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Dumpshock Forums _ Shadowrun _ Mars

Posted by: FlakJacket Jan 24 2004, 02:59 AM

Well despite some missed deadlines, Mars seems determined to keep to its part of the Shadowrun timeline. First Beagle goes MIA, and now Spirit seems to be having a bad case of BSoD. Well, can't have anyone finding anything early. Was there ever anything else about Mars and the situation there mentioned, or is it still just what's in Missions?

Posted by: Snow_Fox Jan 24 2004, 03:42 AM

There's a thread about this in Woodchuck's site, but yeah, they've got the rover back on line but it's the first probe in a long time not to screw up. All this helps if you've got a space based line, adding to mystery on Mars with a long history of failed missions there.

Posted by: Ancient History Jan 24 2004, 03:42 AM

Just some missions and the secret Ares base in Target: Wastelands.

Posted by: Cray74 Jan 24 2004, 03:56 AM

QUOTE (Snow_Fox)

Last I read on-line (as of 10:45 PM EST, 23 January 04), it was not so much as "back on line" as "sending garbled nonsense on request."

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040123_1916.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/01/24/MARS.TMP&type=science

Posted by: 252 Jan 24 2004, 08:09 AM

AH what part of Target Wastelands does it reference a Secret Mars Ares base. I kinda remember it, it doesn't say anything to definite about it right?

Posted by: Panzergeist Jan 24 2004, 08:20 AM

NEWS FLASH: MARS PROBE CRASHES INTO DEBRIS FROM PREVIOUS PROBE
CYDONIA FACE WANTED FOR QUESTIONING
2/3 of all mars missions fail before they can do anything useful. This rover is one of the best simply for managing to land and roll off the lander. Personaly, I think that the government is just telling the public that their mars missions fail so that they don't have to tell us what the probes find. It works a lot better than saying that the probe found stuff that they can't tell us.

Posted by: Herald of Verjigorm Jan 24 2004, 09:54 AM

[cospiracy theorist rant]
Obviously, this is a case of outside signal interference. Where? From that European satelite in orbit. Their Beagle broke, so they want to make sure no one else can get any useful data.
[/rant]

It's hard to do maintenance at that distance, and there are plenty of places in the treck that could damage the more delicate components. There should be more hardware and software redundancy, but it already has some very impressive diagnostic systems, and a full secondary control system brings its own problems.

Posted by: Siege Jan 24 2004, 01:21 PM

Isn't that the supreme April Fool's joke?

Intercept the Mars Rover signal and splice it with images of your own? Maybe little green men in Hawaii tourist shirts and cameras waving?

-Siege

Posted by: Ancient History Jan 24 2004, 02:48 PM

252: No, just one of those shadowy rumors.

Posted by: Hot Wheels Jan 24 2004, 03:14 PM

QUOTE (Panzergeist)

. Personaly, I think that the government is just telling the public that their mars missions fail so that they don't have to tell us what the probes find. It works a lot better than saying that the probe found stuff that they can't tell us.

You mean in SR or RL? It would be interesting. Some technician looknig at the broadcasts, see..."Holy S***!" then his screen goes blank and his boss explains to him he a) saw nothing b)his security cklearance just went up. c) if he violates A&B he will have a fatal traffic accident within 3 hours.

the probe has been heard from but it's crippled, they don't know if it's a program they can reboot or a hardware problem that's fatal.
O course the picture of a martian street gang stripping it for parts...

I think it's sad to think of the probe, rolling accross the martian landscape, chirping along, and no one will ever hear from it again.

Posted by: Nath Jan 24 2004, 03:37 PM

QUOTE (Hot Wheels @ Jan 24 2004, 04:14 PM)

I think it's sad to think of the probe, rolling accross the martian landscape, chirping along, and no one will ever hear from it again.

The same happened on Earth to Mark Hamill after the Return of the Jedi, and nobody moaned about it

Posted by: Hot Wheels Jan 24 2004, 07:02 PM

Actually he does a lot of cartoon voice overs.