Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2002 June 4 
Posted on 06/03/2002 9:42:54 PM PDT by petuniasevan
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2002 June 4
Explanation: Is it an Escher, or Mars? Three different types of surfaces visible in the North Polar Cap of Mars morph into each other in a way perhaps reminiscent of the works of M. C. Escher. On the far left dark sand covers the ground, while the center shows a transition to a dune field. On the far right a transition is made to a much lighter surface, likely containing a larger amount of ice. Shadows indicate that lighter material holds the higher ground, with some steep cliffs on the divide. Dune shapes indicate that wind typically blows toward the upper left. Mars Global Surveyor, one of two robot spacecraft currently orbiting Mars, took the above image in early 2001. Recent images from the other orbiter, Mars Odyssey, have bolstered the hypothesis that a significant amount of water-ice lies beneath the surface near the Martian South Pole.
This stuff doesn't even make the news anymore. But we know it's important.
The colonization of Mars is our aim. All hail Mars FReepia!
Get on the APOD PING list! 
THE BRICK
Why choose BRICK as a designator of rank? They always start at the bottom...
What do you get when you shoot a brick? TWO BRICKS
How far can you trust a brick? How far can you throw him?(actually we'll use railguns so he's going to be pretty damn reliable in vacuum;-D but I digress
A BRICK that fails to support his superiors tends to become pulverized...Weight has to be equally distributed in order to present our Colony's new enlightened democracy to the Terran world..To be a small numbered brick, you will stand under a lot of hard working people and if you like your bigger quarters and view of the Impact area across from Snow Bunny's Canteen, you better by God know everything about them and take care of them...If you are a foreign Mucky muck and come to our chambers on Mars, New Freepia's Cabinet will appear as an interlocking set of BRICKS...Trans. Impenetrable WALL!!! Wahhabi's(if you still exist when we break ground, no bet!)! Carefull where you walk lest that wall settle upon you with great suddenness...
What is a BRICK good for? Glad you asked! A brick is more concerned with its function than being recognized and coddled to...The most vital BRICK in a building is invisible or at least tough to spot...They don't draw attention to themselves...They go where they're needed and just start bearing up...Its fun to build great things...(I don't think we're going to have much use for reporters...They make very poor BRICKS...too self important)...A BRICK takes a responsible job because He is HANDY, and knows his weight limit...
BRICKS hold a civilization together...they prop doors open...squash spiders...They ventilate windows carrying reports of current events on the perimeter...They are our protection and give us a place to hang our hats and our art...someday Martian children will say...when I grow up I want to be First BRICK of MARS, and their parents will swell with pride because they know it will take hard work to accomplish that goal, but if their child succeeds it will be because they earned it...no special favors or back room deals...A First BRICK is at the BOTTOM because everybody knows they can depend on her or him! No amount of advertising or soft money can substitute for a BRICK under a LOAD BEARING WALL! I apologize for taking control of MARS but felt someone ought to make use of the space and so I'd like to further push my weight around and announce formally my first cabinet member who will have no specialty because he is so vital that it would just confuse New FReepians to limit their appreciation of all the things he does...He's just going to go where he's needed and dispense his wisdom...I imagine everybody knows by now who I'm talking about...
IMHO-APPTNF(As President Pro Tem of New Freepia) Psyops is the hardest working poster on Free Republic on the Mother planet and has created a resource of great quotes that all Martians(and wannabees on Earth...See Libertina for a Visa) can use that Psyops himself didn't know would help us when he built the library...Need I say it...Quintessential BRICK behavior...He's extremely handy and I see unlimited weightiness in his bearing|;-D
ENOUGH TALK Pres cut to the ceremony at Snow Bunny's Space CANTEEN
Sleaveless holds up a perfectly ordinary red brick made of Martian Dust vacuum welded in space and brought back to the Canteen for presentation
Step forward PSYOPS...(He Complies, Hey I got a friggin BRICK in my hand, okay? He's a smart boy!)
PSYOPS...DO YOU KNOW WHAT I HOLD IN MY HAND?(reverb way up on the PA for this) He replies...
Why Yes I do Sleaveless...IT IS A BRICK AND A DAMN FINE ONE...
That's what I thought you'd say, Psyops, IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE, YOU ARE FIRST BRICK OF MARS, THE DRINKS ARE ON YOU!!!
...TONKIN LIGHTS UP THE SKY WITH MANY FORMS OF ORDINANCE SOME PROTOTYPES Look up at the sky...its probably visible from Earth...Tonkin knows his SH!#
Tomorrow P7 You become First BEAM!!!Drink lots of water...alcohol is very dehydrating in a low gravity environment such as New Freepia...BR SS!
