March 19, 2006

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• This is also good news! If we find life on Mars AND Enceladus we can make them fight!
• "There. Those are the Martians." Our reflections in the water of Mars. I think this means that we'll be going there in the not too distant future. Might seem obvious, but with large stores of ice being found it really does make colonisation feasible in a large scale.
• Always liked Ray Bradbury's Martian tales. If there's water there might be interesting forms of life there.
• That front wheel actually stopped working on Spirit quite a while ago, and from what I hear by the watercooler, they're confident that they can get to a good north-facing slope before the winter really sets in, but the last thing they want to do is tell the press "we should be able to make it" when there really is a significant chance of not making it. Not worse than 50/50, I'd guess that it's got probably a 75% chance of making it, but who wants to promise on a 25% chance of failure?
• Awesome! I can't wait for my expensively-priced bottle of "Marstesian water" to be sold at my local grocery store!
• If Mars has ice then it must have had waters before the suface was froze, and if it was wet there may have been otters though what kind nobody knows.
• Giant red Martian Otters with lasers for eyes! W00t!!11!!
• Get your ass to Mars!
• C.S. Lewis' space trilogy features some ottery folk. Out of the Silent Planet, if I recall correctly.
• The thing that everyone is missing, is that this means on Mars we will finally be able to get a decent Manhattan cocktail.
• Served by laser space otters?
• Absolutely!
• I like my Manhattans cold, the Martians a little 'otter! Eh??? Eh!!11!
• *blinks, sips Martiattan* Wot?
• More evidence for water on Mars. And some pictures, which will probably try to resize your browser.
• And personally, I prefer a Marstini.
• How about a Black Martian?
• A spacecraft orbiting Mars has scanned huge deposits of water ice at its south pole so plentiful they would blanket the planet in 36 feet of water if they were liquid, scientists said Thursday.
• Holy shit. Water = Life. I believe that our grandchildren will find the universe, once thought to be barren, to be teeming with life.
• If there's ice at the poles, and desert elsewhere, then there's liquid water somewhere in between.
• Meh, if there's life, I doubt if they'll be impressed.
• Caves may have been discovered on Mars, and would be able to protect primitive life forms.
• Mars Rover Investigates Signs of Steamy Martian Past
• Ah..... Yeah. Interesting. Whew! Good thing I clicked on the link before calling my press agent. For a minute there, I though hommy had found out about that sleazy off-planet tryst in the late '80s.
• We all saw things we wouldn't believe...
• The Coolest Picture Ever. Wow. Just. Wow.

• Think on this, and think on it carefully: you are seeing a manmade object falling gracefully and with intent to the surface of an alien world, as seen by another manmade object already circling that world, both of them acting robotically, and both of them hundreds of million of kilometers away. Never, ever forget: we did this. This is what we can do.

  Yes indeed. What a piece of work is man.
• Shivers, I tells ya! Shivers!
• For those who tweet, this is fun to follow.
• My idea. No, really.
• Another amazing fact to think about is that both objects were moving at incredible speeds. In different directions. And they still got the shot. Can you imagine how the folks working on this project felt when this image came through......
• Best day ever!!
• Whoa goddamn.
• Wow
• Those dust devils belong in a Sergio Leone movie.
• Mars farts.
• OK... But what is spring like on Jupiter?
• NASA Mars rover spots its ultimate destination
• Mars Rover Spirit May Never Wake from Deep Sleep
• That story just gets sadder all the time. Thanks a lot Wall-E for making me anthropomorphise every goddamn robot.