On the plains of Jezero, the secrets of Mars' past await us! Follow for the latest news, updates, pretty pics, and community discussion on NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's most ambitious mission to Mars!
For those unaware, Perseverance and Curiosity are both armed, like the good patriotic American rovers they are - equipped with lasers which have a definite scientific function, but which also (let's be honest) serve to dissuade any Martian critters they come across from getting too close...
Let's hope Sheriff Percy doesn't need to use it.
Original image with caption (MastCam, sol 1495)
The scientific purpose is shooting things and then measuring the colors of the explosion
Ah, but you mustn't forget that Percy's microphone is also keenly listening in whenever it uses the laser. The geologists are using the sounds of the explosions to estimate the hardness and material properties of the rocks they're shooting:
We find that louder and more stable acoustic signals are recorded from rock with compact surfaces, i.e., low presence loose particulate material, and harder mineral phases in their composition.
We would therefore be quite aware of any screams from Martian life-forms we inadvertently shoot.
Just saying.
What about that one rock on the left which has a side that looks like polished metal?
Yes, quite a few of those have been spotted up and down this hillside. Rocks of this type are currently under active investigation by the science team.
What am I looking at? (Besides mars lol)
A Martian monster camouflaged as a rock that is planning a butt probe on our rovers
Can i get a red circle
It’s a free inclusion as part of the anal probe
Pew pew pew! 😃
Magnificent usernames in this thread.
You can't tell the players without a program.
this is what's wrong with humanity. find new non-terrestial life in its own home and what's the first fucking thought?
"shoot it down because laser so pretty!"
Yes. Fine. But also if it decides to attack we can't offer a real time defense due to signal travel time. The probe must be ready to defend itself without our timely response. We have to trust it to act before we even know anything happened.
We knew the risks when we planned the mission. We knew that an attacker might represent the whole of a particular species and that preemptive retaliation in the name of defense might represent genocide. It's a risk we had to take. Maybe there is a small risk of interplanetary war as its civilisation takes our defense as a hostile act but look around you. Couldn't things get a little better if we had one enemy to be united against? One major threat to get us back on track?
Are you high?
I don't get high. The original post was clearly not being serious. I saw an opportunity to "yes, and." It's weird that people would clearly get that the original was joking but that I must be being serious.
LOL Mustn't feed the trolls, now. I mean, the one you're responding to is literally flashing a username that translates as "False False".
You posted a clearly joking post, I build on the same joke and I'm labeled a troll? Weird.