It was already used, by Philip Wylie and Edwin Baumer, in a novel and movie called When Worlds Collide.
I think it was Neil Armstrong who said'Yes weve spent billions of dollars on the space program, but all of it was spent on this planet"
Maybe Martians don't need money.
you wait. Wally mart will be there followed by McD's
The Milky Way awash in Milky Ways.
Morning Edition, May 12, 2005 ยท Opportunity, one of NASA's Mars rovers, has been stuck in a Martian sand dune -- for more than two weeks. Scientists are trying to figure out how to get it going again. To do that, they've built a fake Martian sand dune in a laboratory in California.
What they really neede is a tractor and a chain.
Mars Rover Spirit Finds Wet, Violent Past
The Associated Press
Wednesday, May 25, 2005; 8:13 AM
PASADENA, Calif. -- The Mars rover Spirit has discovered several layers of rocks in a hilly region of the Red Planet that suggest a wet and violent history in the planet's early life, scientists said Tuesday.
The six-wheeled robot has been examining rocks from three outcrops in the Gusev Crater region that show possible successive deposits of water-altered debris from explosive events.
The debris is most likely ash that settled after volcanic eruptions, scientists said, although they could not rule out the possibility of an impact explosion.
"Once upon a time, Gusev was a pretty violent place. Big, explosive events were happening and there was a lot of water around," said principal investigator Steve Squyres of Cornell University.
The findings were presented at the American Geophysical Union meeting in New Orleans. The mission is managed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory here.
Meanwhile, Spirit's twin rover, Opportunity, is trying to free itself from a sand dune. Opportunity's wheels started slipping April 26 during a planned 295-foot trip. While trying to drive over a foot-high sand dune, the rover stopped moving, its wheels hub-deep in soft soil.
Engineers have managed to move Opportunity about a foot since then, and said it would take at least another week to free it.
Spirit and Opportunity have been exploring opposite sides of Mars since landing in January 2004. Both rovers have long outlasted their primary, three-month missions.
Spirit as found more evidence of water.
"Spirit has finally found the kind of geology you can really sink your teeth into," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. He is principal investigator for the Mars rovers' science instruments. According to Squyres, multiple layers of rock in the hills Spirit is exploring suggest successive deposits of water-altered explosive debris".
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20050524a.html
I wish they had a fleet of rovers all around the planet.
Does this photo look as if water had flowed down a small rivulet and deposited a delta at its base?
Link to Spirit photo
Sorry, URL will not post as a link. To view photo go to:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
click on: All Raw Images
click on View all Spirit raw images
click on Sol 495 (13 images)
click on any of the first 4 images
On the Road Again
PASADENA, Calif. (Reuters) - NASA's Mars rover Opportunity is making tracks across the Martian landscape again, after nearly five weeks stuck in a sand dune, engineers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena said on Sunday.
NASA engineers cheered this weekend when images returned from Mars showed the six-wheeled geological research vehicle was finally freed from the dune and making tracks, according to a posting on the JPL Web site (www.jpl.nasa.gov).
Engineers worked for nearly five weeks to maneuver the craft out of the dune.
A photograph on the JPL Web site showed fresh rover tracks stretching across what appeared to be the surface of a large dune.
Opportunity and its twin robotic explorer, Spirit, are 16 months into their mission and have been traversing opposite sides of the red planet since landing there in January 2004.
Early in the mission, Opportunity found layered bedrock bearing geological evidence of a shallow ancient sea. More than a year later, Spirit found layered bedrock after driving more than two miles and climbing into a series of hills.
Opportunity got its wheels stuck April 26 while trying to cross the soft sand of the Meridiani Planum, a ripple-shaped dune of windblown dust and sand.
I guess they didn't have to land on Mars to find water after all...
Source: APOD
NASA Expands Rover Science Team
Oct 19, 2005
"Spirit and Opportunity have exceeded all expectations for their longevity and discoveries on Mars, and both rovers are in good position to continue providing even more great science," >>
