What does this look like to you?
How is it that the two rovers, which cost about $800 million to build, have found nothing of value in 18 months, and whose only media-worth performance has been the creation of this image?
Actually, only one Rover is still functioning. The other one went offline in 2010: a $400 million glitch.
Was this image planned? Is NASA that clever? No one at NASA is saying. Instead, NASA’s site features this deadly dull announcement, along with the photo.
The Mars Exploration Rovers have traversed more than 10 kilometers over the Martian surface, using a combination of vision-enhanced autonomous drives and simple directed moves in which operators tell them where to go and motions are executed without taking pictures. When driving autonomously, MER vehicles use cameras to look ahead and avoid potential problems using Stereo Vision and GESTALT (Grid-based Estimation of Surface Traversability Applied to Local Terrain)
NASA has a team of writers who are paid high wages and pension benefits to write news reports like this one. But at least they ran the photo.
So many people went to see the photo yesterday that the site crashed.
This was the biggest story that NASA has had in several decades. These are our tax dollars at work.
Beneath the photo is the word Enlarge. Hope springs eternal.
The fact that the image faithfully represents NASA’s main approach to the American taxpayer seems appropriate.
It makes you wonder what image, if any, the missing rover has sketched.
Never was good at deciphering ink blots. What is the alleged obvious message here?????
I'm wondering that too. What are we supposed to see?
But we must furlough air traffic controllers due to sequestration ….yet this small example (by government spending standards) would fund those furloughed and White House tours for dozens if not hundreds of years.
Other than it looks like it was going in circles? Hey Gary! Fill us clueless folks in!
Space exploration is very expensive and no results have ever come close to justifying the outrageous expense involved. Cancel the programs and give the people a tax cut.
p.s. How appropriate the tracks in the picture remind me of the way the clown car spins around at the circus …. we have elected 90% clowns to office in this country.
You can see they're tracks lost in circles on a road to nowhere!
So many mysterious anomolies and structures on Mars and neither rover investigated a single one, purposely. I saw this coming a mile away.
The headline says “symbolic,” so I think they’re simply referring to the ‘going in circles’ action the rover apparently made.
Sort of looks like a homage from NASA to their bosses in DC … the resemblance is striking!
Any failures of the expensive Mars missions will probably "justify" a bigger program. That's government logic. Reward failure! Early on, many of us had an appreciation of NASA. It was a source of national pride and drove many innovations. It helps us to be dazzled by the universe. More recently NASA seems intent on validating pagan-Statist hoaxes like evolution, global warming, and extraterrestrial life. Even the justification for the money poured into the space station appears thin. This is a nation careening mindlessly toward bankruptcy. We should have cut the crap out of federal government spending long ago.
It looks like a male appendage.
Seriously…you don't see it?
Is that other fraud, Picasso, on NASA's dole, too?
Along with the bums who spent this near-enough Billion Dollars on more of nothing. On more of all NASA has ever done!
N:ever in Human History has so much been squandered on the
A:chievement of
S:o little it essentially amounts to
A:bsolutely nothing!
Im sorry I just dont get it! al I can see from your comments is someone guiding it in circles – Looks like. maybe they were testing the tracks? or guidance?
Uh…. the dead rover – one of a pair- was only planned to last something like 90 days. It ended up lasting 4 or 5 years. NASA is probably one of the few gov agencies that actually does anything worthwhile.
Maybe it's just because I'm not awake yet but it looks like the Twin Towers with smoke billowing away!
Great, but I want more bang for the buck. I see land, natural resources, almost double the resources we currently have. Why no habitat pods by now. My 4×4 F150 will drive all over that place, just need a little different power source or O2 recirculation, tire improvement(kevlar), seals/filters/cabin recirc and wow! I want more. I want more Give me more. More is just better. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Couple this with the fantastic aging revelations on reversal, i.e. telomerase/telomeres, energy, antioxidant effects on a meriade of cell structures, including DNA protection/duplication. Hoorah! Feels good to be alive. The essence of mankind is dramatically changing. I want more. I want more. More is better.
You're kidding, right? First of you, you are patently wrong. Just a few "results": hydroponics, GPS navigation, medical advancements, communications, weather and solar flare prediction, astronomy. All these things come from our presence in space. Second, you DO know that Earth is destined for destruction? It is a given. Our sun will swell and boil all water off of this planet – assuming we don't suffer another twenty or thirty extinction-level events before our "heater" goes red giant and fries us. The most important thing to human existence in the long run is figuring out a way to get off this rock.
Are you snarky nay-sayers that aggressively ignorant that you're not aware of all the things that you use in your daily lives that have come from NASA research? Wow! I knew that for the most part our institutions of "higher" learning were totally incompetent, but this is amazing!
