Re: Re: Short memories?
 

Don't be silly, they'd sink into the cheese.

With the apparent Mars mission curse that has plagued us earthlings for the last several missions, I wonder if NASA has considered the possiblity that the second lander would fall on and obliterate their first lander. Calculating the odds of that would be a good task to keep an intern busy for a week or so.

That would be a press conference to behold.

It *would* be quite the colossal fuckup, since the second lander is supposed to land clean on the other side of the planet. Of course, that distance is a relatively small fraction of the total distance the lander has travelled, so it would still be a very near miss by outer space standards... :D

At about 103 million miles distant, that would be about 9.25 minutes to get a signal out or 18.5 minutes for a full duplex response.

The distance to Mars is variable, so the communication lag is variable, too. I think the longest lag (if Earth is on one side of the sun, and Mars is on the other) would be something like 44 minutes.

One reason why this mission has a 'window' is that Mars is currently so close to earth. At its closest, Mars would be 35 million miles or 6.25 minutes full duplex communication. Current distance last reported was 103 million miles. Max distance (when sun did not obstruct communication) would take something like 44 minutes full duplex.

NASA has a pretty neat picture up of the rover Opportunity driving around the rim of a deep crater. The 1MB high resolution version clearly shows the tire tracks going off into the distance around the crater.

The rover has already exceeded all expectations for longevity. Scientists are thinking now that it might last for years.

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/thumb/PIA05909.jpg

I guess the first base is going to have a bitch of a time joining a quake game with that kind of ping.