Congratulations to NASA and JPL, Curiosity touch down.

[ProfTournesol]

Eight billion dollars wasted on sending a very expensive remote control car to find out what we already know or don't really care: Life doesn't exist anymore on Mars. I probably wouldn't care at all if these scientist went to Kickstarter to fund their own adventures instead of using my money, or I should say the Chinese' money that was lent to us by buying our bonds.

With such narrowminded view, your country wouldn't even been discovered.

[Hans Ludwig]

With such narrowminded view, your country wouldn't even been discovered.

The East India Company wasn't funded through taxes, but rather selling of stock. In other words, they were able to do what they did because of capital. If you need any lessons on US history, feel free to PM.

By the way, I'm half Sioux. That side of my family would lay claim to discovering North American thousands of years before the Europeans on a fraction of the cost.

There is always someone like you that loves spending other peoples' money on discovering something that is not that important. It really doesn't make any logical sense to borrow money from China to fund such a trip that then devalues personal savings and creates inflation, the increase in prices for goods and services. Wouldn't it have been better served taking care of those that most directly needed it because of the bad economy?

[Sakowski]

Eight billion dollars wasted on sending a very expensive remote control car to find out what we already know or don't really care: Life doesn't exist anymore on Mars. I probably wouldn't care at all if these scientist went to Kickstarter to fund their own adventures instead of using my money, or I should say the Chinese' money that was lent to us by buying our bonds.

We are humans duhh, We want to explore, discover new things... They dont only look for life on mars but if its suitable for us humans to live there when our planet will be no longer habitable because of our stupidity
Or perhaps US has differ way... Oil young chap? Naaa

[PELHAM]

Ummmm I thought it was $2.6 billion?
That's $2.6 billion over the course of nearly 8 years. That's about $325 million a year. The amount of money spent on Curiosity's development, flight, and two year mission is the amount of money that the US Department of Defense spends every 36 hours.

There are lots of journalists asking "is it worth it?". That's because they don't understand the science or the engineering or it's importance and find it boring. Space science has thousands of spin offs that benefit everyone, every day.
http://www.nasa.gov/50th/50th_magazine/benefits.html

[Hans Ludwig]

Ummmm I thought it was $2.6 billion?

It depends on how you're calculating inflation, and you are also forgetting to factor in budget/cost overruns, which the Office of Budget and Management never includes in their reports. Unfortunately we will have to wait for either next fiscal year or next quarter for the Congressional Budget Office to release their cost and benefit analysis.

There are lots of journalists asking "is it worth it?". That's because they don't understand the science or the engineering or it's importance and find it boring. Space science has thousands of spin offs that benefit everyone, every day.

Of course you like this adventure NASA took because you didn't pay for it. It's what economist call the Moral Hazard. It's also a subjective, value based judgement you placed on this NASA mission.

We are humans duhh, We want to explore, discover new things...

Who is arguing against that? If you want to send something to Mars to look for life, then do it through capital investment or actually pay for it yourself, which I hardly doubt you did the later of.

[STALKERGB]

@Hans, well yeah technically you can say a lot of things humans do are completely pointless, but then thinking like that never gets us anywhere. Although MSL's Curiosity will be an incredibly useful scientific resource the fact that as a race, we have proven we are capable of doing such a thing successfully is an achievement in of itself.

Just because a scientific project wasn't privately funded and you don't think it was worth the time and money doesn't mean it wasn't worth it. A lot of scientific discoveries have come off the back of funding from a government.

With such narrowminded view, your country wouldn't even been discovered.

The East India Company wasn't funded through taxes, but rather selling of stock. In other words, they were able to do what they did because of capital. If you need any lessons on US history, feel free to PM.

I assume we are talking about the discovery of the Americas? In which case Columbus was employed by the Spanish Monarchy, in fact before getting Spanish support didn't he go to the Portuguese Monarchy to try to get their backing? The East India Company had nothing to do with it though.

Ummmm I thought it was $2.6 billion?

The Telegraph put the price of the rover itself at only $1.6Bn, and MSL's total project costs at around $2.5Bn (which includes the rover)

EDIT: The colour photos from the surface look really good!

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/6...-full_full.jpg
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/6...-full_full.jpg

[Sennacherib]

science was/is/will be the future of manking. I'm proud to be an human, when I see a such a feat. money is never wasted for science, but it is wasted to pay footballers and other athletes.

[PELHAM]

It depends on how you're calculating inflation, and you are also forgetting to factor in budget/cost overruns, which the Office of Budget and Management never includes in their reports. Unfortunately we will have to wait for either next fiscal year or next quarter for the Congressional Budget Office to release their cost and benefit analysis.

It's $2.6 Billion over 8 years - 6 of those years have already passed with $1.8 Billion of the budget expended on development and launch, if it continues work after it's remaining 2 years that will cost extra but nowhere near $8 Billion. To give you some idea, the 10 years of mission extensions to both previous Mars Rovers have cost $124 million. Sorry - the $8 Billion you made up, is just nonsense.

Lol at the East India Company discovering the Americas, it was founded over a century after to trade exclusively on a different continent........the clue is in the name.

[mrcash2009]

The Telegraph put the price of the rover itself at only $1.6Bn, and MSL's total project costs at around $2.5Bn (which includes the rover)

The fact that we debate "only" within the billion range is funny based on what a 1-2 billion injection could do elsewhere for sure on the planet we reside on right now & try to live.

Although I am impressed on what they have achieved from a technical standpoint to slingshot that size machinery that far and get it to land on a pretty much untested entry (well untested until its actually happening). Interesting to check out more of the hi res images.

But the other side of me is on the lines of Hans view in terms of sticking a highly expensive bit of kit on a barren planet we dont live on taking pictures of it looking as such and science getting its jolly's off on the data. Interesting, I have a conflicting view on it from both ends, cant disagree on the technical and science aspect, but then not so impressed on the grand scheme of human life, the here and now and the way things are in the here and right now, no matter the data and snapshots.

I guess anything further derails the point of the thread (heading into USA politics territory) for the achievement and the subject, but, well .... 2 billion ..... barren planet and science benefits .... life on earth now and current economic situation ..... hmmmmm, not sure.

Although congrats to the team for the achievement ... I think this is what's known as a happy sand switch post.

[PELHAM]

The fact that we debate "only" within the billion range is funny based on what a 1-2 billion injection could do elsewhere for sure on the planet we reside on right now & try to live.

Think of it as extreme engineering and research and development. What are the possible spinoffs? It's doubtfull many of the benefits all of us experience today would exist without projects like this. The money doesn't simply disappear into space, it funds thousands of science, engineering and manufacturing jobs, that is important to the economy:

NASA Launches New Technology Transfer Portal

"A priority of NASA is to get federally-funded new technologies into the commercial marketplace," said NASA Chief Technologist Mason Peck. "We're hopeful that entrepreneurs, businesses of all sizes and anyone looking for innovative solutions to technology problems will explore NASA's Technology Transfer Portal to find opportunities to transfer NASA technologies into innovative solutions for the nation."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off_technologies
http://spinoff.nasa.gov/
http://www.techbriefs.com/

You could of course simply dump the money for short term gain, then the people that benefited would return next year and ask for more, as they always do......