After watching the Le Mans 24 hours race today, dotdk and I came to the conclusion that Oppy is a lot like racing at Le Mans:

• She drives at high speeds at first.
• She stands still for a long time while engineers figure out what to do.
• They change the drivers on Oppy.

Let me add:

• She makes several (sand) pit stops
• Steve has to make the right strategy to get to the finish line (Victoria)
• Energy consumption dictates how long a stint they can drive.
• Watching Oppy racing to Victoria is like the final hour of Le Mans. Everything can break at any time!

Don't talk about Le Mans....I am a fan of Radical and Aston Martin....and neither did too well

Doug

Not sure what Le Mans is...NASCAR is the only kind of racing I really follow.

Attaboy, Teddy-Bob!

If we get any more stuck steering actuators we might be doing that too...

"Le Mans 24h" will turn to be called "Le Meridianii 24h32 minutes"

At least the Astons made it across the finish line. Both Spykers retired with techical problems and Alex Yoong crashed the Racing for Holland Dome-Judd Still I enjoyed the entire race Can't wait for next year's event with Peugeot also running a diesel powered car. And the good bit is that it's probably is going to be a closed top car




Le Mans is an edurance race. Instead of driving a certain distance it's a race around the clock. The car that covers the biggest distance in 24 hours wins. Cars they race range from souped up production Ferrari's and Porsches to sportcar prototypes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_Hours_of_Le_Mans

I can understand the excitement of being *in* such a race,
but watching cars circle each other for hours on end, relieved
only by the occassional crash?

I'm not a sports fan (now there's something that way too much
money, time, and resources are spent on!), so maybe I just don't
have the proper perspective.

And what with the price of gasoline these days....

[quote name='DEChengst' date='Jun 19 2006, 05:39 PM' post='58925']
Le Mans is an eNdurance race!
Oppy is an Endurance explorer

The MER are so resistant for the marathon race. Well, who are the drivers! there were three turn per sol during 90 days and there is only one turn per sol or sometime every two soles. So the drivers is getting tired and the goal is so close with the flag "Beacon" on the view.

Rodolfo

Perhaps a robot race on the Moon or Mars would entice the public,
though I think it would just cheapen space exploration. Let this stuff
happen when we have established colonies there and it is part of the
local culture.

Of course there was the famous solar sail race story by Arthur C. Clarke.
It is actually online in graphic format, which you can find by Googling.

[quote name='ljk4-1' date='Jun 19 2006, 06:00 PM' post='58928']
I'm not a sports fan (now there's something that way too much
money, time, and resources are spent on!), so maybe I just don't
have the proper perspective.
And what with the price of gasoline these days....

ljk4-1,
If you want the general public on your side, they'd better be interested in what you do. This is true for sport, this is true for Space Exploration. What you're saying remind me the neverending fight between manned versus unmmaned spacefligth. I'm sure unmanned spaceflight would be much much less developped if manned spaceflight never occured.

Monster Truck Rallies on the Moon and Wrestling on Mars?

No thank you.

Sounds interesting. I am originally from Bristol, Virginia/Tennessee (the town is literally split in half down the middle of its main street), home to Bristol Motor Speedway, one of the top NASCAR tracks. For reference, Bristol is a town of 42,000, but for every major race, the track sells out all of its 160,000 seats (at about $200 a piece!). It surprises most people that I like it, but when you grow up there, you kind of take it in by osmosis.

And a bicycle race on mars?

"Biiiiiicycle, biiiiicycle, biiiiicycle,
I want to ride my bicyyyycllle I want to ride my biii...
I want to ride my bicyccoool I want to ride it where I aaaam"

[quote name='Ant103' date='Jun 20 2006, 04:21 PM' post='59089']
And a bicycle race on mars?
"Biiiiiicycle, biiiiicycle, biiiiicycle,
I want to ride my bicyyyycllle I want to ride my biii...
I want to ride my bicyccoool I want to ride it where I aaaam"

Help Shaka, help !!!

Er...What do I do? What does he need? Would Castor's bucket of ice water help?
I've never seen a Frenchman in this condition.
Ant?... Ant?... Bonsoir. Êtes-vous tout droit ? Steady, boy.

Tout droit? Euh... Oui, of course. I'm fine thank you
Have I commited an other mistake? (it's hard to recompose original sentences from a song of Freddy Mercury... I like Queen, and after ).

Whew! Glad to hear it, mon ami. Climb and I know more about Mars than Mercury. The only Queen song we know goes: God save our gracious queen...
We were afraid you were having some kind of delayed toxic response to Lance Armstrong.
Our minds are now at ease.

"I'm a rocketship on my way to Mars..."

Some of the other lyrics don't bode so well