Curiosity landing on Mars in less than an hour!

I dont disagree with that , lwien. Im just saying that the greater return for the investment wont been seen for a long time. All the tech and science that has spawned from space exploration is great and it of course it changed human history. I just think it will be a long , long time before deep space exploration and other high science proposals pay for themselves.

Before any "return for our investment can be seen', it has to be invested first. I agree with you saying that our generation will most likely not directly benefit through deep space exploration, but the technology has to start somewhere. I am positive our grandchildren will be able to look at our investment into space and and be glad we put the money where we did.

Anyway, our medical system will surely be positively impacted by the knowledge gained from NASA's findings and technological strides, so it will all pay for itself in time.

Click for the full size, you feel like you are there

Honestly , this is awesome. This is what it must have felt when people saw those images of Neil Armstrong landing on the Moon. I really hope we keep pushing the boundaries of what mankind can do. The great thing about this kind of research is that unlike most of the world changing technologies , the were not created with war in mind as the first purpose.

When you blow it up, look at it for about 30 seconds straight and really think about what it is that you are seeing, all I can say is.............WOW !!!!

This is still black and white though, right?
I guess the ultra high res color photos are still to come

Ask and ye shall receive click to enlarge

That's pretty fucking COOL!

A bit OT, but it kinda fits here.

Perseid Meteor Shower tonight for those that like to see shooting stars.

I'm looking forward to this, apparently 100/hr after 10pm eastern (at least where I reside in canada)

This is from the previous mission, but it's just.....................sooooo cool if you haven't seen it before.

Supposedly BIG news coming from Mars. In the meantime an incredible hi rez self portrait of the rover while we wait for the results of the science to be confirmed. I wonder what they found

"This data is gonna be one for the history books," Curiosity chief scientist John Grotzinger, of Caltech in Pasadena, told NPR. "It's looking really good."

I'll bet good money it found water!

I remember pouring over photos of the martian surface when I was a kid...there were also cool photos from Venus, courtesy of the Russian Venera-9 explorer:

http://mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm

My imagination always goes wild just imagining what it would be like to set foot on these planets for the first time. To be able to touch the rock...sift through the sand...I want to be an explorer!

What a great time to be alive! A little over one hundred years since the Wright bros. flight at Kittyhawk and now we have a controllable,moving laboratory on Mars. Wow.
The info we get will help us in ways we can't even conceive of yet.
Makes me ponder what wonders the next 100 years will bring...

Another vista from Mars while we wait . . .

Pisses me off that I won't be around to see it.

I am hearing rumors that the find is methane. The ensuing argument will be over its origin I think. Microbio? Probably, however, there is a lot of methane out in space, and I mean a lot. Makes me wonder how all the dinosaurs got out there . . .

I cried when that dinosaur was murdered!! I also didn't like how things ended for Rory and Amy. Damn weeping angels!!!

As for Mars, my bets are still on water.

Vicki, thats a good bet considering that the rover is sitting in the middle of an alluvial plain right now. Scientists can tell from the fan gravel deposits that water ran here about hip deep and at about 3 feet/second for several thousand years IIRC

Hang on, how the hell did it take a selfie without some part of it going out of frame to be holding the camera?

High-Resolution Self-Portrait by Curiosity Rover Arm Camera
On Sol 84 (Oct. 31, 2012), NASA's Curiosity rover used the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) to capture this set of 55 high-resolution images, which were stitched together to create this full-color self-portrait.

The mosaic shows the rover at "Rocknest," the spot in Gale Crater where the mission's first scoop sampling took place. Four scoop scars can be seen in the regolith in front of the rover.
The base of Gale Crater's 3-mile-high (5-kilometer) sedimentary mountain, Mount Sharp, rises on the right side of the frame. Mountains in the background to the left are the northern wall of Gale Crater. The Martian landscape appears inverted within the round, reflective ChemCam instrument at the top of the rover's mast.

Self-portraits like this one document the state of the rover and allow mission engineers to track changes over time, such as dust accumulation and wheel wear. Due to its location on the end of the robotic arm, only MAHLI (among the rover's 17 cameras) is able to image some parts of the craft, including the port-side wheels.
This high-resolution mosaic is a more detailed version of the low-resolution version created with thumbnail images, at PIA16238.

JPL manages the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
For more about NASA's Curiosity mission, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl, http://www.nasa.gov/mars, and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl.

Duh, emo mirror self portrait.