How Much Oxygen is There in Mars’ Atmosphere?

Here’s what I think would be a really bold experiment that NASA could use to determine whether there’s enough oxygen on Mars.

  1. Build another Mars Rover. Call it Spirit II (cost: about $500 million, assuming the second one will be cheaper than the first one):

  2. Fill it up with cash, large bills.
  3. Send to Mars.
  4. Conduct experiment: see if cash will burn on the surface of Mars.

                    


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    ??

    If the money does not burn, then fire powerful missile at the cash.

  5. Repeat steps (1) through (4) as needed until need to waste money and unquenchable thirst for deficits are satiated.

AB

BTW, those are plus signs, though they could double as crosses, in which case they would represent the faith-based component of the Mars mission.

UPDATE: Dwight Meredith astutely observes that this proposal “bears an uncanny resemblance to the ethanol program here at home.”