Automatically Inflating Martian Balloon

Phrogman writes "SpaceRef has exclusive coverage of a new method of automatically inflating a balloon in the Martian atmosphere to permit probes to help explore the planet. These balloons using a newly discovered technique to automatically inflate based on a combination of a volatile liquid stored in the balloon itself and the atmospheric pressure on Mars. This appaarently was previously impossible. There is a much better description of the technique in the article, plus a 60 second video (in Real format) of a test inflation in Earth's Atmosphere conducted at 100,000 feet (a similiar atmospheric pressure to that of Mars). Very interesting stuff that might offer Nasa some better options for really exploring Mars."

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Former NASA engineer...

[Dr Caleb]

A man walks into a Silicon Valley pet shop to buy a monkey. The store owner shows him three monkeys and explains, "The one on the left costs five hundred dollars." "Why so much?" the customer wants to know.

"Because," the shopkeeper explains, "he can do computer programming in C."

"What about that monkey?" the man asks indicating the next animal. "He costs fifteen hundred dollars because he knows how to program in Visual C++ and Object-Relational technology."

The startled patron then inquires about the third monkey. "He's worth three thousand dollars," the store owner replies. "Three thousand dollars!" The man exclaims. "What can he do?"

"To be honest," the merchant confesses, "I've never seen him do a thing, but he says he used to work for NASA."