Slashdot Mirror
NASA Probes Reveal Vast Stores of Martian Ice
John Faughnan writes: "The BBC reports that a British newspaper has leaked stunning news from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. Vast amounts of water ice are present on mars, "[if it] were to melt it could cover the planet in an ocean at least 500 metres deep." Researchers thought it would take a year to detect any water ice below the martian surface, but the huge quantity meant that weeks of observation were sufficient. The BBC notes that "The Mars Polar Lander was to touch down in exactly the right spot in 1999 and would have undoubtedly detected the ice had it not malfunctioned on the way down." This discovery will change plans for upcoming probes and may lead to a manned mission within the next two decades. The official announcement was scheduled for this Thursday prior to several publications."
I hope they're real careful when they bring back that water sample...who knows what's in it?
/dev/psychic: No medium found
Sounds like Hell froze over =)
Looking for people to chat about multicopters, coding, music. skype: gtsiros
Does that mean a mission to Mars a couple of decades ago would've lowered the production costs of Waterworld?
In a related story, NASA has announced that it will abandon its space exploration effort in favor of running a ski lodge catering to exclusive, high-income customers, like "P. Diddy". An unnamed source close to NASA has said that "We need to turn a profit, you know? Those rockets don't run on hydrogen, they run on good ol' American greenbacks! Like the ones P. Diddy has! He loves to ski, did you know that? He's big into everything NASA is into."
"P. Diddy" declined comment, sighting his long history of producing music videos with fish-eye lenses, shiny space suits, and unmarked black helicopters.
Cheers,
Bowie
Bowie J. Poag
I agree. We should demonstrate that we can really melt the Antartic ice cap, before we arrogantly assume we can do the same thing on Mars where it's even colder.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Exactly.
:-)
Just think, with all that water over there, instead of the real stuff, the astronauts could take powdered milk now!
Now all someone needs to figure out is how to make a $200,000 kettle that will work on mars to boil the water.
so all we need to do now is tow europa out of jupiter's orbit, and crash it into mars...and we're all set!!!
moox. for a new generation.
" We still haven't figured out how to live on this planet. Why go wreck more?"
Ah the mating cry of the neo-Luddites.
What would the haters of achivement be claiming if they didn't have Hippy Dippy Pop Eco Bullshit from the 1960s?
Quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est