# NASA sending another Mars rover **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 10, 2020, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935 "2020-07-10T11:57:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/1 "2020-07-10T11:57:21Z")
Liftoff planned for July 30th It will arrive next Feb. [Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover - NASA Mars](https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/) ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/2 "2020-07-10T12:54:57Z")
And they’re taking…a “helicopter” (weighing under 4 lbs). Cool! > **[Mars Helicopter - NASA](https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/)** > > The Mars Helicopter is a technology demonstration to test powered flight on another planet for the first time. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/3 "2020-07-10T14:30:23Z")
hopefully it works unlike the one that crashed because one part used metric measurements but another part did not. Amazing that screw up made it through QA ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/4 "2020-07-10T14:31:43Z")
Red rover, red rover, send your kajillions 💰 💰 💰 right over! I’m teasing, of course. Space exploration will be the ultimate savior of humanity! ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/5 "2020-07-10T16:01:36Z")
Interestingly, the rover will collect samples for later retrieval and return to Earth by some future mission. It’ll be interesting to see if that ever happens. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/6 "2020-07-10T18:39:17Z")
It could happen. The crew of Apollo 12 retrieved parts of Surveyor 3 and brought them back to Earth from the moon. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/7 "2020-07-10T19:04:15Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > The crew of Apollo 12 retrieved parts of Surveyor 3 and brought them back to Earth from the moon. Is that the only instance of an object returned from another planetary body? ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/8 "2020-07-10T19:38:05Z")
There were probes to comets but don’t know if they brought back anything. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/9 "2020-07-10T20:19:17Z")
They’re also going to check in on Matt Damon and make sure he’s doing ok. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/10 "2020-07-10T22:19:35Z")
Perfect timing. Why waste the money on healthcare in this year of the plague? ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/11 "2020-07-10T22:35:51Z")
Holy cow, Perseverance even comes with a [helicopter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Helicopter_Ingenuity)! ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/12 "2020-07-10T22:43:12Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > Perfect timing. Why waste the money on healthcare in this year of the plague? The US spends [3.6 trillion on healthcare per year](https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2020/04/why-are-americans-paying-more-for-healthcare). This mission costs $2.1 billion, or 5 hours of healthcare nationwide. Canceling it won’t make a dent. And in fact most of that cost was sunk long before the pandemic. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Reynolds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_reynolds/32/3707_2.png) [@Jack\_Reynolds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Reynolds)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/13 "2020-07-10T23:23:03Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > There were probes to comets but don’t know if they brought back anything. The Hayabusa probe got some asteroid dust. And the other lunar landings brought back rocks. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/14 "2020-07-10T23:36:55Z")
> [@Jack\_Reynolds](#): > > The Hayabusa probe got some asteroid dust. And the other lunar landings brought back rocks. There were also the American [Stardust mission](https://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html) which [successfully returned samples from a comet](https://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/status/060118.html) for analysis on Earth (the outer parts of the comet that is, not the main nucleus); and the American [Genesis probe](https://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov/) with the mission of capturing particles from the Solar wind and returning them to Earth–unfortunately the Genesis sample-return capsule kind of crashed-landed and broke open in the Utah desert (instead of being gently caught in mid-air by a helicopter), although scientists [were eventually able to salvage most of what they wanted to get from the mission](https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2005/jan/HQ_05030_genesis_sample.html). ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/15 "2020-07-11T01:36:03Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > The US spends [3.6 trillion on healthcare per year](https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2020/04/why-are-americans-paying-more-for-healthcare). This mission costs $2.1 billion, or 5 hours of healthcare nationwide. Canceling it won’t make a dent. And in fact most of that cost was sunk long before the pandemic. According to [this article](http://cost-finder.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-a-hospital/), it costs about $25 million to build a hospital. So that’s about 80 hospitals that could be built for the money it will cost to satisfy some grownup little boys jerking off to their space ship fantasies. (correct me if my math is wrong.) ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/16 "2020-07-11T01:50:27Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > According to [this article](http://cost-finder.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-a-hospital/), it costs about $25 million to build a hospital. So that’s about 80 hospitals that could be built for the money it will cost to satisfy some grownup little boys jerking off to their space ship fantasies. (correct me if my math is wrong.) And in 2019 Americans spent [the cost of 428 hospitals](https://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2019/12/21/mlb-sees-record-107-billion-in-revenues-for-2019) watching grown men trying to hit a ball with a stick. But hey, [people are dying to see some baseball](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-24-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/22), right? ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/17 "2020-07-11T01:55:45Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > And in 2019 Americans spent [the cost of 428 hospitals](https://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2019/12/21/mlb-sees-record-107-billion-in-revenues-for-2019) watching grown men trying to hit a ball with a stick. That’s their own money they’re spending, not taxpayer money. What part of that don’t you understand? ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/18 "2020-07-11T02:03:33Z")
I could point out how much [taxpayer money gets spent building baseball stadiums (with ever-more-lavish “skyboxes” for the rich and shrinking space for regular fans)](https://www.ajc.com/news/local-govt--politics/braves-stadium-hardly-home-run-for-cobb-taxpayers/w1PyNelP69O82jY34YyOQJ/). But I’ll be charitable and assume that you’re against that sort of thing (both “taxpayer dollars for sports stadiums” and also “ever-more-lavish skyboxes for the fatcats and less room for regular fans”). But “80 hospitals that could be built for the money it will cost to satisfy some grownup little boys jerking off to their space ship fantasies” did not sound to me like a complaint merely that it was tax dollars being spent on the “space ship fantasies” of “grownup little boys”. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/19 "2020-07-11T02:19:12Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > According to [this article](http://cost-finder.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-a-hospital/), it costs about $25 million to build a hospital. How much $ did we piss down a hole in the sand in Iraq? Well, at least we filled up some hospitals! Maybe switch budgets between the military and NASA… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935/20 "2020-07-11T12:05:11Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > But “80 hospitals that could be built for the money it will cost to satisfy some grownup little boys jerking off to their space ship fantasies” did not sound to me like a complaint merely that it was tax dollars being spent on the “space ship fantasies” of “grownup little boys”. More amusing that jaycat seems to think hospitals are built and staffed using tax money. Sanders supporters would thrilled. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-sending-another-mars-rover/914935.md?page=2)