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Water Flowed Recently on Mars
elfguygmail.com writes "According to to Space.com 'Small gullies on Mars were carved by water recently and would be prime locations to look for life, NASA scientists said today.' "
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I'm not flaming, rather frustrated. I mean if we already *know* (or have a strong feeling) there is water/ ice on Mars, then lets get the plans going for a Manned space mission in-the-works. They need to excite the public, not continue the ho-hum exploration for the elusive "Martian Single-Cell Alien." The public wants Buck Rogers or Star Trek, not another Mars rover. Bleh!
"Simplify, simplify, simplify!" Thoreau
Is this another instance of "recently" meaning "within the last 1,000,000 years?" ...recently is since the last episode of Family Guy.
Stop making that big FACE!
According to Alystair, this has to be the smallest write-up on Slashdot that he has have ever seen.
I couldn't find this information in the article. Are they talking last week, year, decade? Or is this geological recent?
Laugh while you can, monkey-boy.
What time frame would be recent? These are people who frequently use measurements in excess of thousands of years (up to and including billions).
Am I open minded towards open source, or closed minded towards closed source?
Water Flowed Recently on Mars, NASA Scientists Say
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 24 August 2005
07:57 pm ET
Small gullies on Mars were carved by water recently and would be prime locations to look for life, NASA scientists said today.
There have been many studies of Martian gullies that concluded water was involved. But most of the features are ancient, or if they seemed modern then there were questions about how the water could stay liquid long enough to do the carving.
Scientists know there is a lot of water ice on Mars, locked up at the poles and beneath the surface elsewhere.
Water is a key ingredient for life as we know it, and other scientists have speculated that life on Mars, if there is any, could lurk just beneath the surface where ice melts in pockets.
A closer look
The new study suggests water may still bubble to the surface of Mars now and then, flow for a short stretch, then boil away in the thin, cold air.
The conclusion is based on computer modeling of the atmosphere and how water would behave.
"The gullies may be sites of near-surface water on present-day Mars and should be considered as prime astrobiological target sites for future exploration," said Jennifer Heldmann, the lead researcher from NASA's Ames Research Center. "The gully sites may also be of prime importance for human exploration of Mars because they may represent locations of relatively near surface liquid water, which can be accessed by crews drilling on the red planet."
Any potential long-term human presence on Mars would require a water source, both for drinking and to be broken down into hydrogen as fuel for return flights.
The claim that water carved the gullies is based on the shape and size of features spotted by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor.
Short gullies
"If liquid water pops out onto Mars' surface, it can create short gullies about 550-yards (500-meters) long," Heldmann said in a statement. "We find that the short length of the gully features implies they did form under conditions similar to those on present-day Mars, with simultaneous freezing and rapid evaporation of nearly pure liquid water."
Some of the gullies taper off into very small debris fields or leave no debris at all. That implies the water rapidly froze or evaporated.
Given the low air pressure on Mars, water would boil in a flash, the researchers say, so it is doubtful that ice accumulates in the gullies.
The findings will be presented next month at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences in Cambridge, England.
Yes, there is water on mars
I am trolling
So, which of you clumsy dolts knocked the glass over?
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Of course they have - The whole core is ice!! Now, hot looking mutants is the find I'm looking for!
Pessimists.net - as if life wasn't depressing enough.
4. Send tourists to Mars for number 5's sake. Heck, if there's water on Mars, no better place to put a ski resort.
In other news, scientists have announced that they've discovered what appear to be canals made by intelligent beings on the surface of Mars. They're also investigating a giant mound of rock that appears to have been made into the shape of a face...
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
Let's break down the characters that this post will attract:
1. We'll have the Heinlein / Asimov geeks that will start extolling the virtues of colonization. Sometimes these chaps will actually try to pitch the idea of interstellar mining for ores, they'll start talking about beanstalks / space elevators, nanotubes and perhaps a Rama reference or two. I won't even comment on that.
