The House science committee quickly concerned itself with more pressing matters than NASA’s budget on Thursday, asking the space agency’s director if it were true ancient pints of Guinness were found on Mars, and if leprechauns were actually aliens?
“I understand that the Mars Rover has picked up these pictures that have been identified as various elements of a former civilization,” said Rep. Dana Rohrbacher, R-Calif., during a hearing on NASA’s fiscal 2017 budget request. “And I do understand that they have found an ancient bottle of Guinness on Mars, is that correct?”
Of course, this was Rohrbacher’s idea of a St. Patrick’s Day joke to lighten up the budget process. But he didn’t stop there.
“And could it be that leprechauns were ancient aliens?” the California congressman quipped.
NASA Adminsitrator Charles Bolden played along. He smiled and said he would take both questions “for the record” and get back to him.
Rohrbacher, on a more serious note, said he wanted to work with NASA on a program to stop an asteroid colliding with the Earth and killing millions of people.
