Cause just water - and the public ain't gonna care if it's a substantial
discovery cause the MER team already announced an earlier water find
just months after Oppy landed - won't be enough to sustain the minds
of a fickle and scientifically uneducated public.

And for those of you think the views of the unwashed masses don't
matter, then think real fast who foots the bill for NASA and federal
science in general.

In lieu of doing a Martian version of the Piltdown Man, perhaps NASA
and others should focus on making the public more scientifically literate,
or at least do missions that grab the imagination. I have heard from too
many people who don't even know the rovers are still up there driving
around, let alone what they are looking for. Aliens, they think.

Really neat geological formations and ancient water signs - oh yeah,
that'll get the public all fired up.

Better get those private space companies moving. They can do all
that drudge work in the name of science and expanding human knowledge
and they won't have to answer to anybody but the shareholders.

Then of course the public will become even more ignorant of science
and made even easier to be led around by the nose of the theocracies
to come.