Mars helicopter Ingenuity snaps incredible aerial photo of Perseverance rover during 51st flight

[Admin]

The Mars helicopter Ingenuity captured an incredible aerial photo of the Perseverance rover amidst the desolate Red Planet plains on April 22, 2023.

Mars helicopter Ingenuity snaps incredible aerial photo of Perseverance rover during 51st flight : Read more

 

[joshuawestman]

The Mars helicopter Ingenuity captured an incredible aerial photo of the Perseverance rover amidst the desolate Red Planet plains on April 22, 2023.

Mars helicopter Ingenuity snaps incredible aerial photo of Perseverance rover during 51st flight : Read more

This is truly awe inspiring! To be able to take aerial photography on a distant world with such clarity is mind blowing. Something strikes me as odd however. Going up as a child in the 80's Mars was always depicted as a planet with a red sky. This shows a very earthlike blue sky, almost as if we could walk around on the surface without much protection if any from the elements.

 

[Dave]

Impressive work by Ingenuity. Looking forward to the day we can see the beautiful valleys and volcanoes of Mars , not to mention stunning images from inside a lava tube. It would be simply breathtaking.

 

[ReuvenF]

Personally, all I can think is, how we spent probably tens of millions of dollars -- if not more -- to send machines to another planet, so they can take pictures of one another.
How exactly does that advance the cause of pure science or justify the expense?

 

[Dave]

Human spaceflight and exploration justifies the expense much more then sending machines. We were meant to work hand in hand ( or robotic limb) with machines. Hopefully we can get an actual date of when we are landing on the moon, and when we truly are going to Mars. This is when the true science begins.

 

[batvettejohnny]

Personally, all I can think is, how we spent probably tens of millions of dollars -- if not more -- to send machines to another planet, so they can take pictures of one another.
How exactly does that advance the cause of pure science or justify the expense?

Yeah I used to think like that too then I was reminded of the dozens of huge objects that have impacted the earth, many of which caused mass extinction events like the dinosaurs demise. If a several mile wide asteroid hits the earth in 100 years, every human on the planet is gone. Its not inconveivable, in fact its not an if but a when. Wouldnt it be a good idea if we had a sustainable colony of humans on Mars so our legacy isnt forgotten? The value of such planning is incalculable. On the way to that goal, many technologies will be developed that we will adapt to our daily lives just like things that came from apollo.
There are more tangible benefits to all this besides satisfying the curiosity of scientists and enriching govt contractors.

 

[batvettejohnny]

Human spaceflight and exploration justifies the expense much more then sending machines. We were meant to work hand in hand ( or robotic limb) with machines. Hopefully we can get an actual date of when we are landing on the moon, and when we truly are going to Mars. This is when the true science begins.

A manned mars mission is extremely impractical if not completely impossible with the technology and propulsion systems known today. If you can even get a man to the red planet alive youd have to pour him out of the craft into a wheelbarrow. Its a 3+ year round trip, and while we can keep astronauts alive and in relative good health on the ISS for over a year, an interplanatary vehicle will have zero amenities.
Because of the internet and smartphones technology is advancing at ever more rapid rates. Billions have the collective knowledge of humanity at their fingertips in seconds, and that ability has only been around for a decade. Many will build upon that knowledge so technology promises advancements at ever increasing speed.
As much as they are a curse smartphones are probably humanity's greatest advancement to date, not because of themselves but because of the advancements they facilitate.

 

[Dave]

Impractical and impossible were words they used before we went to the moon. The late President Kennedy always reminds us "We do things not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
There are other technologies they are working on. Alternate propulsion systems as well as artificial gravity. Even a fossil found on Mars would be worth the trip.

 

[batvettejohnny]

Impractical and impossible were words they used before we went to the moon. The late President Kennedy always reminds us "We do things not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
There are other technologies they are working on. Alternate propulsion systems as well as artificial gravity. Even a fossil found on Mars would be worth the trip.

I get your point, however nothing about the then proposed apollo mission required anything outside of the known laws of physics at the time. Which still pretty much exist today. Similar to how the SR-71 was the fastest air breathing jet plane in the early 60s, and remains so today some 60 years later. They ran into a wall of physical laws that nothing could breach, aside from entirely new propulsion systems.
I wasnt aware of "artificial gravity", I do know that centrifigual solutions are a myth. What was that Bruce Willis movie? LOL.
Then theres the issue of shielding the crew in optimum conditions, are mass coronal ejections even survivable?
Keeping humans alive on long missions in space adds so much of a burden in cost and complexity, its probably best we put that part aside until technology catches up.
I hope we are beyond the silliness of doing it just to beat the enemy at it. I could be wrong...
On another note I partly share Stephen Hawkings feelings on space exploration. That golden record on Voyager might look like a Dennys menu to the wrong species! We really have this naive notion that advanced civilizations are so much so that they would be past warfare and aggression and must want to help us. Think of humans coming across a field of cows or sheep. We use them as we needed with zero concern for their wishes. We should expect the same toward us.

 

[Dave]

Denny's menu? A twilight episode and pretty good one at that. Stephen Hawking was a brilliant man, but any intelligent lifeform capable of interstellar travel can get their resources from many different worlds without life. These lifeforms have most likely evolved past the need for social aggression. Humanity has not come together as one as a species and that makes us not only aggressive, but dangerous. We are a curious lot we humans and human exploration and spaceflight is critical to our understanding of the universe. We could not stop our progressive nature, even we tried.
One day Mars will make an excellent base from which we can explore the outer planets.