Check this out :http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/50-years-50-giant-leaps-how-nasa-rocked-our-world-879377.html, or this one: http://www.howstuffworks.com/innovation/nasa-inve…
Ant'ny daWeinuh would be proud – those NASA programmers are so clever ! !
tHEY SHOULD HAVE PUT iMPEACH oBAMA ON THE MARS SURFACE WITH THE ROVER
Thanks Rudy. I was about to post basically the same thing. More has come from NASA ventures than any other government program that has existed. NASA's expenditures are a drop in the bucket compared to our bloated and unnecessary Pentagon spending. Cut THAT, then we'll talk.
Even before I saw your response, I was of the opinion that the image is a giant Rorschach test.
Actually, Bush squandered trillions on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, with so very little accomplished. Not even his "mission" was accomplished.
You're kidding, right? It looks like a crude drawing of a certain part of the male anatomy…the symbolism is how the taxpayer is getting screwed for programs that don't accomplish a whole lot.
Gary — the ever-ignorant tool. One of these days you'll post a worthwhile story. I won't hold my breath, though.
Everyone on Earth 6-7 billion could possess their own GALAXY(tremendous UNDER population), not planet, not solar system but GALAXY with billions of stars each. Some are a little smaller some unbelievably large. Milky Way is medium with billions of of stars. Virtually all, if not all, with planets. Endless vast clouds of hydrocarbons(meriad of fuels) throughout the Universe. With our current understanding of chemistry and physics we are virtually capable of composing most any needed substance from atomic and sub atomic components. The means of economics is the biggest hurdle as we are positioned now. Technology is changing the job environment dramatically. One last note, actually two, we are all about 99.5% identical. The variable component of DNA(0.5%) is enough for all the 6-7 billion variations of people plus many more. This is because it takes so much numerical atomic data to produce a kidney with the billions of cells all formed, positioned, and functioning, not to mention, heart, digestive tract, blood, skeleton, eyes, ears, hand, leg, etc. oh. and brain. Not so much a hair has been actually found anywhere else but here on Earth so far, let alone a living life form, and Mars has been there about 4.5 billion years. This makes life in all its forms so very precious. Probably one of the most(if not the most) precious scientific accomplishments is located behind your eyes, as is your dogs, cats, squirrels, rabbits, dolphins, bears, etc. We have tens of thousands of insects and plants. None of this anywhere else of current record. Most all of this life utilizes for most part only 4 elements of 100+ that exist, the CHON group, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. Three of which are among the top four most prevalent in the UNIVERSE, not planet, not solar system, not galaxy, but UNIVERSE(hydrogen-most abundant, carbon, and oxygen). Nitrogen comes in around 7th. Might have the last 2 switched-doesn't really matter. This is extremely significant that life on Earth "fits" the Universe or it "fits" Earth's life. Wow! Wow! Wow! Hoorah! Hoorah! Hoorah!
The fourth most prevalent element is helium as this is what hydrogen predominantly converts to in nuclear fusion-force fusion conversion driving the Sun. Hydrogen most abundant accounts for around 75% of known mass in Universe. H is also the simplest, basic element with an atomic weight of approx.1. Makes sense.
Both wars were won and their missions accomplished in a few weeks, each.
The Iraq peace was squandered by the activist-"Democrat" State Department's self-anointed, self-appointed and self-perpetuating brahmanas, the basta*d-offspring of the traitors Alger Hiss et al, who've not achieved a positive and/or even pro-America result in a hundred years!
And that Afghanistan is still dragging on is the consequence of Indonesian Foreigh-Exchange student, Soetoro's, having demagogued it for perceived political gain and his pathological narcissism preventing his admitting the error of his ways and either winning it or withdrawing.
Chalk two more won wars' lost peace to the effectively-treasonous "Democratic" potty.
And when Gary does post that worthwhile story we all know Shane, the ever-ignorant troll, will be there to whine and complain as usual.
A very good point made just above…in all of these billions and billions and billions of places that wife might exist, ours may be the only one…anyone who believes there is no God, or no intelligence superior being, doesn’t seem to be paying attention, and therefore loses sight of how precious our existence is… what we have here, and who we are, are far more precious the lack of maturity that we see in this photo…let’s get back to finding out what is out there, for real…let’s stop wasting resources, and get with the program…
Several private companies are ready to launch paying passengers into orbit for about $200,000 and the profits from that will allow larger launch vehicles at $20,000 a ticket five-ten years later and $2,000 five-ten years after that. The hang-up has been the FAA has to inspect and approve these launch vehicles first and the FAA has no idea how to inspect and approve them.
Pull down your shorts and take a look between your legs–if you're a man.
This article is a glorified fart joke. "The biggest story NASA's had in several decades"? I remember the new rover's landing on Mars being a pretty big story, too. Bigger than these vaguely phallic tire tracks. To suggest that a successful mission to Mars is in someway masturbatory or an example of NASA "dicking around" is absurd to me. Have a little imagination.
