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Lots of Ice On Mars
Total Recall writes: "The Mars Odyssey spacecraft is finding large
amounts of hydrogen in the southern hemisphere of
Mars. This strongly indicates the presence of
water ice (since H2O is both common and very stable). The data samples about the upper meter or so of the Martian surface. This apparently extends from the south polar cap up to about 60 south latitude. It suggests a permafrost of mixed ice and dirt."
A few weeks went by and it was now the last week of school. I was pretty well used to begin in diapers at school. I didn't always act as much like a baby at school as I did at home. But at recess I would regress and play with my friends and they would baby me. Most of the girls in my class thought I was cute, but most of the boys thought it was gross that I wore diapers. I didn't really care though because at that time I thought boys had cooties. Besides boys were so immature anyway. (Like I could talk!)
The last day of school came and I got up and was changed and had breakfast and sat on the bus with my best friends Emily & Laura. We were all glad that school was over and we could have all summer to hang out and play. I was soaked as usual on the bus ride home. Laura was crossing her legs really tight because she had to go pee real bad. But she had to hold it. "Don't you wish you had a diaper like me?", I asked. "Yeah, then I could just go pee and I would feel better. But doesn't it feel weird having pee in your diaper?", she asked. "It feels warm and squishy in the diaper. But I like it, you probably wouldn't like it." She just sat there quietly, pondering what I had said. "Hey maybe this summer when I come over to play maybe I can try one on one time to just to see what its like?" "Yeah sure that'd be cool."
The bus pulled into our stop and we all got off. Jessica used to be one of my best friends before I started wearing diapers. But now she didn't hang out with us anymore. She wanted to be a part of the "in crowd". So that's that. But I didn't care, because I had friends that cared about me, and understood me.
I came in the door and mom was waiting for me. "Hi baby, did you have a good day at school?" "Yes mommy, but I glad it over because now I can play all summer, and I can be baby all day ? YAY!", I said joyfully. "Yes that's right honey. You'll be mommy's little baby all summer long." She smiled at me. "So does baby need a diaper change?" She checked my diaper. "Umm sorta, but can you wait, because... um... I have to do number two in a little bit, so I might as well do it in this already wet diaper instead of getting other diaper dirty too." "Well very well then, go head and relax and just load your diaper full of poo and call mommy when your ready for a changie." She sat me on the floor in the living room in front of the TV. She also brought me out a bottle and I laid there and sucked on it as I tried to go poo in my diaper. Finally after pushing a while, I relaxed and then I felt my bowels relax and I started to empty out into my diaper a massive soft squishy load of poopoo. I laid there on my bean bag on the floor in front of the TV and just enjoyed the mushy poo all over my hiney and between my legs. I moved my legs back and forth a couple times just to make it more comfy. Then after a while I became uncomfortable.
"Mommy! I poopood in my diapee, come change me pweez!", I yelled. "ok, be there in a minute.", my mother called back from the kitchen. A moment later she was in the living room picking me up. "Wow baby looks like you just did a ten pounder in your baby pants huh?", mom said as she patted my loaded diaper tushie while she carried me to my room. I just blushed and she laid me down and took off my dress and took down my rubber pants and unfastened the diaper. "Oh my gosh baby, your loaded from front to back honey, isn't that yucky?" mom asked. "Ummm hmmm, dats why I wanted you to change me mommy, it felt good going poo and sitting in it for a lil bit but now its all yucky poo!!!" I giggled. "Well we'll get your little hiney all clean now ok baby girl." She used wipe after wipe to get me clean. I enjoyed when mommy and Tammy changed me. Dad never really did it that often.
After I was diapered I was put in my crib for a little nap before dinner. Finally dinner came and Tammy came in to get me. "Hi baby, it's din din time... lets wake up little sleepy head." she said to me as she picked me up out of the crib and held me and carried me to the kitchen. I was put into my highchair and fed my dinner. After dinner I got a bath and was playing with toys and I fell asleep on the living room floor. Tammy took me to my room, changed my wet diaper, brushed my teeth and got me all ready for bed. Mom came in and tucked me in and gave me a goodnight kiss. So did daddy, then they turned out the lights. As I lay in bed I was thinking of all the fun I was going to have this summer. I dozed off and slept like a baby.
The next morning I woke up and laid in my crib in a soggy wet diaper. Soon after I was awake mommy came in and changed me and took me to where her and dad were in bed and let me lay between them. I feel back asleep, safely snuggled under the covers in my diapers, with mommy and daddy on both sides. A little later Tammy came into the room. "Mom, I had a really bad dream." she said while crying softly. "Oh come here sweetie." Mom said as she pulled her into bed with us. I woke up and I hugged her and she held onto me and we all four slept all cozy in the bed. Dad got up and went to work later in the morning but us girls just stayed cuddled up in bed just being lazy. I wet my diaper again but didn't care. I was so at peace snuggled in bed with my sister and mommy. I could tell Tammy felt better too since she came to sleep in bed with us.
