Perhaps they found the elusive Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator!

"...colony on mars in 40 years"

This would be a "Reverse Alien Invasion"!

They found OJ Simpson's Capricorn One astronaut suit with the other bloody glove.

The last surviving papyrus of an ancient Martian Ray Gun registry has been uncovered.

...was just reading that.

Hey what was that sci-fi novel back in the 70's about finding an old astronaut suit on the Moon and it had a note/letter in one of the pockets that looked almost like Egyptian hieroglyphics?

Then the novel goes on to explore Mars and found more of these writings buried under the sand and come to find out we are descendants of Mars but due to a nuclear war between countries only a few managed escaped to Earth on a science exploration trip, of which the dead astronaut found on the moon was part of.

Was pretty thought provoking and well written.

No, not Planet of the Apes thank you. Sheesh.

Where's the earth-shattering kaboom?

Dave, Dave, what are you doing Dave?

But this is a bad thing, because flowing water suggests the Martian ice caps continue to shrink (they are) and this can only mean humankind has caused global warming there too.

Obviously, because Mars is a hostile planet and too far away to be useful, the recently discovered flatulence on the Moon is a far more valuable find.= TG

tomax7 ...i remember that sci-fi novel...it starts off at the begining with the astronaut who is sick or wounded and with two comrades..he is left to rest while they go get help...

He is found a million years later..

C'mon, nobody else noticed he was asked for a twenty-five-word answer, and went nine words over budget?

"this can only mean humankind has caused global warming there too."

When in SDA land...
It's too bad we can't teraform Mars, since humans can't affect the climate of a planet in any meaningful way.

*rolls eyes*

The Walkerton Ontario water boys are already on the case.

"C'mon, nobody else noticed he was asked for a twenty-five-word answer, and went nine words over budget?"

Okay, that made me snort-laugh out loud in the office, thus busting me surfing. Thanks a lot Brooks!

That was hilarious Big Jack Attack! Good catch Damian, I missed it.

NASA is a well, funny organization. It seems like they live in a sort of insular world where they think they still enjoy the monoploy as the overall authority of space science and research. Nothing is true or verifiable unless they put a NASA stamp on it.

Out of curiosity I followed the NASA link posted on Drudgereport.com and watched the media broadcast. Snooze. They got excited about that? Well then what about this from ESA: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMGKA808BE_0.html

That ESA post is from July of 2005! It's particularilly amazing because the lake is estimated to be 600 feet deep. Furthermore, because Mars is virtually free of an atmosphere (or so they tell us) ice should quickly sublimate (directly from solid to gas) into the atmosphere. This means that the lake may be replenishing itself consistently. But, I guess we will never know unless we go there. $$$

What? You skeptic...

"I'm not angry, just terribly, terribly hurt.."

The technology that got mankind to the Moon revolutionized the world (The silicon microprocessor)Now that we are pretty sure there is water on Mars then that gives us a great hope of someday going and staying there. The technology that gets us there may well revolutionize our future.

Yeah Kursk, that's the one...dang if I can't remember then name of it

Finally the proof we need to send in Duck Dodgers and take care the martians once and for all!

****NEWS FLASH****

Bush blamed for Global Warming on Mars. Polar ice caps melting, temperatures soar to -367C at night, movement started to stop CO2 emissions on, um, ah...Pluto

That's it, Pluto! Everyone stop breathing on Pluto so we can cut back on Universal CO2 emissions.

Saskboy "It's too bad we can't teraform Mars"

...hey we already terraformed Mars, I saw it on TV!

...what's his name, that governer of California was there!

Oh dear, life is so tragic...

*lol*

Our greenhouse gas emissions on earth are so bad they're melting the Martian ice caps.

Relax, though, nothing wrong that a little taxation won't fix...

5 years is VERY recent when thinking in geologic time.......

Yeah, the first thing that came to my mind was global warming too....but apparently i'm not as clever as I thought, seeing as how half of you already beat me to it. D'oh!

OMG...NASA announcement..." Elvis and Hoffa spottewd on lake with Nessie as Big Foot tends fire on shore at Martian lake site"

Thanks never laughed so much at a polyblog O.J.'s glove, Martian ice caps melting. Love it. Thanks.

Is that 5 Martian years or Earth years?
Why is space science so wrapped up with looking for life?

