Word: soils
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...middle of last week, the Spirit rover--which bounced down on Mars at the beginning of the month--at last rolled off its landing ramp and onto the dry flats of Gusev Crater. As J.P.L. engineers radioed up instructions, the rover prepared to stick its snout in the soil and begin the hunt for signs of ancient water, and with it the hunt for clues to ancient life. Meanwhile, Spirit's sister rover, Opportunity, continues to head for its own landing on the planet...
...possible to make fuel, air and water on-site, it is also possible to grow food. Mars has plenty of soil, and if chemical samplers like those aboard Spirit prove that Mars dust isn't poisonous, it would be a relatively straightforward job to assemble a greenhouse-like enclosure, raise the temperature, pump up the atmosphere and plant a few seeds. Donald Henninger, a NASA chief scientist, has identified 13 crops that could thrive in a space habitat, including wheat, potatoes, soybeans and salad greens. "You can take stored food along, but how long does it last?" he asks...
Another good reason to go is the one disdained by straight-to-Mars boosters: learning how to live off the land--manufacturing some of what we need from soil that contains oxygen, silicon, aluminum, iron, calcium, magnesium and titanium, plus a dusting of helium, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon deposited by solar winds...
...when President Bush unveiled his proposal, he listed these recent major achievements of space exploration: pictures of the rings of Saturn and the outer planets, evidence of water on Mars and the moons of Jupiter, discovery of more than 100 planets outside our solar system and study of the soil of Mars. All these accomplishments came from automated probes or automated space telescopes. Bush's proposal, which calls for "reprogramming" some of NASA's present budget into the Mars effort, might actually lead to a reduction in such unmanned science--the one aspect of space exploration that's working really...
...wells were plugged just 28 months later--Bruno family members say the wells' operator never gave a reason for ending production--but in that short time, they say, the soil was ruined, and the Brunos were able to grow hardly anything on it. Younger family members moved away to find jobs, and the old folks limped along on public assistance until 1960, when Bruno and his wife Frances died within a month of each other. Their heirs decided to sell what remained of the land the next year...