You sure? I picked up lots of Triolic wave spiking with my tricorder recently. I wonder if its got to do with the comet--

*static*

Happens when you produce a comet from nowhere.

Maybe Q is actually testing your player captain? And your player is in fact the actual cause of the comet due to a time paradox created by your player and the only way to reverse it is to have 3 versions of yourself from different time periods do something at one area?

Or if it hits one of Mars's polar ice caps, it might trigger a weak green house effect... It's hard to say.

Ah, well, this was not discussed, but I can see what you mean. I wonder what the odds really would be that the rovers would/could be hit? I know Mars has a weaker atmosphere, therefor things that would completely break up in our atmosphere would not break up in it's atmosphere. However, even if there is a chance, it would surely be a small chance. Not disputing, just wondering.

Also, most of the man sent things we have on Mars are past their expected life span, however, it would still be a shame to lose anymore of them.

"The planet Mars exploded 6 million years after we evolved here. The explosion shifted the orbit of Sol III, and everything was lain waste..." ??

I'm sure he's alright. The ghosts only feed when the lights go blue. Comet Cocktail, anyone?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Another Doomsday!

Well, if it hits anywhere it could do that, but it won't last regardless. I mean, the planet is already prone to global sandstorms which do warm the surface somewhat, this won't be much better - it'll be over in a few years at most, probably months...

The data collected, if it's good news, could reignite the imagination, but it won't jump start real plans. And still, an impact is unlikely. Not impossible, but right now it's single digit percents.

We don't know the odds. The closest thing we have to compare to is Earth passing through Haley's tail in 1910. A much smaller comet, much farther away, and poorly observed to boot. Stardust's sample collector collected one particle large enough to impact Mars, and ten others that would make it to the ground but lose all of their original speed and drift down on the wind. None of them enough to hurt Curiosity, though they could break the solar panels on a solar powered rover if one of them's still working by then.

Honestly, while losing a successful rover would be a shame, it's not like we'd be losing them for nothing. Our probes are in a position to get information on the passage as it happens - if things line up just right we might even get some of the most spectacular pictures ever, since the comet will literally fill the sky at its closest approach. Curisoity will have had a long career by then - maybe not long enough, but losing it to gain data on something that might not happen again for centuries is still a hell of an opportunity. It's too fast and caught to late to get a direct probe to it, but our Mars assets are still closer than we've ever gotten to study such a large comet.