$1 Billion Mission To Reach the Earth's Mantle

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$1 Billion Mission To Reach the Earth's Mantle

Posted by timothy on Tuesday October 2, 2012 @01:37AM from the because-it's-the-closest-one dept.

black6host writes "Humans have reached the moon and are planning to return samples from Mars, but when it comes to exploring the land deep beneath our feet, we have only scratched the surface of our planet. This may be about to change with a $1 billion mission to drill 6 km (3.7 miles) beneath the seafloor to reach the Earth's mantle — a 3000 km-thick layer of slowly deforming rock between the crust and the core which makes up the majority of our planet — and bring back the first ever fresh samples."

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Paging Lawrence Fishburn by DaKong · 2012-10-02 01:38 · Score: 5, Funny

Please remember to wear your heat suit when venturing outside the vessel.

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If not us, who? If not now, when?
1. Re:Paging Lawrence Fishburn by MiniMike · 2012-10-02 01:56 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Because it's too easy? It's like picking on a disabled kid- it would be easy, but it's just wrong to do.
  Because it's too cheesy? Some movies approach the cheesiness boundary carefully, but don't get too close. This one seemed to leap over that line early in the movie, and just kept running for the fence.
  But mostly:
  Because one would have to admit having seen The Core?
2. Re:Paging Lawrence Fishburn by SilentStaid · 2012-10-02 02:26 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  On the other hand, it is riotously funny to watch with a room full of tipsy geologists.
  The problem with that is they won't shut up about how much the floor is tilting or the world is spinning... and drinking just makes it worse.
  
  /ducks
3. Re:Paging Lawrence Fishburn by luigi517 · 2012-10-02 02:37 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  who rags on armegeddon?! I love that movie. "This is how we fix in mother russia!"
4. Re:Paging Lawrence Fishburn by Alsee · 2012-10-02 03:09 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  How about just one dinosaur was trapped in the geode, and for the last 65 million years evolution has been turning it into an even more ferocious and deadly killing machine.
  P.S. Before anyone corrects me on evolution, I am mocking the general level of scientific accuracy of the movie.
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  - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Sounds fun. by Sparticus789 · 2012-10-02 01:40 · Score: 5, Funny

I wonder if by samples, they mean the live dinosaurs that inhabit hollow earth.

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sudo make me a sandwich
We must stop them! by nysus · 2012-10-02 01:45 · Score: 5, Funny

I know how this ends...with a giant sucking sound as the world's oceans drain into the earth's core. Then, as steam builds inside the planet, the earth turns into a giant exploding kernel of popcorn.

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---Technology will liberate us if it doesn't enslave us first.
1. Re:We must stop them! by lordofthechia · 2012-10-02 03:06 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I know how this ends...with a giant sucking sound as the world's oceans drain into the earth's core. Then,
  The whole world gets covered in a thick layer of steam. For weeks it becomes hard to breath and see. After the steam subsides people start to wipe their fogged up windows to reveal every TV screen, every computer screen, every phone and tablet with the same message:
  STEAM: NOW AVAILABLE ON ALL PLATFORMS
  
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  Georgia Tech, the leader in Chia(tm) technology.
Balloon by JavaBear · 2012-10-02 01:50 · Score: 3, Funny

Lets hope the Earth crust is not a balloon...
1. Re:Balloon by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-02 03:56 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  actually, they sort of are.
2. Re:Balloon by JazzLad · 2012-10-02 04:31 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  This is why we're doing it under the ocean.
  
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  "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever
Oblig video by kerrbear · 2012-10-02 01:52 · Score: 3, Funny

Used to watch this on Saturday morning with "Superhost" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHtZ6Ixeqvs
BAD, BAD IDEA by Type44Q · 2012-10-02 01:55 · Score: 3, Funny

Everyone knows you're supposed to enter through the poles...
Re:No but seriously by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-02 03:19 · Score: 0, Funny

I think you are confusing the US with a country that cares what its citizens think.
Re:Why do we have to dig our own hole? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-02 04:13 · Score: 4, Funny

And here I thought it would drain the whole ocean.