So why the new mars rover?

[PhotonFanatic]

I was so surprised and happy to see that we were going to get a new, bigger better rover on mars. I love astronomy but I'm a big noob and I don't really follow the goings-on very closely. I didn't hear about the new rover until the day before it launched lol. Anyway, a couple questions popped up. Why exactly have they decided to send this one? Did they determine through the other two, that the planet is more attractive for manned visit (and maybe eventual colonization) than we first thought? It seems like they launched those other two rovers and then bam, a short time later, they're sending a bigger better one that can tell us more. So is there some specific purpose, some cause for excitement? And thus, a cause for the relatively speedy launch of the latest rover? Or is it just that the space program is moving faster these days and they decided that the first two rovers didn't tell us quite enough.

Also, a side question. I'm sure you've all heard of that "Colonize Mars Now" (or whatever the heck its called) organization. Where that one guy wants to send a habitat pod every 4 years with no return trip. At least, no return trip in the near future. All the pods would land next to each other and connect. Anyway, to get to the point. Do you think it could be possible that there is gold on mars? Possibly near the surface in a rich vein? I think that if the rover could determine that there was, we could start having man missions to mars now. As in right now. The gold (or even platinum or possibly silver) is so valuable that when brought back to earth in sufficient quantities, (which given current gold prices wouldn't take much) it could fund the whole missions easily. Probably even rake in a nice profit. And thus, we'd be launched into permanently colonizing mars and we'd be launched into becoming an official world colonizing race. Thoughts? Opinions?

[mutleyeng]

I will try to give some kind of an answer, but im sure others could do a better job.

I dont think there was any sudden rush to send a new rover.
We started off with knowing next to nothing about Mars. With each mission we learn a little, and are able to start building a picture of the history and geology of the planet. What you learn from one mission is fed into the next, and the objectives of that mission reflect our new level of understanding.
I think it fair to say that after the Viking landers, some interest in Mars was lost. With the orbiters sending back better and better images, we learnt that Mars perhaps was not as dead a world as was thought. We could see signs of a watery past, which i think did rekindle interest in tking a closer look.
The MER rovers were looking at rock formations, looking for signs of a watery past. Data from the orbiters also builds up this picture of Mars history.
With all this data, they can now locate an area to look deeper into the history of Mars. Curiosity can sample ancient rock layers and see if it could have been habitable for life - see if there are organics, what the atmosphere may have been like billions of years ago.
Its a methodical approach to gradually revealing the secretes of Mars.
10 years ago it wouldnt have been possible to reduce the instrumentation to the size and weight that could be carried on a rover, so there are technological steps being taken too.

So far as Gold on Mars - sure, why not. Most of Earths Gold is thought to have arrived in Meteorite bombardment billions of years ago.
No reason to think that Mars didnt get the same bombardment.
But the geology of Mars may have been different, so it may not be as accessible on Mars as it is on Earth - and even if it were, it would never be economically viable to go and fetch it from there.

[Noclevername]

Do you think it could be possible that there is gold on mars? Possibly near the surface in a rich vein? I think that if the rover could determine that there was, we could start having man missions to mars now. As in right now. The gold (or even platinum or possibly silver) is so valuable that when brought back to earth in sufficient quantities, (which given current gold prices wouldn't take much) it could fund the whole missions easily. Probably even rake in a nice profit. And thus, we'd be launched into permanently colonizing mars and we'd be launched into becoming an official world colonizing race. Thoughts? Opinions?

The cost of shipping minerals from Mars to Earth using current technology would far outweigh any potential value of gold, silver, or platinum. We are still years away from a miniscule sample return of surface dust, which will no doubt cost more than the Curiousity rover to accomplish.

[ToSeek]

I haven't crunched the numbers myself, but I've read (from someone authoritative) that even if there were blocks of 24-carat gold bullion in Earth orbit, our current technology still wouldn't make it cost-effective to retrieve them.

[novaderrik]

i just have to point out to the OP that the lander- Curiosity- is on Mars right now.. it landed this past sunday night/monday morning after spending 9 months (or so?) traveling from earth to Mars and is going thru it's checkouts and what not before it starts meandering about on the surface looking for cool stuff..

i was disappointed that they didn't find a bunny next to the lander like they did with either Spirit or Opportunity...

[MaDeR]

Speedy? Short time later? MSL was supposed to land on Mars two years ago. And no new rover in sight at the moment. Only one Martian mission in works is Maven. I know no other current NASA mission to Mars that got any serious money.

You can tell how problematic is NASA budget. JWST vampire (and MSL cost overruns too, even if not that bad as JWST) certainly did not help. I can only hope MSL success will convince parasy politicians to give some more money for hi-tech job program (for them, space program is nothing more than that).

[DoggerDan]

I haven't crunched the numbers myself, but I've read (from someone authoritative) that even if there were blocks of 24-carat gold bullion in Earth orbit, our current technology still wouldn't make it cost-effective to retrieve them.

If so, then all returning astronauts really are worth their weight in gold.

[ravens_cry]

If so, then all returning astronauts really are worth their weight in gold.

This hardly needs to be said.

[Jeff Root]

It seems like they launched those other two rovers and
then bam, a short time later, they're sending a bigger
better one that can tell us more. So is there some specific
purpose, some cause for excitement? And thus, a cause
for the relatively speedy launch of the latest rover?

Nothing speedy about it. The MER rovers Spirit and
Opportunity were launched in June and July 2003.
MSL rover Curiosity was launched in November 2011,
more than eight years later.

It might seem speedy just because Opportunity is
still operating and Spirit was functioning as recently
as March 2010. When it became stuck in the dust on
May 1, 2009, Spirit had operated for 21.6 times the
planned mission duration.

In general, any enterprise works best when it can go
directly from one project to the next, without either
overlap or gap. Gaps mean waste, loss of workers,
loss of their knowledge and skills, loss of networking
with others. It is much easier to start a new project
when you already have a team of people and facilities
capable of doing it ready to begin.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[Cougar]

Why exactly have they decided to send this one?

Planetary exploration isn't exactly my field either. (As if I have a field. ) But this baby's loaded with cameras and other very cool stuff that I'm not qualified to describe with any accuracy. It should be able to tell if conditions on Mars billions of years ago, when it apparently had a lot of water, were conducive to life or possibly suggestive of life processes. **This video** goes into a lot of the explorations and capabilities of Curiosity.

[ToSeek]

It's probably worth mentioning that Curiosity's science payload masses more than that of every successful surface mission since Viking combined.