Mars!
Take a look at a 360 degree interactive panorama of Mars taken by the Curiosity Rover. You can see Curiosity itself and the tracks it has made on the planet’s surface prior to shooting the photo. Go full screen.
This is amazing stuff. Hell, I remember Sputnik 1, the Russian satelite that kicked off the space race in 1957. We were dazzled by this “thing” that was circling the earth and not doing much more than transmitting “beeps” back to earth. Since that time, we’ve had men walk on the moon, numerous space shuttle flights, we find our way from place A to place B with the help of satelites, and now I am sitting at my computer looking at a color picture of the surface of the planet Mars as if I were there.
Don’t tell me the United States is not exceptional.
Thanks to da Chef of da Future for the link.
The Obamas love to travel on the taxpayer’s dime .How about the Obamas and their supporters colonizing Mars ? This would empty the mental hospitals , and Barack could be king and Michelle queen or vice versa .
Comment by john — October 5, 2012 @ 10:33 pm
I agree. NASA has been incredible. I will worry though until we do NOT have to rely on other countries for “local” space trave. Space exploration has been one of our very best investments as a country as so much science has come from it that improved our daily lives.
Comment by Joseph — October 6, 2012 @ 9:41 am
I am a little older than you (OK, more than a little), and I haven’t lost my sense of awe, either, at the things we’ve done, and that’s a good thing.
But I do miss the good ol’ days, when the groundwork for all this was put down. I fear we are losing or have lost our sense of high adventure as a people.
We as a country have always been good at throwing money at things. We no longer throw it at things that actually have a payback, or that work. We now throw it at the groups that complain the loudest, for which we don’t get anything in return except “I want more!”.
Comment by Charlie — October 6, 2012 @ 7:48 pm
Somebody should forward this to Sheila Jackson Young Congresswoman from Texas who wanted to know when a previous land rover had landed on mars if it was going to visit where the moon rovers had landed.
She could sit for hours watching the panorama horizon scanning for a glimpse of one of our moon astronauts waving to her.
I understand this Klutz actually asked if there were any NASA cost overuns in constrution of the deathstar used in Star Wars.
Comment by dudley1 — October 7, 2012 @ 1:28 pm
Cripes, I cannot even copy my notes anymore……It is Sheila Jackson Lee the Congresswoman…..Sorry everybody!
Comment by dudley1 — October 7, 2012 @ 4:14 pm