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$1 Billion Mission To Reach the Earth's Mantle

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."

4 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. Paging Lawrence Fishburn by DaKong · · 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 · · 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. Sounds fun. by Sparticus789 · · 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
  3. We must stop them! by nysus · · 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.