Quick link to the Mars program mission site!
Scary thing, watching with my wife and daughters, was that these people (mission manager, program people etc) are my age (or younger!). Absolutely fantastic.
I would love to be there on that team today! Four years ago - would have been really painful, but it makes today all the sweeter! Can you imagine what will happen if they actually find life? I would think abundant (yes a relative term) reserves of water (BTW most 90+% of Earth's water is locked up in ice!) in the polar ice caps, and any kind of microbe or... dare I say... fossilized creature...
I can imagine a push for a manned mission to Mars!
Then, what about the religio-philisophical implications of actually finding that we are not the only place in the universe. Oh, it might feel commonplace enough for all of us blogger types who grew up watching trek and playing with technology, but for most of the population of the earth, this will rattle some foundations.
I read a rather interesting bit in Bill Bryson's "Short History of Everything" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0767908171/qid=1073252937//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i0_xgl14/103-3070646-8559848?v=glance&;s=books&n=507846) that described the history of life on earth as being as wide as the span of your arms, and that by taking a nail file and making one swipe at your fingernail, you would eliminate the entire history of homo sapiens... Now with some people believing that the earth was Created a few thousand years ago, life on Mars would be pretty cool and quite a shock!
God, I hope it happens - a few more minds need to be blown into the 21st century!
4:57:38 PM 
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