Freeperia? Freepery? Freepy? Freepland? New Freep?
Don't you think NFR is just a little bit too close to NPR? Better check with the lawyers.
BTW We have big plans...Some folks have agreed to be frozen and wait out the terraforming period until the Golf courses have been sodded...My courses will be big enough that you will be allowed a Military quality NFR AR-15 to improve your lie after the tshot...If you miss the ball three times we make fun of you...until you ply us with ethanol at the Canteen! If you want to work for NFR's interests on Terra, Interview with Libertina, She's our Earth Embassy Chief, in charge of immigration...You won't mind if she's slow and busy because she has her embassy on the beach in hawaii and will serve you lavish portions from our never ending Luau!!! I hope you like lemon zest on your roast pig! Its also a good test to identify Jihadi's-oh, you don't like the pork?? Try some or get the hell off sovereign NFR territory...Special Diet folks not to worry...We'll sort out the Death Cultists...Just feel sorry for the ones that succeed in making it to New FReepia...The IDF penal system will seem like a weekend at the MARRIOT compared to our storage and info retrieval facility for Suiciders...lets just say their wedding will be slow and creative and leave it at that...
Or do you have a book trying to get out?
All hail freepia...
BUT by All MEANS buy THE BRICK...THE QUINTESSENTIAL FIRST BRICK PSYOP a cup of coffee at the Canteen, if you want Vigilant!!! I've seen you around but for other visitors...be sure and visit his profile and marvel at how much work he has done to condense and organize the quotes of the greatest thinkers of our time!!! I misused his handle in my ceremonial presentation...We have got to get him to post to the APOD so everybody can click on his ID...You can visit My profile and I have almost every list that he made...IF you have not done Machiavelli which I had not Done until FREE REPUBLIC..(JIM ROB I am still working on the benediction for you...Our first starship will be called JIM...Just JIM...for you!) That's how I realized Pysop (singular) was such a great person...We're having the best time noodling about the colony...I'm going to try my best not to bug P7...The first BEAM...We'll be over at Snow bunny's Canteen if enough people start working on this...Wanna go to mars? BE a FREEPER BRICK...THats US!!!!
There was no disrespect intended to PPTFNR, just a feeble attempt at humor. I actually admire the imaginitive thought you put into your post.
As I am an ex-USN gunner's mate, like 68-69TonkinGulf yatchclub, I am a regular visitor to the canteen.
Thanks for the Machivelli and Art of war links from your profile page.
There was no disrespect intended to PPTFNR, just a feeble attempt at humor. I actually admire the imaginitive thought you put into your post.
As I am an ex-USN gunner's mate, like 68-69TonkinGulf yatchclub, I am a regular visitor to the canteen.
Thanks for the Machivelli and Art of war links from your profile page.
You're so polite...As was pointed out graciously to me by a vet...Patriots usually ARE polite...Because they are gratefull to live in the greatest Nation that has ever existed on this earth despite her imperfections...Let's brainstorm and fix them in our lifetimes so our Children don't HAVE to move to Mars to have Freedom and Prosperity, in Their Time...right here in the Blessed US of A...LONG MAY SHE RRROCK!!!!
I just don't buy the microbe in the meteorite announcements a few years back...I'd love it if it were true, and we were descended from life that evolved on MARS or somewhere else...I just find the chain of events that led to that meteor starting life on earth to be hard to believe.:-(
I'm basically a Buddhist, but I love the Universe and see elegance and miracles all the time...There is NO Greater miracle than the behavior of WATER...Its the universal solvent plus Every other liquid contracts when it turns from a liquid to a solid...Heck every Solid contracts as it Cools down!!! WATER EXPANDS at its Freezing point...And because it DOES expand...All these improbable Pro-Life benefits to complex life forms arise...The one I like best is that...As water in a lake changes from liquid to solid in Winter, each Crystal floats to the top because its displacement of liquid water outweighs its own mass in solid form(ICE)! It becomes a little BOAT!!! it floats to the surface and if enough little Ice Crystals form....They form an insulating SKIN on the LAKE and prevent the water underneath from Freezing!!! The fish are protected by their watery atmosphere from freezing solid all the way down to the lake bottom and dying!!!
Have fun on your own thinking about ole H2O...Somebody really put the FIX on for little wiggly things to someday look in the mirror and go...how the heck did THIS happen? :-) I want to go to MARS in person and have a little bucket and a toy shovel and dig till I find something that yells at me...Hey! Put that Sand Back!!! We're sleepin down here, AHOLE MONKEYBOY!!! Yep...Going to Mars!!!
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