We can't stop here, this is spacebat country.

Goddammit. I was hoping to go out to a nice dinner and then a party tonight! If the ChemCam is zapping something tonight my boyfriend will keep us home so he can F5 the shiat out of the NASA website.

In one of the pictures Curiosity took of itself is it doing "duckface"?

"Glenelg"

Are the Welsh in charge of naming geological features on Mars?

"Our challenge is there is no GPS on Mars."

How many satellites would be needed for effective GPS coverage of Mars?

This is ridiculous.

What are we going to do?

Road trip.

JPL: It's seven kilometers to our Mt. Sharp science objective, we got a fresh radioisotope thermoelectric generator, half the country watching us, its dusty, and we're using image compression.

NASA: Hit it.

Nem Wan: "Our challenge is there is no GPS on Mars."

How many satellites would be needed for effective GPS coverage of Mars?

Good question. Earth needed 24 satellites, and Mars has just over half our diameter, so I'm not sure.

I bet it involves math, so I'm going to eat this orange until someone else figures it out.

Nem Wan: How many satellites would be needed for effective GPS coverage of Mars?

You would need a minimum of 4 satellites visible at any one time for GPS to work.

mhuckins

Goddammit. I was hoping to go out to a nice dinner and then a party tonight! If the ChemCam is zapping something tonight my boyfriend will keep us home so he can F5 the shiat out of the NASA website.

This is when the Martians find out about our heat ray.

Holy shiat. They already found ROADS?!

Relatively Obscure: Holy shiat. They already found ROADS?!

Where they're going, they don't need roads.

marsgwar: Nem Wan: How many satellites would be needed for effective GPS coverage of Mars?

You would need a minimum of 4 satellites visible at any one time for GPS to work.

I was going to add that it needs 4* geostationary satellites, but the Google says its an areostationary orbit when circling Mars at 17,000 kms (not 35,000 as with Earth).

(* 3 if Curiosity dropped a base station, IIRfromDigitalCartographyClass20YearsA go)

Relatively Obscure: Holy shiat. They already found ROADS?!

That does not mean anything: There are lots of roads on earth but not much inteligent life.

no grass
no ass
no gas

NO RIDE!

"Curiosity": It's Martian for Jeep.

marsgwar: Nem Wan: How many satellites would be needed for effective GPS coverage of Mars?

You would need a minimum of 4 satellites visible at any one time for GPS to work.

With a proper clock, you can make do with less and they don't need to be visible at the same time.

mhuckins: Goddammit. I was hoping to go out to a nice dinner and then a party tonight! If the ChemCam is zapping something tonight my boyfriend will keep us home so he can F5 the shiat out of the NASA website.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I'd love to meet your BF. He sounds like a really awesome guy.

Nem Wan: "Our challenge is there is no GPS on Mars."

How many satellites would be needed for effective GPS coverage of Mars?

3 for triangulation? (totally guessing)

"You're going the wrong way!"

whither_apophis

"You're going the wrong way!"

Glenelg is an easy practice run.

May as well see it now, once they set off for Mt Sharp they're never coming back this way.