First Hole Drilled on Mars
NASA Curiosity Rover Drills Hole into Martian Surface, NASA
“NASA’s Curiosity rover has, for the first time, used a drill carried at the end of its robotic arm to bore into a flat, veiny rock on Mars and collect a sample from its interior. This is the first time any robot has drilled into a rock to collect a sample on Mars.
The fresh hole, about 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) wide and 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) deep in a patch of fine-grained sedimentary bedrock, can be seen in images and other data Curiosity beamed to Earth Saturday. The rock is believed to hold evidence about long-gone wet environments. In pursuit of that evidence, the rover will use its laboratory instruments to analyze rock powder collected by the drill.”
Humans. Can’t take ’em anywhere.
The article says Curiosity drills 1st hole on Mars, but there are two holes in the image above, aren’t there? Paul451, did you drill that 2nd hole ? or is that just a Curosity cup holder?
First one (bottom right) was drilled on Feb 6th, second deeper hole (top left) on Feb 8th.
Another view: http://themeridianijournal….
Although it’s just a hole, I see it as a major milestone in our exploration of the solar system. We can think of the Phoenix lander as the penultimate stepping stone to MSL, and once the dust from the hole has been processed in the MSL on-board lab, NASA, and indirectly mankind, will have finally achieved something that has been talked about since the beginning of serious thinking about space exploration.
In the HSF vs. robotic debate, many of us argue the necessity for both. To my mind, MSL acquiring samples and doing detailed chemical testing on them (with more autonomy than previous landers) opens a new door, a new era even, in solar system exploration. It’s sort of the robotic exploration world’s equivalent of Apollo 11.
I hope the MSL concept will be extended to other planets and moons (without waiting another half century). We can think of it as valuable precursor study in preparation for the BEO HSF missions of the future (hopefully the not too distant future).
I’m really quite surprised that there isn’t a lot more excitement about this. JPL has a very good record for operating NASA robotic programs, but their ability (or perhaps interest?) in engaging the general public seems to be no better than anyone else associated with NASA. Even the space advocacy community and space media reps seem to be much less excited about this than I would have expected. Perhaps my expectations are too high.
Although I m all for human spaceflight, humans have been about the same for much of the past million years. Robots did not exist 50 years ago and are doubling in capability every 5 years or so. Curiosity still has less intelligence than your cell phone. Some estimates give 2050 as the date robots will have greater intellectual capability than humans, and may equal us in creativity as well. Even simple robots like Curiosity have huge advantages in their ability to survive in space. So although they are human creations, to be realistic it will be increasingly difficult for humans to compete with them as explorers. It seems likely that robots will be on the cutting edge in space exploration from here on out, and until our command of technology is far different than it is today, humans will come along only close to Earth, and only when everything has already been explored.
Yeah, but my cellphone handles radiation even worse than I can. And as elements shrink further, so too their vulnerability to radiation. Beyond-human AI, if it has an interest in exploration, may have to figure out how to send humans cost effectively into deep space, because our primitive and easily repairable human brains better handle the radiation.
Virtually all spacecraft have radiation-hardened electronics, protected by both resistance to bit upsets and ability to correct them when they occur. Unfortunately the human brain has few stem cells and nerons do not divide. Neronal loss due to HZE cosmic rays even from a single round trip to Mars is at the limit of human tolerance without loss of intellectual ability. The ability of Galeleo to function in the extreme radiation levels of Jupiter’s magnetic field is a case in point. This would have been lethal for humans, not just due to neronal loss but also due to induction of cancer in bone marrow and other radiation-sensitive tissues.
That does not man people won’t explore space. It just means those people may have bodies and brains of silicon and metal rather than carbohydrates and protein.
V4,
If you look at the history of these kinds of predictions, you find that machine intelligence is similar to cold fusion energy sources — subsequent predicted arrival dates move to the right at just about the same rate a time passes on your calendar. It’s predicted to be X years away now, and 25 years from now it will still be X years away.Also, I think it’s important to differentiate between machine “intelligence” and capability. The former does not grow at anywhere near the same rate as the latter.I applaud those who are optimistic about machine progress, because they’re the ones who bring that progress about. But i think there are always going to be built-in limits as to how far and how fast any machine can evolve — built in by both their designers and their nature. “Intelligent” machines, like the people they are supposedly going to emulate and surpass, will be subjected to indecision, worry, fear, uncertainty, etc., all the way up to nervous breakdowns when the demands placed on them are too high or too ambiguous. While machine capability can continue to grow beyond what we can imagine now, I think actual machine intelligence will turn out to be self-limiting, just as it is with human intelligence. That is my (unqualified) prediction. I think we will continue to provide the machines with their goals, motivations and limits, even if only out of fear of having them leave us behind.