Simulation Of The Rovers' Mars Mission

[Ke1t]

Watching how NASA fired the (Spirit) Rover probe at Mars, a target 300,000,000 miles away, and one that won't even occupy that portion of space the probe was aimed at for another seven months. Hitting the target, achieving a perfect orbit, burning through the atmosphere, deploying chutes at exactly the right moment, hitting the retros at exactly the right moment, and having the Rover deploy after a crazy bouncy balloon landing across the surface of a distant planet...

 

...sitting watching this video makes me feel like one of the monkey-people at the beginning of 2001.

 

These guys are very, very fucking smart indeed.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRCIzZHpFtY

[The Oxford Don]

Quality vid. :thumbs:

 

More than ever though, I'm convinced that NASA is actually a 'front', a cover-up if you will, and the folk who work there are actually incredibly bright 8yr old boys.

 

Everything they do just seems to smack of a 'can we do this? is it cooooooooooooooool?' kind of attitude.

 

Even the concept of landing a science lab on another planet is the kind of pish we used to dream up as supremely bored kids during summer holidays.

[Ke1t]

Quality vid. :thumbs:

 

More than ever though, I'm convinced that NASA is actually a 'front', a cover-up if you will, and the folk who work there are actually incredibly bright 8yr old boys.

 

Everything they do just seems to smack of a 'can we do this? is it cooooooooooooooool?' kind of attitude.

 

Even the concept of landing a science lab on another planet is the kind of pish we used to dream up as supremely bored kids during summer holidays.

 

That's the way it should be, though.

 

After a day of dealing with people who can barely form a proper sentence, it's nice to sit and watch a vid where the subjects are all around genius level, performing tasks that... when they're laid out in an easy to follow fashion like that vid... just make your jaw drop. It gives you hope that humanity can do some spectacularly clever shit.

 

Conversely it's depressing as shit when you realise that, to those guys, you're 'The People of Walmart'.