Support NeoGAF

sono · Sep 22, 2013

I cant find any achievements of note from this expensive mission.

It has only traveled a mile since being on the planet for over a year and had a computer memory failure in March this year. ONE MILE PER YEAR.

If you google actual achievements you come back with the following
http://www.space.com/20396-mars-rover-curiosity-big-discoveries.html
1. That Mars could have supported life in the past but not finding anything there now. (my view there are numerous articles prior to Rover stating that.)

2. The complex landing (my view: that isnt actually a mission primary result that is a pre-req to a successful mission you could achieve the same sending a 2000lb lead weight to mars and using the same landing technology.

3. Radiation Measurement.
There have been numerous missions to Mars and some in orbit, we already know there is radiation there

4. Finding an ancient stream bed
Again nothing new, just more of what we knew already

5. Drilling into the rock
The article says this is a first, but what has come from that, nothing new

6.same as 5 - microbial life could have lived there millions of years ago - but nothing found there now -nothing new

7. engage the public - well I am the public and I need more than one mile from the slow lumbering waste of money, a computer failure and nothing new discovered.

Santiako · Sep 22, 2013

You can't call it a failure until the mission is over.

MThanded · Sep 22, 2013

What would make it a success? A fact finding mission is a success if more facts are found. Not sure what you are getting at.

monchi-kun · Sep 22, 2013

This is the kind of attitude that holds back the space program and funding. It's only been a year, give it more time. Bean counter mentality is what prevents us from seeing the bigger picture.

Verdre · Sep 22, 2013

And in 9 years of being on Mars, Opportunity rover has only traveled 22 miles. I'm not sure what that has to do with being a failure or a success.

Stet · Sep 22, 2013

The hilarious part of this thread is that it's called the Curiosity Rover and you're harping on information gathering as if it's a negative.

Gentleman Jack · Sep 22, 2013

NASA landed an SUV-sized robot on MARS for less than $10 per citizen in these United States. That's not a failure. What were your expectations?

ToxicAdam · Sep 22, 2013

Progress is never a straight path.

epmode · Sep 22, 2013

The answer is obviously to dismantle NASA. More drones pls.

User 100115 · Sep 22, 2013

I don't see how gathering more conclusive data about the stuff you say 'we already knew' is a failure.

Dany · Sep 22, 2013

What are you expecting? Aliens?

MThanded · Sep 22, 2013

monchi-kun said:
This is the kind of attitude that holds back the space program and funding. It's only been a year, give it more time. Bean counter mentality is what prevents us from seeing the bigger picture.

Fiction said:
I don't see how gathering more conclusive data about the stuff you say 'we already knew' is a failure.

A lot of people don't grasp research. Progress is rarely fast.

iammeiam · Sep 22, 2013

It doesn't sound like a failure, since it basically did what it was created to do. It just sounds like the results weren't sufficiently flashy for your personal tastes. It's a successful mission you don't approve of.

RSP · Sep 22, 2013

That money was spent over many years of R&D, well worth it even if the thing had blown up a minute after it landed ...

Anton668 · Sep 22, 2013

this thread is a $2.5B failure

NinjaFridge · Sep 22, 2013

You should be more concerned about all the money that goes on defense spending. At least you can see where the money is with this.

kirblar · Sep 22, 2013

Money is an illusion.

Partial Gamification · Sep 22, 2013

The landing alone has qualified this mission as a success. Nothing broke and this rover was up and running after the famous Seven Minutes of Terror, simply an amazing engineering feat.

The target is the layered sediments at the slopes of Mount Sharp, where much more of the Martian paleogeology will be studied. Recently, methane readings from the Rover show that there seems to be much less gas on the surface than that of previous reading taken of Martian Atmosphere [by orbiting satellites]. This could suggest little to no current bacterial life (microorganisms that account for the majority of the Earth's naturally producing methane). It could also [could] suggest that methane settles at higher altitudes on Mars, as its atmosphere efficiently mixes the gases.

Curiosity a failure? Not the rover; to take a jab, maybe just yours OP.

RSP · Sep 22, 2013

Americans spend more on dog toys every year than the cost to run all of these missions.

bluehat9 · Sep 22, 2013

Dany M said:
What are you expecting? Aliens?

I thought aliens were supposed to come out of their underground homes to ride on it?

monchi-kun · Sep 22, 2013

MThanded said:
A lot of people don't grasp research. Progress is rarely fast.

The irony is that all the progress that NASA makes benefits us all, even missions that fail.

