WATER ON MARS

doctorthoss · Post by **doctorthoss** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 3:57 pm

Big news for all us astronomy buffs ....

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom ... 0302a.html

Coor · Post by **Coor** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 4:12 pm

Good news, but I still think that all of that moeny could make our current lives better. What harm would come from puting it off for 5 more years?

Sir Diddimus · Post by **Sir Diddimus** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 4:18 pm

I've always known that.... Damn these scientists and they're "we've got to test".....

Not really, That's great news!!!!

junkie christ · Post by **junkie christ** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 4:28 pm

theres water in my stool too...

seriously though thats a great scientfic find and we are too broke to be paying attention to this field...
after we axe bush and get outta the $$$$-poopchute ill clap
im glad they found it personally but...
was wet... great. not inhabitable.... suck.
i want to care about this but theres too many other things im staring at.

Mother Mo · Post by **Mother Mo** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 4:28 pm

Very exciting, indeed.

MahoganyDawn · Post by **MahoganyDawn** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 4:54 pm

At least the money is going to science and not more war toys or toilet seats. Let's face it.. the government is going to spend obnoxious amounts of money on something. It might as well be on scientific research.

Synthpopalooza · Post by **Synthpopalooza** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 5:13 pm

I'm no fan of Bush ... and I know his Mars speech was mere political show ...

However: This is a find of MAGNIFICENT IMPORTANCE ... in that eventually, one day, we are going to have to expand and move off this Earth if we are to survive as a species. As the population increases, we face limited resources, limited space ... we've got to expand our horizons and move out. The exploration and colonization of Mars and the rest of our Solar System is a more long-term solution to humanity's problems as a whole.

And again, I'd rather our $$$ went towards this, rather than blowing up and killing people. And I don't think that the space program and our own domestic programs are mutually exclusive. It absolutely has to be a priority. I'm not saying that we should cut our social programs in favor of space exploration ... but why can't we have them both? There needs to be a way.

RavenLunatic · Post by **RavenLunatic** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 5:20 pm

Gr8 news! I, personally, think it's important to know what's going on in our universe. Not getting off the subject, but, I would like to know if there were an asteroid on a direct path towards our planet & how we can stop it! :shock:

We should put more into coming up with ways of saving our lives instead of destroying them!

Beatrix Kiddo · Post by **Beatrix Kiddo** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 5:39 pm

There was water on Mars.

WAS water on Mars.

What happened?

AND...

Is it happening here on Earth.

THAT and a million other reasons is why we need to continue spending money on "space".
:roll:

Coor · Post by **Coor** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 5:49 pm

Yes, but do you not think that those billions fo dollars could be used for good right now. I mean I think exploration is great, but what about helping out our people on Earth first. Can we not wait 5 more years before exploration?

RavenLunatic · Post by **RavenLunatic** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 6:07 pm

And what's our government doing with all the billions of dollars that isn't going to space exploration & most certainly isn't going to benefit anyone else??? I'll tell you! While crack whores are STILL giving birth to more crack babies & the homeless are STILL homeless, & our children are STILL being abused & people in thrid world countries are STILL starving & we're STILL fighting a war that seems to have no end, our government is spending it all on hookers & nose candy!

This is crap that's been going on for years & STILL nothing is being done about it! So this IS good news, to spite the fact all I hear lately is how more of our soldiers have been killed! :-(

Lost Traveler · Post by **Lost Traveler** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 7:13 pm

First off is was around 860 million no billions involved (thats less then 90% of all other pork projects)
If we didnt spend it on this it would have been used for something else that would not have helped anyone

. This dream that if we were to suddenly become super monitarialy efficent all the excess would go to help people is just that a dream (and not in the sense of MLK's "I have a dream, but in the sense of I dream't that the ocean was made out of icream and we all wore CANDY drops for shoes) :-?

(hell right now it would be used to try and cover up how much Bushes war is costing just like the SS surplus is being used)

Second off NO NO NO NO! there is nothing that can be done about an asteroid headed for earth.

Third wait 5 more years??? (we're about 1000 behind as it is) and whats going to be different in 5 more years (about a billion more people (all hungry) a even worse envioroment, more dept, a population that continues to get dumber by the second

Finally theres water on mars (Ive seen them write up peices where they describe the landers tracks fill up and ice over but they're not mentioning that so I dont know how reliable that is) ........... well duh! we know there ice at both poles (hmmm ice at both poles what could that mean......I dont know, but we better waste a few more decades trying to figure out if there ever was water on mars) This goes to show you, if your dealing with Rocket Science for the love of god dont let rocket scientests run the thing :roll:

But I am glad they found the prof they needed maybe now they will get onto other things

(I know I said finally above but.......For this and about the next 20 generations all space exploration will simply be for the knowing it will only benifit knowledge nothing else, it will hopefully be found in the ruins of this civilization (after the astroid hits :lol:

) and hopefully satisfy some future rocket scientests curiosity (I wonder if there was ever any water next to that chunk of ice?) and we wont waste anouther 50 years tying to answer that again

doctorthoss · Post by **doctorthoss** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 8:16 pm

junkie christ wrote:theres water in my stool too...

seriously though thats a great scientfic find and we are too broke to be paying attention to this field...
after we axe bush and get outta the $$$$-poopchute ill clap
im glad they found it personally but...
was wet... great. not inhabitable.... suck.
i want to care about this but theres too many other things im staring at.

