Word: soiling
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Even proponents believe the U.S. should approach a joint effort with the Soviets in gradual steps, perhaps starting with an unmanned mission to bring back soil samples from Mars in 1998. Many, like Sagan, are convinced that the advantages of a cooperative mission would override the possible risks. Besides sharply reducing the enormous costs of going to Mars alone, such a venture, says Sagan, "would revitalize a dispirited and unraveling NASA" and provide a "coherent focus for the U.S. space program...
...surface, the landers began providing the most accurate measurements yet of Martian surface temperatures, atmospheric density and wind velocity, while the cameras shot more than 4,500 spectacular close-up pictures of the surrounding, rock- strewn landscape. Each lander was also equipped with an arm that scooped up soil samples and fed them to a little onboard biological laboratory, where they were analyzed for any signs of metabolic activity, which would signify life...
...West. Much of the territory of the Western states, from Texas to California, was held first by Spain, then Mexico. The Spanish names of many Western cities -- Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Fe -- bear witness to the settlements of the early Franciscan friars. The first play on American soil was performed by Spanish colonists in New Mexico in 1598. Yet in the hills of New Mexico and the old mission towns of the Pacific Coast, the descendants of Spanish settlers who greeted the Anglo pioneers are amused (and sometimes not amused) to find themselves perennially arriving in the national consciousness...
...part, Japan now pays 40% of the annual $6 billion cost of keeping 60,000 U.S. troops on Japanese soil, a marked improvement since 1980, when the U.S. picked up nearly the entire bill. But further initiatives may be limited. When the Persian Gulf conflict threatened Japanese oil shipments last year, Tokyo could not launch an effective response. Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone reportedly wanted to send patrol ships to protect Japanese vessels but backed down under heavy domestic pressure. Tokyo settled instead for such moves as increased financial support for U.N. peace-seeking efforts and aid to Omani farmers...
More good news: the opportunity for conservation is considerable, considering the scale of profligacy now encouraged in Western agriculture. Throughout the region, scarce but subsidized water is inefficiently flooded onto marginal soil to raise crops like cotton and rice that are already in surplus and must often be bought at a loss by the Federal Government. A recent study, commissioned by Democratic Congressman George Miller of California, showed that fully a third of the Government's $535 million annual spending on irrigation water flows to farmers who receive other agricultural subsidies. Miller has introduced legislation to halt this double dipping...