In the absence of computer news we are reporting that NASA's Rover has landed and sent back pictures from the surface of Mars.


Image Credit: NASA.

NASA's Mars rover Spirit has landed on the red planet. Within a few hours of its arrival, Spirit beamed back stunning images that elicited cheers from mission controllers. The $400 million rover is designed to conduct unprecedented geologic and photographic surveys on the Martian surface.

Source: CNN.

Cool, landed on the third day of 2004

It's going to be interesting to see what info it can find...

Just imagine if they do find proof that there once was water on mars, and that there were life in them!
(I'm talking about bacteria here, not sentient beings or anything like that!)

That could mean that there is life elsewhere in our galaxy, and not just on this single planet...

And it'll be interesting to see what other things it can find out about Mars... Considering how the systems has advanced since the previous missions, it might give us better insights into how a manned mission to Mars would stay at the planet...

I'll stop here before I launch into incoherent ramblings about spacetravel & such

Hell, ramble on Mr. G. I enjoy the hypothetical immensely. It's good to see NASA getting back on it's collective feet again.

While i disagree withthe whole life thing- i hope that they discover earth-rare mars plentiful minerals and that they discover an acessable source of water for human extraction. If they can prove a mission can be self sustaining we may get more than a government mission. i would love to see space travel become competative and therefore force innovation and progress.

I thought they had sent some kind of ship or something there before and it broke? Oh well, good news I suppose.

The last few missions have all slammed into the planet and blown the probes into a billion pieces.... I figured this would turn out the same way. And I dont believe their is any other life than right here on good old earth. God made us and placed us here, and certainly didnt make anyone else...At least thats what I believe...After all evolution is one of the biggest jokes ever told...

Good job NASA, you finally landed another probe successfully...

Life must have been possible on Mars. But it probably didnt happen. The theory of evolution as we know it states we were really created with the help from water, natural elements (N, O, C, etc.) and the sunlight. Mars is way far back and the light doesn't get too well over there. I think it will take a bilion years or more until the smallest form of a fraction of life can be found that originated from the planet.

CaPONCH (calcium, phosphorous, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen)

I'm not sure about your comments. You're not seeing the big picture - life not being possible on Mars is only one possibility. I don't think anyone knows enough about Mars to state something of that nature. There could be sentient aliens living under the surface watching us and staying hidden, instead of the other way around. We really have no way of knowing.

But man, that is cool.

Funny thing
The theory of evolution can't explain why we are here(earth), not enough time has passed by carbon dating to make it possible.
Also we have yet to figure out how a single cell has been created from "nothing". untill we can create life from the elements alone, evolution is bunk.

I speak claiming I am no scientist on the planet mars nor a scientist of how life was created. There are lots of books with lots of theories of how we were to come. And reffering to just one of those theories, you can relate it.

I only have very limited knowledge on this, but I learned quite a few theories in a biology class. I'm only logically applying them with my own reasons.

And the only answer to that is..God created all things..and I believe there are many things we will never figure out, because there is no logical answer that humanly we can come up with...Again only my belief and opinion...

I'll tell you what....let's all agree to meet at a pre-ordained place when we kick off and discuss it. We'll never really know the truth until then, will we?

Let's not turn this into a religion vs evolution debate, that can lead to nothing but problems, besides, no one can give any tangible proof of either.

In answer to someone's earlier question, yes, I believe that NASA did send a probe to Mars in '97 or '98(not sure of the year) and it was somewhat successful in its mission which was to drive around on the surface and take pictures. I think that the power failed prematurely or something like that, but it pretty much did what it was sent to do. I also know that not long after that, they sent another one that was supposed to orbit and take pictures, it missed the planet almost completely(a slight math error in navigation I think) and a couple of others that were sent, at least one of which crashed into the planet I believe.

What an incredible waste of money!

If someone still wants to argue evolution vs creationism here is a good spot to do so: http://www.evcforum.net/cgi-bin/Ulti...assCookie=true

It's almost unbelievable that NASA kept developing these probes after so many of them either failed or were destroyed, especially considering how much they cost.

Well the thing is (IMO) that its not so much what we get out of going to Mars, but what we get out of pushing the technology to do that. By working on stuff to get us to Mars there are breakthroughs in other technologies that are applicable to stuff that isn't specifically space related. Its pushing the envelope rather than just being content with the technology we have avaiable now.