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Phoenix Mars Lander Deploys Robotic Arm, Possibly Finds Ice

The Phoenix Mars Lander has successfully deployed its robotic arm and tested other instruments including a laser designed to detect dust, clouds, and fog. The arm will be used to dig up samples of the Martian surface, which will be analyzed as a possible habitat for life. A camera on the arm will allow pictures to be taken of the ground directly beneath the lander. The camera has already seen what may be ice, which was exposed when the soil was disturbed by the landing. The data collected by the arm will be compared to recent findings which suggest that water on Mars may have been too salty for most known forms of life.

5 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Goetia@Home : Goetic ritual = phone call to Mars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Mars has life, this we know, for the demons tell us so!

    http://www.evocationmagic.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=9

    Once you evoke a demon from Mars, you'll see how trivial this life on Earth really is.

    A simple Goetic ritual anyone may do:

    http://www.evocationmagic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=182


    It's all a joke and make believe, you say, until you try it and prove it to yourself.

    Evoke now, banish never.

    The demons await your call...

    Try it now.. think of it as a Goetia@Home, your mind being the distributed computing client.

    Let your semen drop on the demon's sigil, his manifestation will occur.

  2. Re:Too salty? by gatkinso · · Score: -1, Troll

    Your mom doesn't seem to mind.

    --
    I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
  3. Re:Extremophiles by rho · · Score: -1, Troll

    What twaddle.

    You have exactly zero proof of life anywhere outside of our biosphere. Zero. As in none.

    Which is not to say that you couldn't be right. It is to say that you're talking completely out of your ass, and doing so with a certainty that smacks of fundamentalism.

    --
    Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
  4. Re:Extremophiles by rho · · Score: -1, Troll

    Gosh, your "seems like an awful waste of space" argument is compelling.

    The standard of science is falsifiability, right? "Hard to believe" covers it, you think?

    Twaddle.

    --
    Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
  5. this is still not an excuse.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Stop making excuses, we here on Earth want a high resolution COLOR image of the mars terrain. It is significant to most of us to have one. Take the big picture, run it through an algorithm to size it down to a couple hundred kilobytes (like photoshop does with it's algorithm ) and send it back to Earth in 30 seconds. Just because it is insignificant to you or nasa's scientists doesn't mean it's not insignificant to others. This is 200 fucking 8, we should have beautiful color pictures. We don't want 1 in red, 1 in green and 1 in blue. We want a HIGH RESOLUTION picture. Do you understand? STOP MAKING EXCUSES THIS ISINT 1969. Your argument about wasting bandwith is bogus, we have plenty of time to take 1 NICE COLOR PICTURE AND SEND IT BACK. Who cares what or where the camera is pointing at? I don't. I just want a nice high resolution color picture from mars.

    Whoever modded you informative is living in the stone age. Fuck you and the crackhead mods.