How shall this be said in a dellicate fashion? Take a look at your hubby's thingy next time he's ready to use it.
Crop circles on mars???
Not over the fiscal cliff like back here on earth!
Be scientific: 1.60934 kms away…
The biggest hoax being the first on your list!
Congressman Weiner?
Did the other "rover" go off a fiscal cliff?
Shane, IF you ever could recognize worthwhile, you would have very high Oxygen levels indeed! You are an obvious product of governmental skrools. Go back to your ADD, ADHD drugs…
but one wife is enough, will!!!
all funded by congressman Weiner
God, what fools these mortals be.–William Shakespeare
Weiner is going to run for Mayor of Mars??????? Might as well. New York City and Mars are interrelated. Most New Yorkers live on another planet anyway.
thats the arizona desert, and NASA is cock sure about this scam fooling the american people
We paid 800 million dollars for a project where 2 Martian Rovers managed to go only 6.214 miles in terrain that looks like the American Southwest. The Russians consistently outdo us in deep water submersibles. In fact, we are so incompetent at development of deepwater submersibles that as I understand it, the project was ended after over a billion dollars was spent. Now, we cannot even make a Martian Land Rover that goes any distance for 400 million. We need to fire the incompetent Federal Government.
You big smart boys do reallize that only”GOD” will determine what hap
pens to us and when…..Right? Whoever is thinking this has been an incredible waste of our money sense the early “60’s” would be absolutely correct. All those trillions of dollars should have been spent on education and “mainly” on Defense. Ooops…… To Late !!!!!!!
Don't people have any imagination anymore? Clearly it is a sexual organ drawn to alert the sheeple of AMERIKA that they are getting a royal screwing by this Muslim-Marxist and his merry band of homo and lesbo nazis! WAKE UP, WISE UP, RISE UP!
We know your fundamentalist anti-science beliefs make you especially negative on NASA but they should also cause you to refrain from crudity. NASA may be a fair target but you have besmirched yourself here.
Instead of advancing science for the betterment of all mankind we are spending a fortune to feed folks who would rather live off the government. It's a sad state of affairs when the narrow minded public misses the point of scientific advancement
and thinks it a better investment to feed a bunch of freeloaders. Sad Sad Sad!
Steve Gross BS Physics
Do you think the Moon Walk really happened?
Of course only a totally ignorant uneducated person would believe the junk science theory it was all fake. How ignorant the public has become due to our horrible education system. We are entering the dark ages again where the public believes in magic not science.
There is a reflector on the moon which is used to bounce laser beams off the surface to measure the distance down to 1 cm. How did it get there? The astronauts placed it there when we went there in the 1960s.
How is it junk science blames cell phones for brain tumors but ignores the fact that TV transmitting stations on virtually the same frequency (channel) as the cell phone transmitting tens of thousands of times more energy hasn't killed everyone working in the tall building like the Sears tower where the antennas are located? Junk science……???
I agree and would argue that Freedom is often times less than free. It hard work. Jimhodgeallied.com
USMCMGB: In plain English, it’s says: “Screw You.” I find it unimaginable that you fail to see the message. How long have you been a Marine, USMC?
Especially when it’s in the ‘erect’ position; how much more explicit does one have to be, to explain this; right, CAllenDoudna?
Please, no logic on this silly article written for Righties.
Would you prefer Bush?
Michael Jackson proved it!
It reminds me of the Religious loons who see the virgin Mary appear on objects instead of natural phenomenon.
NASA is a joke. It's amazing how people who fully recognize that the government is inherently inefficient and destructive will leap up to defend NASA. Seriously, NASA is horrible.
NASA is like all government agencies: it exists to bend over the taxpayer and rape him.
Wordsmith: "Crass euphemism for what this 'sketching' looks like" + "heads" = all the people in government and its' agencies that are taking, using, and wasting our money!!! God definitely has a sense of humor and the ability to "make a point."
Look like the act is about to be done on mars, Just like it was done on this planit..
Some people will believe any line that is handed to them by the government controlled media. What did we get out of NASA?? Tang?? I expect that for the hundreds of billions pissed away that I would get something more. Call me crazy. Seriously, there is no way we are receiving even a fraction of one percent of economic payback for our investment in NASA. The elite need a playground and guaranteed employment doing interesting, exciting work for themselves. They don't want to have to be held to the economic realities of positive Economic Value Add like the rest of us. In other words, big government and academia are butt buddies in the big circle jerk. If only people would vote for someone like Ron Paul we stand a chance of fixing this over time. But with Obama or any of the mainstream GOPs, forget it. The war on common sense has already been lost and I see that many are just waiting for the civil war to begin in order to set things right again.