Mars

At a NASA news conference this afternoon, a team of scientists led by Michael Mumma of the Goddard Space Flight Center announced the discovery of plumes of methane emanating from the surface of Mars during the planet’s late spring and early summer…

The only way to learn more about these plumes may be to go and physically investigate them, she said. Observing them from Earth—or even from Mars orbit—probably won’t reveal whether there are microbes beneath the surface. “We’re going to have to get down where they live,” she said. The Mars Science Laboratory, a new rover set to launch in 2011, carries instruments that could investigate below the planet’s surface—but most likely not deep enough. If microbes do exist on Mars, Mumma said, they could be buried more than a kilometer down. That would require a whole new plan, including technology that doesn’t yet exist.

You can only learn so much by observation and remote drones.

We need to get there A.S.A.P and have our minds blown and axioms shattered.

I’ll never shut up about this. | grinding |

Amen.