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Probes May Drill For Liquid Water On Mars
spike hay writes: "According to this article at Space.com, we may send a sample-return probe to Mars in 2005 that will drill a few hundred feet into the Martian surface to look for liquid water. Scientists believe that great quantities of briny water could exist under the surface permafrost, warmed by volcanism. Finding liquid water on Mars would help sustain future colonists, and it even may open up the possibility that life might still exist on Mars."
I'm pro-doing-anything-to-spur-pure-research. It doesn't really matter whether they are searching for intelligent life, microscopic life, or just seeing what the dirt looks like. NASA is one of the last government agencies doing the research and technological development that is keeping our future growth possible.
Besides, even if they do find intelligent life, how is that in itself going to be better than curing diseases? The intelligent life thing is a PR campaign because people liked the movie "E.T.".
Bottom line is, anything to learn about the universe around us is good. It might not cure cancer tomorrow, but it feeds our technological growth (someday we'll invent replicators like in Star Trek and solve *all* the problems with "serious human need").
The point of this article is that the water is warmed by volcanic activity underground, and so -120 to -20 degrees is not an issue. There have been countless articles on the subject of how there are many forms of life, on Earth and possibly elsewhere, that don't need to live on the surface. They live in hydrothermal vents or miles deep in rocks or oil deposits, all of which are seemingly just as inhospitable as those cold temperatures, but there nevertheless.
This is great news indeed.
For the first time earth based scientists can have samples from Mars that thay can study and analyse in an earth based lab.
The important differece between this and the analysis of the Mars soil by the Mars Pathfinder/Sojuner and earlier Mars missions that made soft landings on Mars is that they did the analysis on Mars, and they could only do a limited mumber and types of analysis.
Having the samples here on earth (and unpoluted by atmospheric reentry as the Mars meteorites found in Antarctica is) allows scientists to do more sofisticated analysis.
This way we will have a much more detailed knowledge of the Martian soil and Rocks than before, and just possible, fossil records of earlier Martian life could be found by microscopy analysis of the returned samples.
Apart from sending geologists and other scientists to Mars this is the best thing to do.
Yours Yazeran
Plan: To go to Mars one day with a hammer.
Another thing to remember: If it wasn't spent on digging on mars, where would it be spent? Sure as hell not on curing disease. Most likely it would go straight to the military where it would be as useless as a hip pocket on a singlet.
Liquid Water is much more important, It will be the first step in colonization of the red planet. It can be converted to Oxygen, and Hydrogen for breathing and power, not to mention hygene and survival for almost all biological things on earth. It doesn't matter if there is oil or not. I don't think most conventional engines would work anyways in that thin atmosphere, conventional combustion requires oxygen to be burned with the oil. Gas is on its way out as a source for power, It's all about the Hydrogen.