White Patches Found in Mars Trench Are Ice, Scientists Say

[firstdown]

So we spent how many of billions to be the first country to find water on Mars? What are they going to do plant a tomato plant. So who thinks this is worth the money we spent to do this?

[jsarno]

Originally Posted by firstdown

So we spent how many of billions to be the first country to find water on Mars? What are they going to do plant a tomato plant. So who thinks this is worth the money we spent to do this?

While that may seem "dumb", keep in mind we (the human race) are trying our best to destroy our planet. Finding another suitable planet is something I see as fairly important to the survival of our kind in the distant future (maybe not so distant at our pace). We are clearly not making planet longevity decisions for the long term due to our complacency with the "now". So we may see NASA and NASA's excursions as frivolous, but I don't think it is.

[That Guy]

Originally Posted by firstdown

So we spent how many of billions to be the first country to find water on Mars? What are they going to do plant a tomato plant. So who thinks this is worth the money we spent to do this?

did you say that to the guy that invented calculus or the first computer? basic research leads to advanced research and then applied research.

current advances in mathematics probably won't be useful to most scientist for 20 years, but when they figure out they need an way to solve for X and that it's already available, everyone wins.

graphic user interfaces and the mouse were invented by xerox, who wrote it off as wasted money... oops.

you can't knock science just because it doesn't have an immediate impact on improving your life, because you just don't know what it'll lead to.