Have they seen any walkers yet? 
I must say I am impressed that it went off so well. With what we can do with robotic rovers, it’s really hard to see the need for humans in space. This is hard for me to say, growing up with the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs and being a space nerd as a kid, but I no longer see the point of having humans in space.
As I said some time ago, when the Rover gets stuck you need somebody around with a jack. :rolleyes:
Or a robotic arm with a jack.
The trouble is, sending humans there and back raises the cost so much with little to no gain in science. I dare say that if the rover gets stuck, we could send another for far less than the cost of a manned mission. The robots have better eyes and are better equipped to work in a hostile environment, and they don’t have to come back.
The point being that a human can decide how to fix something rather than having
more robots to fix more robots.
Or send a dozen rovers and a couple of unmanned sample return spacecraft; it’ll still be cheaper than a manned mission, and less risky.
I don’t know how much fuel it would take to return fifteen pounds from Mars. Does anyone know if that is feasible?
…or just Jack. 
Thats what the deserve for fracking with our polar lander. Screw them with their “stay off the ice” signs, rules and regulations. We will land where we want to!
I watched it live. I also watched a couple hours of engineering interviews/Q&A stuff earlier in the day. Pretty damn exicting and entertaining.
I second this question. I don’t know the answer. Just in comparison to the moon, it seems to me that the return trip would require much more fuel than a corresponding trip from the moon. Mars gravity=38% of earths vs about 16% for moon, Mars escape velocity = 5.02 km/s vs 2.38 for moon.
I guess Mars would be considered out of range for a AAA Gold level membership, huh?
Once you had a fleet of rovers running around in an area it might make sense to have one that is basically just a tow truck / rescue rover that saves other stuck rovers.
As we were watching one of the engineering segments they showed them testing the rover on simulated martian ground and its wheels going over rocks and such. I told my SO “I wonder if they ever collaborated with any off roading rednecks for suggestions?”
Was anybody at JPL pouring over Off Roader Monthly and 4WD Enthusiasts magazines?
Well, the first 100 miles would be free. but the other 349,999,900 would cost you about $5/mile, so that’s about $1,750,000,000.
Ooh, I want more of these. I love the wal-mart one.
Yeah NASA! This is most excellent.
Well, holy crap. Congratulations to you and your team, I could feel the exhilaration from here. Can’t imagine the elation.
But tell me, did you have the SDMB up on your monitor?
This sucker’s electrical, but needs the plutonium for a little… kick. Plus it has a flux capacitor.
What amazes me is that we now have more stuff on and around Mars than we did in earth orbit when I was born (before Sputnik). In one lifetime we have become planetary explorers.
A live news conference is getting started here.
If there had been a human with a good quality microscope on the mission, we would have known for sure whether or not there was life in Martian soil almost 40 years ago. No need for cluster analysis and retesting.