They're an old, long-lived race. Although Earth's primordial ooze was originally formed from bacteria-laden Martian ejecta, which gave rise to all non-red blood cell animals, and sporing plants, all red-blood cell animals and seeding plants were Martian products designed to introduce biological fauna and flora compatible with the Martians' biology. Because all came original Martian life, many of the original life forms, such as mullosk, proved compatible with Martian biology.

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If I set the budget, we'd have Ares and more. Unfortunately, I don't set the budget, and Ares is just too expensive and too far out for us to accomplish our goals within the budget we were given.

If we halt the ISS, all versions of Ares, and transport Orion and Altair aboard DIRECTv3's Jupiter family of Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicles, we just might make it back to the Moon by 2020.