When London put in the bid to host the Olympic Games, the total projected cost of the event was set at a hefty $5-billion price-tag – but after planning and construction kicked off, that total grew significantly, hitting a three-fold level of $15-billion, according to Forbes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Included in this figure is about $125 million for the opening and closing ceremonies which were planned and directed by Slumdog Millionaire director, Danny Boyle.<\/p>\n London also enjoyed a big infrastructure overhaul for the games which also added to the billion-dollar total.<\/p>\n More significantly, the London Olympic Park was built in a 500-acre industrial site, and features a newly built stadium, aquatic center, and kilometers of running and cycling paths – as well as a 40-story observation tower – all of which will have long-term use after the 17-day event is over.<\/p>\n In return, the London Olympics are expected to recoup costs during the event, and boost earnings further as the Paralympics kick off after the Summer Olympics draw to a close.<\/p>\n Feeding your Curiosity<\/strong><\/p>\n When it comes down to sending an unmanned exploration craft to Mars, however, NASA only spent a relatively meagre $2.5-billion getting Curiosity there. The Curiosity rover is a car-sized Mars rover (the largest one to-date) currently exploring the Gale Crater on Mars.<\/p>\n According to a New York Times report<\/a>, Curiosity also over-stepped its budget by quite a margin, having initially been projected to cost $1.6-billion to get to Mars.<\/p>\n However, after the project missed its deadline and was delayed until Mars and Earth were perfectly positioned again, the project’s budget ballooned to $2.5-billion.<\/p>\n Curiosity is a mobile space station – and the largest lander NASA has ever put on Mars – which is packed with a lot of advanced technology. It’s nuclear-powered and weighs just under a tonne, at 900kgs.<\/p>\n The rover is packed with heat-rejection systems, cameras, computer systems as well as transmission and communications equipment to broadcast footage of its mission back to Earth.<\/p>\n The transmission delay from Curiosity back to Earth – which is a distance of 566 million kilometers – amounted to 14 minutes.<\/p>\n Ironically, the CBS-implemented tape-delay to the Men’s 100m sprint was set at around 6 hours, covering a distance of just under 6,000 kilometers between the US and London where the event was held.<\/p>\n Social networking platform, Twitter was subsequently hit with comments highlighting the irony: “You can’t transmit the Olympics live, but NASA can transmit a feed from Mars with only a 14 minute delay? NBC you have been owned,” tweeted user, @kgazaway.<\/p>\n Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n Watching the Olympics on the Internet<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Following the Olympics? There\u2019s an app for that.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Olympics-versus-Mars-BT.jpg\" "\\"Olympics")
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