UN Convention states that no country can claim anything in outer space. But again, one day if China does reach Mars and do what they did, unilaterally claim one of the Parcel island by setting up a town there. Then that's the beginning of star wars.
Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) "Curiosity" In Final Phase Of Its 8 Months Cruise
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UN Convention states that no country can claim anything in outer space. But again, one day if China does reach Mars and do what they did, unilaterally claim one of the Parcel island by setting up a town there. Then that's the beginning of star wars.
"The 1979 Moon Treaty turned the jurisdiction of all heavenly bodies (including the orbits around such bodies) over to the international community. However, this treaty has not been ratified by any nation that currently practices manned spaceflight." -- Wikipedia "Outer Space".
Because backyard astronomers with a basic radio dish have been able to receive signals too when pointed at Mars.
Well, guess what? James Cameron (director of Aliens, Titanic, Avatar etc. etc.) is a Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) co-investigator and technical advisor for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) "Curiosity" team at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) / Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). NASA / JPL decided to shelve his last minute zoom cameras for a lack of time and also any meaningful scientific objective / purpose that couldn't be replicated by the existing Fixed Focal Length (FFL) Mast Cameras (Mastcams) system, thus he wouldn't then be able to get some super awesome Martian 3D footages in 720p High-Definition (HD) that he always wanted as a result. :bsmilie:
Imagine if it was Jerry Bruckheimer or Michael Bay as co-investigator and technical advisor instead. :bsmilie: Peter Cullen (voice of Optimus Prime) was heard narrating in a couple of Public Service Announcements (PSAs) though as part of an publicity outreach initiative.
It will be a real shame if it was all staged, isn't it? Who knows, perhaps one day in the near future you or someone of your future generations may be able to get up close personally with these rovers at some Martian museum.
The 1979 Moon Treaty is really quite redundant since the comprehensive 1967 Outer Space Treaty (which has been signed and ratified by some 100 nations including the European Union (EU), People's Republic of China (PRC), Russian Federation and the United States of America (USA)) already covered similar agreements including restrictions in claiming sovereignty on celestial bodies.
But seeing the nature of human beings, it is also quite naive to think that anyone will possibly abide by these agreements if it doesn't serve their own interests any good respectively.
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who knows? maybe Earth already 'belongs' to some other race on some other far flung planet already after they landed and built the pyramids and Inca temples ?
Literally a bullet catch 340 kilometers away as captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) 0.5 meter (19.7 inch) aperture reflecting telescope. Window of opportunity is only several milliseconds as the MRO sped by at an orbital velocity of 12,240 km/hr (540 MB high resolution file in .TIF format available here).
Down sampled thumbnail (due to initial bandwidth constraint) + 3 seconds after heat shield separation as the Mars Descent Imager instrument (MARDI) fired away.
Aeolis Mons (Mount Sharp) rising 5.5 km (18,000 ft) above Gale Crater, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) "Curiosity" ultimate destination as captured by the one megapixel engineering Hazard Avoidance Cameras (HazCams) in monochrome after their transparent dust cover / lens cap was released.
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Maybe. Speaking in terms of an astronomical timeline, our solar system (formed from the gravitational collapse of a molecular cloud, "dusty" remnants from either one or even two population II stars before the sun) is actually very, very young. Only 4.568 billion years and its not even halfway through our stellar evolution and for the first name in the history of mankind, we have the knowledge and technology to actually pick up orbits of terrestrial planets in the habitable "Goldilocks" zone of other star's planetary system in our Milky Way!
Like what Jodie Foster in the film Contact said "There are 400 billion stars out there just in our galaxy alone. If only one out of a million of those had planets, and just one out of a million of those had life, and just one out of a million of those had intelligent life, there would be literally millions of civilizations out there... ... and if it is just us, seems like an awful waste of space." (actually she got her maths sightly wrong).
Remote Sensing Mast (RSM) erected.
Just waiting for the first full resolution, coloured panoramic to be beamed back.
Just waiting for the first full resolution, coloured panoramic to be beamed back.
Down sampled thumbnail (due to initial bandwidth constraint) + 3 seconds after heat shield separation as the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) instrument fired away.
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First 360 degree coloured panoramic mosaic consisting of 130 separate down sampled thumbnail images (due to initial bandwidth constraint) of 144 by 144 pixels each as captured by MastCam-34 (M-34) on the Remote Sensing Mast (RSM) of Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) "Curiosity".
Can't wait for the 360 degree coloured panoramic mosaic consisting of full resolution images that will be several gigabyte in size.
"We need more placards!"
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First 360 degree true coloured (uncorrected) panoramic mosaic consisting of 79 separate full resolution images of 1,200 x 1,200 pixels each as captured by MastCam-34 (M-34) on the Remote Sensing Mast (RSM) of Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) "Curiosity" taken over a period of an entire hour on the 9th of August 2012. (Full resolution file available here).
Same image as above but corrected for white balance during post-processing so as to increase the level of brightness appropriate to those on Earth as Mars only receive half the amount of sunlight from the Sun. (Full resolution file available here).
Black patches are censored by National Security Agency (NSA) for reasons of Operations Security (OPSEC) pending declassification of Top Secret information, just kidding. Those are actually eaten by the Space Cats.
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New Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) "Curiosity" sister mission just announced for launch in 2020, to be primarily constructed from Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) "Curiosity" certified developmental and operational flight spares originally meant as backup.
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Selfie as taken by Mars Exploration Rover B (MER-B) "Opportunity" for its tenth year anniversary of exploration (3558 sols) on the red Martian planet 9.75 years (3468 sols) past its warranted lifespan.
NASA / JPL - CalTech / MSSS / TAMU Catalog ID No. PIA17936
You Are Here: Earth Sets Over Aeolis Palus (Dingo Gap), Gale Crater
Sol 529 (31st January 2014), Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) "Curiosity" directed its MastCam-34 (M-34)/ MastCam-100 (M-100) on the Remote Sensing Mast (RSM) up westward after sunset towards a brilliant evening star "Earth" setting toward the horizon.