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20100113

Monkey Business

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Russia's Cosmonautics Academy is considering sending a monkey to the Red Planet.

Estimates for the length of the journey to Mars vary depending on the type of mission envisioned.



The European Space Agency says its proposal for a round-trip mission would take 520 days, or about a year and a half.



The Institute said robots would accompany the first primate to Mars to feed the monkey.



And look to his needs...




I know what you think. But the mission calls specifically for a "monkey."

I looked it up: there are 264 known extant monkey species - represented in two of the three groupings of simian primates (the third group being the 21 species of apes) . . .



. . . orangutans need not apply.


1 comment:

  1. You have a salacious mind.

    Worse, though, why should monkeys have all the fun? Would they know how to party once reaching Mars? Could they take in the aesthetic sights, pause, and marvel at the works of God? Hardly.

    Such a trip, and at that expense, would be wasted on them. And would such a monkey even remember to send us a postcard?

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