The future of NASA is inextricably linked to Mars. It's not only a planet of great scientific interest, but the only one humans might visit in any of our lifetimes. While the fight goes on about human spaceflight goals, NASA has planned out the next robotic Mars mission: one that may answer the question of life. Congress and the President are naturally concerned with budgets these days, but we're talking a very manageable slice of the 1/4 of 1 percent of the Federal budget that goes to the only agency seeking out the secerts of the universe. Fund Mars 2020!
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The Mars 2020 Science Definition Team (SDT) has outlined a mission concept for a science-focused, highly mobile rover to explore and investigate in detail a site on Mars that likely was once habitable. The SDT-preferred mission concept employs new in situ scientific instrumentation in order to seek signs of past life (had it been there), select and store a compelling suite of samples in a returnable cache, and demonstrate technology for future robotic and human exploration of Mars. "
2 comments:
There is a good new movie about a fictitious trip to Europa called "Europa Report" out now at Amazon streaming videos. It's somewhat realistic in the style of 2001.
Clark, it's definitely on my list. Hearing good things about it.
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