NASA Perseverance Mars Rover Lands Today!

[Zeedox]

Wilfred Brimley 1986 - Age 52

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also;

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Both of the above shots are from 1986.


Now Paul Rudd - who just turned 52

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The human race as a whole looks younger nowadays.


Just think by the time you reach our ages, you'll look like a young Adam Sandler.

So I ran across this:

Why did people look older earlier in the past? | Boing Boing

Whenever I stop and appreciate that most people my age in the 1960s would have owned a home with at least four kids, I feel a little embarrassed. Sure, they may have had access to a more robust dol…

boingboing.net

 

[Gomez Adams]

Dick Clark blows that out of the water.

 

[Zeedox]

It's Alive!!

Perseverance's Four-Legged Companion is Ready - NASA

On May 3rd 2022 Ingenuity’s team of engineers and scientists got their first hint of the hardship to come when they opened their comm logs to find radio silence.

mars.nasa.gov

 

[Gomez Adams]

We really need to incorporate nuclear power. Surely, by now, we're smart enough to pull it off.

Nearly limitless power and free warmth eliminates all of these problems.

That, or a nuclear warming station. We send it ahead of the mission. Just a fold out habitat with a small nuclear power generator for heat where the units can park for the winter.

 

[Zeedox]

You actually don't need a full reactor. Just a nuclear battery.

Atomic battery - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

is a device which uses energy from the decay of a radioactive isotope to generate electricity. Like nuclear reactors, they generate electricity from nuclear energy, but differ in that they do not use a chain reaction. Although commonly called batteries, they are technically not electrochemical and cannot be charged or recharged. They are very costly, but have an extremely long life and high energy density, and so they are typically used as power sources for equipment that must operate unattended for long periods of time, such as spacecraft, pacemakers, underwater systems and automated scientific stations in remote parts of the world.

Wasn't Perseverance to be a limited budget item when built? That would explain the lack of technology like this but now that you know helicopter flights are possible on Mars.

And then there's:

Radioisotope heater unit - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Gomez Adams]

Even just the material for warmth would eliminate a lot of problems. I know the added wait is a real dick punch, but so is losing a mission vehicle that had lots of life left in it.

 

[Zeedox]

Ingenuity: Damage puts end to ground-breaking Mars helicopter mission

The first vehicle to achieve powered flight on another planet suffers rotor damage three years into tour.

www.bbc.com

....the aircraft was forced to perform an "emergency landing" that damaged its rotors.
The space agency's Bill Nelson said the aircraft was "the little helicopter that could" and had racked up far more flights than had been intended....

 

[Gomez Adams]

Sad to see it go, but what a machine it was. Simply epic.

I'd love to live long enough to see one the size of a go kart on Mars.