Damn straight. I always wanted to do that, man. And I think if I had a Mars Rover I could hook that up, too; 'cause chicks dig dudes with Mars Rovers .

Nobody said that. Read.

Okay, let's get this over with: it is your opinion that space/Mars exploration should only happen when we are not in a recession?

Marvin doesn't want plutonium-238 in his backyard!

This mission was ten years in the making. If you start and stop a mission because of a recession you would not get anything done.

Mcdonalds wastes no time getting new franchises put in.

This helped support 7,000 jobs during the scope of 8 years.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/06/news....htm?hpt=hp_c1

That would be so cool.

In a perfect world, I think government shouldn't do big projects in a good economy and build up their resources to do projects in a bad economy. In a bad economy they'll get better pricing on goods and services because firms are hungry, and they'll also help regulate the economy by filling in the trough at the bottom of recessions. It's an all-around win.

Of course, a long-term project like this or the Interstate Highway System or whatever will likely transcend short-term economic fluctuations. It's probably more for local governments or maybe state government. If I was building a library or airport or something that takes five years or less, I'd want to use this system if I'm a smart local government.

The challenge, of course, will be holding on to your resources during the good times without making it look like you're hoarding. If we trusted our government and if our government really looked out for our money, it would work, but I'm not sure that either is really true.

Already did that.

Actually, that's a bit of a misrepresentation. The Galileo spacecraft we sent there and placed into orbit ever landed. It did drop a probe into Jupiter's atmosphere but it was crushed by the exteme gravitational forces of Jupiter's atmosphere, as expected.

Amazing. MRO snapped a picture of Curiosity descending under the parachute:

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/6..._1600-1200.jpg

Another:

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/6...-full_full.jpg