Monday, August 6, 2012

Pictures of Mars!

Pictures of Mars!

I remember...back around 1995-96, I was living in Florida at the time, and I had a neighbor who a computer that was hooked up to the internet. He was showing me stuff, and explaining what all the stuff was, and eventually we came to a page where it was a live feed of the images one of the Mars Rovers was sending from Mars! Now, I was interested! I mean there were robots on Mars that we sent there, sending images back to earth, and I could watch it on this screen here with a connection to the internet? That is just too cool! I NEED to be on the internet!!!

At the time a computer cost about $1,500 - $2,000 for a halfway decent one...like a 486 Mhz Machine (A machine that you can't anything with today) and I sure couldn't afford one of those! Then along came WebTV. for $200 dollars I could buy a box, and pay $25.00 a month for a dial-up connection to the internet. With a WebTV, you would get a remote control, and you could also get a wireless keyboard. You would use your television as the sound and monitor...and you were on the internet! I bought a WebTV Plus box right away, and that is how I first got started on the internet. Us landing another rover on Mars just brought back that memory, and I thought I'd share it for my first post on my new blog...it just seemed fitting somehow.

Anyways, Congrats to NASA one more time for landing Curiosity on Mars, to continue exploring, learning, and pushing the boundaries of space!