2. Then the cynics will start their usual diatribe about the pointless expenditure of money and resources on a frivolous goal and/or ideal of human space travel.
3. The above will be quickly followed by the NASA groupies that will then point out every single invention that is ever so faintly and indirectly a consequence of some NASA 1960s research.
4. The NASA geeks will then be supported by the Altruists, who will wax philosophical about the triumph of the human spirit and the ennobling effects of exploration and conquest.
5. Finally, we'll have an assorted collection of people who didn't RTFA and who won't but yet take a generous amount of time to argue about the merits of said article and the implications of the arguments brought forth my all of the above.
Small gullies on Mars were carved by water recently and would be...
The post mentions this 'Recently' word too...when exactly was recently? Human lifetime recently? Century recently? Millennium recently? or are we talking age of the solar system recently?
Can humans live in mars climate ?? or they looking for some kind of Total Recall Glass Domes ??
Normal is Boring!! http://www.dealwithdeals.com/
I was a little disappointed to find no mention in TFA about what they meant by "recently". 1 year? 5? 10? 100? 1000? 10K?
Many will be thinking, water == life!. Let's say this improves the possibility, but if most water on Mars is (and especially, was) mostly locked up as ice and/or only very ephemerally available, then I'd say it's much less likely that the "long shot" of evolution that led to our existence on Earth could have taken place similarly on Mars. Our planet spent millions of years two-thirds covered in water and under a dense methane-ammonia atmosphere. In contrast, it seems Mars had far less soup under far less atmosphere at (average) somewhat lower temperatures. I guess the only thing Mars might have had more of, sans an atmosphere of effective sunscreens, is ionizing (and hence mutagenic) radiation.
When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Rel
Water straight from the untouched springs of Mars! Fabulous!
Explore your creative side
How long have you been waiting for the biggest news in science since "matter = energy"? If you're that easily frustrated, just watch more TV sports, until those with patience come up with the results for your amusement. If you were in charge, life itself never would have taken the 3.5 billion years to produce you from rudimentary RNA floating around primal Earth seas.
--
make install -not war
Which part of you, the stupid part or the apathetic part? (I realize this comment may get moderators panties in a bunch, but it had to be said)
I'm not flaming, rather frustrated. I mean if we already *know* (or have a strong feeling) there is water/ ice on Mars, then lets get the plans going for a Manned space mission in-the-works. They need to excite the public, not continue the ho-hum exploration for the elusive "Martian Single-Cell Alien." The public wants Buck Rogers or Star Trek, not another Mars rover. Bleh!
Then why don't you go watch MTV or E! or other drivel that can just barely keep you interested for the entirety of your 2 minute attention span. Yeah, let's not have another Mars rover, one of the most fantastic scientific achievements in space exploration in recent history. I am not even going to go into WHY that was such an amazing feat, it would be lost on you.
Your attitude is part of the problem with this country. I am starting to believe that old myth that some people only use 10% of their brains.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
These gullies are likely to harbor life only if there is life under the majority of the martian surface. If it exists just around the poles and under the remnants of old seabeds then NASA would be wasting their time to look for life here. Since NASA cannot know where life is on Mars, if at all, it would do better looking in more likely places like those mentioned above.
I love being recursive!
Read the first reply to the parent post again.
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
You missed the group that will be more excited by the ad for: Roswell, Season 3. Now on DVD! Get the final out of this world season of Roswell now on DVD!
The new study suggests water may still bubble to the surface of Mars now and then, flow for a short stretch, then boil away in the thin, cold air.
Ok, if they said liquid hydrogen, or some other such substance I could understand. But why would water boil in cold air, even thin air? First I didn't know Mars had air. Second we have thin air - go to some of the highest peaks on our planet - water does not boil - in fact it should be frozen.
So would someone explain?
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
It's just going to lead us to a place we've all been before
i don't care
You forgot the one or two geniuses per thread that feel compelled to catalog/predict all the responses we'll see because they don't have anything useful to contribute but need to try and get modded up because /. is the only the thing in their life that can give them a feeling a self-worth....
