[News] Water 'flowed recently' on Mars

[DeeperBlue.com]

From the BBC:


Nasa says it has found "compelling" evidence that liquid water flowed recently on the surface of Mars.

The finding adds further weight to the idea that Mars might harbour the right conditions for life.

...



This is an news discussion thread for discussing the following DeeperBlue.net News item: Click here for original DeeperBlue.net News Item

 

[Erik]

My next freediving destination! A few hundred years of terraforming and I'm in.

Erik

 

[jimdoe2you]

How many mils thick will your wetsuit be for diving in liquid carbon dioxide?

I recommend at least a 750mm (or 3/4M) Elios to keep warm (or alive) for the first ten minutes.

:t

 

[Erik]

LOL! And 500 kilo weight belt. And Laser-speargun.

Erik

 

[deep thinker]

rofl Martian hunting hahaha. Rever back to laser scopes for spearguns thread, a little bit more advanced but it seems weve allready got a concept to work from

 

[trux]

Few days ago NASA published a new surprising discovery - another firm proof of past presence of flowing water on Mars:
NASA - Mars Rover Spirit Unearths Surprise Evidence of Wetter Past

A no-longer functional wheel on the Spirit rover provided scientists with the best evidence yet that Mars once held water. Dragged along by the rover, the wheel unearthed a soil deposit composed of about 90% pure silica. ...

Another article about it: Wired Science - Wired Blogs

image credit © NASA​

 

[trux]

There are some new rather surprising discoveries about water on Mars. Well, the first one is already older - it tells that the southern polar ice cap contains enough water to cover the entire planet approximately 36 feet (11 meters) deep if melted, according to a new radar study. That alone is already a serious amount of water, but lately (published on 1 November 2007), ESA's Mars Express probe discovered possible massive deposits of water ice (up to 2.5 km thick) right near the equator - which is quite surprising and scientist have problems believing it - normally ice on Mars equator would quickly evaporate in Mars atmospheric conditions, so it must be covered by several meters of sediments and dust to be preserved.

So altogether, it seems there is enough water on Mars for a decent diving.

image credit © ESA - Mars Express
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[trux]

Space.com: Once-Habitable Lake Found on Mars

photo credit NASA/JPL/University of Arizona​

A lake that might once have been habitable may have filled a crater for a long time on early Mars, new spacecraft images reveal.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captured the images that suggest the debris-strewn Holden Crater once held a calm body of water that could have harbored life. There is so far no convincing evidence life does or ever did exist on Mars, however.

"Holden crater has some of the best-exposed lake deposits and ancient megabreccia known on Mars," said Alfred McEwen, principal scientist for MRO's HiRISE camera. "Both contain minerals that formed in the presence of water and mark potentially habitable environments. This would be an excellent place to send a rover or sample-return mission to make major advances in understanding if Mars supported life."

 

[trux]

The team running the two extremely successful Mars rovers faces budget cuts and may be forced to suspend at least one of them to save on costs:

SPACE.com -- Budget Cuts Could Shut Down Mars Rover

This sounds very sad, especially, because the cost effectiveness of this project is incredible - the rovers were planned to work 100 days, but are now in their fifth year of operation and still delivering very valuable data.

Even sadder is that only $4 millions are missing in the budget for this year - in comparison it is the cost of 16 minutes of the Iraq war! According to sources based on Congressional information, the war costs $341.4 million per day. According to other sources who include also other indirect costs, not officially accounted, the cost is around 600 millions per day. So it would make the missing budget equivalent to less than 10 minutes of war

 

[Madmox]

I say we just make the Astronauts at the ISS, go to to bare bones rations, just like in the old Oregon Trail Game from Apple computers. Save the 4 million that way.

 

[trux]

There are two new interesting articles at Space.com about water on Mars again. The first one is showing that relatively recently there probably were huge glaciers in repeated periods: SPACE.com -- Strange Scars on Mars Suggest Recent Glaciers

photo © NASA/JPL/MSSS

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The other one is about the found of remnants of possible hydrothermal springs: SPACE.com -- Mars Features Resemble Hydrothermal Springs

photo © NASA/MRO/HiRISE/C. Allen, D. Oehler
​

 

[trux]

The Phoenix Polar Mars Lander is another sond to visit Mars. It will dig into the polar ice, and research the history of ice/water, look for possible signs of past or present life, and collect other data.

It is scheduled to land later today - at 7:53 PM Pacific time. It is 8 hours and 35 minutes from the time I am writing this post. There will be live web TV coverage at NASA - NASA TV starting at 3:30 PM Pacific time

The main page of the Phoenix project with the count down and other info is here: NASA - Phoenix

​

 

[Pastor]

Photographs returned from todays landing of the newest Martian lander seem to provide the most convincing evidence that water did once flow on Mars

 

[fleshy]

Yehaa, what would hyeparis think if he saw that lol. If they were looking for volunteers to go and terraform I would do it. It would be completely wild after it got started. We couldn't bring every sort of organism that is required for life to be sustained, so it would be an evolutionary blank canvas. It would be very interesting.

 

[Pastor]

Si can take it rofl Besides he's in Portugal fishing with Marco this weekend so will be drunk as a skunk for at least another week! Plenty of time for this thread to sink a little rofl

 

[fleshy]

God that sounds nice. Oh well in a couple weeks Ill be in florida for three weeks so Ill get my kicks in then.

 

[trux]

OK, Phoenix has just succesfully touched down! Congratulations to all people working on the project. Looking forward for the first photos and data.

 

[trux]

Solar panels are deployed and all health checks are perfect. This is one of the first photos:

​

(unfortunately no details of the wrecks from Pastor's photo, but if you have good eyes, you can see some of them close to the horizon )

Note the rectangular or polygonal blocks - they are supposed to be blocks of ice covered by dust. I hope there is enough fish frozen in them for supplying the future human expedition

More photos at NASA - Phoenix

 

[trux]

You probably already heard that despite divers problems, the Phoenix Mars lander finally managed to prove the existence of water (ice) in Mars soil (better told in the 'regolith'). Well, there was already before sufficient evidence available for both present ice, and even past flowing water, but this was the first time water was touched and sensed. See for example here for more details: "We Have Water" on Mars, TEGA Test Confirms | Universe Today

However, now it looks like NASA may have some important information about the presence of life on Mars. Let's hope it won't stay behind the locks for too long time as it already happened in the past - for example in 1996 with the announcement regarding the “Mars rock” - [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALH84001"]ALH84001[/ame] - when AAAS/Science magazine tried to keep it all under embargo, or in 1976 at the Viking lander, where possible signs of life were precipitately blamed on contamination from Earth (SPACE.com -- Scientists Say Mars Viking Mission Found Life)

More details about the current expected announcement here: The White House is Briefed: Phoenix About to Announce "Potential For Life" on Mars | Universe Today
or here: LiveScience.com Blogs » Blog Archive » Phoenix on Mars Life - Message From MECA

 

[trux]

OK, so today NASA denied finding any signs of life, and in contrary reported discovering traces of perchlorate that is toxic and might mean an environment rahter hostile to life. On the other hand perchlorate is used in rocket fuel, so the measuring devices might have been contaminated (though they wrote they excluded this possibility).

More details here: Conflicting Results from Phoenix Science Instruments Prompts Further Study | Universe Today
SPACE.com -- NASA Scientist: Reports of Mars Life Finding Are 'Bogus'
SPACE.com -- New Data Suggest Mars Soil Not As Life-Friendly As Thought