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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.'"
It would probably lead to a very smelly planet.
Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
Let's hope the lander doesn't break down before next year's asparagus season.
You might be able to grow asparagus in it really well. ... It is very exciting for us.
And I thought I didn't get out much.
Blank until
Lichen, although don't beat yourself up about being unable to find that information despite having the totality of human knowledge at your fingertips. Your mother probably drank a lot during pregnancy.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
So nothing originally from Earth, then...
I like to place meaningful quotes in my sig, so people will know that I know what meaningful quotes are.
Martian pot is what I'm waiting for. I'm sure it would be outta this world.
rewriting history since 2109
They've already found the water. Why didn't they send up some seeds?
I can see the headlines now in all the papers, when this quote goes mainstream;
TOP SCIENTIST CLAIM MARS SOIL SUPPORTS ASPARAGUS LIKE LIFE FORMS!
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Just more evidence that Big Asparagus has co-opted our national science agenda.
Farnsworth: Well, in those days, Mars was just a dreary uninhabitable wasteland. Much like Utah. But unlike Utah, it was eventually made livable.
After all, Mars and cocoa go together like IBM and genetic sequencing.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Can you imagine? You get the munchies, and all there is to eat is asparagus? Ugh.
The ethical concerns have already been addressed. If the martians don't like our plans, they can file a formal complaint. The plans will be properly displayed for a sufficient duration in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet, stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'.
The laws of probability forbid it!
I don't lichen asparagus anyway . . .
We are Dead Stars looking back Up at the Sky
To Mars, Again!
WASHINGTON -- NASA has submitted funding proposals for a new Mars mission, scheduled to launch in 2012. The mission will entail a new Mars lander called the Advanced Series Polymorphic Asparagus Research Automated Growing Unit Seedfarm, or ASPARAGUS, and is expected to grow several varieties of asparagus in martian soil.
"[We] might be able to grow asparagus in it really well... It is very exciting for us" says Sam Kounaves, mission planner for the new endevour.
The lander will be expected to gather soil and deposit it into a 'grow-op' like container, where asparagus seeds will be added to the mix. "We just don't know what will happen after that, it will be very exciting to watch the developments unfold over subsequent weeks." he adds.
Included in the lander will be a CD filled with asparagus recipies for future astronauts of the first manned Mars mission, planned for 2050. "The CD will contain dozens of recipies all featuring asparagus as the main ingredient. Things like boiled asparagus, steamed asparagus, steam boiled asparagus, fried asparagus, and even just plain asparagus!" says Angela Schmidt, the mission's asparagus habilitation expert.
The $480 million project is expected to be greenlit later this year.
Murphey's fighting Occam, and we're in the stands.
Terraforming and manned exploration could occur in parallel.
Yeah, that works really well in all the movies.
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!
liqbase
Except that believers in so-called "intelligent design" don't need reasons to believe it. The one reason they have is Genesis, Chapter 1.
If a god had designed the Universe and wanted you to know about it, you would know by now -- the evidence would be irrefutable. I submit that either (a) no god designed the Universe, or (b) a god designed the Universe and doesn't think humanity has need-to-know access to the fact. I won't rule out (b), but I think that if a god did design the Universe, it was akin to shaking a snow globe and letting the little snowflakes move of their own accord thereafter.
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.