Ten Minutes Of Terror

[Judge]

The latest Mars landing. Very cool. Especially after learning that only about 40% of such landings are successful.

And just in time for the next episode of "Mars" on the National Geographic Channel. Worth watching.

Mars Lander InSight sends the first of many selfies after a successful touchdown

Watch Mars on National Geographic

 

[Joel's Hear]

I didn't know you were a space fan, Judge!

 

[Judge]

I didn't know you were a space fan, Judge!

My father's best friend at the Naval Academy was one of the original Mercury astronauts- Wally Schirra.

The space program has always been dear to my family's heart.

 

[Tom]

Oh yeah, Joel's Ear, there's lots of Space Cadets in the Aspie community.

 

[Theta.G]

I had a good laugh with all of them on stream.

 

[BraidedPony]

I know, so cool about landing on Mars! Hot dam!
They are going to look underneath the surface of the planet and I can’t wait to hear what they discover.

 

[Autistamatic]

Oh yeah, Joel's Ear, there's lots of Space Cadets in the Aspie community.

View attachment 49546

Says the guy with a still from the Harlan Ellison penned Twilight Zone episode "Soldier" as his avatar

I've always loved a bit of Sci-Fi and the real story of space exploration has always been a pet subject of mine too.

 

[tlc]

I'm not all out crazy about it, but I do find it interesting. I tuned into the live feed on the NASA channel on Monday. And a big smile and some clapping on touchdown.

 

[Mia]

MOSCOW — The head of Russia's Roscosmos space agency has said that a proposed Russian mission to the moon will be tasked with verifying that the American moon landings were real, though he appeared to be making a joke.

"We have set this objective to fly and verify whether they've been there or not," said Dmitry Rogozin in a video posted Saturday on Twitter.

Rogozin was responding to a question about whether or not NASA actually landed on the moon nearly 50 years ago. He appeared to be joking, as he smirked and shrugged while answering. But conspiracies surrounding NASA's moon missions are common in Russia.

The Soviet Union abandoned its lunar program in the mid-1970s after four experimental moon rockets exploded.

New York Times November 24/2018

Wonder now, what they'll 'conspiracy-theory' about Mars?

 

[Judge]

Wonder now, what they'll 'conspiracy-theory' about Mars?

No doubt. I suppose there will always be those who insist government funding of a space program is unethical given the need of tax revenue to go towards more realistically perceived expenditures.

Apart of course, from international tensions and poor political relations between the east and west. Yet for the right price, Russia seems to have no issues with ferrying astronauts from other nations to the International Space Station. Clearly money still talks volumes. At least for the time being.

However the momentum of this school of thought may be effectively reduced given privatization through entities such as Elon Musk's "SpaceX". Also the cost is being spread through international cooperation and the use of other nation's scientific assets.

Interesting and disturbing though to watch the tv series "Mars", which has branched out into yet another consideration. The differences in both public and private sector missions and objectives on the planet Mars. A clash of scientific interests, versus commercial ones. Which may indeed by inevitable.