Excellent video about how NASA's new Curiosity rover is powered.
tl;dr: rather than use solar like Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity uses nuclear power. I wonder if Stewart Brand was a consultant on this one.
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Armstrong to Nasa: "You're Embarrassing"
Neil Armstrong addressing the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology:
We will have no American access to, and return from, low Earth orbit and the International Space Station for an unpredictable length of time in the future.
For a country that has invested so much for so long to achieve a leadership position in space exploration and exploitation, this condition is viewed by many as lamentably embarrassing and unacceptable.
A lead, however earnestly and expensively won, once lost, is nearly impossible to regain.