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Created August 6, 2012 14:03
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Comparing Curiosity landing to getting a hole-in-one
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Comparing Curiosity landing to getting a hole-in-one

Questions? Ask @superninjarobot.

Some initial data

Golf

  • Size of a golf hole: 11 cm
  • Typical distance of a par-5 golf hole: 425 m
  • Ratio of these distances: 2.588e-4

Curiosity landing

  • Size of Curiosity target landing area: approximated by a 24-km-wide square
  • Distance traveled: 560M km
  • Ratio of these distances: 4.285e-8

Observations

  • Assume that the ease of hitting a target is proportional to the square of the ratio mentioned. Then, landing Curiosity on Mars is about 225,000,000 (225 million) times harder than getting a hole-in-one on the longest hole of a typical golf course.

  • The Curiosity mission cost about $2.5 billion. By comparison, the value of the PGA Tour's broadcast deals with network television is estimated at about $2.8 billion [citation].

  • No golfer has successfully hit a par-5 hole-in-one during tournament play (few could even attempt it, admittedly). NASA has sent 13 missions to Mars.

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