Comment Re:All you nay-sayers... (Score 1) 210
What all you nay-sayers forget is that this is only the very beginning of (debatable) usefulness. What comes out of this research over the next 10, 30 or 50 years, however, may prove surprising, and not just for how far this "mule" has come, but what other technologies it throws off along the way.
Mod parent up. This always bothers me with these kinds of stories. While the immediate usefulness of this particular project may be questionable, the long-term benefit of this type of research is potentially huge, and the best way to find the flaws and improve the technology is to put it to the test in real situations.
DARPA and NASA (and other similar organizations) projects very often result in tons of technologies that provide huge benefits across the board. When you aim for the stars, even if you fall a little short, you still often hit a worthwhile target. Just think about robotics, the internet, advanced materials, all kinds of food safety improvements, etc. All of these things that we take for granted now were the direct result or biproducts of DARPA and NASA projects. The world would NOT be the same as it is without this type of research.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off_technologies
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/ten-nasa-inventions.htm