QUOTE
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is preparing to end its long journey and begin a three-month mission to taste and sniff fistfuls of Martian soil and buried ice.
Mmmm, "taste and sniff". I like that. But how will the little green men feel about it? Not to mention the little green ladies? I mean, when people here on earth go around claiming they've been abducted by aliens and had weird experiments done on them, we write them off as total nutjobs. But suppose for a moment there really are life forms on Mars. Some little green guy (they might be tiny compared to us) is sitting on his patch of Martian soil minding his own business, and suddenly a giant scoop comes and grabs a fistful of soil with him on it. Next thing he knows, he's inside this alien spacecraft being sniffed via remote control by little pink aliens from planet Earth. Do we have a moral right to do this? Should we at least warn them in advance to wear clean underwear? The Phoenix lander is scheduled to touch down on May 25, so they've got 10 days to do their laundry.
But how will the little green men feel about it? Not to mention the little green ladies? I mean, when people here on earth go around claiming they've been abducted by aliens and had weird experiments done on them, we write them off as total nutjobs. But suppose for a moment there really are life forms on Mars. Some little green guy (they might be tiny compared to us) is sitting on his patch of Martian soil minding his own business, and suddenly a giant scoop comes and grabs a fistful of soil with him on it. Next thing he knows, he's inside this alien spacecraft being sniffed via remote control by little pink aliens from planet Earth. Do we have a moral right to do this? Should we at least warn them in advance to wear clean underwear? The Phoenix lander is scheduled to touch down on May 25, so they've got 10 days to do their laundry.Read all about the Phoenix mission here
EDIT: The NASA press release says touchdown planned for May 25, but that's US local time, and as the all-knowing Editor Bob has wisely noted in the thread subtitle, the actual moment of touchdown is scheduled for 01:53 CET on Monday 26 May. I'll take his word for it. Editor Bob is awesome.
