"Lookie Here"

[pdub]

Huge big news from outer space. Major.

I live in Tennessee so I don't really know what to do with this profound revelation. Other than the photo looks like that would be a decent place for a road course, not so much a drag strip.

If we could send a bunch of graders out there to level out a spot, I'll bet Dan Stokes wouldn't mind driving that far for a speed event....

http://t.now.msn.com/mars-dirt-is-2-percent-water-curiosity-rover-soil-analysis-reveals

[studemax]

Not likely. I've seen most of the pix from the mission so far, and Mars is littered with sharp rocks. It definitely NOT FLAT.

[BigAL]

Well they already invented the machine that will produce oxygen on Mars, so I guess let the terraforming begin.

[Barry Donovan]

Wouldn't anything have a bit of everything. We are around the same sun. Simply life as we know it is not there...but the people that invented 1980s subarus.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Yes, but.... it's funny most news reports leave off the rest of that article

the bit that says

It’s not all good news, though. Along with the large amount of water, SAM’s GC instrument also detected significant amounts of oxygen and chlorine, suggesting that up to 0.5% of the soil consists of perchlorate compounds. Perchlorates are known to slow down human thyroid function, so it could be an issue for human explorers/settlers if there is a lot of perchlorate in the Martian atmosphere.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/1...uriosity-rover

so sure, there's water there - but the dirt will kill you.


and here's the egghead report for those with not much planned tonight

http://www.michaeleisen.org/docs/Science-2013-Leshin-.pdf

[oletrux4evr]

Let's have a serious discussion about funding.......