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October 6, 2008 Patterson, CA

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My search for Martians

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Written by Elizabette Guecamburu - Hometown Girl
Saturday, 05 July 2008
I love spacey things. To clarify, I don’t mean spacey people — especially the fellow who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Rather, I mean literally spacey things, like planets, galaxies and the kinds of stars you don’t find in Hollywood or rehab. Elizabette Gueamburu / Hometown Girl When I was 9, I loved space so much that I wanted to be a NASA shuttle commander. Not a pilot or an engineer, mind you, but a commander — the person who gets to tell everyone else what to do. That appealed to my nature, as did the chance to have people call me “Captain.” As I grew, the dream of becoming an astronaut faded and was replaced by other assorted occupations: teacher, lawyer, microbiologist. The microbiologist dream was doomed to fail, given that I’m a horrendous hypochondriac. It isn’t a good idea to be a microbiologist when you fear Ebola might be lurking at every corner. Despite the dreams that have come and gone, my curiosity hasn’t wavered, especially when it comes to space. I’ve been watching the latest NASA endeavor, the Phoenix lander program, with keen interest. By some feat of engineering far beyond my meager understanding, NASA has managed to hurl a $420 million machine 422 million miles into space to land safely on the Martian surface. For those who think $420 million dollars to be too much to spend on such an apparatus, I’ve figured a bit of a cost comparison. The average U.S. vehicle on the road makes 17 miles to the gallon, while the price per gallon of gasoline is fast approaching $5. If someone had to drive all the way to Mars, it would cost about $125 million just for the gasoline. So, $420 million for the Phoenix program doesn’t seem so pricey now, does it? Illusions of little green men far behind us, the purpose of the Phoenix mission is to look for water on Mars’ rusty landscape, which might point to the possibility that Mars could have sustained microbial life. While the idea of microbial life alarms my germ-phobic sentiments, in the name of science I’m certain I could bypass my fear, as long as I have a pint of sanitizing hand gel ready. Having confirmed the presence of ice on the Red Planet, the little Phoenix is now digging into the Martian soil like a galactic prospector, looking to strike it rich — which, for the rover, means finding samples to test on its on-board laboratory to see if the orb was once habitable. Only time will tell what the mission will uncover. Maybe it will find the little green men, after all. And who wouldn’t pay $420 million dollars to see that? Elizabette Guecamburu is a writer and native Patterson resident. She accepts e-mails at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Set as favorite Bookmark Email This Hits: 256 Comments (1) Subscribe to this comment's feed Lay... written by Truth Hurts , July 08, 2008 Lay off the drugs. report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -2 Write comment Name Email Title Comment smaller \| bigger Subscribe via email (Registered users only) I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.