers have found a way to communicate reliably with its twin, Spirit, and to get Spirit's computer out of a cycle of rebooting many times a day.

Spirit's responses to commands sent this morning confirm a theory developed overnight that the problem is related to the rover's two "flash" memories or software controlling those memories.

"The rover has been upgraded from critical to serious," said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager Peter Theisinger at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Significant work is still ahead for restoring Spirit, he predicted.

More here...

Opportunity (The second rover) will reach Mars at 05:05 Sunday, Universal Time (12:05 a.m. Sunday EST or 9:05 p.m. Saturday PST).

Fingers crossed everyone -

 

[~bk]

The good thing is that the twin rover Odyssey is land on Mars soon.

 

[Perris Calderon]

I think they'll be able to fix the flash...they need to update the drivers...don't they know this?

someone send them the link to our forums

 

[Alucard]

Allright ! Opportunity has landed!

It also looks like they're going to fully revive Spirit too

 

[leedogg]

Awesome 1 and 1/2 for 2!!!! although it will soon be 2 for 2 once the glitches in spirit are worked out. I really wish beagle 2 had been successful...and I hope Britian's investments in space exploration dont die off as a result of this set back

For all the nitpickers about discovering 'America', the only relevant discovery is the one that made its existance known to the bulk of humanity. In the context of 'discovering' "America", since we're talking about "America" (which to the native indigineous people it most certainly was not called) this should indicate that we are referring to America as it was discovered and coined by the modernized/civilized world at the time (Europe) people 'discover' things all the time, does this mean that no other human has found or seen it before? no it means that to a majority of humankind it was 'unknown', and its discovery has made it 'known'.

 

[TheBlueRaja]

That really is awesome news...