The conclusion is based on computer modeling of the atmosphere and how water would behave
In other words "Nothing for you to see here, move along".
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
If there is developing life on Mars, what do suppose the odds are one of the Mars Rovers (or future rovers) running it over to get a closer look? Tragic I know, but this is NASA we're dealing with.
Are the voices in my head bothering you?
The notion of "intelligent design" shaping the process of geology and ultimately life has gained in popularity within the last year. How does "intelligent design" explain the gullies on Mars?
...a lot :P they're always finding 'new evidence' of 'recent' water or oxygen etc on Mars... nothing ever comes of it
- Singpolyma
In related news, scientists have discovered that Slashdot.org did have a period of time where stories were run without duplicates.....
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
Why caves? Two reasons:
- Here on Earth, there's some pretty "alien" forms of
life in caves that exists in very different and harsh conditions.
- On Mars, an ecosystem in a cave would be sheltered from the harsh solar radiation that bakes/sterilizes the surface since there's no protective ozone later.
Even though Mars is smaller than Earth, the land area is about the same as Earth, so it will take a long time to explore Mars fully.I agree that continuing to explore the surface won't lead to much, but there's probably lots of interesting stuff in caves.
If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
This reminds me of the movie 'Mars attacks', where there were little green men with lasers attacking earth.
When they were asked how come we didn't see them when we explored Mars, they said that they were hiding in the canyons. Maybe thats still the case, lol.
In all seriousness though, if they want to check for life, why don't they grab a sample of this frozen water and get it back to earth. If indeed there is life, we might see some traces of it in the water. Maybe biological matter etc.
Start the reactor......save Marrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrssssssssssssssssss.... ...
Yeah, my karma sucks....but so do the mods.
Duds, you must stop linking to space.com!
;-P
Its one of the ugliest sites in the world
For my space related news I link to
feed://www.universetoday.com/universetoday.xml
in safari and find that if its worth reporting Fraser will
have the details.
__
Sigs are like arse-holes, everybody has one
Duds, you must stop linking to space.com!
;-P
Its one of the ugliest sites in the world
That's okay. In Space, no one can hear you scream.
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
Water doesn't boil in cold air, but it's boiling point is dependent on air pressure. If you're at high altitude you have to boil eggs longer, since the boiling temperature is lower, for example.
The Martian atmosphere is much thinner than earth's, even at the highest peaks. I think the air pressure at Mt Everest is about 20% of sealevel, while on Mars it is 0.1%.
I don't have the numbers here, but I assume the physical foundation for this story is that at that pressure, the boiling temperature is below the freezing temperature, so water really can't exist stably in fluid state.
Most humans are either too ignorant (not stupid) or too arrogant, and think that the only way an organism can 'live' anywhere must be by our own standards as seen on Earth.
We cannot possibly begin to understand or speculate 'that' which we cannot comprehend. Humans only know what we know, and what we have already encountered, and have absolutely no grasp whatsoever on the unknown.
Columbus said the world was round, while everyone else laughed because it was an unknown that nobody had ever been able to comprehend... until he proved it.
Sound barrier could never be broken - it was impossible. But with a few leaps in technology, trial and error, it was achieved.
Faster than light speeds will eventually become possible, and practical... we just lack the knowledge at this point in time.
And Life DOES exist elsewhere - NOT AS WE KNOW IT. We just have never seen it, and so we only look for planets with water, or signs of.... looking for life as we know it here on earth.
That being said, just because a planet does or does not have, or has ever had water on it bares no relevance on whether or not life exists or has ever existed there.
Something tells me that the public opinion of scientists isn't going to be helped by yet another water-on-mars-theory-of-the-week.
What I'd be interested in is minerals. I wouldn't send machinery and people there to search for bacteria. I'd send mining robots and automatic transport ground/space vehicles. Then I'd go for the gases on Jupiter.
