by Baxter Black

“Water discovered on Mars!” That headline stopped me in my tracks! Maybe there’s hope for Colorado!

Colorado’s burgeoning population has those responsible scouring the state for water to supply the unquenchable suburban growth along the front range of the Rockies that stretches for 200 miles. Other, primarily southwestern metropoli from L.A. to El Paso, are trying to secure a water supply to accommodate their next 25 years of population explosion.

But actually locating, seeing and proving that Mars has water beneath its surface is electrifying to me. The accomplishment and findings of this feat rank with putting a man on the moon, the taming of the jalapeño, and the invention of insecticides.
Four million miles away on a red planet, just a bright dot in the night sky, we landed a toy shovel with a stove and a wireless cell phone with a camera. The picture showed a scrape of the bucket in the Martian dirt with two distinct wet spots in the track. Not a doubt.

It’s like making a connection that, heretofore, had just been a blurb in the imagination of the human mind. Science fiction writers’ plots. Scientists’ puzzles. Romantics’ hopes. Star gazers’ dreams. It touches a deep spot inside of us. I concede not everyone is as impressed as I when the University of Arizona proved their theory that H2O existed on Mars. It didn’t even make the front page of many newspapers. There was a ho-hum reaction on television news that treated celebrity baby births, campaign promises, and political corruption as higher priorities.

But finding water on Mars is a watershed in the progress of mankind’s earthly knowledge of the universe. Suddenly Mars is no longer a barren giant rock circling the sun. It is no longer lifeless. It is not as hostile. H2O exists under its surface and with it, oxygen. Basic essentials for life, as Coloradoans can tell you. They are protective of their beautiful canyons and streams and mountains. They have for years voted down attempts to capture more water from the Front Range runoffs. But … now days, the “environmentalists” are being washed away by the reality of demand.
Developers steal water

In Colorado, developers, California immigrants, and politicians have spent decades plotting ways to beg, buy, borrow, or steal water from the agricultural communities. Now they have the numbers. Major water projects are in the permitting process or under construction to expand reservoirs, build new ones, build new dams, and install massive new pipelines from distant sources. There is an urgency.

Maybe by the time Denver, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Phoenix have drained every drop of water from the washrag of neighboring counties, we will be shooting H2O molecules on laser beams from deep wells on Mars and using them to flush toilets and water golf courses in Scottsdale and Aurora!

Hey, anything can happen. You wouldn’t believe it! We just found water on Mars!

Baxter Black (AZ)