Oh, how I want this report to be proven true.
NASA has reported finding compelling evidence that Mars once contained an ocean the size of the Atlantic Ocean, which makes it a body of water that covers more than half of the Martian surface.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/06/us/mars-ocean-water-study/index.html
The rover Curiosity has been boring into the Martian surface and has returned data to NASA that suggests the presence of water — lots of it — on the Red Planet.
Look, I grew up in a time when astronomers were taking picture of Mars from Earth showing those lines running across the planet’s surface. They called the “canals,” or some such thing that suggested that they were put there by Martian beings.
I’ve never really believed in the presence of life as understand the earthly term on Mars.
But the water finding, if its true, suggests something quite exciting about further exploration of Mars.
Here’s the deal, though: I haven’t a clue what that finding will produce.
That is why we need to send human beings to Mars. Let ’em take a look around.
The little red planet up the block offers a tantalizing view into our own world’s past — or future. One distant day, astronauts from another galaxy may be drilling into Earth’s barren surface, marveling at all the brown water and puzzling over a long-dead civilization’s only remaining artifacts: a bar of gold and a Twinkie.
No one longed to visit Mars more than late astronomer Carl Sagan, but even he said that in light of Earth’s lengthy domestic to-do list, the obscene expense of such an undertaking could not be justified.
And before we start scuba-diving in Mars’ oceans, we ought to get more familiar with the mysterious depths of our own, which we know less about than we do the surface of the moon. Somebody’s got some ‘splorin’ to do here at home. Lucy … !