:]
Of course if I'd happen to see some crashed alien spaceship, I'd just move along, dropping a few pyromaniacs to enjoy their time
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
"The scientists, however, cannot explain how this happened because they have never succeeded in creating chiral molecules of only one kind in laboratory experiments that simulated prebiotic conditions." ..is out of date. It has been found that the primitive organic compounds formed in space and found in comets share the same chirality as organic molecules from earth. Thus it appears the low gravity +vacuum + high energy radiation of space favor this chirality. You can find recent papers to this effect on Nature.com.
I dont know. I find it frustrating that the article provides just about no details. However, I did a quick Google search, and came up with this:
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/june2000/
And:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/ mars_ice_signs_010614.html
The first page is dated in the year 2000! I wonder if this is really news after all! The second page is dated 2001. It states basically the same thing as the article the submitter linked to, however it says how long ago "recent" is--10,000,000 years!!
Reminds me of this play script I found yesterday: http://www.terrybisson.com/meat.html
sig: Playfully doing something difficult, whether useful or not
i'm not kidding
But by 1938, all Martian life was all gone for good.
The Martians all moved to Grovers Mill New Jersey.
There was a popular radio program about it, too.
However, people afterward believed it to be a hoax.
But we know better, don't we?
Anonymous Coward
"Always drink upstream from the herd."
.
NASA should not have lost their way after the moon shots in the 1960s
I've never understood the argument that if life was found off-world, then it would mean the "decimation" as you say of all religious beliefs, when in fact, they have been the only ones to ever believe in extra-terrestrial life.
Isn't every star and planet named after a god or some non-human being? Isn't outer space called the heavens? Doesn't every story end with angels or Jesus ascending into heaven? maybe not specifically to Mars but somewhere out there.
Not to mention, there is a big difference between finding a race of sentient beings that claim they only wish to "serve man", and finding something that looks like the stuff found at the bottom of every shower.
1. Deny everything, saying that the bible clearly states that life only exists on Earth, and that thinking otherwise is "sinful"
2. Mock the scientists for not giving up on an "impossible" task
3. Continually demand more evidence, until it's so common that you can see specimens in the local zoo for $2
4. Advertize the one sentence in the bible which clearly states that life exists all around the universe, and that thinking otherwise is "sinful"
5. Promote "intelligent universal design"
6. Profit!
There's plenty of evidence for liquid water on Mars today, most notably the cloud pillars of Arabia, which are the result of water evaporation on the surface. Most of the liquid water is under the surface, of course. NASA is taking a strong stance of "no liquid water on Mars today", this is however strongly contradicted by the available evidence from NASA's own missions.
This is something I don't get about all this search for life on Mars. What makes us think that life on mars is similar to what we percieve life as on earth? Life there may be of different type; maybe unlike on earth, they may not have a physical body boundary. They may not need water or oxygen to survive.
Just because they were not able to find water on a planet doesn't mean that life doesn't exist. Don't we know of creature on our very own earth where they survice at absolute depths on volcanoes/oceans where they don't get sunlight or water or other harsh environment?
What I'm alluding to is that if there's life on mars, we need to be open to suggestions that life doesn't alwways need oxygen/water & 28 degree celcius temp. This is what gets me about hollywood as well. They always show aliens having somewhat human bodies with 2 eyes & nose, mouth etc.
The public dosn't want to spend 500 billion dollars to send people to mars for no reason. They want cheap probes that tell them something intresting. (like if life exists on other planets)
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
I think it would not even be a minor discovery. Major discoveries are things like the discovery of circulation in the body, or that germs cause disease, or that you can drill into the earth and pump out petroleum, or that you can create and control fire, or the existance of electromagnetism, or that gunpowder can be created from simple chemicals, those kind of things -- things that have a profound influence on history and the lives of billions of people. Things that allow people to live more comfortably, or to live longer, or have a better life.