I agree there's a lot of other things to be worrying about, but it's kind of like the decision the Europeans had to deal with a few centuries ago: Do we bother exploring the Americas, and would that money be better used elsewhere, and would the benefits really be.
Besides -- NASA's holding back some information still, I think, waiting for further verification on some of the more provocative findings. The indications they've been getting is not just that there WAS water there, but there IS water there still, and maybe quite a bit more. Here's a link to a really cool article on some of this:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/o ... 40229.html

Coor · Post by **Coor** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 9:46 pm

Well they are trying to stop crack addicts from having kids. In NY they gie you like 500 dollars or something like that if you will get steralized. But of course it wouldn't all go to that in realtity, but if it would, would you rather have it go to the people or to space exploration?

Catalyst1729 · Post by **Catalyst1729** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 9:55 pm

Horray! Now once we brainy monkeys destroy this planet, we've got resourses to steal from others! You guy remember that show Gundam Wing? With the space colonys and all...if that happens...I'm building me a giant robot and joining in. Well, I guess it's good that they found water...good job space guys! Soon enough we'll have a Mcdonalds on the moon! Just what we need *twirls finger*.

(Future Gundam Pilot) :bangbang:

Codeine Coma · Post by **Codeine Coma** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 10:27 pm

Mars must also have oil, since that is Bush's next place in line for conquering. Lets not tell him Saturn hasx enough resources for him to be able to own the world.

Beatrix Kiddo · Post by **Beatrix Kiddo** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 10:44 pm

We HAVE to explore and settle the solar system. There is no debate. There is no discussion. The problems we have on Earth are the reasons WHY we have to expand our presence in the universe.

The confirmation of the ancient presence of water on Mars is THE MOST SIGNIFICANT event (so far) in the history of humanity. It means that it will be much easier to colonize that planet than it was recently theorized. The planet Mars is more inviting than ever.

HOWEVER...

I think it would be an incredibly BAD idea to send a manned mission to Mars in the near future. It would cost TRILLIONS of dollars and it COULD fail. The result of failure would cause the ignorant masses to balk and declare that it all isn't worth it. We need to research better means of space flight by traveling to and colonizing the moon. We need to keep sending out these cheap robot probes.

Did I say cheap? Yes, they are CHEAP. All because congressmen kept whining that we were spending too many nickles and dimes on this stupid "space" stuff. So they made smaller and cheaper space probes. The military and dumbass things like the Dept. of Homeland Insecurity or the war on drugs gets VAST amounts of budget spending. And yet people STILL complain that space research is a big waste of money.

It frustrates people like me who KNOW how much money is being spent on space research. And whenever someone says, "That stuff is too expensive! We need to worry about stuff on Earth!" all us geeks can do is slap our foreheads in astonished disbelief! We have a vast industrial military complex that is engaging in a war against much of the rest of our planet. Worry about the money being spent on THAT first. Thank whatever god you worship that at least SOME money was spent on space research. This is the GOOD STUFF. We should all be THANKFUL that our evil government is grudgingly spending money on the enevitable future of humanity.

Every night I look up in the night sky and gaze at the moon in frustration. We should have been there already!

Beatrix Kiddo · Post by **Beatrix Kiddo** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 10:56 pm

A new life awaits you in the Off-world colonies. The chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure. New climate, recreational facilities... absolutely free. Use your new friend as a personal body servant or a tireless field hand: the custom tailored, genetically engineered, humanoid replicant designed especially for your needs. So come on America, let's put our team up there...

doctorthoss · Post by **doctorthoss** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 11:27 pm

Coor wrote:Well they are trying to stop crack addicts from having kids. In NY they gie you like 500 dollars or something like that if you will get steralized. But of course it wouldn't all go to that in realtity, but if it would, would you rather have it go to the people or to space exploration?

Seriously, I'd rather the dough go to space exploration because, in the long term, it will pay off more. Of course, I think this is a long-term investment in our species that FAR outweighs the cost, so in a sense I think the money would be going to the people.
Again, think about Europe 600 years ago: The governments COULD have spent all the money used to explore/colonize the Americas on the poor, or roads, or any other number of things. In the end, the world would be far poorer, technology (along with our relatively long life spans and comfort) wouldn't have developed as far as it has, and we might never have had modern democracies or the civil liberties we enjoy. The Earth being proven round and a new continent opening up where the disenfranchised could flee and ultimately start their own societies helped destroy the old order of Europe, and I would argue that in itself was a worthwhile consequence (not that there weren't truly horrendous consequences for the people already here).
To belabor the last point: The opening up of the Americans had tremendous impacts on philosophy, the sciences and political thinking. The opening of such a wide open vista changed the world, in many ways, for the better in a way that nothing since (not counting the possibilities of today's announcement) has done. We might now be looking at a fundamental realignment of how humans view themselves and the universe around us, one that might take centuries or longer to fully play out.
We might also keep in mind through all this that we have the second- or third-lowest tax rate in the developed/"First" world right now --- we could raise taxes just a little and cover the costs. A tremendous amount of the money we DO have invested in our government is tied up fighting for fossil fuels in the Middle East, keeping 3 to 4 percent of our population tied up in the criminal justice system or other rather dubious projects.
Even if we didn't cut those expenses, an extra $50 or $100 a year in taxes from each of us would more than pay for such an endeavor. The spin-off technologies and economic boom from an all-out Mars effort would likely trigger some other positive outcomes: practically every Mars exploration plan calls for developing super high-efficiency combustion engines capable of running on materials that can be pulled from water -- think of all the environmental and economic benefits to THAT ...

X · Post by X » Wed Mar 03, 2004 2:06 am

One....this is why i don't pay taxes
Two....allt his hoopla about one day we'll have to move from earth.....WHO FUCKING CARES...its not gonna happen in the next 80 years, so hence what does it matter, you will be dead, and stuck here while everyone else is at another party.