This weekend, on Mars... (in the very near future)

UPDATE: okay, okay, okay....so my time machine is playing havok with me at the moment, I got my timeline out of sync.... apparently this event is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN for another 3 WEEKS!  But, it will happen and I imagine the following will still be 100% valid :-)

.....

so...this weekend will be noted by most people as being pretty much the same as the past X amount of weekends during the COVID-19 lockdown...it'll involve minimal "going out", maybe an essential trip to the supermarket and far too much viewing of Netflix or Amazon Prime.

However, I am a little shocked (but not surprised) about the total lack of news / information that this weekend is also the time when 'Perseverance' is going to land on Mars.  Yes, yet another piece of robotic NASA junk is going to be hurled at Mars, drive around a bit, crush some rocks, gather some questionably grainy images and pretty much not do much and be a total waste of "normal" peoples time....

Well..... this time, it's a little different, okay it's a BIG difference!  This is like one of those, in 50 years from now, they'll reach back in time and ask people, "what were you doing when" moments.  As I say, most will moan that they were not allowed to "go to the pub", there will be a geeky few that will smile and say, "that was an awesome weekend that paved the way for the future of human-kind....a helicopter on Mars"......

"A what, what now?", I hear you ask!  yep - not only a delivery drone, but also a helicopter on Mars.... if it works out, imagine now sending 50 of them, think of the range you could cover in the air, rather than being restricted by driving on the ground....

There a quite a few other goodies on this mission that are going to lay the foundation for it being a game changer....I'll let you spend a little bit of time and watch / listen and learn all about it:

I am also very much liking the concept / idea of starting to make a "Universe Internet"..... www.base1-alpha.moon or www.base2-beta.mars - Naturally, I'll still be trying to get MS-DOS based 1990's equipment to send/receive those network signals across the universe!  In fact they will probably be the most efficient devices to be used - minimal moving parts, minimal fuss..... they'll probably be based around an RPi PICO no doubt....we'll see.