Mars gets a particular boost just now due to the sensational landing of Schiaparelli from the ESA space program today. (Ithaka: ExoMars Landing with Schiaparelli (live video from ESA))
There's always a search for water on Mars but maybe you wonder where its water went and this report will inform you, albeit with more detail than you may have ever really needed. (Science Daily: Ups and downs of water escape from Mars)
The accomplishments on Mars are likely trivial to many but, here at the Rockhouse, we marvel at the ability of humans to do amazing things when such things don't involve blowing up other humans. Push out Mars as a future battle zone if you wish since Mars was the God of War, maybe still is, but that's sci fi Ray Bradbury wrote fifty or sixty years ago and it's unlikely anyone will ever do it better. (WIKI: Mars (mythology))
Meet Mars and I suspect, if there's a war, you're going to want him on your side, with or without water.
The best sci fi about planetary water, assuming there is any such example beyond this one, is the saga of "Dune" which has expanded to more books than most can track but take some solace in the knowledge it's still not reached the extraordinary level of Anne McAffrey. The books are remarkable about the telepathic dragonriders of Pern but there are sooooo many of them. (WIKI: Dragonriders of Pern)
McAffrey is gone now but her son continues the saga as also happens with "Dune" and to a similar effect. There's no need for a literary judgement as I encourage you to read at least the early novels from both authors since there is such boundless imagination from each of them. (WIKI: Dune (novel))
(Ed: you're sounding a lot like you teach Freshman English!)
Sometimes it can't be helped and only a fool would try to compete with "Dune" even if only for the way it deals with lack of water. Pushing into some sci fi extension from a science article is valid for when some vision of exceptional strangeness comes but that mustn't be an obligatory thing or it will become less interesting.
(Ed: oh, sure, that was an improvement!)
Well, toddle off and read the poem which features 'pee stains on my underwear' and tell me what it means. That poem truly exists and I'm so truly not going to look for it since that's when we know we have reached the nadir in the undergraduate program and it would be a whole lot better to go all science.
Pee stains on your underwear? Dude, did it occur to you to wash your clothes sometimes?
(Ed: did you get anything else from Freshman English?)
Nope. Hence the science articles which, happily, rarely feature underwear.
There's always a search for water on Mars but maybe you wonder where its water went and this report will inform you, albeit with more detail than you may have ever really needed. (Science Daily: Ups and downs of water escape from Mars)
The accomplishments on Mars are likely trivial to many but, here at the Rockhouse, we marvel at the ability of humans to do amazing things when such things don't involve blowing up other humans. Push out Mars as a future battle zone if you wish since Mars was the God of War, maybe still is, but that's sci fi Ray Bradbury wrote fifty or sixty years ago and it's unlikely anyone will ever do it better. (WIKI: Mars (mythology))
Meet Mars and I suspect, if there's a war, you're going to want him on your side, with or without water.
The best sci fi about planetary water, assuming there is any such example beyond this one, is the saga of "Dune" which has expanded to more books than most can track but take some solace in the knowledge it's still not reached the extraordinary level of Anne McAffrey. The books are remarkable about the telepathic dragonriders of Pern but there are sooooo many of them. (WIKI: Dragonriders of Pern)
McAffrey is gone now but her son continues the saga as also happens with "Dune" and to a similar effect. There's no need for a literary judgement as I encourage you to read at least the early novels from both authors since there is such boundless imagination from each of them. (WIKI: Dune (novel))
(Ed: you're sounding a lot like you teach Freshman English!)
Sometimes it can't be helped and only a fool would try to compete with "Dune" even if only for the way it deals with lack of water. Pushing into some sci fi extension from a science article is valid for when some vision of exceptional strangeness comes but that mustn't be an obligatory thing or it will become less interesting.
(Ed: oh, sure, that was an improvement!)
Well, toddle off and read the poem which features 'pee stains on my underwear' and tell me what it means. That poem truly exists and I'm so truly not going to look for it since that's when we know we have reached the nadir in the undergraduate program and it would be a whole lot better to go all science.
Pee stains on your underwear? Dude, did it occur to you to wash your clothes sometimes?
(Ed: did you get anything else from Freshman English?)
Nope. Hence the science articles which, happily, rarely feature underwear.
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