‘X’ Marks a Curious Corner on Pluto’s Icy Plains
Okay, as expected, Pluto is a very cold rock. No surprise.<p>What the heck is NASA looking for out there, some evidence of trash left by ET, a big, black, rectangular parallelepiped with some strange audio and electronic signals pointing to Jupiter?  Don&#x27;t think they will find it.<p>We have to expect that in the universe, both near and far,  there are a lot of really cold rocks orbiting a lot of stars, &quot;billions and billions&quot;.  To get something &quot;curious&quot; on one of those will be really rare.<p>Want to see what one of the really rare ones looks like?  Okay, three guesses, the first two don&#x27;t count.  Hint:  Look at where you are standing.<p>IMHO, NASA needs to find some more important questions to ask.<p>Mars?  Okay, if there is good reason to go to Mars, then, first, do a lot in robotics:  Net, send robots that can build a colony, make rocket fuel from whatever is there on Mars, fuel a rocket, sent it back to earth successfully.  Iterate several times.  Build a bigger and bigger colony that is more and more capable.  The colony should be really good, and safe for humans -- food, water, heat, comforts, safety, etc., and a rock solid, highly reliable, very well tested way home.  Then test a lot more -- much, much more testing.<p>Then maybe send some humans.