Mars Landing Webcast

[SEEGERMANY]

computers, the Internet, cell phones

Glad to know who to blame!

[Snoogans]

Great stuff!
I just hope I live long enough to see men walking on the surface up there. All the books I read as a space-mad kid promised me that they'd be there in the 1990s, so we have a bit of catching-up to do!

[lerxstcat]

We owe computers, the Internet, cell phones and many other technoilogies that we take for granted to the space program.

If Mars can be verified to have substantial amounts of water ice at its poles that will mean a manned mission, and perhaps a permanent manned installation, can be built there. Mars does have an atmosphere, thin though it is it's the only likely candidate for terraforming in the future of planets in our system.

Money spent on science and planetary exploration will ultimately improve the quality of life here on Earth.

[Endrik]

The Martian Chronicles

[Axewielder]

So you want to explore the solar system, eh? Let me save you billions of dollars: here are the "cliff notes" of your exciting journey to four close heavenly (?) bodies.

- The moon: If you stand on the moon, there is no atmosphere. Your feces will explode immediately as you shit your pants and your blood boils. You can jump quite high, but not high enough to escape this nightmare. No one hears your screams.

- Mars: Wow! Red rocks! I hope you are glad you chose this destination over, say, Arizona, because your balls are instantly freezing into sub-zero hairy ice spheres as you weep. I'm sorry, did you also need oxygen to live?!?

- Venus: Remember Toht and Bellog at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark? Your face is going to melt much, much faster, and a door prize: you'll be choking and crying for your mom on account of a sulfuric acid atmosphere

- Jupiter: Are you a radiation fanboy? I hope so...you will be sterile and dying and pissing yourself before you even get close to this ball buster.

Edit: As far as the Moon and Jupiter goes, if you are looking around for one of those obelisks....sorry! No dice. Enjoy your meaningless demise.

[CharvelRocker]

That's what I've been saying. If they had spent the money into energy research&development instead of a war, it would've been much more efficient. Bush doesn't want to upset the oil companies, I guess..

Just like the president has complete power right? They're all being fed by the oil companies, but that is for another topic. Part of the reason our own people are starving is because we send more aid money and help to other countries than we do our own. But I guess it's not politically correct to bring that up, so let's bash NASA instead.

[Axewielder]

Here's what this round of gov't spending is going to tell us about Mars (which we already knew):

- There is likely water in the form of ice there.
- There may have been life there billions of years ago.
- It is cold.
- There is red dirt, and red skies.

Wow. Amazing. I was hoping for a three-titted blue chick, but...that's...umm...great.

[Norton]

Or you could ask whether the $1 - $3 trillion (depending on who's counting) we & our children will be paying for the Iraq mess could've been spent just a tad more wisely, like on alternative energy research as one crazy example.

That's what I've been saying. If they had spent the money into energy research&development instead of a war, it would've been much more efficient. Bush doesn't want to upset the oil companies, I guess..

[SEEGERMANY]

"welcome to my world"

[Axewielder]

Exactly. Sooner we can make a move out to other planets the better for the human race.
Then we can start to turn OTHER planets to crap too!

Strip malls on Mars!! Yay, can't wait.

[zeegler]

Exactly. Sooner we can make a move out to other planets the better for the human race.
Then we can start to turn OTHER planets to crap too!

And a few hundred thousand years from now, the entire universe will be a filthy polluted shithole thanks to us! YAY!! :ROTF:

[MartinBarre]

I've always thought mankind is like a bad infection to the Earth. Sooner or later it will decide it's had it with us and it's "immune system" will take care of us.

Exactly. Sooner we can make a move out to other planets the better for the human race.
Then we can start to turn OTHER planets to crap too!

[Bengal]

I've always thought mankind is like a bad infection to the Earth. Sooner or later it will decide it's had it with us and it's "immune system" will take care of us.

[MartinBarre]

This planet is going to decide it's had it with us pretty soon. Maybe by then space exploration will have advanced enough for us to find another place to live.
THAT'S why we need to go to places like Mars.

Besides, the scientists learn lots from these missions - including new techniques to kill people. So everyone's happy.

[Mat]

NASA is a jobs program for rocket scientists. Its useless to find signs of life on mars when you are killing and allowing millions to die here everyday. What a waste.

how is scientific progress "a waste"?