Subject: Off-Topic: Science and Technology Discussion

How does transmissions work with curiosity? I suppose it's a radio signal but what happens when the rover is on the other side of Mars from our standing point of view? Do you guys have to wait before sending the signals. How long does it take to arrive and what's the debit of that kind of link? Also do you send the data many times to make sure it arrives all or do you use common TCP/IP protocols?

That's a good question. We uplink our commands in the morning (that's rover morning) and downlink the data in the afternoon (rover afternoon). When it is night for the rover there are no ways we can communicate with it (send or receive) and as such we have 3 stations on Earth that are part of the deep space network, spread at 1/3rd increments around the world:
Goldstone (California)
Madrid (Spain)
Canberra (Australia)

Are those stations all controlled by NASA, or is it more a global cooperation? And in that line of thought, are there other Canadians on your crew? Or any Canadian specific tasks or machinery involved?

NASA runs the DSN (Deep Space Network) which is composed of those three sites though I think the ESA and Aussie Space (Whatever) participate as well. As far as Canadians, the APXS team is the team supporting the Canadian instrument. In addition to myself and another grad student at Guelph, we have 2 other Canadians working on the instrument. The rest, PI, Co-I, other members, are all non-Canadians who all but 2 reside in Canada.

I love the influx of privatized space travel. Almost makes you think that regular people like us could actually go into space in our lifetime. This time, colonizing Mars:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=N...

Government agencies are always a wormhole for cash. Lots of wasted money and time. There's a reason NASA is privatizing much of its projects and for good reason. Also, "MSL + Earth shaking"... that's just the media twisting and taking quotes out of context and creating a frenzy. There's an MSL press conference on the 3rd (Monday) where there'll be a formal announcement of some sort.

By the way, in response to my last comment: www.youtube.com/watch?v=b...

We see here Neil De Grasse Tyson pissed off on tax money for NASA, to inadequate amount of it to be exact: www.youtube.com/watch?v=H... Or maybe he is pissed on the need for explaining why ?
Although this man repeats himself in number of occasions (not minding about fact it will end on YouTube, just wanting to enter people's heads in that moment), I just enjoy listening to him and respect his way of thinking.

Thanks for sharing

PS. I watched the whole thing. That man is a legend. I wish he was advising the "leaders" of the world. He's bang on with everything...

If science was explained by people like he is or Michio Kaku, there would be a geek infestation
Of course, your contribution amongst our PPM population is not irrelevant at all. You got me interested in some space stuff more, and must thank you for that. And I'm sure I'm not alone here who finds your science updates very interesting and amusing.

Well that's my favourite thing to do is get people excited about this kind of stuff. I give talks to schools all around me and there's nothing better than hearing about how they got inspired to follow the mission and stuff like that. He hit the nail on the head, we are born curious and scientists. It is society that squashes that...

off-topic: Makes me think of a trully funny book. I'm not sure of the english title, but it's either "the evolution man" or "What We Did to Father" and is written by Roy Lewis. This book is about a young man during prehistoric times but the story is told with a modern perspective. The uncle of the boy is a scientist trying to discover fire and dog taming because he's of the curious type

He hit the nail on many things, and the one about kids scientists is my favorite Being a parent makes it even more in spotlight. Black cat crossing the road and ladders - fantastic

Now imagine your way as a mission to make more young people interested in science. He is doing that job excellent allright.
I felt really nice when I heard some young chemist from Serbia (not popular sport amongst young man for sure) dedicated his international reward to his professor which, as was mentioned also, inspired him and many more, to study chemistry at University. How can that be ? I imagine my chemistry school teacher, and I feel shame for her. Given the chance to work with children and to blew that opportunity like many before and after her.
God bless youtube for that

It's funny because we know the fire and taming dog tricks. It would be dull science literature for cavemen.
Would like to read it.