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March 02, 2004

Mars in the News

NASA apparently has some big news:

The Opportunity rover has apparently found something on Mars that's got scientist buzzing back on Earth.

NASA plans to announce Tuesday "significant findings" involving the six-wheeled rover that has been searching the dusty Martian landscape since January for any history of water.

I suspect it will be something along the lines of there being solid evidence that water once flowed on the red planet; however, the uber-geek with the overactive imagination that lives in the recesses of my mind is hoping that it's some evidence of life, something other than mathematical guesstimates that we are not alone (even if our neighbors turn out to be single-celled).

But evidence of water would be an exciting start as well, although perhaps not for the same reasons Dan Quayle once espoused:

Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe.

-- Vice President Dan Quayle, 8/11/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)

C'mon, NASA, what's the scoop?

And please don't say "The Martians are pissed and their entire fleet of Planet Annihilators is on its way." I mean, that'd be cool and all, but it would really put a damper on my evening.