micky:

If the helicopter on Mars goes up, does it go up in the
air? Is the stuff near the surface of Mars "air". Or is
"air" limited to earth.

Or have you just exhausted your daily allotment of question
marks?

I think `air' is a legitimate and in the long term unavoid-
able word for the substance of Martial (or Martian?) atmo-
sphere. Mars already has moons, and other worlds already
have their own suns. Storms have eyes, as rivers do mouths.
Boats have noses, saws have teeth, caves have lips, wheat
has ears. Economy of vocabulary by means of metaphorical
reuse of existng words is a major force behind the adapta-
tion of language to the ever-changing world.

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