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Science NASA Disappoints NY Times Square Revelers With "Boring" Message From Mars
Jason Mick (Blog) - January 1, 2013 2:07 PM

26 comment(s) - last by JediJeb.. on Jan 2 at 7:36 PM

Word art message was not what (most of) the crowd was hoping for

The Curiosity Rover's official Twitter account, maintained by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, titillated space exploration fans with a Twitter message promising, "Will you be in @TimesSquareNYC for New Year's Eve? Look for a special message from Mars on the giant Toshiba screens."

Fans were hoping for some new images or video from the Rover -- possibly even news of a new discovery. Instead they were treated to a brief pre-rendered animation, followed by a word art "text" from the Rover commenting "Happy New Year From Mars".

The Verge, whose offices are based in Manhattan, New York, described the build-up and delivery as "groan worthy". One commenter hints that maybe budget cuts were to blame, commenting, "I think we should double NASA's budget, purely for the reason that they can then go and license decent typefaces."

However, the $2.5B USD third generation NASA rover perhaps has earned itself a bit of slack for its hard work blasting rocks on the hostile Martian landscape and for becoming the first Mars rover to directly observe the long hypothesized dried stream beds of the "Red Planet".

Hopefully NASA gets the memo and treats the crowd to a more impressive display next year.

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RE: cut some slack

By Bubbacub on 1/1/2013 4:54:50 PM , Rating: 3

only the message didn't come from mars.

it would have been way cooler (though unappreciated by most) if they had actually pinged the rover IRL and got a response - many minutes later.

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RE: cut some slack

By MadMan007 on 1/1/2013 7:15:05 PM , Rating: 2

Oh, I see. In any case, Louie CK is still awesome.

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RE: cut some slack

By MadMan007 on 1/1/2013 7:15:53 PM , Rating: 2

(Yes, I know it's LouiS CK before someone corrects that :P)

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RE: cut some slack

By FaaR on 1/2/2013 9:31:09 AM , Rating: 3

Many minutes = more like half an hour later for the full round trip. You think today's audience have that kind of attention span? :P

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