3 Spacecraft Arriving on Mars in Quick Succession

[Fake Messiah]

The United Arab Emirates' orbiter reaches Mars on Tuesday, followed less than 24 hours later by China's orbiter-rover combo. NASA's rover, the cosmic caboose, will arrive on the scene a week later, on February 18, to collect rocks for return to Earth — a key step in determining whether life ever existed at Mars.

China's first Mars mission, a joint effort with Russia in 2011, never made it past Earth's orbit.

The U.S. rover Perseverance, by contrast, will dive in straight away for a harrowing sky-crane touchdown.

Despite their differences — the 1-ton Perseverance is larger and more elaborate than the Tianwen-1 rover — both will prowl for signs of ancient microscopic life.

Perseverance is aiming for an ancient river delta that seems a logical spot for once harboring life. This landing zone in Jezero Crater is so treacherous that NASA nixed it for Curiosity, but so tantalizing that scientists are keen to get hold of its rocks.

Until Perseverance, NASA sought out flat, boring terrain on which to land — "one giant parking lot," Chen said. That's what China's Tianwen-1 rover will be shooting for in Mars' Utopia Planitia.
NASA is upping its game thanks to new navigation technology designed to guide the rover to a safe spot. The spacecraft also has a slew of cameras and microphones to capture the sights and sounds of descent and landing, a Martian first.

https://www.voanews.com/science-health/3...succession

And apparently UAE's probe just arrived in the orbit around Mars.

Only Elon doesn't have anything on Mars, and yet he plans to send humans soon as possible, sometimes even with rumors in 2024.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

All of the above assumes that the landers will actually land, that the orbiters will stay in orbit, and the parts that were somehow skipped during the component testing phase won’t fail.

*fingers crossed*

Boru

[onlinebiker]

"We're not throwing an intergallactic kegger here". 

Zed - Men in Black

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Come on over to my place, I have six kegs cooling.

[The Valkyrie]

1 mission showing up occasionally if fine.

Three in a day?

The Martians will either build a wall and demand Earth pays for it, or they'll just nuke us.

[Fireball]

1 mission showing up occasionally if fine.

Three in a day?

The Martians will either build a wall and demand Earth pays for it, or they'll just nuke us.

I've often considered writing a sci-fi story wherein the Martians send a contingent of attorneys to Earth to sue for damages and to have the litter we left cleaned up. I have enough projects going that writing a story with this plot line is up for grabs. Maybe publish it as a short story in Analog magazine in the "Probability Zero" genre. Anyway, I've read so little new fiction that it's probably been covered, already. : shrug:

[brewer]

ON YOUR LEFT!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

You folks need to read John Varley's Rolling Thunder series.

[Brian37]

The United Arab Emirates' orbiter reaches Mars on Tuesday, followed less than 24 hours later by China's orbiter-rover combo. NASA's rover, the cosmic caboose, will arrive on the scene a week later, on February 18, to collect rocks for return to Earth — a key step in determining whether life ever existed at Mars.

China's first Mars mission, a joint effort with Russia in 2011, never made it past Earth's orbit.

The U.S. rover Perseverance, by contrast, will dive in straight away for a harrowing sky-crane touchdown.

Despite their differences — the 1-ton Perseverance is larger and more elaborate than the Tianwen-1 rover — both will prowl for signs of ancient microscopic life.

Perseverance is aiming for an ancient river delta that seems a logical spot for once harboring life. This landing zone in Jezero Crater is so treacherous that NASA nixed it for Curiosity, but so tantalizing that scientists are keen to get hold of its rocks.

Until Perseverance, NASA sought out flat, boring terrain on which to land — "one giant parking lot," Chen said. That's what China's Tianwen-1 rover will be shooting for in Mars' Utopia Planitia.
NASA is upping its game thanks to new navigation technology designed to guide the rover to a safe spot. The spacecraft also has a slew of cameras and microphones to capture the sights and sounds of descent and landing, a Martian first.

https://www.voanews.com/science-health/3...succession

And apparently UAE's probe just arrived in the orbit around Mars.

Only Elon doesn't have anything on Mars, and yet he plans to send humans soon as possible, sometimes even with rumors in 2024.

I love space explorations. But I am damned tired of our species ignoring that our first priority is protecting now, the planet we live on now. Yes science can multi task. But the priority now is focusing on not destroying the now, the home we are destroying now.

[The Grand Nudger]

It's not really an issue of multitasking. I'll let NASA explain.

In 1969, the Earth was first viewed in a new way: from the surface of another celestial body, as a delicate, living jewel in the vast dark sea of space. Since then, NASA has contributed in many areas to our understanding of the Earth and to our need for cleaner, greener technologies. From solar arrays and fuel cells to Earth-observing satellites, more efficient aircraft, climate models, and air/water/waste recycling systems, NASA’s contributions to Earth, environment, and green technologies continue today. With a new drive to build an energy-independent nation and reduce our impact on the environment, NASA can make immediate and significant contributions to our Earth-based challenges and at the same time, advance the Agency’s missions in science, aeronautics, and space exploration. Read more about NASA's role in sustainability in Technology Innovations Magazine, Vol. 15, No. 1.

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/greens...-role.html

They find themselves needing to come up with solutions for problems in space exploration - and those solutions keep turning out to be useful to us down here on planet earth... the mothership, if you will, lol.