that humans came from mars
I bet it is all the Draenei important roles in lore, tucked away in a little box,
---------- Post added 2012-11-23 at 02:42 AM ----------
Something people tend to forget is that the money used for those missions is not blown to the universe alongside with the rockets. That money goes to companies, enterprises and workers, effectively paying those people's salary and circulating the currency. The money isn't simply lost xD
Last edited by Azgraal; 2012-11-23 at 02:42 AM.
Robotic missions (obviously) are significantly cheaper. The Apollo program cost the equivalent of over $100 billion today. Previous NASA estimates from 2005 (when the Bush administration's previous space policy, the Vision for Space Exploration, called for a return to the Moon) show how expensive a proposition it is, and unsurprisingly the VSE ended up getting canned because it was way too costly. As former administrator Griffin noted, the expenditure necessary to design and implement new launch vehicles, crew vehicles, and logistics would have resulted in the first new-generation lunar landing costing 55% of the original Apollo program. Needless to say, that's over three times NASA's annual budget.
---------- Post added 2012-11-22 at 09:12 PM ----------
I'm not sure why you think it's weak when 1) it's the reason the Apollo program was shut down prematurely in the first place, and 2) it's the reason the plug got pulled on the VSE before it even produced functional launch vehicles.
Last edited by Sayl; 2012-11-23 at 03:35 AM. Reason: Typos.
I don't see what difference it makes. Unless they're intelligent life forms who can communicate with us and set up a mutually beneficial rapport, it really won't change anything.
My take from the cryptic way NASA is talking that they found a Multicellular Fossil. That would mark a point in history when humanity realized life is not uncommon.
Gems, Water, and many useful elements are on Mars, and the asteroid belt, this is already known and wouldn't be a source of "for the history books".
Water, and most liquids are interesting but they know that there is ice in the poles, so finding water would be like finding water on the moon, which they did 4 years ago. Not a historic moment. Oil on the other hand is a type of fossil, and that would be a historic moment
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I should point out that single cell fossils or even current living single celled life would not be as historic since they have already proven that bacteria can be transplanted between planets. So the academic community would ask did it come from Earth in the past.
when are they going to announce what they found?
Sometime during the first week of December, at the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting.
Edited to add: given the locale, anyone hoping for something truly earth-shattering is probably going to be rather disappointed.
Last edited by Sayl; 2012-11-26 at 10:17 PM.
Tired of waiting? Here's a leaked picture:
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/5...reen002gr2.jpg
From what I've read, you're right. It could have been a life supporting planet, but unlike Earth, it was stillborn. It's small, for one thing, and at some point in the past its molten core stopped spinning and solidified. That means no plate tectonics releasing material into orbit to create an atmosphere, and no magnetic field to retain that atmosphere.
Mars being small means its weak gravity isn't able to retain a thick enough atmosphere for life, the solar wind keeps blowing it away. There is a thin atmosphere though, note that you can't see the stars when watching video footage from the rovers there. It's caused by frozen water deposits at the poles leaking into the air, and by the dust being blown around by the terrific winds.
I read about this a while ago, so may well have forgotten or misremembered bits.
So, two problems: Mars isn't geologically active, and it's too small. Solution? Crash an asteroid into it, preferably one which has frozen water deposits. Do so at such an angle that Mars' orbit will be shifted to be closer to the sun when it stabilizes. Then, possibly, the added mass, added water, closer orbit, and volcanic activity might make it possible to eventually terraform Mars to be a sister to Earth.
The flag was put there because the astronauts were Americans.
The plaque that was left there actually reads as follows.
Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon. July 1969 A.D.
It also has the signatures of the Astronauts and President of the US. Other than Nixon's signature, there's nothing suggesting that land belongs to the Moon. I really can't imagine colonizing the Moon and NOT granting that particular patch of land to the United States, though. Or maybe it would be a Switzerland where all the lunar countries come together to discuss politics. That would be awesome.
Also the flags America left up there have been bleached white by solar radiation. So really they truce flags now.
I fucking love Science.