Loofy · Sep 22, 2013

Before: We dont know if theres anything on Mars

After: Now we know there isnt anything on Mars

linsivvi · Sep 22, 2013

Fiction said:
I don't see how gathering more conclusive data about the stuff you say 'we already knew' is a failure.

Seriously. It's like OP has no idea how science works. Gathering measurements and data is what scientists do everyday and is extremely important to understanding Mars. It's all dirty work which doesn't produce a headline to satisfy the ignorant public.

FreddieQuell · Sep 22, 2013

I just want to hear what you would have considered a success.

Ptaaty · Sep 22, 2013

RSP said:
That money was spent over many years of R&D, well worth it even if the thing had blown up a minute after it landed ...

This.

Investing in R&D and education are IMO just about the best return on investment for a government. It has all the benefits of other methods of "pumping up the economy" but with additional potential for tech breakthroughs.

davepoobond · Sep 22, 2013

Gentleman Jack said:
NASA landed an SUV-sized robot on MARS for less than $10 per citizen in these United States. That's not a failure. What were your expectations?

I'd rather have that 10 dollars. What a waste of time and money. Space is just a huge empty money pit full of pontificating scientists ideas. Who cares about mars? It won't be fun living there. In fact it's cold as hell.

Dennis · Sep 22, 2013

Drazgul · Sep 22, 2013

sono said:
I cant find any achievements of note from this expensive mission.

One could say the same about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, except the bill there was 6 trillion.

FyreWulff · Sep 22, 2013

It's only gone a mile because it's not a fucking car. You don't want to drive it too fast as it takes us around 14 minutes to issue commands and know it got them. By the time you sent a "turn away from the cliff" command @ 30mph, it's already traveled 15 miles off the cliff.

It's got delicate instruments and is examining -everything- as it goes along in painstaking detail. IIRC it's moving faster than the last rovers. And those actually moved, compared to stuff like Viking that just landed and looked around from a single spot.

MThanded said:
A lot of people don't grasp research. Progress is rarely fast.

I wonder how much the modern "must have instant returns" culture also seeps into this

GK86 · Sep 22, 2013

Science, how does it work?

equippedwithtowel · Sep 22, 2013

davepoobond said:
I'd rather have that 10 dollars. What a waste of time and money. Space is just a huge empty money pit full of pontificating scientists ideas. Who cares about mars? It won't be fun living there. In fact it's cold as hell.

NASA is on it's way to take back all the technology in your house whose creation was driven by the space race.

Tuck · Sep 22, 2013

davepoobond said:
I'd rather have that 10 dollars. What a waste of time and money. Space is just a huge empty money pit full of pontificating scientists ideas. Who cares about mars? It won't be fun living there. In fact it's cold as hell.

Worst opinion ever.

CF_Fighter · Sep 22, 2013

davepoobond said:
Who cares about mars? It won't be fun living there. In fact it's cold as hell.

Mars ain't no kind of place to raise a kid.

Animator · Sep 22, 2013

FreddieQuell said:
I just want to hear what you would have considered a success.

Clearly the rover should have taken a martian road trip and drifted across corners and jump gaps while the 120fps red bull cam(tm) had a direct live feed to youtube or something. Also should have found a crashed UFO or something already goddamn. What a failure of a mission.

Dennis · Sep 22, 2013

davepoobond said:
It won't be fun living there. In fact it's cold as hell.

You are thinking of Alaska.

Stet · Sep 22, 2013

CF_Fighter said:
Mars ain't no kind of place to raise a kid.

If anything, this mission proved without a doubt that there's no-one there to raise them if you did.

whitehawk · Sep 22, 2013

We have a rover, on Mars. That's enough to call it a success to me.

GK86 · Sep 22, 2013

Animator said:
Clearly the rover should have taken a martian road trip and drifted across corners and jump gaps while the 120fps red bull cam(tm) had a direct live feed to youtube or something. Also should have found a crashed UFO or something already goddamn. What a failure of a mission.

I'm pretty sure I was promised a mars home base.

GSG Flash · Sep 22, 2013

This is a thread fail if I've ever seen one. And it's only been a year, talk about impatience.

If we learn something new about Mars thanks to Curiosity(which AFAIK, we have), the mission is a success.

Not to mention that it gave us the kickass automated sky crane.

Kinitari · Sep 22, 2013

Why does the curiosity have to move large distances for it to be a success?

krameriffic · Sep 22, 2013

davepoobond said:
I'd rather have that 10 dollars. What a waste of time and money. Space is just a huge empty money pit full of pontificating scientists ideas. Who cares about mars? It won't be fun living there. In fact it's cold as hell.