What will the discovery of single-celled life on Mars accomplish to improve the human condition? Frankly I can't think of anything. People keep tossing out examples of mental masturbation like "it will change the way we think of ourselves and our place in the universe" but really, what improvements in our way of life will come of a discovery like this? I can't think of one. On the other hand imagine if someone were to discover how to manipulate gravity locally, or create fusion-power in a coffee-can sized container, or to reverse the effects of aging, or figure out teleportation, or a way to desalinate ocean water inexpensively, or any number of things that will improve life for the vast majority of people on the planet.
The reasons that cells form monomiers of a spesific handedness is because they're catalyzed by protiens that arange the molicules in a spesific way to catalyze the reaction, rather then just dumping stuff in a test tube and waiting, like a chemist.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
As far as religion is concerned, evolution is a falsitude. Therefore, we don't have anything in common with amoebas, etc.
They would need to discover life of at least rudimentary intelligence before religious groups could start to accept it, and even then they'd probably be a hard sell.
Such things might prove life is viable on other planets, but they could just claim "of course, because the path is prepared for us by higher powers, and so food etc can grow on other planets... but we're the only intelligence that you'll find in the universe"
or am i the only one who got the joke?
Fantastic on-topic Mycon reference.
Wish I had mod points today.
Do you have any kind of point?
Reuters - Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition and host of The 700 Club, has demanded the destruction of Mars.
Robertson said on his television show that Mars "is becoming a launching pad for interstellar communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the known universe."
"If those Martians think we're trying to assassinate them, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it."
The White House said in a press release written in yellow crayon, "If Pat Robertson says something good, he's a great American, but if he says something bad, he's a private citizen so we don't care. Is what he said stupid?"
NASA officials were quick to comment. "BWAHAHAHA," said NASA spokesperson Mooney M. Muzbit, "BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Robertson later explained "I didn't actually say 'assassinate'. I said our special forces should 'take Mars out', as in, you know, take it out dinner or take it to the movies or take it for a night on the town."
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Best not to ask but who told you
"Chiral molecules are necessary to breed new chiral molecules, how did the first ones come about? "
Especially if it's got a highly unusual Metaclorian count I say we should leave well enough alone. Look what happened last time when they found a high Metaclorian count. They made a sucky movie about it and then two more equally sucky movies.
However the claim that "you need chiral molecules to breed new chiral molecules" Screams Intellegent Design. And you haven't once mentioned the Flying Spaghetti Monster or show any sign your wearing full Pirate regalia. I will not have any besericing of the Pastafarianist faith. I was touched by His Noodly Appendage sometime yesterday how about you?
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
One of the reasons evolutionary biologists believe that everything evolved from a single organism in the distant past is that all amino acids, etc are left-handed.
What if we found life on Mars, and all of its chiral molecules were right-handed. I think that you would have to conclude that it was an independant emergence of life.
This would be extremely strong evidence. There would be no one going "OMG, we contaminated our samples. It's all BS!!" We'd have to consider that spontaneous generation of life is not all that uncommon. Maybe this would cause a widespread rethinking of our place in the universe.
Many religious beliefs would be decimated
Discovery of amoebas on other planets wouldn't necessarily have a big impact on world religions. On the other hand, discovery of intelligent beings on other planets would have a HUGE impact on earth religions, especially if those beings had their own religions or ideas about religion that we could compare and contrast with ours.
For example, let's say that the aliens also had a religion based around Jesus. That would lend a lot of credibility to Christianity. Or suppose they were very advanced aliens with far superior knowledge of the universe and science, and they told us that all of our religions were superstitious rubbish. I think that would affect a lot of people's beliefs as well.
Its a pretty well known fact. Not that what National Socialism did was within the tenents of the religion - but the same can be said of terrorism and the tenets of most interpretations of Islam.
Sorry guys, nothing to see here, just the result of a faulty Pee-Valve from one of the guy's spacesuits from last time...
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saings religious movement has been saying that God created life on Earth AND life on other worlds for 200 years now.
