Why we need to go back to Mars

[pokerfan]

I first heard of this airplane concept more than ten years ago at a convention. At that time, the plan was to have it flying on Mars in time for the centennial of the first human flight at Kitty Hawk.

March 25, 2010

Planetary scientist Joel Levine shows some intriguing -- and puzzling -- new discoveries about Mars: craters full of ice, traces of ancient oceans, and some compelling hints at the presence, at some time in the past, of life. He makes the case for going back to Mars to find out more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLU7qcMYKO8

Joel S. Levine is a senior research scientist in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA's Langley Research Center, and the principal investigator and chief scientist of the proposed ARES Mars Airplane Mission. ARES (Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey) is a robotic, rocket-powered Mars airplane designed to investigate the atmosphere, surface and sub-surface of Mars.

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. Can we drop the tea baggers (and congressional repubs) off on the moon first?

[mindwalker_i]

2. Don't pollute the moon!

[1620rock]

3. Alas, Obama has scaled back NASA funding to the point where nothing much will be explored for years.

[joshcryer]

4. Wrong, Obama increased NASA's science and exploration budgets.

Budgets that were being drained dry by Constellation.

[Orsino]

5. I, for one, do not want to go to bed by the light of a fascist moon. n/t