How's this for a headline: Boeing CEO Vows to Beat Musk to Mars

[url]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-04/boeing-ceo-vows-to-beat-musk-to-mars-as-new-space-race-beckons[/url]

[quote]“I’m convinced the first person to step foot on Mars will arrive there riding a Boeing rocket,” Muilenburg said at the Chicago event on innovation, which was sponsored by the Atlantic magazine.
[/quote]

[QUOTE=Dubslow;444257]How's this for a headline: Boeing CEO Vows to Beat Musk to Mars[/QUOTE]
:tu: Competition is always good. I don't really care whose rocket is, if it can bring me there safely... One thing I can not stand, tho... The 12 minutes delay on the internet link when I will access mersenneforum from Mars...

[QUOTE=LaurV;444277]The 12 minutes delay on the internet link when I will access mersenneforum from Mars...[/QUOTE]It can be as low as ~six minutes round trip time. Stop complaining.

[QUOTE=retina;444282]It can be as low as ~six minutes round trip time. Stop complaining.[/QUOTE]

Or as high as 45! And if you account for going around the Sun, more than an hour!

Haha, you guys!
(:redface: I accept I didn't look for the real values, just that the number "12" was stuck to my brain from some early movies and articles I read on the web following all this Mars fashion show, so not sure I remembered the right value)

The European Space Agency hopes to land a craft on Mars today.
The current prediction is that it will land at 1428 GMT (Earth time - I don't know what time that is on Mars).

[URL]http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars/Live_updates_ExoMars_arrival_and_landing[/URL]

[URL]http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars/Watch_ExoMars_arrival_and_landing[/URL]

[QUOTE=LaurV;444289]Haha, you guys!
(:redface: I accept I didn't look for the real values, just that the number "12" was stuck to my brain from some early movies and articles I read on the web following all this Mars fashion show, so not sure I remembered the right value)[/QUOTE]

12 minutes is the semi-major axis of Mars's orbit divided by the speed of light, so the average time it takes for light to get from the Sun to Mars.

[url]https://arxiv.org/pdf/1610.05750[/url] is quite fun - demonstrating that, with the naked eye assisted by a cross-staff made of two rulers one sliding on the other, you can measure angular distances to an accuracy of 0.2 degrees which is more than enough to demonstrate that Mars's orbit is elliptical.

[URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37707776"]Not looking good right now.[/URL] but there's still hope.

[QUOTE=xilman;445385][URL="http://http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37707776"]Not looking good right now.[/URL] but there's still hope.[/QUOTE]
Please check and fix your url.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;445388]Please check and fix your url.[/QUOTE]Thanks. Seems to work for me now. Cut and paste must have gone wrong

[QUOTE=xilman;445385][URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37707776"]Not looking good right now.[/URL] but there's still hope.[/QUOTE]

She's dead, Jim.