Thursday, February 05, 2004
Europe Joins Race To Send Humans To Mars
CBC reports that the ESA hopes to [0]send humans to
Mars within three decades. They first hope to return a Martian soil
sample by 2014. They stress the importance of determining whether Mars
ever supported life before humans touch down on the surface, because "You
can sterilize a robot. But you cannot do the same to an astronaut.
Inevitably a human will introduce microbes to the planet ... and
contaminate it."" Kame-sennin links to a [1]Reuters article on the plans.
More:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/04/0350222
Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=04/02/04/0350222
Links:
0. http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/02/03/mars_esa040203
1. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=4272721