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12 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
but you knew that right? 
Mars and the year of Perseverance
By Chris Carberry, Opinion Contributor — 07/22/20 05:30 PM EDT
Later this month, the Perseverance rover begins a seven-month voyage to Mars in what will be a vital precursor to human missions in the 2030s. When the name “Perseverance” was chosen for the 2020 Mars rover earlier this year, few would have predicted how apt that name would become in these difficult times. Since then, the nation and the world have been enduring unprecedented challenges from an ongoing worldwide pandemic to massive economic disruptions and a seismic realignment of perceptions of racism.
Some may ask why we should explore space with so many problems here on Earth. But the timing of this launch could not have been better. While humans will not be passengers on this trip, the mission represents human drama and achievement. It provides us with an inspiring story of what is possible when people of all backgrounds and nationalities work together.
It is also an extremely rare program during this day and age for another reason. Perseverance is the product of bipartisan support over multiple administrations. Perseverance was announced in late 2012 during the Obama administration. Eight years later, it will launch during the Trump administration and, if all goes well, land in February 2021 — which will be either the first term of a new administration or the second term of the current administration. No matter how divided we have become on other issues, we have remained united in support for space exploration. If successful, Perseverance could play a significant role in advancing our goal of sending humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s.
Scheduled to land in February 2021, the rover shares the same basic design as the Curiosity rover that landed on Mars in 2012. Like Curiosity, Perseverance faces an extremely complicated landing process that NASA calls the “Seven Minutes of Terror.” The vehicle will enter the Martian atmosphere traveling at approximately 13,000 miles per hour. However, the Martian atmosphere is not thick enough – it is only 1 percent the density of Earth’s atmosphere – to slow the vehicle down sufficiently so that it can land safely. Supersonic parachutes will deploy when the lander has reached a descent velocity of 1,000 miles per hour, and those parachutes will slow the vehicle down to 200 miles per hour.
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/508367-mars-and-the-year-of-perseverance
By Chris Carberry, Opinion Contributor — 07/22/20 05:30 PM EDT
Later this month, the Perseverance rover begins a seven-month voyage to Mars in what will be a vital precursor to human missions in the 2030s. When the name “Perseverance” was chosen for the 2020 Mars rover earlier this year, few would have predicted how apt that name would become in these difficult times. Since then, the nation and the world have been enduring unprecedented challenges from an ongoing worldwide pandemic to massive economic disruptions and a seismic realignment of perceptions of racism.
Some may ask why we should explore space with so many problems here on Earth. But the timing of this launch could not have been better. While humans will not be passengers on this trip, the mission represents human drama and achievement. It provides us with an inspiring story of what is possible when people of all backgrounds and nationalities work together.
It is also an extremely rare program during this day and age for another reason. Perseverance is the product of bipartisan support over multiple administrations. Perseverance was announced in late 2012 during the Obama administration. Eight years later, it will launch during the Trump administration and, if all goes well, land in February 2021 — which will be either the first term of a new administration or the second term of the current administration. No matter how divided we have become on other issues, we have remained united in support for space exploration. If successful, Perseverance could play a significant role in advancing our goal of sending humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s.
Scheduled to land in February 2021, the rover shares the same basic design as the Curiosity rover that landed on Mars in 2012. Like Curiosity, Perseverance faces an extremely complicated landing process that NASA calls the “Seven Minutes of Terror.” The vehicle will enter the Martian atmosphere traveling at approximately 13,000 miles per hour. However, the Martian atmosphere is not thick enough – it is only 1 percent the density of Earth’s atmosphere – to slow the vehicle down sufficiently so that it can land safely. Supersonic parachutes will deploy when the lander has reached a descent velocity of 1,000 miles per hour, and those parachutes will slow the vehicle down to 200 miles per hour.
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/508367-mars-and-the-year-of-perseverance
And with respect to the vaccine, the last adminstration chose to fucking ignore the pandemic for months (including calling it a "hoax" right through the point when 45 and most of his staff contracted it), and the vaccine effort didn't start until sometime in May 2020, which was literally after 100,000 in the U.S. had already died from it.
The Obama admin left the 45 admin the blueprints to deal with a pandemic such as this and those plans were completely dismissed.
Was the Pfizer vaccine part of the government’s Operation Warp Speed?
Nov. 10, 2020
In July, Pfizer got a $1.95 billion deal with the government’s Operation Warp Speed, the multiagency effort to rush a vaccine to market, to deliver 100 million doses of the vaccine. The arrangement is an advance-purchase agreement, meaning that the company won’t get paid until they deliver the vaccines. Pfizer did not accept federal funding to help develop or manufacture the vaccine, unlike front-runners Moderna and AstraZeneca.
Pfizer has distanced itself from Mr. Trump and Operation Warp Speed. In an interview on Sunday, Kathrin Jansen, a senior vice president and the head of vaccine research and development at Pfizer, said, “We were never part of the Warp Speed,” adding, “we have never taken any money from the U.S. government, or from anyone.”
On Monday, a spokeswoman for Pfizer clarified that the company is part of Operation Warp Speed as a supplier of a potential coronavirus vaccine.
Nov. 10, 2020
In July, Pfizer got a $1.95 billion deal with the government’s Operation Warp Speed, the multiagency effort to rush a vaccine to market, to deliver 100 million doses of the vaccine. The arrangement is an advance-purchase agreement, meaning that the company won’t get paid until they deliver the vaccines. Pfizer did not accept federal funding to help develop or manufacture the vaccine, unlike front-runners Moderna and AstraZeneca.
Pfizer has distanced itself from Mr. Trump and Operation Warp Speed. In an interview on Sunday, Kathrin Jansen, a senior vice president and the head of vaccine research and development at Pfizer, said, “We were never part of the Warp Speed,” adding, “we have never taken any money from the U.S. government, or from anyone.”
On Monday, a spokeswoman for Pfizer clarified that the company is part of Operation Warp Speed as a supplier of a potential coronavirus vaccine.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/health/was-the-pfizer-vaccine-part-of-the-governments-operation-warp-speed.html
Similarly, the Trump administration did not "launch" the Perseverance Mars rover project. It was conceived in 2011 and preliminary plans and objectives were released in 2013.
I'm not sure why anyone would give Trump credit for the inception of either project.
