Post B2DAFKtfLbpEMYekwS by Nonilex@masto.ai
(DIR) More posts by Nonilex@masto.ai
(DIR) Post #B2DA2amayMlVrrGxF2 by Nonilex@masto.ai
2026-01-12T14:20:58Z
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#GiftArticleA rock in a rover on #Mars could prove the existence of life on other planets. #Trump wants to abandon it.On Mars, in the belly of a rover named #Perseverance, a titanium tube holds a stone more precious than any diamond or ruby on Earth. The robot spotted it in 2024 along the banks of a Martian riverbed & zapped it with an ultraviolet laser.#science #space #NASA #JPL #discovery #knowledge #idiocracy https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/02/trump-nasa-budget-american-space-program/685332/?gift=guxsrl_dAdXUP9zqbQPWxXpGZyoCujPSVvS4n6kP3FU
(DIR) Post #B2DA8VBkgWMKFrrDGa by Nonilex@masto.ai
2026-01-12T14:22:03Z
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It contained ancient layers of mud, compressed into shale in the 3.5 billion years since the river last coursed across the red planet. Inside those layers, the rover found organic compounds. Its camera zoomed in & noticed leopard-like spots. Scientists had previously observed similar spotting patterns, but not on #Mars. They’d seen them on #Earth, in muds that once teemed with microbes.#science #space #NASA #JPL #discovery #knowledge #Trump #idiocracy
(DIR) Post #B2DAFKtfLbpEMYekwS by Nonilex@masto.ai
2026-01-12T14:23:16Z
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The rover tucked a core sample about the size of a piece of chalk into a treasure chest in its chassis. There the rock will remain until a future robot parachutes down onto the Martian surface, grabs the chest, & launches it back to Earth. If scientists are able to inspect it in person, & they find that #Mars was indeed once alive with microbes, we would know that life on our planet is no cosmic one-off.#science #space #NASA #JPL #discovery #knowledge #Trump #idiocracy
(DIR) Post #B2DALoXw1ZIu3Za4si by Nonilex@masto.ai
2026-01-12T14:24:28Z
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We would have reason to believe that it has emerged on many of the hundreds of billions of planets that exist in our galaxy alone.…#Perseverance is among the latest in a lineage of interplanetary robotic #explorers that #NASA has built across almost 60 years, for about $60 billion. That’s less than what Zuckerberg spent on his struggling metaverse.#science #space #NASA #JPL #discovery #knowledge #Trump #idiocracy
(DIR) Post #B2DAOP4PCWLXuc0Ghs by Nonilex@masto.ai
2026-01-12T14:24:55Z
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At #NASA, it paid for hundreds of spacecraft that have flown past all of the solar system’s planets, dropped into orbit around most of them, & decelerated from flight speed to reach the surface of a few. These missions have disclosed the scientific qualities of other worlds, as well as the look & feel of them, to all humanity, & for posterity too.#science #space #NASA #JPL #discovery #knowledge #Trump #idiocracy
(DIR) Post #B2DATIxVLlSSPF739k by Nonilex@masto.ai
2026-01-12T14:25:48Z
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Most of these missions, including 9 of the 11 that have landed on #Mars, were run out of #NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, near Pasadena, California. The mission to retrieve the chest inside Perseverance was, until recently, the largest, most important project at #JPL. About 1,000 people there were working on it. But it’s no longer moving forward, and may never happen.#science #space #discovery #knowledge #Trump #idiocracy
(DIR) Post #B2DAW0tOyZzzFAU95M by Nonilex@masto.ai
2026-01-12T14:26:18Z
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Last spring, #Trump bluntly expressed his vision for science at #NASA in his first budget request. Along with extensive layoffs, he called for 40 of the agency’s 124 science missions, including #Mars Sample Return, to be #defunded, & for the surviving missions to make do with less. Among NASA scientists, the request was demoralizing; within months, its major #science centers lost thousands of staffers to buyouts & cutbacks.#science #space #JPL #discovery #knowledge #idiocracy
(DIR) Post #B2DApQhfEk0OnQFlwm by clwhitt@mastodon.world
2026-01-12T14:29:46Z
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@Nonilex To be fair, talk of canceling the Sample Return Mission began well before Trump took office.
(DIR) Post #B2DAr3BvcldGSFBM0G by Uair@autistics.life
2026-01-12T14:30:03Z
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@Nonilex Are you a working scientist?It turns out that, like, half my pocket friends are actual scientists. Which I respect tremendously, of course. Me, I'm verbal. But I can keep up.This is me:https://poloniousmonk.substack.com/p/i-try-to-make-positivity-out-of-anything
(DIR) Post #B2DBnHvoyjLCxyPyjI by numodular@c.im
2026-01-12T14:40:20Z
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@Nonilex A narcissist is one of the worst mindsets to have in one of history's most powerful, singular positions - especially within the further confines of aging, when the human range naturally compresses.Childish states arise and are projected more frequently. And in the case of jealousy of Putin as the most memorable dictator of recent history, it takes a LOT of abuses to rise to the 'top'.
(DIR) Post #B2DBv6KM0UY7IDcPAG by Eetschrijver@mastodon.social
2026-01-12T14:41:58Z
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@Nonilex So incredibly sad.
(DIR) Post #B2DC7P0uMDM6irO9Hk by TopKnot@mas.to
2026-01-12T14:44:09Z
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@Nonilex I had no idea there were plans to retrieve Mars rocks and fetch them to our home planet. It's very unfortunate that this mission has been canceled. I feel science slowly draining away from the Western Hemisphere.The only thing to fear is fear of people who lead (control) a country that have a fear of science AND believe science isn't worthwhile. The USA is proving exactly that, I suppose. May sanity return to the United States of America.
(DIR) Post #B2DEpyYFn0pXaiMqiu by EndicottAuthor@mastodon.social
2026-01-12T15:14:41Z
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@Nonilex The existence of life on other planets would distract Americans from their Dear Leader.
(DIR) Post #B2DHfhQ8vUxdQZMiBc by Leafy_Greens@mastodon.social
2026-01-12T15:46:26Z
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@Nonilex I was so excited when I first heard NASA were going to attempt to bring back these rocks. We could learn some truly mind-blowing things about our cosmos.Sigh...
(DIR) Post #B2DIgDUPnLQgqFAqy8 by Louis_c_Harrington@mastodon.social
2026-01-12T15:57:45Z
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@Nonilex Trump wants to abandon so many things.I wish he would abandon metabolism.
(DIR) Post #B2DIoaWU2cSsax8KkS by nada_bio_entity2@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-12T15:59:13Z
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@Nonilex we are just going to have to wait until Elon gets to mars and sends it back. /s