You are not seriously this ignorant. "The public wants Buck Rogers or Star Trek, not another Mars rover. Bleh!" Make science like TV and you get crappy science. By the way, NASA already has plans to go to Mars, whether or not it is the best use of science resources. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4181187
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/mars-quotes-012 8.html
We'll see if anything come of this grand plan. It will take years before we can seriously try it though. It is 30 days of travel to reach Mars and the windows to get there and to return to Earth in a reasonable time frame tend not to line up so the trip would have to take longer than 2 months.
"Water ice in crater at Martian north pole" @
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMGKA808 BE_0.html
So, what's the "Stuff that matters" part of an article that says water flowed on the surface? Or, is the Mars Express photo being disputed and we're back to speculation?
And, no - I'm not bitter that all my slashdot submissions have been rejected ... well, maybe a little ...
I believe it would be the most important discovery...since fire, or maybe the wheel. This would mean we are not alone. This would make the likely-hood of life elsewhere (other than Mars and Earth) a certainty. We would have to re-think our religions and many core beliefs. Temporary people fighting for temporary control over a temporary planet...We would have SO much more to think about.
Everything would change. Everything.
Does anyone here have any really old science books? I've got a couple of really, really, old ones, and they have a lot of pictures of Mars with what they call 'canals' all over the place that they theorized contained water.
That whole idea was exploded soon after better telescopes were invented, and now... guess what? We actually get cameras on the damn planet, and now everyone thinks maybe there where canals that may have had water in them. Interesting.
Am I the only one who read it as "Small gulls on Mars were carried by water recently"? I nearly had a heart attack.
Karma: Positive (probably because of superiour intellect)
Yeah, if anything, Mars would probably have some nasty hard skinned parasites similar to Cryptosporidium in the water...
Oh well, what the hell...
We need to find dinosaur skeletons on Mars. Anything less would be rather unimpressive.
Oh well, what the hell...
I think you're a bit out of line here. You're saying this guy's lack of interest in remote exploration of Mars is part of the problem with this country? As much as this stuff excites a geek like me, it's pretty wrongheaded to assume that someone is stupid because they're not interested in the same things as you.
To rant a bit, asking "what do we get out of space exploration" is a valid, intrinsically reasonable question, and I'm tired of seeing people flamed for asking it (not referring to your post). We have many problems and limited resources, and pretending some of those problems don't exist just so the "cooler" ones get to be solved is not an intellectually honest position. Your personal reasons for feeling that space travel is vital to humanity might be at odds with Joe Beatnik who thinks that money would better enrich our people by funding art projects. Can anyone point me to a rational discussion of the importance of space travel that manages to avoid silly emotional "Because it's there" and all-technology-exists-because-of-space-travel arguments?
If other reasons we do lack, we swear no one will die when we attack
They stop by mars all the time and piss all over the rock formations.... if you look closely at the picture, you can see the name "Krozan rulez" dribbled into the sediment.
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
People, wake the fuck up!!! There is no way Mars can sustain life for humans. Even if miniscule amounts of water are found below the surface. Our planet, Earth, is the only plant capable of sustaining OUR life. There is no discernable life on Mars. If people think they can foul up the planet Earth with disgusting pollution and just move on by terraforming Mars, then they are just plain stupid. This is a ploy to keep interest in the space program, seeing that we have already "conquered" the moon, ha!
Finding dinosaurs would be more impressive... So would finding Jesus. Or a 747. If any of these things were on Mars I would be impressed. =)
Things are good
It sounds like every now and then water seeps up, runs a few hundred meters down hill, and then evaporates, leaving behind salts. "Flow" is not a good description. "Mars drools" would be more apt IMO.
Table-ized A.I.
Water on Mars? That's nice. :oP
But I'm not packing my suitcase until there's beer!
Well, confirmed except for the fact that life wasn't created by any so called god.
