Grand Valley State University students will travel to Houston to work with NASA in a zero-gravity environment on a tool being designed for a mission to Mars.
Just read that headline again. This is an actual thing. We have a rover on the red planet, and it has sent back pretty good evidence that there is water flowing on Mars. This is very exciting news, and also something we can't actually prove, since we could just send the rover over to check it out.
But guess what...we can't.
Wait, what? About two years ago, the Mars One project began soliciting candidates to go on a one-way trip to Mars to help prepare the planet for colonization by Earth. There will be 24 selected to head to Mars and begin the process of making the red planet ready for the rest of us to move house.
And die, I guess, since there's no return trip even in the planning for this.
Well...sort of.
The Curiosity Rover on Mars has detected what's been called a "whiff of methane" on Mars. Cue the laughter. Do you think it's a Martian cow, or a six-year-old, who's still giggling about farting on the alien RC Car roaming around the planet?
Have you ever wanted to live on Mars?
Well, 1,058 people are finalists in a worldwide contest for the chance to live on Mars.
The project for a permament human settlement on Mars is organized by the Dutch non-profit Mars One. The effort is backed by several aerospace companies, including SpaceX and Lockheed Martin.