Curiosity, are you excited?

[x EvilErmine x]

So tonight something wonderful is going to happen, the Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity) will reach it's destination and (if all goes well) land on Mars.

If you don't know what I'm talking about well, I can't really blame you. At least here in the UK I've seen literately one 60 second news segment about it. So here's a linky link to some more information from the good folks at Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Science_Laboratory], and one to the NASA site [http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/]

So are you excited about the landing? Do you even care?

***EDIT***
The escapist ate my pole

 

[Scrustle]

Not really. I heard that it was happening and nothing much else. I guess it's cool simply because it's a mission to Mars but I have no idea why this trip should see special.

Although looking at that Wiki article about what the mission objectives are it looks pretty interesting. Perhaps it might lead to a manned mission and even a colony in the future. Maybe it'll even find life, or the remains of it. I personally think there is actually a good chance that there is or was life on Mars at some point.

 

[Jonluw]

If it had been the first probe to land on Mars, I'd be excited, but as it stands I'm just interested in its mission, not excited.

 

[Pandalisk]

I thought they had already tried to check for life on Mars before with some kind of Algae?

I wouldn't say i'm excited, but i'm... Intrigued!

Pandalisk will cry for your pole's demise as well, what were you going to poll? excitement or no excitement?

 

[Luca72]

I'm extremely excited! We're at a point in technology where interplanetary space travel isn't very feasible (we could learn things about what zero-G does to the body, the psychological effects, etc., but I don't think manned flights are going to teach us much about planetary geology) but our robotics are pretty killer. There are so many factors involved in getting something like this to work that it's amazing to me that it ever gets done at all - for example:

 

[Bassik]

If it had been the first probe to land on Mars, I'd be excited, but as it stands I'm just interested in its mission, not excited.

What about landing a big ass science laboratory robot on mars? Because that is what they're doing right now. You know, something that can look for life, resources and sweet ass science.

 

[Sixcess]

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that they get a smooth landing. I like the idea that we have these little robots exploring the surface of an alien planet, and hopefully paving the way for us to follow them out there one day.

And while we're on the subject, yay for the Mars Rover Opportunity - planned to run for 3 months, and now on the 8th year of its mission. Now that is an awesome robot.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Nope, it killed my cat!

But seriously, not hugely, despite the benefits the mission may bring. I'll be excited about those possible benefits though if that counts?

 

[x EvilErmine x]

I thought they had already tried to check for life on Mars before with some kind of Algae?

I wouldn't say i'm excited, but i'm... Intrigued!

Pandalisk will cry for your pole's demise as well, what were you going to poll? excitement or no excitement?

Lol, Pretty much that yeah.

The question was: Are you excited about the Mars rover landing?

Options were: a)Hell Yes, b)A little excited, c)Meah not really, d)Don't care, and e)
The obligatory bacon option.

The mission is not aiming to find evidence of life but, as I understand it, to look at the environment of Mars in the past to see if it was capable of sustaining life, among other things. It's basically a big science lab on Mars designed to do all sorts of stuff. It's also the most powerful one ever to be sent to another planet and the most complex landing ever attempted. Impressive stuff.

 

[Jonluw]

If it had been the first probe to land on Mars, I'd be excited, but as it stands I'm just interested in its mission, not excited.

What about landing a big ass science laboratory robot on mars? Because that is what they're doing right now. You know, something that can look for life, resources and sweet ass science.

Yeah, but stuff has landed on Mars before.
It's not a milestone that holds any symbolic value.

If they find traces of life (or oil), I'll be excited. Until then, I can't be bothered to get excited over the landing and searching process.

 

[BOOM headshot65]

You kidding? THIS IS AWSOME!!! Just think, if they find anything, we could be well on our way to colonies on Mars. And if this is what NASA can do with no budget (CURSE YOU, OBAMA!!!) then I cant wait to see what they do if they ever get thier budget back.

captcha: Heavy Metal

Considering the surfuce is rusted Iron, I think this is very relevant, Mr. Captcha.

 

[Lionsfan]

I'm pretty excited. I know it's not the first probe on Mars, but it's a giant science lab that we've sent to another planet. If that's not newsworthy, I don't what is

 

[Bassik]

If it had been the first probe to land on Mars, I'd be excited, but as it stands I'm just interested in its mission, not excited.

What about landing a big ass science laboratory robot on mars? Because that is what they're doing right now. You know, something that can look for life, resources and sweet ass science.

Yeah, but stuff has landed on Mars before.
It's not a milestone that holds any symbolic value.

If they find traces of life (or oil), I'll be excited. Until then, I can't be bothered to get excited over the landing and searching process.

Your glass has never been half full, has it?

Nah, I'm just kidding, I just don't understand why you don't find this exciting.

 

[Goofguy]

And here I though you were talking about Molyneux's new game [http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/06/07/peter-molyneuxs-new-game-curiosity-will-feature-a-50000-dlc-chisel/]...

 

[Will Chandler]

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/nasatv/

Here's a live feed from the NASA website.

 

[Dangit2019]

Nope, it killed my cat!

But seriously, not hugely, despite the benefits the mission may bring. I'll be excited about those possible benefits though if that counts?

Curiosity didn't kill your cat...Curiosity IS your cat.

OT: I'm excited. I hope that there isn't an accident because that would mean that idiots would have more of an excuse to shut down space exploration projects.

 

[L34dP1LL]

If only Sagan were here to narrate the whole ordeal.

 

[DustyLion]

A winar is NASA!

 

[Imper1um]

This thing just landed. Amazing. Now, they get to wait until morning to get the actual HD Pics.

 

[A Satanic Panda]

TOUCHDOWN!!!

Spoiler: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just watched it live. Damit, NASA is competent, moar funding!