Not exactly. If he said "I don't care about space exploration, I think it is a waste of money." I could have taken that as reasonable opinion. However, when the poster says this:
THAT is a stupid statement. The American public is ignorant of science. The public should boost their knowledge, science shouldn't be dumbed down. Does anyone actually comprehend what it takes to put a freakin rover on Mars, let alone have it operate for about 3x longer than they had anticipated? The potential discovery of life on another planet is "ho-hum"? That reeks of ignorance - and not just plain ignorance, the kind where the ignorant try to defend their ignorance with stupid statements.
It is this kind of vapid mentality that is becoming more and more pervasive in this country. It shows EVERY DAY. I am getting sick of it.
Your personal reasons for feeling that space travel is vital to humanity might be at odds with Joe Beatnik who thinks that money would better enrich our people by funding art projects.
That's a totally different question. The fact of the matter is, NASA did something that nobody else in the history of (our) mankind has ever done. That is such an achievement in and of itself. We don't know what finding life on Mars would do. Some of it does seem like a pointless endeavor, just as digging up dinosaur bones is rather pointless. All it does is .... answer questions. Real, deep questions that affect us all. Think of the difference in the publicity given to the Mars rover, and the publicity given to Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston breaking up.
What was the point of going to the moon? To do it. We didn't understand the impacts of space travel at the time. But you can certainly do a little looking to find out what has come out of it. That is like asking "What is the point of reasearch?" If you don't understand why research is important, then you are very short-sighted. All you have to do is look at some significant accomplishments, and trace it backwards to where it came from. Chances are, there was some research along the way. How do you think the internet came about? Think it just popped up one day? What will our current research produce in the future? The point is - we don't know. Yet.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
This story was posted a million years ago. What is with the editors nowadays?
I believe we were already taught how to interact with them. Love your neighbor as you would love yourself. I don't think it was intended to be limited strictly to the person living in the house next door.
I look forward to whatever new discoveries science has to show us with eager anticipation, however I find it so disheartening that as far as we have advanced we still struggle with the simple moral ideas laid out to us in the Bible. If we can not understand and accept living with each other in a peaceful way, then how much good is all of our scientific knowledge to us?
Q: How many ./ers does it take to answer a question?
A: At least 14. Because noboby bothers to read the 13 previous replies that already posed the same answer.
i-ight, nigga gone
First off, I agree that the OP was probably an idiot. But the statement that you quote seems more akin to a simple fact: the public isn't that excited about science. You're saying they should be more excited about it. I'd like to see that too, but I'd also like to see the public interested in better movies, better music, better people. Again, just because the public doesn't care much about science doesn't necessarily mean they're stupid (for better evidence of the public's stupidity: the last two U.S. presidential elections). In fact, one of the most intelligent people I've met has basically no interest in science.
...before the Russians did.
What was the point of going to the moon? To do it.
The public has never been particularly gung-ho about science for science's sake. You have to make it into a war to get their attention.
We didn't understand the impacts of space travel at the time. But you can certainly do a little looking to find out what has come out of it.
So the argument for space travel is, "Last time we had to figure out how to go into space, we invented a bunch of great stuff." That's a bit of evidence for the benefits, but it's still a long way from solidity.
How do you think the internet came about?
As a matter of fact, research! I know, you're shocked. But specifically, it was applied research in communication technology. That's applied research with an almost immediately practical goal in mind.
Before you launch into a discussion of the benefits of pure research, I agree that it's something we do need more of. But that's also not an argument for space travel. Saying "research is good, space travel spawns research, so space travel is good" isn't enough. Personally, I would be more excited by a bigger research budget for particle physics (damn you, Clinton).
Devil's advocacy aside, I would much rather see a manned mission (or even a deep space probe) than another rover. Yes, I understand that it's a great technical accomplishment, but that's really no reason to send another one in the hopes that its limited abilities might find life where the first one didn't.
If other reasons we do lack, we swear no one will die when we attack
You would need a lot more than that to confirm that.
RTJKJAS
perhaps "confirmed" was a bad choice of words. What I meant was that not all christian faiths would have a problem with the discovery of life outside of earth, some already believe in such life, and their religion teaches that there is such life, and would find their belief bulstered by such a discovery, not weakened.