Hailing Mars rover landing, Obama tells NASA if Curiosity finds Martians, ‘Please let me know’ [View all]
Source: Washington Post
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — Hailing NASA’s “mind-boggling” Mars landing of the Curiosity rover, President Barack Obama urged the scientists operating the craft on Monday to phone home immediately if they find any extra-terrestrials.
“If in fact you do make contact with Martians, please let me know right away,” Obama told controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadenia, Calif. “I’ve got a lot of other things on my plate, but I suspect that that will go to the top of the list. Even if they’re just microbes, it will be pretty exciting.”
Obama spoke by phone from Air Force One as he flew to a campaign stop in Iowa eight days after the car-sized rover landed on the Martian surface. The touchdown followed a complex series of maneuvers involving intricately timed rocket firings, a huge parachute and cables lowering the craft to the Mars surface.
The two-year, $2.5 billion Curiosity mission includes looking for environmental conditions that might have given rise to life. However, as high-tech as it is, the nuclear-powered rover doesn’t have the tools needed to detect living or fossil microorganisms. Instead, the rover will hunt for life’s chemical building blocks.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/obama-cheers-mind-boggling-curiosity-mission/2012/08/13/942ac2cc-e55c-11e1-9739-eef99c5fb285_story.html
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