Massive frozen water reservoirs discovered on Mars

Aren't there stories about how Mars was our planet before we destroyed it and moved here?

In the movies

This is still very cool though!

I believe you, nearing. It fits the logical space perfectly:-)

Total Recal. Spot on.

Ha ha, I was thinking the same thing.

Great Point atsidiwashichu,

I'm sure the Nasa and ESA scientists are rethinking future exploration missions to Mars already. I see drilling in our future...

I see drilling in our future...

The locals are just going to roll over and play dead?

Of course they are, while their alien microbes invade our planet and finish us off. Then they'll get up and laugh.

The locals are just going to roll over and play dead?

Well, if it's anything like Iraq, not only will they roll over, they'll actually be dead...

"A key question is 'How did the ice get there in the first place?'" said James Head of Brown University.

methinks we are in trouble thinking like dat. I thought QPhysics taught us to keep an open mind including gays are not evil.

Maybe what is there is what was left after they moved the rest of it here and we are them.

When did Nasa/Esa find out that there is water, before 2003? "We might have to do what explorers have done for ages: live off the land," says chemical engineer Ken Debelak of Vanderbilt University. He's working on a NASA project to make it happen. The key, he says, lies in the Martian atmosphere.

Beauty,

Now that's thinking outside the box...

I like to think that if there is a vastly more intelligent life form than us elsewhere in the universe, it will also be vastly more compassionate and loving.  Therefore, it will seek to the extent feasible to be very "humane" toward lower life forms such as ours.

I agree with you that we Homo sapiens fight and argue excessively amongst ourselves and do much harm to our enviroment out of greed and selfishness.  Until we learn to take better care of ourselves and our planet, I think we need to limit our exploration beyond our planet. 

While I can wait as we really don't want someone to take us out. I agree with your other sentiments.

Its hard to be "embarressed" when there is no evidence of someone looking and judging. Until we actualy find an alien, I think that we can safely ignore them.

Jameseg, any alien species we run across will be emotionally and cognitively alien as well. It sounds like you have a bad case of projecting your personal ideals onto a hypothetical species that may never have heard of them, and would never understand.

Jsweck,

You make a good point.  I would "like to think that" compassion and love will be universal among extremely intelligent alien life forms, but I certainly can't state it as a fact.  And, even if they are compassionate and loving, their concepts of the terms might vary from ours.

Of course they might be so far advanced beyond us that they would not recognize us as intelligent life or would pay little attention to us.  I try to avoid crushing ants on the sidewalk, but probably unintentionally kill one occasionally.

Our best hope might be that any intelligent alien life we encounter is so far advanced that it has much experience in encountering a wide variety of life forms under various conditions in the universe, and is committed to aiding in their preservation and development.  This would also imply their ability to communicate and empathize in various ways with other life forms, including us.  

What happens if aliens find us and we are collected and processed for a museum collection?

Ever watch any of the Predator movies?

Jameseg - I used to think that aliens who were more advanced would also be wiser and kinder. But the best discussion I have heard about possible advanced alien civilizations was not encouraging. There was agreement that the skills involved in using tools, developing math and leaving your home planet are also the skills needed to climb to the top of the food chain. That means that only predators would take this fork in the evolutionary path.

Maybe we should go back to smoke signals, mirrors and runners to communicate. Don't broadcast the location of your home planet! Then again, artificial intelligence will probably take over before we confront an alien predator species, no?

klaatu,

You make a good point about the advancement of civilization.  However, it is becoming accepted that the healthiest diet for humans is a well-balanced, nutritious, low fat, low processed sugar, vegetarian or vegan diet.  Perhaps as humans advance further we will all become vegans, and encourage lower life forms to as well.  Many species already live without meat or dairy products.

You may be right, but for now at least I'll stick to the hope that advanced life forms will be compassionate and loving to the extent possible toward lower life forms.  I've been on a vegan diet for a few years -- I hope that's a step up the food chain! 

Most likely an alien organism would be chemically inert with respect to us, so it won't have any direct biological effect, but lets say for the sake of argument that it had aesthetic value of some sort. First we need a ton of research so we can answer basic questions about it, and form a policy towards the species.

First we need a ton of research so we can answer basic questions about it, and form a policy towards the species.

I have to disagree with that statement all I would want to know is if we can't mate with the aliens can we cook them are they good on the barb, or better stewed?

3sheets, part of the meaning of being "chemically inert" means you can't digest them. You could attempt mating if you don't mind losing your unit.

Me bad. :-)

I have seen way too many Star Trek's and Futurama's in my life.

Kirk never lost his unit.

Andy, Kirk has his personality switched out by Dr. Lester in Turnabout Intruder, thereby losing his manhood on the last show of the original series. After that, in the movies, his vapid behavior indicates a bad case of untreated rigilian fever.

You need carbon based life forms to decompose before you can get oil. If they existed it might be there. GM, Ford and Chrysler would be there so fast to get the jump on the SUV market.

LOL, yea and they will say they own that planet too....

I just wish our scientists would focus more on our planet, and figure out, or put in place new ways to manufacture products without hurting our BEAUTIFUL PLANET EARTH!

I think going GREEN is good, then we all should do it. Save our species!!!!

I thought Al Gore discovered Mars for the Democrats back in the 20th century.

Or was that McCain for the Rep's?

^^

It might have been W, or was that the moon ?

yes, all you have to do is get everyone to agree to be nice to everyone.

It's not impossible!  As a child in the 1960s I remember jokes about little green men on Mars.  Scientists dismissed the talk of life on Mars because they "knew" there was no water on Mars, and they "knew" life required water.  Maybe the old "myth" had a little piece of truth in it!

Of course, if the Martians were advanced enough to migrate here, I would hope they'd be more advanced than any life apparently known currently on Earth.  Maybe they migrated on to "greener pastures" on another planet after a brief stay here.