The Onion: “Delirious Rover Hallucinates Water On Mars”

PASADENA, CA­—More than one year into the automated motor vehicle’s exploration of Mars’ arid Gale Crater, NASA scientists confirmed Friday that the delirious, weakened Curiosity rover is currently hallucinating that it has discovered water on the Red Planet. “Earlier this morning, mission control received an enthusiastic transmission from Curiosity indicating that it had detected a significant volume of cold, clear, crystal-blue water capable of supporting life,” said project scientist Ashwin Vasavada, adding that the demented rover then made a beeline for what its strained, dust-clogged sensors determined to be a sparkling desert oasis encircled in waving palm fronds. “While we remain skeptical that Curiosity has in fact come across a plentiful source of water that we somehow overlooked for several decades, the rover appears convinced that it has unearthed the building blocks of life on Mars, as evidenced by the large quantities of the supposed ‘water’ it has so far shoveled into its spectrometer.” At press time, Vasavada confirmed that Curiosity had also apparently discovered an alluring, seductive lady rover.

http://www.theonion.com/article/delirious-rover-hallucinates-water-on-mars-34790

Nick Risinger: Sky Map

PanoramaThis stunning 360 degree panorama of the night sky was stitched together from 37,000 images by a first-time astrophotographer.

Nick Risinger, a 28-year-old native of Seattle, trekked more than 60,000 miles around the western United States and South Africa to create the largest-ever true-color image of the stellar sphere. The final result is an interactive, zoomable sky map showing the full Milky Way and the stars, planets, galaxies and nebulae around it.

“The genesis of this was to educate and enlighten people about the natural beauty that is hidden, but surrounds us.”

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/04/sky-panorama/

Thirty nine minutes eight seconds of Gwynne! Yes please : )

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“There is not a business case, right now, for Mars – let’s be clear…there is no busi – Mars isn’t gonna pay me. I mean, I’ll get paid to take robotic spacecraft – to Mars – um, but there is no business case on Mars – it’s not, it’s not really, well it’s not at all why we’re doing this. Um…I don’t – I can’t think of another thing that would be as important as promoting humanity beyond one location – we’re a single point failure…right? And there is no question that something dramatic is gonna happen here on Earth. I’m not saying it’s next week, not next year, probably not within the next hundred years, maybe not within the next thousand years – but, I’m pretty sure something terrible is gonna happen, on Earth, and if this is the only place we have, then we’re done, so… -Cause how boring. You know? If this is it. I just can’t believe that this is it. I don’t think that this is it. We’ve gotta go somewhere else.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GT9Crl1ZOg

Mars Society Promotional Video

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“If we go to Mars we’re beginning humanities career as a multi-planet space-faring species.  If we do this, five hundred years from now there will be new branches of human civilizaiton on Mars and I believe many worlds beyond. When they look back at this time, what will they remember us for – certainly not for our endless squabbles – our time will be remembered because this was when we first set sail for other worlds. Please help us make this happen, by joining and donating to the Mars Society today.”