NASA’s new lander CRASHES AND BURNS--Curiosity’s potential sucessor, Morpheus, explodes ...

The Register ^ | 10th August 2012 00:43 GMT | By Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Slow start on the video....finally got it going....crash is 6 minutes into the video.

Go to the website for the video.

click on the black screen and work on it....I had trouble initially getting it going.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[montag813]

Maybe they should have named it “Neo” instead.

[Redleg Duke]

Growing up in the 50s, I got used to our rockets nearly always blowing up, but NASA kept on trying and we landed men on the moon and brought them home safely.

Today's Americans want instant gratification at little cost and they don't have the attention span to focus beyond any failed attempts.

Thanks to the socialist (RAT) takeover of the public schools, we are turning out drones. They have managed to suppress the entrepreneurial genes that our ancestors exploited to come to and succeed in the "New World".

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

After retirement ...tried teaching Math....very few were really into focusing on something that takes time.

[BigCinBigD]

Ad astra per aspera...

[Bikkuri]

Have you seen any of the failures from Russia or China (both are rare and hard to find) :p

At least we have the tests out in an area that wont normall put any populated areas in danger :^/

[buffaloguy]

That is what testing is for. Blowing stuff up so you can fix the design so that it doesn’t blow up.

Probably a good test in NASA’s eyes.

[COBOL2Java]

Exactly. Watch some of the early tests filmed by Wernher von Braun in the 50s. They tried again and again and again, learning more and more each time from every failure until they got it right.

Actually, some of the failures are kinda funny to watch. :0)

[LimitedPowers]

Nasa personnel don’t know how to count down from 10 to 0? The count went from 2 straight to 0 — no wonder the little ‘bot got confused! Fortunately, the stores of pressurized fuel looked to be SEVERAL YARDS away from the blast.

[dfwgator]

That’s why you build prototypes.

[holden]

Why couldn't they have kept the tether on it, and as it rose 10 feet or so, the crane could've kept it from contacting the ground? They could've just cut the engines and let it fall only the length of the tether. Damage, yes, but not catastrophe.

HF

[SuziQ]

Well, that’s what the testing phase is for; weed out the problems before you get to the point where they can’t be fixed.

[kitchen]

... go play some Lunar Lander ...

That game program came on my HP-67, c. 1976. Still got the card somewhere.

[Moonman62]

Another article said a prime objective of this lander is to use “green” fuels. No wonder it crashed.

[BenLurkin]

They named a lander after this guy?

[Lurker]

L

[LimitedPowers]

If a “prime objective” of a lander is to use fuel — of any sort — then somebody up the chain of command has some pretty twisted mission criteria.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Ernest. An ‘extra, extra’ ping to the APoD members. And the Perseid shower is coming up, people.

[rawcatslyentist]

Just reaching out to the mudslimes!

If only they could get it to decapitate.....