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Mars Soil Appears To Be Able To Sustain Life
beckerist writes "Scientists working on the Phoenix Mars Lander mission, which has already found ice on the planet, said preliminary analysis by the lander's instruments on a sample of soil scooped up by the spacecraft's robotic arm had shown it to be much more alkaline than expected. Sam Kounaves, the lead investigator for the wet chemistry laboratory on Phoenix, told journalists: 'It is the type of soil you would probably have in your back yard, you know, alkaline. You might be able to grow asparagus in it really well. ... It is very exciting for us.'"
The entertainments you call fitting for adults strike me as juvenile pursuits. I would never seek to make it illegal for you to pursue them, but please clearly understand, I will never accept your claim that these interests make you a more mature adult human being.
Why don't you try them. Believe me there's nothing juvenile about any of them.
Bringing about the birth of living worlds from previously dead worlds may be an impossible dream, as you claim, but the beauty of its potential is stirring enough to make it a worthy goal for a mature intelligent species.
Wow. How many times did you see all the Star Trek movies? We live on earth in the 21st century and we face unbelievable challenges to survive the next 100 years. Terraforming is something that people will be doing 5000 years from now, if they survive the next century. Take the long view of history. ... a worthy goal for a mature intelligent species.
is surviving on earth, not throwing away public resources on welfare projects for nerds, which is what space exploration is.
If we fail to achieve this goal on Mars, we can and should find other planets where it can succeed.
More Hollywood movie fantasy. Meanwhile here in the real world, the airline industry is disintegrating, the auto industry is self-destructing, and the rail industry is near-dead. In thirty years, you're going to find it difficult to go 100 miles, never mind a 100 light-years. The 20th century is over - there is a new reality.
because we followed your siren call to pour all our resources into repeatedly failing "solutions" for perennial problems such as poverty or disease. ...the end result might very well be a sterile, dead universe, ...But it may be the best place to take the first step toward opening up the universe for humankind...
It's because smart people in the past put all their resources into solving the problems of poverty and disease that a tiny group of wealthy nerds have the luxury of believing that space exploration is a legitimate scientific endeavor. The smart people in the past made a choice to spend public funds on real problems that were destroying millions of people. We should do the same.
The universe is sterile and dead, and unbelievably huge. That's exactly why spending real money on space exploration is insane.
So let the people who live 1000 years from now do it, after the life-threatening problems on earth are addressed. We have more important things that we must do, right here and right now. Mars isn't going anywhere. It's just a big dead rock spinning around the sun a billion miles away from here.
People (if that is the correct term for Slashdot readers) argue that we should spend huge sums of money of Mars development projects to help protect life on earth. But because they are all rich nerds from the American suburbs who never studied economics, they don't realize that you can't spend the resources needed to develop Mars and have the resources needed to protect life on earth!. Resources are limited, especially when your government is broke and survives on borrowed funds from other governments.
My message is simple. The 20th century is over... the hallucination of unlimited scientific potential induced by cheap energy sources is over. Grown up people will be making difficult decisions in the 21st century. If you want to be one of them then you must demonstrate your maturity by giving up these expensive pre-pubescent fantasies of space travel.
Grow up. Get real. Humanity needs you and your skills.
Hand over your Nerd Credentials at the door when you leave, grandpa.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.