Jack asked "Why is space science so wrapped up with looking for life?" Because they figure there has to be something better than us out there? IMHO there is intelligent life out there. Proof? None of them have tried to really contact us yet!

water.

whoopie. made out of hydrogen the most abundant element in the entire universe, and oxygen, one of the most abundant (lots of rock and dirt is made from various oxides)

so whats the big deal ??

the stuff is everywhere !!!

that meteorite they found in the arctic with microscopic fossils DIDNT come from mars and begin life on earth; it got smacked up into orbit by one of those global climate changing biggies, stayed there for 50,000,000 years and then fell back down to EARTH where it came from.

the notion of travelling to mars is doomed to fail. it will take the better part of a year and by thaat time despite valiant effort, the astronauts will be so unaccustomed to gravity they wont be able to do more than crawl around, thus trapping them.

doomed from the start.

why go there just because you might be able to ?

"...colony on mars in 40 years"

Half the signs have to be in French.

"Half the signs have to be in French."

And, by logical extension - half the flags white.

Robotic Missions to Mars:

Among the most successful of robotic planetary exploration missions were those of Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential Race.

http://www.physics.purdue.edu/astr263l/SStour/mars.html

jack: "Why is space science so wrapped up with looking for life?"

...to try and prove there isn't a God.

Like cloning, they are playing God. Only thing is, someday they'll realize they have to get their own dirt.

Maybe its the living place of MARVIN THE MARTIAN and K-9 it must be their swimming pool and the ILUTIUM Q-38 EXPLOSIVE SPACE MODULATOR and make sure there isnt any instant martains in your pocket when you dive in

That loud, whistling, roaring sound you hear is caused by the sucking of tens billions of dollars from earth into the thin Martian atmosphere.

THE MISSION: Retrieve 100 kg of Martian sand and rocks and 1 infinitely precious milliliter of Martian water.

HOW: Put thousands and thousands of NASA bureaucrats and defense contractors on the government payroll for two or three decades.

WHY: Because they're there. Er, I mean because IT'S there. Keep telling everyone that massive, big-government megaprojects, no matter how overpriced, unsuccessful or down right tragic, are the very essence of human spirit and ingenuity. Repeat until broke.

I'll go one better - a close up image of water on Mars: http://tinyurl.com/ybpj6q

In this image (look in the top left quadrant), water has condensed out of the atmosphere on the panoramic camera mast and then fallen onto the solar panel. The image was taken with the microscopic imager. A second photo taken 40 seconds later shows the drop of water still there. This is not a part of the rover, and has been deposited on top of the dust on the solar panel. It refracts the image of the straight piece of metal below it, and shows reflections.

Derek Sears did an experiment and put out a paper a few years ago showing that under Martian atmospheric pressure conditions, the evaporation rate of liquid water is about 0.7 mm per hour. The Viking probes measured the Martian atmosphere's relative humidity at 100%. Under such conditions, liquid water can exist on the surface for a considerable period of time.

Charles Shults of Xenotech Research has published evidence of geysers on Mars for over a year:

http://tinyurl.com/yc8wr8

Mars is sopping wet.

Why is this important? It expands the "Cinderella zone" in which liquid water is possible. With liquid water possible in a much wider zone than was previously believed, it means that there is a much wider range around other stars in which liquid water is possible - and in which life could develop.

In this image (look in the top left quadrant), you can see deposits of Barley and Western grain from the Canadian Wheat Board, which has been shipping these products to Mars since the late 90's as part of their global outreach programme.

If you look slightly to the right, you will see little barrels of oil.

Um, wouldn't that be called Universal Warming? Or perhaps Galactical Warming? Way off with the "global" part.

if all the money squande.... er, spent by NASA since the apollo was shut down went into developing all purpose satellites instead, with customized add ons which would be sent hither and thither throughout the solar system, we would have a vastly vastly clearer picture of just where the interesting and important stuff is.

1000s of them, one after another. launched by countries that buy them in singles or dozens on leased rockets.

thats how you spread the costs and benefits of space exploration, not cozy gibbamint lobbying in the interests of an anachronistic organization started in the cold war hysteria. ISS: sold with a cost of 10 billion. present cost: 100 billion and still nowhere near completely functional.

circular logic (literally and figuratively) at its most prominent. you can actually see it overhead if you know when and where to look.

Have you seen the SCI FI movie ROBINSON CARUSO ON MARS? in one part some aamerican astronuat finds water on the red pnaet while staranded there