I think part of the reason for going to the moon is to test out equipment and methods before going to Mars. Also they can do all sorts of science that can't be done on Earth, or in orbit around Earth. I too would like to know what's beyond our solar system, this is just a first step so to speak.

I think the point of the suits in the back is, while the rover is rocked to the lander/base 2 astronauts can get into the rover with out a suit on (no room to move around inside the rover with suits on). They then drive the rover, several miles from the lander/base. Once they get to their work site they hop into the suits, which disconnect from the rover and get to work at the work site, off of the rover. Sort of a neat idea I think.

They could test it in a chamber, but you really wouldn't be able to tell how well its doing as far as pushing something as large as the space station, numbers can only tell you so much before you have to actually test it out. Though this basically sounds like the ion engine/thruster that they have on the deep space 1 probe, though possibly larger/more powerful.

@oddish2211: nerf ball :)

In my opinion, its just a good idea to turn the lights off in a room that your not going to be in, regardless of how much its costing you money. :) On the issue of how much it costs to charge an electric car, I remember hearing something on one of the discovery channels that it cost this one guy around 10cents a charge. Of course if you have your own solar, wind, or some other power source you end up not paying to charge it (unless you count the price of the power system). If I knew my power plant used solar, wind or one of the others, I wouldn't mind paying a somewhat higher electric bill knowing I wasn't polluting the air going from one place to another.

Nothing like being everywhere at once. :)

@Fred I think its partly to do with bandwidth/the distance the signal goes to get here. Also as I understand it, in this case(maybe the 2 latest rovers as well) they don't have enough power to transmit a signal all the way to earth, atleast not one that is strong enough to get data from. They transmit from mars to orbiters that then relay the signal back to earth. I would also assume that its because they'd rather pack on as much scientific devices as they could, rather than full motion video equipment. The difference between this one, and two resent rovers is that it has its 7foot arm thats going to dig, and see whats in/under the soil. It may not be very exciting, until they find some sorta bacteria, or even fossils, although to some thats not very exciting either, but to each their own. :)

Was watching CSI NY last night and they had something close to a holodeck. They normally have a hemispherical globe thing that appeared to have spinning leds inside. Last nights episode they were inside a room that looked like it had a grid on the wall (most likey nothing to do with the displayed image). I think there was somse sorta fog or smoke and some how a 3d image of an x-rayed body was displayed in the cloud, and they could look all around it from different angles. Granted it may have been mostly, if not all CG but it still looked really neat. I'm pretty certain that the hemispherical globe thing though is real.

Apparently that link requires a login (or I'm doing it wrong). But I have heard of needle-less injections before. It uses some sorta ultrasonic injection thing. If you've ever put your hand infront of one of those ultrasonic water misters it almost feels like a needle.

Carbon Fiber is almost the same thing as fiber glass, but stronger and weighs less I believe. Carbon fiber is a bit more expensive than fiber glass also(atleast the sheet kind used to make car bodies. Fiber glass dust, and insulation fiber glass is bad to get on your skin (makes you itch like crazy) and if it gets in your lungs it'll make you cough, and I'd imagine prolonged exposure to it could cause serious lung problems.