Everything is virtualized. The software is Open Source, and much of the courseware is available free. The book you still have to pay for, but it's very cool nonetheless.
Lots of the cost has to do with being radiation and temperature hardened. The methods are one-off for programs like this. There is little to stop it from scaling though - it's just a matter of getting the economies of scale.
From the Wikipedia page, the RAD6000 was used in the Mars Rovers. I believe that the Mars Rovers used Java, partly because of static analysis that can be performed on source and object code and partly due to the garbage collection.
I would be shocked if the actual rovers used Java. Perhaps Java is used in the tools used to control them (that send the signals), but not the little guys themselves.
I really hope they detect frozen water, and organic compounds trapped in that frozen water.
From that discovery I would hope a space colony race would develop. It is depressing how little space exploration has occurred since the first of mankind walked on the moon. A permanent moon base followed by a Mars colony would be possible in our lifetime I believe.
Possible, yes. Whether it would be desirable is an interesting discussion.
Having said that, I'm with you. 'Arms Races' and War often support great technological leaps that ultimately benefit humanity (think plane engines or superglue) - wouldn't it be nice to see a space colony race where nations and corporations invest in new technology to support life on the moon, on Mars, and ultimately here on Earth, without the motivation to kill people first.
Colonizing the moon and mars would lead to speciation because of the effects of reduced gravity, I would imagine. That said, lunar and martian babes will likely be hot if they stay in shape. Think about the effects of low/no gravity, and no sunlight on aging--35 year olds will probably look 20.
At some point, there will definitely be an us/them feeling as the culture and needs of the societies diverge.
I personally think it will be a while before it happens unless the government allows private companies to do it. If they for example make it that any planet you colonize is basically owned by your corporation you'll see a flood of space exploration to get a piece of the pie. Sure can set something like the Alaska agreement, corporation owns the planet for 200 years and in the end the government has the option to buy it for a trillion dollars.
But right now the government is slow because of burecracy and no rush...the second Russians stopped the space race we stopped it and corporations can't do it because there aren't any rules out there regarding space claims and they don't want to invest the money into building a colony only to have the government come in and say sorry but we own it.
As much as I hope what you say is true, many government have other priorities then space exploration.
Unless they find something very valuable (gold, diamonds) I doubt the speed of space exploration will increase and even then, the cost of exploitation would be so high...
In my lifetime, I hope they build a large telescope on the moon and that we can go back till the big bang... They would be enough for me :)
In _The Case for Mars_ Robert Zubrin suggests that the colonization of Mars will have an affect analogous to the colonization of the Americas in the 1700's. Mars Colonization will open up myriad startup opportunities over many decades, if not centuries.
Sadly, I missed it. I had the video feed playing but, due to the Benadryl I took (our cats are shedding right now and I've been sneezing nonstop for a few days), ended up dozing. I woke to the cheering of the landing. :(
I think these mars lander things have been some of the coolest, most inspiring technology-based endeavors in our time.
In terms of 'current news', the problem is that it's usually about politics, and thus not really more relevant to hackers than anyone else, whereas this clearly is. The politics articles also quickly degrade into boring, tired, rehashed debates, too, whereas something like this shouldn't.
(That said, voting people down that much is just lame, people. What happened to the old hacker news where a -1 was sufficient to say "no, we think you're wrong"?)
This isn't reddit, you know: the goal isn't to "punish" people for saying something "really, really wrong" (unless they're being uncivil or trolling, or other antisocial things). The idea is just to point out that they're wrong and move on. Think of it as a community, rather than just a random aggregation of strangers: when you tell a friend that they've done something wrong, you do it once, more or less gently, and then get on with things.
The "let's pile on to the guy who was wrong" mentality is a bit too much of a an unfriendly herd instinct for my tastes.
'Probably' does not constitute a black and white line. Although this topic will be covered on the news over the next week, it is one that pertains to majority of the users' interests, and is highly tech related.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD6000
I couldn't find what language they were working in, does anyone know? Ada?