Yeah. I'm in the political attention of the nation right now. I'm taking a hiatus from political posts until our primary is concluded on Tuesday next.

In really cool factual stuff, New Scientist amongst others reports the first confirmation of water on Mars It is likely that simple life will be found there as well, in the form of microfossils. It'll sure mess with Christian fundamentalist's heads. Always a good thing in my book, lest they go on a killing spree or commit other dastardly crimes when their worldview is shown to be demonstrably wrong. Literal reading og the Christian bible has always been at odds with the healthy pursuit of science. Galileo certainly found out the herd way. Christians can be pretty uppity when confronted with date that should cause a bit of cognitive dissonance.

Without further ado:

First data from Mars Express confirms ice water

16:39 23 January 04

NewScientist.com news service

Direct measurement of water on the surface of Mars - in the form of ice on the southern polar cap - tops the list of the first scientific data returned by the European Space AgencyÂ’s (ESA) Mars Express mission.

Principal investigators of the spacecraft's six instruments, turned on since 5 January, presented their results at a press conference in Darmstadt, Germany on Friday.

The instrument that made the measurement, OMEGA, searches for the telltale signature of molecules such as water by studying the spectra of sunlight reflected from Mars.

Previous studies have only indirectly indicated the presence of water near the surface of Mars, including one in December 2001 that inferred water from hydrogen in the soil, said Jean-Pierre Bibring, principle investigator of OMEGA.

"I think you just saw a Eureka moment," added David Southwood, ESA's director of science, after Bibring presented a brightly coloured image of the water ice. Much more at link

I've said it before many times, and I'm going to state it again. These are the types of missions that we should continue to make. Manned space flight is just too costly given the current and likely future economic landscape in the U.S.

The U.S. really needs to come to terms over the impending environmental cataclysm that is already upon us. This is where we need true leadership. Everything else takes a back seat. Everything.