No blacks in the JPL mission control?

That would be well hung over the top of your belt? 8-)

Phil

Phil Stein

Reply to
Phil Stein
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You spoke too soon, here is a pic of Dr. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, a black engineer at JPL, working on images from Mars...

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Reply to
Scott Aleckson

I believe that is known in some circles as "Dunlop's Disease", as in, "My belly done lopped over my belt". :)

Reply to
RayDunakin

So that's why they call that a "spare tire"...!

-dave w

Reply to
David Weinshenker

I remember hearing about the meteorite that contained some evidence of Martian microbes a few years ago and thinking, "Wow, life could have originated on Mars and seeded the Earth." It's a long shot, but we _could_ All be Martians. The environmentalists will have a Fit letting people land with the requisite nuclear power reactors if we find any evidence of past life, though. Never mind that Mars is dead, dead, dead now.

Brad Hitch

Reply to
Brad Hitch

OK, this is a troll and you are a jerk but I will bite:

you didn't see any because you didn't look hard enough. how about Dr. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu

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Shovel Recovery wrote:

Reply to
Cliff Sojourner

I HOPE we are Martians or Jupiterians.

Wouldn't it suck if we were mere Earthlings?

Jerry

Reply to
Jerry Irvine

mmmm, not really.

what would really suck is if we remained only earthlings for a short time and then did ourselves in!!

Reply to
Cliff Sojourner

It's not dead. It's pining for the fjords.

-Shread Vector NRA #1 Paramount Leader

Reply to
Fred Shecter

you mean they really didn't seed earth?

Mission to Mars

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check out the DVD trailer on that page. It looks like they have a good movie set if they need to spoof pictures from Beagle II

just kidding, I think

- iz

Brad Hitch wrote:

Reply to
Ismaeel Abdur-Rasheed

You can only see red and green?

Bored with Jerry and need some new action in RMR?

Reply to
Kurt Kesler

we left because of degrading atmosphere.

sadly the only place we could reach was a lizard infested, blood sucking mosquito filled plannet called Dirt or Rock or something dumb like that

Reply to
tater schuld

Somewhat erroneous - actually, we brought the politicians with us.

Next time, we'll know better. ;O)

Reply to
BB

Not necessarily.

Martian life, if similar to earth life could survive until today. Would I bet the house? Of course not. I don't bet. I live in Pennsylvania, where we heavily tax people who can't do math.

Martian life, if not identical to earth life, might actually be doing a bit better than surviving. If the loss of a biosphere on Mars was not catastrophic (says Zooty as he thinks about a couple major craters, a huge canyon and a big-ass volcano), the life might have evolved to survive and even thrive in some locations.

Think of it as evolution in action.

Zooty

Reply to
zoot

I believe that was ALH1984 (?)

and thinking, "Wow, life could have

-- Drake "Doc" Damerau

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NEPRA President NAR Section 614 NAR 79986 L3
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Remove "My Shorts" to reply

Reply to
Doc

Wait'll we get to the point of trying to establish colonies on Mars, or even on the moon. The treehuggers will be screaming about how the "human virus" is spreading to other planets, and how we're raping virgin environments.

Reply to
RayDunakin

Between Mars' small size (~11% of Earth's mass), lack of plate tectonics, lack of a substantial atmosphere, large distance from the sun (which was also substantially dimmer in the past), highly elliptical orbit, and large spin axis angle instability I think it is unlikely that conditions favorable to the emergence of life were ever there in one place long enough for it to happen. Cataclysms such as asteroid impacts couldn't snuff out all multicellular life on Earth, let alone threaten all microbial life, so I don't think that's really a factor. If life ever formed on Mars I think it would still be there today, I just don't think it ever had a decent opportunity to form. That doesn't mean I wouldn't look pretty hard, though. I could be wrong, but I would be willing to take a bet on it.

I wouldn't place a similar bet on Europa, however, in view of its liquid ocean and tidal heating by Jupiter probbably producing environments like those around Earth's deep sea hydrothermal vents. Support JIMO.

Brad Hitch

Reply to
Brad Hitch

The spin axis instability is a problem for multicellular life. I'd be highly surprised if Mars ever got past the single-cell stage, which was pretty much the story for most of the time life has been on Earth.

Life arose amazingly quickly on Earth. It wouldn't have taken much time for Mars, either. Only if life requires an exact Earth environment (highly doubtful) would Mars have not been able to grow something. The atmosphere may have been much larger at one time.

We know of one impact that was a slate-cleaner, to the point that we'll probably never know if there was life before it - the impact that formed the moon.

We don't know how many times life arose on Earth, only to be exterminated. Given the very things you mention, a slate-cleaner may not have to completely remake the planet to exterminate all life.

Europa is the best bet for a secondary life site in our solar system. Putting probes on Mars proves just how tricky it is. Europa would be far harder, require nuclear reactors, and pretty much be a mess. Europa is definitely not the place to try for "Faster, Cheaper, Better, Failure."

There's some interesting talk in the exobiology circles about life in Venus' atmosphere. I've got one friend who's bizarrely excited about the possibility.

When I say that I don't remember anything beyond that of what he's said, I think you understand my estimation of the chances.

Then again, I could be wrong....

Zooty

Reply to
zoot

Of course, there's going to be some loons. Most environmentalists wouldn't get upset unless there's life on Mars and we try to exterminate it.

On the other hand, if Microsoft sent little robots up to the moon to chew up the surface until the moon turned into a giant Microsoft Logo, I bet even you would be whining.

Especially when they make you sign an agreement and pay them money to look at the moon....

Zooty

Reply to
zoot

It's far harder, but certainly well within known technology, to land on Europa. The real problem comes in trying to get down into the posited ocean where the real action, it any, will be. That's a hell of a mission that is really well beyond current capabilities.

There's a guy who posts on sci.space.* about how NASA is covering up the "obvious" artificial structures on Venus and how it's inhabited by intelligent reptilian life. Disagree and you are labelled a "NASA Mole". Brad Guth. Please get into a rational discussion with him on USENET, I'll make popcorn.

Brett

Reply to
Brett Buck

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