Asparagus on Mars?

[tinrobot]

Martian soil appears able to support life

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Flabbergasted" NASA scientists said on Thursday that Martian soil appeared to contain the requirements to support life, although more work would be needed to prove it.

Scientists working on the Phoenix Mars Lander mission, which has already found ice on the planet, said preliminary analysis by the lander's instruments on a sample of soil scooped up by the spacecraft's robotic arm had shown it to be much more alkaline than expected.

"We basically have found what appears to be the requirements, the nutrients, to support life whether past present or future," Sam Kounaves, the lead investigator for the wet chemistry laboratory on Phoenix, told journalists.

"It is the type of soil you would probably have in your back yard, you know, alkaline. You might be able to grow asparagus in it really well. ... It is very exciting for us."

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN2634952620080626

[nilram]

1. Mars Needs Hollandaise Sauce! -nt

[tanyev]

2. Now the Martians will be able to cast asparagus, too!

[Schema Thing]

3. So they just stopped having sex, and died out?

[FiveGoodMen]

4. Lack of air might have been a problem

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. Mars doesn't have enough pollution to support life. n't

[librechik]

6. yes--half mile high stalks!

(NASA satellite imagery)
not asparagus? Then what is it?

[Phoonzang]

7. I remember that photo...

I never heard an explanation from NASA as to what it is. But I'll bet they said it isn't trees... :-)

[Phoonzang]

8. And that's it right?

That was the purpose of the mission, to determine whether or not the soil could support life. Wow. I guess it was too much for them to actually put an instrument on that thing to follow through and look directly for current life. :eyes:

[tinrobot]

9. The problem isn't the instrument... it's the cost of sterilization.

In order to do that experiment properly, the entire spacecraft has to be completely and utterly sterilized to rule out any chance of earth contamination. That adds a lot of cost to the mission, and they don't have the extra budget.

[Ian David]

10. And CATS!

[pokerfan]

11. I love asparagus!

I wonder why them scientists thought of asparagus first and not say, string beans...