Martian Blob?

OK kids, how many bad sci-fi movies feature a "strangely cohesive" "mysterious substance" featuring "alien textures" that baffle the mission scientist, who calls the stuff "bizarre" and declares, "It looks like mud, but it can't be mud."

[Rips off glasses, slams hand on desk.]

All that's missing is a renegade robot.

Comments

[thoreau]

Nevada looks a lot like Mars. I have to conclude that the probe landed in the wet spot left behind after a martian hooker finished up with a customer.

Maybe NASA can recoup the costs of the mission at a martian casino. All we have to do is lend the rover $50,000 and he promises to have the money back to us by next Friday. Really! Please, Mr. Gambino, don't do this! I'll get you your money...

[Trey]

"Said probe would first have to enter the blob and briefly register "incredibly (sic) energy levels"..."

Isn't that the same result the Martians get when they probe all those drunken fishermen "down south"? I'm glad we're the ones finally probing back!

Take that, Strangely Cohesive Alien Scum!

[anarchitect]

Good catch, twistedmerkin! From the link, another Saddam-related conspiracy point to ponder:

"These are the highest resolution pictures of Mars ever obtained. . . . My reaction has been one of shock and awe."

[Warren]

I think Martian exploration is way cool too. But it's also completely unethical. We've wasted billions and billions on Mars already. It just isn't something the government should be taking food from the mouths of babes to do.

[Rick Barton]

Tom from Texas,
Slow down. The "face" has already been shown to be a mesa.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast24may_1.htm

Now; if you tell us that you got your speeding ticket in Mesa, Az....Well; that would be just a too spooky congregation of events!

[Dan Riendeau]

C'mon Jeff give the poor geeks at NASA a break. You try and make those teeth-achingly boring pictures interesting.

[J. Alexander Lowman]

I don't know about how boring it is that we're on Mars with great photos like that. Brought tears to my eyes. Of course, I also think that they're going to be surprised by a lot of things they find there, but it's still exciting to me.

[joe]

Boring? It's another planet. And we're there! I know it's just dirt and rocks, but I got all keyed up looking at the images.

[Sandy]

Jeff, you missed the "ungodly complicated" quote from the Stardust mission below. Perhaps that topography is more interesting to you?

[Rick Barton]

Does Spirit contain a probe that it could insert into the blob and analyze the moisture content?

[Carl Sagan]

obviously the spacecraft hit and squashed a martian when it landed. That stuff is the body fluids, etc. of the unfortunate creature leaked out onto the planet's surface combined with martian soil.

[JAT]

Said probe would first have to enter the blob and briefly register "incredibly energy levels" before going completely dark. Only to suddenly reappear when and where no one expected it to be, in perfect working order, better than perfect even.

The probe is then taken back aboard the rover, over the objections of scientists who warn "these are forces we don't understand."

Cue renegade robot bit.....

[twistedmerkin]

One look at the "stangely cohesive" mud and the much too uniform rock and sand arrangement and I realized that we've finally found where Saddam was hiding the weapons of mass destruction.

[Todd Fletcher]

Given the resemblance of the pictures to Saudi Arabia, maybe it's oil!

[Rick Barton]

Wouldn't it be cool if we didn't have to spend so much time fighting the government's efforts to steal our liberty and destroy our prosperity so we could spend more time with science and sci-fi?

[joe]

Wouldn't it be cool if we didn't sent incredibly talented human beings on pointless suicide missions, and had more missions like this?

[Tom from Texas]

These pictures look suspiciously like the ones the first lander sent back in 1976, only jazzed a bit by modern pixel technology. Capricorn One, anyone?

[Tom from Texas]

If we're going to spend millions to send a camera to Mars, couldn't we have had it land near that big face thingy? Why pick some place that looks like that spot in Arizona where I got a speeding ticket in 2001?

[R. C. Dean]

joe - what "pointless suicide missions" are you talking (well, typing) about?

[joe]

RC, the Space Shuttle missions.

[Rick Barton]

Warren,
You're right the government space program is completely unethical. It isn't something the government should be taking food from any of our mouths for.(taxes) But it's still fun (interesting) to watch.

[AJMB]

Who is the artist at the robot renegade link? That comic looks like something from Marvel Comics in the seventies, but that can't be right. Kirby? J.Buscema? Anyone?

[joe]

One thing's for certain: if the soil is "strangely cohesive," then it is NOT Democratic soil.

[Rick Barton]

LOL joe!

[bob]

your a dick

[bob]

this website is the shittest shit ive ever seen on the net...