Curiosity launches

[Wild Cobra]

NASA's new Curiosity Mars Rover is a beast. It weighs 1 ton. Nice to see what they do with it when it lands.

NASA launches super-size rover to Mars: 'Go, Go!'

Go go Gadget!

[Agloco]

Kinda heavy. Hope it doesn't get bogged down too much. Spirit got stuck in the sand a while back.

Those rovers really need a charging station tbh. Kinda like a base camp. They should be established along the equatorial longitudes at regular intervals

[MannyIsGod]

Should be left to private companies, tbh.

[boutons_deux]

more parts = higher probability of failure, but I assume they've isolated the the subsystems enough so there'll be no cascade of failures.

At least it won't have wait for the sun to come around for recharging.

the only products are data and pics, not enough to cover the development, launch, personnel, ground support costs.

I wonder how much design work China has stolen?

[Halberto]

Should be left to private companies, tbh.

[DarrinS]

Should be left to private companies, tbh.

Like Lockheed Martin and Boeing?

http://www.ulalaunch.com/site/pages/...ickFacts.shtml

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/news/p...13_ss_msl.html

[boutons_deux]

I guess MIG means financed by private money, not by taxpayer money paid to private companies.

[Borat Sagyidev]

Should be left to private companies, tbh.

NASA contracts out just about all of their work, has been that way since Apollo....Lockheed, Boeing, Rocketdyne, Rockwell , Grumman (now Northrop Grumman) have done a lot of this work


Do you mean privately owned?