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Curiosity!
Aug. 6th, 2012 12:39 amI learned today some reasons why Curiosity is cool.
I had to do a planetarium show about Spirit and Opportunity, the last Mars rovers, so I know a lot about them and they have a special place in my heart. One of the coolest things about Spirit and Oppy was their mission was meant to last about 90 days. After a year or two, Spirit got stuck, and she just sat there and took pictures. I think Oppy's finally kind of worn down too? Dunno, haven't checked recently, but the point is six years after they landed Oppy was still trucking it, and they're probably still sending data.
Curiosity, however. Oh, Curiosity. Unlike Spirit and Oppy, she doesn't have solar panels! The problem with solar panels on Mars is Mars has sticky dust, so eventually you get less and less power. But Curiosity is powered by plutonium. Oh, oh oh, plutonium is forever. When will it go away? For our purposes, never! Okay, not that the song is positive, but in this context it is really, really cool.
The other thing I learned about Curiosity is she has a laser. Spirit and Oppy had these rock abrasion tools. Pretty nifty, especially because they're called RATs, so I always just imagined them scratching away at rocks saying, "Cheese! Cheese!" But when it comes right down to it RATs aren't as cool as LASERS. Lasers, guys. This means she can get inside rocks and see what they're made of!
There are some other cool things. The landing site is neat. Gale crater is neat. The mission (to see whether Mars has the elemental make-up to have once supported life) is neat. But the last thing I learned about Curiosity? Is the neatest.
She landed!
Oh, and Shatner did a video for NASA or something. THIS WORLD IS THE BEST ONE. EXCEPT FOR ALL THE OTHERS BECAUSE I BET THEY'RE COOL, TOO.
I had to do a planetarium show about Spirit and Opportunity, the last Mars rovers, so I know a lot about them and they have a special place in my heart. One of the coolest things about Spirit and Oppy was their mission was meant to last about 90 days. After a year or two, Spirit got stuck, and she just sat there and took pictures. I think Oppy's finally kind of worn down too? Dunno, haven't checked recently, but the point is six years after they landed Oppy was still trucking it, and they're probably still sending data.
Curiosity, however. Oh, Curiosity. Unlike Spirit and Oppy, she doesn't have solar panels! The problem with solar panels on Mars is Mars has sticky dust, so eventually you get less and less power. But Curiosity is powered by plutonium. Oh, oh oh, plutonium is forever. When will it go away? For our purposes, never! Okay, not that the song is positive, but in this context it is really, really cool.
The other thing I learned about Curiosity is she has a laser. Spirit and Oppy had these rock abrasion tools. Pretty nifty, especially because they're called RATs, so I always just imagined them scratching away at rocks saying, "Cheese! Cheese!" But when it comes right down to it RATs aren't as cool as LASERS. Lasers, guys. This means she can get inside rocks and see what they're made of!
There are some other cool things. The landing site is neat. Gale crater is neat. The mission (to see whether Mars has the elemental make-up to have once supported life) is neat. But the last thing I learned about Curiosity? Is the neatest.
She landed!
Oh, and Shatner did a video for NASA or something. THIS WORLD IS THE BEST ONE. EXCEPT FOR ALL THE OTHERS BECAUSE I BET THEY'RE COOL, TOO.