You're right. We should have spent it on a couple of cruise missiles to launch at the middle east.

royalan · Sep 22, 2013

My only criticism of the Curiosity mission thus far is that I don't know why we continue to target Mars with these types of missions. So far, it's turned out to be a fact confirming mission than a fact finding one - I've yet to read about any discovery by Curiosity that was truly new data for us, and the more we learn about our solar system the more I personally feel like there are more interesting destinations out there.

But hell, the fact that we landed that giant rover on the surface of Mars is enough to make it a success in my book, and we need more missions like this happening more regularly.

But this leads into another rant about how I think NASA moves way too fucking slow for its own good. Even in situations where funding isn't an issue

.

Prophet Steve · Sep 22, 2013

davepoobond said:
I'd rather have that 10 dollars. What a waste of time and money. Space is just a huge empty money pit full of pontificating scientists ideas. Who cares about mars? It won't be fun living there. In fact it's cold as hell.

To you and everybody else saying that NASA should not persuit this type of stuff:

http://www.wtfnasa.com/ - Numerous technological innovations.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/no_20100827_1798.php Most likely a large return on investment.

Besides that, we need to take the first step into space somewhere. It is the goal of life to spread around and whether that is a good thing is up for debate. If we are limited to one planet we are always under higher risk.

Partial Gamification · Sep 22, 2013

Dennis said:

NASAs Curiosity Rover just celebrated the galaxys loneliest birthday, singing to itself in a Martian crater, 208 million miles from home.
more

davepoobond said:
I'd rather have that 10 dollars. What a waste of time and money. Space is just a huge empty money pit full of pontificating scientists ideas. Who cares about mars? It won't be fun living there. In fact it's cold as hell.

I find those without a vacuous space between their ears are easily interested in space exploration. Some peoplee are just greedy and its cold as hell in some peoples' hearts too.

monchi-kun · Sep 22, 2013

Animator said:
Clearly the rover should have taken a martian road trip and drifted across corners and jump gaps while the 120fps red bull cam(tm) had a direct live feed to youtube or something. Also should have found a crashed UFO or something already goddamn. What a failure of a mission.

... And this sums up my issue with a good chunk of the millennial generation. Impatient, impossible expectations, very short-sighted.

If i can't have it now, if I can't download it this instant, if it can't be summarized in 140 characters or less then it's not worth my time.

/grumpy old man rant

Limit · Sep 22, 2013

Why are you even measuring the success/failure of the rover by how far it has traveled? And scientific theories/experiments take time. A long long time. Perseverance is the name of the game here.

FyreWulff · Sep 22, 2013

royalan said:
My only criticism of the Curiosity mission thus far is that I don't know why we continue to target Mars with these types of missions. So far, it's turned out to be a fact confirming mission than a fact finding one - I've yet to read about any discovery by Curiosity that was truly new data for us, and the more we learn about our solar system the more I personally feel like there are more interesting destinations are there.

But hell, the fact that we landed that giant rover on the surface of Mars is enough to make it a success in my book, and we need more missions like this happening more regularly.

Building towards manned missions, and it's also the only other planet we can land on that isn't Venus (which is currently not survivable for even machines with current tech) or Mercury

Kinitari · Sep 22, 2013

monchi-kun said:
... And this sums up my issue with a good chunk of the millennial generation. Impatient, impossible expectations, very short-sighted.

And this comment is a great example of my issue with people trying to apply large generalizations on any generation - what makes you think the millennials are any more or less impatient than any other generation?

LakeEarth · Sep 22, 2013

All the little tech NASA comes up to put together these missions transform into the tech toys we play with ~20 years later.

RumblingRosco · Sep 22, 2013

davepoobond said:
I'd rather have that 10 dollars. What a waste of time and money. Space is just a huge empty money pit full of pontificating scientists ideas. Who cares about mars? It won't be fun living there. In fact it's cold as hell.

This is a factually incorrect opinion, I believe.

Support NeoGAF

Isnt Curiosity Rover now a $2.5B failure ?

Member

Member

I Was There! Official L Receiver 2/12/2016

Member

Unconfirmed Member

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Banned

Banned

I Was There! Official L Receiver 2/12/2016

Member

Member

Member

NinjaFridge

Unconfirmed Member

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

you can't put a price on sparks

Banned

Member

Member

Homeland Security Fail

Member

Member

Member

Member

Banned

Banned

Banned

Homeland Security Fail

Nobody ruins my family vacation but me...and maybe the boy!

Black Canada Mafia

Member

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Black Canada Mafia

Member

Member

Similar threads