Science and Society

So this Mars Phoenix is finally decommissioned. All I can say is, it's about time since it accomplished spit and some spit was all it found, no life of course. It could not possibly have found any life anyway because if the Creator had started life on Mars, He would have finished the job as He did on earth. It's probably useless to hope that this will end space projects, but history will show that the spending for going out of orbit was one of the greatest injustices of wasted money that could have been used for some humanitarian benefit instead.

If scientist had followed your logic you wouldn't be posting on this blog as they wouldn't of invented the computer and you would still be sitting in the stone age.

Viva Evolution!!

awwwww **tear** it lasted longer than it was expected :) it might have found no life but we know more about the planet than before it was launched r.i.p. mars rover
:( high 5 democratic
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damn martians turned the power switch off...

I'm amazed that NASA scientists can overcome all of the odds to get the thing onto Mars and then not spring for a simple widshield washer to keep the dust off the solar panels. At least they know there is water on Mars - yippeee. I suppose its better than sending up the shuttle every so often at $400 million per launch so that a new minority can say they are the first of their kind in space. Meanwhile, while spending billions on useless space projects like these the economy continues to burn....

Mans expantion into space is our single best option for the long term survival of our species. Considering the pathetic percentage the of the federal budget that is actualy used for the space program it is a wonder that NASA acheives what it does.

It is short sightedness that brought on this economic crisis. It is short sightedness that has held back the space program for almost forty years since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. It is that same short sightedness that make makes people fail to see the benefits the space program has brought to their daily lives everyday.

In my view any serious investment in the space program pails in the face of the pay back humanity gets.....THE WHOLE UNIVERSE.

It is not only what is discovered, it it is also the going that we become more than we were before. Think about it. When my mom was a child, her family traveled by horse and wagon into town, cars in almost every driveway were years into the future. And yet, in a generation, we are building space stations and people are living in orbit, watching our Earth turn beneath them. We've been to the moon (and back) and more trips there are planned. And we have placed on another planet devices that send back pictures of land where no footprints have yet left a mark. We've traveled by camera and computer with "little rovers that could" over distant terrains, and hills, and valleys. We've dipped into alien soil to see what is is made of, and we found out. How incredibly amazing is that! I believe God put within us a spirit of exploration, a desire to travel over the next hill, stretch to the next planet, reach beyond ourselves to the wonders and mysteries of space, a desire to discover, to explore, to go beyond what we know to what we don't yet know, to see "whats out there." As for the benefits to mankind, many of the technological acheivements related to the space program also have led to advances in medicine, communication, and other areas of life. Plus, eight year old children can look at the stars and dream. It is hard to put a value on a child's dream and where it could lead. Yes, we have an economic crisis, and environmental crisis, and educational crisis, but just like we need to eat, and pay our bills, and take care of our neighbor, we also need to dream, to stretch beyond ourselves and to see the amazing possibilities of the "what ifs." And eight year old children still need to look at the stars and say "I wonder."

On the earth batteries begin to show poor recharge as 40-degree's[F]approaches..at 30-degree's[F]-your really running on empty for a ALL-Electric Vehicle..you will most often loose 1/2 of your performance levels..MINUS-140-degree's...??

NASA should have first considered a SAFE-area to drive and connect for Electric Power..they are putting the CART-before-the-horse..and that's TAX&SPEND.

It should also be considered--stealing--and stupidity...but then this is a democracy...where CAT&DOG finds a lap.

For all of the folks posting that they see no purpose n our space program or this lander; it would seem that you have not read anything that the space program has done for you as an individual, for our society, and for the world as a whole. I am thankful that the vast majority of the educated see uses for these missions. NASA gets less than 0.6% of the national budget and they accomplish incredible things with it. The ones that post the same old tired excuses, "feed the hungry", "pay the mortgage", "waste of money". It all pales when you become educated enough and open minded enough to understand the great things that NASA has done overall. Open a book, open an internet page, do something besides stay ignorant.

NASA and space travel are a joke.

Well said yehuda.

Someone should show Kenrayd how much "mission from God's"- war in Iraq costs every month

I don't know which creater kenrayd is talking about but why would he even bother with creating mars in the first place? Or all those other billions of stars and planets in the galaxy. Now _that's_ waste.

I'm tired of hearing about the "waste of money" for the space program, or ANY other scientific endeavor. Money is never "wasted", it isn't burned in a fire. It's paid to companies, who pay employees to build these projects. From there, it goes to the grocery stores, Walmarts, and car manufacturers, who then pay THEIR employees, etc. What could be more humanitarian than that? If these projects weren't funded, all these people wouldn't have jobs, and would drain the "humanitarian" resources even more. Look at the whole picture, folks!

And remember.... approximately 30% of that "wasted" money COMES BACK to the government in the form of corporate and personal income taxes!

I LOVE the space program. Who knows where it will lead mankind? Cute post here about demise of Mars robotic lander:

I'm still impressed that mankind can fire robots at a tiny dot in the sky, get them there safely, take photo's, run experments and communicate with it when we don't seem able to get anything else on our own planet right...

Please, please, please, can I go live on Mars. Its nice and quiet up there, and there's no politics because I'll be entirely on me own (apart from a few scrap robots), which I might be able to sell to passing Klingons !

Yeah, I'm over 45 and I love all this NASA stuff. As a car buff, the coolest cars are not even on this planet! It seems these Mars robots need a deployable windmill along with the solar panel to make power for the batteries. Perhaps a simple solar panel duster powered by wind; store the energy for the duster in a spring or something that doesn't degrade at -140F. And why not a supersized betavoltaic like pacemakers to get through several winters and keep transmitting? Beta emitters are easily contained.
I am sure some thought the printing press a waste of time and machinery, others may have thought electricity and radiation only a curiosity of nature, and some thought computers too expensive for most, only for governments deciphering enemy codes, and wireless networks/devices only for secret agents. But here we are. My prayer is that space technology is used to build, inspire, learn and share. Cooperative international efforts are encouraging examples of peaceful human endeavour.