<Plain fact is that the kids have seen Mars four times now, once through Mariner, twice through Viking, and once through Pathfinder. If Mars Polar Lander had of worked they would have seen it five times, and what they would have seen would have been the same thing, with variations...

might they have been board with it?

Part of my solution to this would be video games - fly over Mars, the Moon, Io, or anyplace else on your Playstation 2.

it don't work that way, kids need something to shoot at. hand them a plasma cannon and make some green men inhabit the place that would be it. . .

But the better idea woudl be for NASA to target MAXIS, and convince them to produce SIM Mars, or SIM colony. . . let someone start a colony on the moon, mars, the ocean, europas' ocean. . whatever. Very edicational. . . I remember wasting days of my life playing Sim city, Sim ant. Both games very educationand addictive. spawned a long line like sim earth, sim farm ya dda yadda. . .

-Justin Kelly