Word: martianize
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...lift-off on Sunday, June 8, and Wednesday, June 25, that are likely to generate the most buzz--and not just because NASA has had 45 years to master the media spin cycle. What will make these expeditions stand out is that each will set loose on the Martian surface a remote-controlled rover even smarter and more photogenic than the miniature robot that captured the world's attention during the Pathfinder mission...
...lift-off on Sunday, June 8, and Wednesday, June 25, that are likely to generate the most buzz - and not just because NASA has had 45 years to master the media spin cycle. What will make these expeditions stand out is that each will set loose on the Martian surface a remote-controlled rover even smarter and more photogenic than the miniature robot that captured the world's attention during the Pathfinder mission...
...Pathfinder's rover was a toy-size machine. Barely 30 cm high and 60 cm long and weighing just under 11 kg, it operated for three months and in all that time toddled across a stretch of Martian terrain little bigger than a football field. The new rovers are much closer to true space cars. Measuring 1.5 m tall from their wheels to the top of their camera masts, the 2003 models weigh about 180 kg each and should be able to cover up to 915 m in their 90 days of life - including many days they will spend standing...
That Antarctica is so little understood is not surprising, for it is a remote, otherworldly place that in many ways resembles early Mars more than contemporary Earth. And no place is more Martian in character than the McMurdo Dry Valleys, a wedge of rugged, rocky terrain stippled with ice-covered lakes and overhung by glaciers. No diminutive alpine plants cling to the slopes of these valleys. No rodents scurry amid the boulders and scree. No flies or mosquitoes whir through the air; no fish, mollusks or crustaceans dwell in the lakes and streams...
...living deep underground or in extremes of heat, pressure or toxicity, that represent a kind of rock-bottom definition of a living form. Many examples of these have been studied on Earth, including recent samples found 4 km beneath the surface, in a South African mine. One suggestion of Martian life emerged in 1996, when a meteorite from Mars that landed in the Antarctic region was found to contain what seemed to be fossilized microbial life. But the results are inconclusive; Pillinger and others argue that the fossils could have stemmed from contamination on Earth rather than true evidence...