Perseverance due to land in the next 15 mins

[John Rumm]

What odds do we give it?

[Robin]

I hedged my bets by promising myself (a) a drink to celebrate a safe touchdown or (b) a drink to join in the wake if not.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Well there is usually reckoned to be a 1 in five chance it will either land on something unfortunate or a mechanical or electrical fault will screw it. Its always hard to predict these things but it does not mean you should not try it. Brian

[Jethro_uk]

Arrived and pictures returned ...

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Yes I wonder if in the future there will be a mars junk collector to find all the bits of the descent systems and melt them down to make ornaments or something? Brian

[Michael Chare]

They clearly ate enough peanuts. I do wonder about getting the rock samples back.

[Adrian Caspersz]

I emailed a friend this comforting thought...

"just watched NASA's successful land of the robotic mission to mars. they think that there was life there once, so they are digging up the dead microorganisms to send them later back to earth.

I hope that they are dead samples that they bring back here, or it will be another vaccine we all will need?

hope not!"

[John Rumm]

Had to smile, see if you can spot the problem with this little gem:

"Today, 10:33

WEATHER ON THE RED PLANET

The average temperature on Mars is -600C.

This can change with the seasons, taking the Martian temperature from

200C at the equator during the summer down to -125C at the poles in winter.

Mars' atmosphere is 100 times thinner than Earth so daily temperatures fluctuate quite extremely.

And with no 'thermal blanket' to trap the sun's heat, a summer night on Mars can see temperatures fall to -1000C."

from:

[Davey]

Apart from the dubious temperatures, it uses the horrid concept of "1000 times thinner". Ugh.

[Adrian Caspersz]

?273.15°C is absolute zero... nada.... nothing.

[Steve Walker]

War of the Worlds in reverse?

[Spike]

I thought the NASA presentation was the most dumbed-down I've ever seen for a project like this.

"...the superheated (air? atmosphere? gas?)..." (caused by entry, now referred to as "interface") when they meant 'plasma'.

"...waiting for all the noughts and ones..." when they meant 'digital data'.

The most interesting information was the readout at the bottom of the screen shown only for a few seconds as a time, presumably so as not to scare anyone into thinking data readout was 'hard' to process.

[Jethro_uk]

Yup, they know their audience.

Remember how much of an expert the average man in the street has become of late. With deep knowledge of virology, immunology, particle physics and biochemistry.

[Chris Hogg]

Typical non-science from a media hack. Why can't the media employ scientifically qualified journalists to do this sort of reporting? None of them have the faintest clue and just churn out any old rubbish. It's not even as though the original figures were in Fahrenheit and she didn't realise...

[Jim Jackson]

Anybody know the phone number for that Argentinian scrap comapany?

[Jethro_uk]

Because the public aren't remotely interested.

Because the public aren't remotely interested.

[Chris Green]

What I *suspect* happened somwhere is that the little zero superscript to indicate degrees has become a full-sized zero. So -600C should be

-60? and -1000C should be -100? . Those temperatures would make some sort of sense.

However it still shows a lack of ability to spot that sort of error!

[John Rumm]

One would hope that a basic understanding of arithmetic would suggest that having an average temperature that lies outside of the upper and lower limits that you then specify in the very next sentence ought to give pause for thought?

[Adrian Caspersz]

I had a brief look for an American space information site that the sun journo lifted the information from, and gave up.

Anyway, what's the boiling point of water at 1 ATM on Mars?

Surely, if we start living there, they will need to define a new temperature scale - or will future inhabitants have to relate all of their temperature, weight and time measurements to earth, forever?

[Tim Streater]

If by 1 ATM you mean the same pressure as on Earth then it will be 100C.