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Mars Odyssey Completes Aerobraking

Cally writes: "Space.com reports that Mars Odyssey has completed aerobraking and is ready to begin its main science mission. As the spacecraft has already produced exciting results before the start of the science mission proper, interesting data on the quantities of water in the Martian crust may be expected soon - not to mention that Odyssey provides another datapoint in the study of Gamma Ray bursts."

5 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. hmmmm... by 3-State+Bit · · Score: 2, Flamebait

    interesting data on the quantities of water in the Martian crust...

    You know, doesn't this mean that all this other searching for extra-terrestrial intelligence is pretty counter-productive? If there's water right there on Mars, chances are there would be intelligent life there within a few billion years too. (It's the initial part of the thing that takes awhile...once you've got cells, the growth is like, exponential man.)

    Instead, we're sending probes up there when we KNOW there's no intelligent life yet. It's like barging into the prenatal ward every few minutes while your wife's about to give birth to say "are you done yet?" Believe me, when she's done, you'll know!

    At this rate, within the foreseeable future we'll have groped every planet capable of sustaining life with these stupid probes. Ever consider that under these conditions, intelligent life won't want to evolve? People like to be left in peace (that's why they get all fussy about the anal probes they constantly imagine aliens violating them with)...don't you think other would-be life might feel the same way?

    This is not off-topic.

    1. Re:hmmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      What the poster was getting at, FUCKWAD, is that many spin-off inventions came from "shooting-the-moon" in the past. I don't believe the internet and the modern PC are necessarily directly related, but the poster was essentially saying that if in the past, the government hadn't said "fuck it" and dumped insane amounts of money and work into an essentially pointless task (putting a man on the moon for a few hours, when an unmanned probe would do just as well), we would not be where we are today. This is not even mentioning the morale value of achieving the impossible. FUCKWAD. FUCKWAD. FUCKWAD.

  2. Earth defence forces, etc. by Alien54 · · Score: 1, Flamebait
    Well, there was always the martian defense forces.

    But these seemed to have retreated to the asteroid belt, allowing our intrepid explorer to plant the flag of Earth, and stand guard as a lone sentry against the terrorists of the outer solar system.

    Stand proud, little space probe!

    --
    "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
  3. Who really cares about Trek? by First_In_Hell · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    I still do not understand what the fascination is with this gay bullshit. I would rather take 19 violent shits in a row than have to see any TNG episodes. For some reason these episodes are the bane of all late night programming. I think Trek has whored itself out to every low-end network in existence to serve as filler so they can have something to show that constitutes as "name" programming. These people should just show infomercials . . . networks get paid for it, and it is 100 times more entertaining than watching Worf have anal sex with Captian Picard. I would rather watch an informertial with that hot blond chick from Whos the Boss talking about disfiguring acne than DS9, wouldn't you? Star Trek has become a sick joke, a parody of itself. It should be put out of its misery along with all of those people that actually knbow how to speak Klingon. William Shatnet can kiss my anus. goatse.cx rules!

  4. Fuck you all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait
    FUCK YOU ALL!!!

    Fuck,

    The Fuck You Guy