NASA Releases Video of Perseverance Mars Rover Landing, First Audio Recording

[Route 45]

The debris shield for the Mars helicopter Ingenuity has been dropped, and the sequence for deployment has begun.

 

[dudley0]

Simply amazing. It's a shame that most people will be bored with this as it doesn't match sci-fi.

 

[femurphy77]

I was expecting "This is Mary from member services". . . . . . .

 

[maxwelhse]

In probably the weirdest flex of my life... I spent a few hours one afternoon with the truckers that transported the landing crane/vehicle from where ever it was built to where ever it was going to be launched. Apparently FedEx has a high value/risk shipping line with specialized trucks and drivers and my Ex's 2nd cousins (or some barely relative) were in that business. Met them at a funeral and they showed me pictures of the craft loaded up in their truck.

Simply amazing. It's a shame that most people will be bored with this as it doesn't match sci-fi.

I'm one of those people. Hollywood has utterly ruined this for me as it looked exactly like I thought it would, but lower quality. I don't intend to diminish the achievement by saying that and I'm not in the "waste of resources" camp.

 

[Route 45]

First high resolution images, and video of Ingenuity helicopter rotor testing.

 

[maxwelhse]

Yep... Hollywood has still ruined this for me. That looks like a high school science fair project out in Utah.

 

[Route 45]

 

[LostHoosier]

I don't think it's significant. In fact, I think it's a lot of wasted money and effort. It's foolhardy.

Everything about Mars wants to kill any human who steps foot on there. What little is left of the atmosphere is unbreatheable. Combined with the lack of magnetic poles, solar radiation will poison you in short order without serious protection, which would take a monumental effort to provide.

Mineral resources would require massive excavation and processing systems, and would probably yield less benefit than just shipping raw materials there.

The soil wants to kill everything you try to plant there, and poison your lungs and kill you if you breathe it in.

I don't know why we continue to explore this dead planet. There is no future there for mankind.

Other than simply pushing innovations that will bleed back into terrestrial industries, I can agree with this. Exploring Mars is neat...but ultimately pointless.