Mars Orbiter Receives Message from Surface
The Mars Odyssey spacecraft recently detected a message on the Martian surface directed at humans. The message was in the form of a picture and was spotted by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) developed by Arizona State University for the Mars Odyssey.
“It’s pretty obvious that we’re seeing a peace sign,” said THEMIS lead investigator Dr. Philip Christensen. “It’s a message to Earth, specifically U.S. President George W. Bush.”
Peace Sign On Mars
“The image is crudely and incompletely drawn,” said Dr. Christensen. “That indicates that the Martian inhabitants wanted to get their message out quickly. The science team believes that the Martians are saying that they are not a threat to the United States and have no weapons of mass destruction, or indeed, weapons of any kind. We also believe that they welcome American exploration of their planet as they have not interfered with the rovers currently on the planet or with the orbiters studying Mars from above.”
The drawing first appeared after President Bush announced his Manned Mars Mission plans. Martian fears of an unprovoked invasion, similar to the attack on Iraq seem to be well founded.
“The benefits to the United States and to the world of human exploration of the cosmos is obvious to any rational, educated person,” said Dr. Lorenzo Rolfe of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “There are problems with food production, resource re-use, health issues, and so on that, when solved for the manned missions will yield spin-off technology that will solve problems of pollution, water reclamation, food production, disease, etc. here on Earth. The economic benefits are also obvious, since every dollar spent on space exploration generates seven dollars for the economy.
“I just hope that President Bush and his successors plan the peaceful exploration of the universe and not the military invasion of a sovereign planet,” said Dr. Rolfe. “We are being presented with the opportunity to make new friends on Mars. Let’s make the most of that opportunity.”
The White House has not responded to the Martian call for peace.
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