Dreaming, it’s going to crash, there is going to be no jumping and cheering and fist pumping in the control room at Touchdown -1, just silence.
There will be bits of broken and shattered metal and broken wires and still fizzing rockets and bits of burnt parachute scattered for miles all over the landing zone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIpFgump7so&feature=relmfu

Hmm, hard to keep track of the sheer number of things that could go wrong, from hitting the atmosphere to final touchdown. Still, good luck to them. They might need it :)

I read about a kid named Boriska who is reincarnated soul who used to live on Mars. He says that the reason so many Martian missions fail is because the Martians (who now live underground due to a “catastrophe”) send a beam of radiation and destroy the probes.

I read about a kid named Boriska….

i am no relation.

There’s been another Russian Mars failure since this article:

The “Mars Curse”: Why Have So Many Missions Failed?

….Looking over the past 48 years of Mars exploration, it makes for sad reading. A failed mission here, a “lost” mission there, with some unknowns thrown in for good measure. It would seem that mankind’s efforts to send robots to Mars have been thwarted by bad luck and strange mysteries. Is there some kind of Red Planet Triangle (much like the Bermuda Triangle), perhaps with its corners pointing to Mars, Phobos and Deimos? Is the Galactic Ghoul really out there devouring billions of dollars-worth of hardware?

http://www.universetoday.com/13267/the-mars-curse-why-have-so-many-missions-failed/

That photo isn’t accurate at all! It’s not just US missions that have failed. Stoopid Martians.

makes me wonder if it wouldn’t be better sending something large enough for an aircraft to be sent to the planet

the small version of the shuttle that has been sent into orbit could be a trial run for how an aircraft might be used to go to mars.

a small shuttle could be loaded on top of a rocket and put into orbit. a top section could detach and send itself to mars.

once in mars orbit another section with the aircraft detaches and uses rockets to slow down enough so that its tiles don’t need to be as big and bulky.

the aircraft enters the martian atmosphere slowing itself more with the heat tiles and then lands vertically at the last moment using thrusters that sprout from the sides. no parachutes or air bags to slow descent.

a proper exploring robot then appears and travels down a cargo tail of the aircraft.

Afternoon skeptics.

Anyone here care to “like” this facebook page.

About a kindergarten teacher in QLD, sacked for being pregnant but unwed.

And it’s curiosity.

http://home.people.net.au/~skepticpete/closed.jpg