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Registered: 2003-02-02

Posts: 584

Re: Senator Bill Nelson and Martians - Interesting comments on "Meet the Press"

On the Feb. 2 edition of "Meet the Press," Senator / astronaut Bill Nelson made some statements indicating that he was open to the idea that Mars had once been home to intelligent life.  His statments were hardly a ringing endorsement of intelligent Martians, but it's notable for a high-profile figure like Senator Nelson to display his openness to an idea that's outside the scientific mainstream.

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Who needs Michael Griffin when you can have Peter Griffin?  Catch "Family Guy" Sunday nights on FOX.

Shaun Barrett

Member

From: Cairns, Queensland, Australia

Registered: 2001-12-28

Posts: 2,843

Re: Senator Bill Nelson and Martians - Interesting comments on "Meet the Press"

Yeah, I thought it was an odd thing to say.
    But it's hard to say whether he was just 'shooting the breeze' or actually expressing a deeper wondering about Mars.
    I don't suppose we''ll ever know.
                                           

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The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down.   - Rita Rudner

GDavid

InActive

From: Seattle area

Registered: 2003-01-27

Posts: 18

Re: Senator Bill Nelson and Martians - Interesting comments on "Meet the Press"

Don't be too sure on that, "Mars" is popping out in more conversations related to Post-Colubia than one might have expected.  This seems the thread for the following;

New TEM article: "Meet the Press" & Sen. Nelson
Excellent crafting here of images and what may be a commemorable 'quote';
http://www.enterprisemission.com/nelson.htm

Also, this on the front page of TEM is another part of that 'back-channel' message we seem to hear in many places lately on the media when discussing Columbia. As always, the 'media' is dense on the pick-up of clues, but seems near hard to hear a comment anywhere by 'officials' or 'astronauts/space experts' where "Mars" dosen't slip thru the conversation;

Bush Budget Gets Spacey (on 'Aliens');
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/ … 9116.shtml

Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Senator Bill Nelson and Martians - Interesting comments on "Meet the Press"

Don't be too sure on that, "Mars" is popping out in more conversations related to Post-Colubia than one might have expected.

*I'll say. 

There's been so much press coverage of the Columbia disaster that I don't recall the name of the gentleman I saw on TV last evening (or the night before?), but he is a former shuttle astronaut (he flew on a 1996 mission, if recall serves me).  He mentioned the need for human exploration out into the solar system, "Mars, certain moons of other planets, and back to the moon again." 

Another thing I've noticed is more talk of robotic/unmanned exploration.  The gentleman I refer to above talked about sending robots to Mars to map out the area in better detail; these robots could begin building habitats for future human exploration of Mars, etc.  I don't particularly like the robots-only scenario (given that, were NASA to take this option only, I'll probably never see a human landing on Mars, given the time involved), but it seems there's a strong trend in that direction.  I wonder if it's an attempt at appeasement to the funding/taxpaying public who have anxiety about sending more humans into space.  I hope not.

--Cindy

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)