Tammy was awake and facing me, with her back toward mom, who was still sleeping. I felt Tammy's hand on my diaper and I opened my eyes. "it's just me little one, I was just checking your diaper to see if you were wet, but I see you must have already been changed because your only a little wet." she whispered. I smiled and winked at her. I snuggled closer to her, and lay my head on her chest and she held me close to her. I felt so safe and secure now. A warm peace flowed over me. I was safe in my warm diapers and in the arms of my sister and in the room with my mommy. As I took a deep breath and relaxed, I felt more pee release into my diaper. I smiled, and Tammy smiled back at me. "You wetted again didn't you silly?" "Yeppers, I tinkles in my dipees" I giggled softly. "You two are both silly." mom said, as she rolled over. I didn't know she was awake, I guess when Tammy and I were talking we woke her.
Later that afternoon Laura came over and we played in my room. "Hey Tiff, remember how I was telling you on the buss the other day? that I wanted to try one of your diapers? Umm well.. uh.. can I try one now?", she asked shyly. "Sure you can." I happily took out one of my disposable diapers and handed it to her. "You know how to put it on right?" I asked. "um.. yeah I guess. Um be right back I'm gonna go to the bathroom and try it on ok?" She went across the hall.
She came back into the room crinkling like a little baby in diapers. "Aww your so cute in your little diapers", Tammy said as she came up behind Laura and patted her diapered tushie. Laura turned to her and blushed. "Oh its ok honey, I think you both are cute.", Tammy said as she left the room. "So how does it feel?" She stood there for a second. "Um.. hold on... ", she said while standing completely still and her face turned red and she blushed. "Um, Laura, did you just do tinkles in your diaper?", I asked her teasingly. "Yes... and WOW! I like!" She giggled and she plopped down on the floor on her padded bottom. "Aww, I glad you like it." I sat on the floor in front of her. We played some board games and when it was time for her to go, I called Tammy back in to change her before she left. "All done." Tammy said as she stood Laura up after changing her. I walked Laura to the door and said goodbye and then watched TV until dinner time.
I spent allot of days outside playing with friends. Also being a baby and being changed. After a few weeks I had regressed to the point where I truly was baby-like and I depended on Mom and Tammy for everything. But they let me stay a baby the whole time. Even when we were going on vacation to have a family reunion. I wondered what this would be like, since this would be the first time they would see me in diapers and acting like a baby.
fp, now its just a p
Color flashing, thunder crashing, dynamite machines.
If life DOES exist on mars, and it metabolizes Fe (thus all the rust everywhere)... It would make for a great Sci-Fi story at least.
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
Wendell and Cass would be more comfortable in a Greenwich Village one bedroom apartment than their current home at the New York Aquarium.
The male penguins, each about 14 years old, can't get enough of each other. The couple has been together for the past eight years, and the two have sex with each other whenever they can, which is often.
Presumably penguins can tell the guys from the gals, but aquarium officials apparently can't. For years they thought the pair was one of each. The truth didn't come out until aquarium staff carried out a blood test.
Angie Pelekedis, a spokeswoman for the aquarium on Coney Island, said: "They're one of the most dedicated couples in the penguin enclosure."
Penguin keeper Stephanie Mitchell added: "I was only seeing one mate with the other, but then one of the other keepers saw it happen the other way round so we did a blood test that proved they were both male.
"Cass tends to be a rather aggressive bird. Wendell is very nervous; always has been. He's on edge all the time. They're currently in a dispute with another couple over their nest. It seems to be one of the most desirable places in the penguin enclosure."
From the annals of the Troll Library .
If there's a lot of water, it's 1000 times easier to colonize.
unfinished: (adj.)
The availability of ICE may be nice, but what is really needed is H3.
With current technology, it will take at least 2 years of space flight to go from Earth to Mars, and 2 more years for the flight back. The thing is, if you have to carry all the fuel for the to-and-flo flights, the spacecraft will be too heavy to be of any other use.
If there's H3 on Mars, however, the spacecraft only has to carry enough fuel to go TO Mars, and then get refuel there to come home.
One more thought - if there's plenty of ice leftover, then Mars could be used as a "refueling station" for space flight further away than Mars.
Just a thought.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Water is what a colony will need most. If one can get it on-site, it can make huge mass savings on what one must bring in from Earth. That, and the atmosphere (meteor protection, possibility to aerobrake when arriving) might make it easier to have a colony on Mars than on the Moon, even though it's much farther.
great, now we're planning on depleting the resources of yet another planet
--rock me like a huricane? NO rock you
Astronauts are probably pleased to hear that they'll be able to flush mars toilets instead of having to use vacuum toilets.
Be let down here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here...
Linux users all suck dicks and eat little baby girl pussies for breakfast. They also enjoy rabid squirrel ear sex, and unprotected sex with piles of elephant diarrhea.
Fuck you, Slashdot readers.
Bloody shit!
Have they tested these instruments from a satellite orbiting Earth (or any other place we are absolutely sure it has water) to see how reliable it is in detecting water?
After a few weeks had passed I was just totally being a baby and stuff. my mother woke me up and got me changed and dressed. "Where are we going?", I asked. "Don't you remember honey, we are going on our vacation, to go see our family in Pennsylvania." she said while dressing me. "Oh yeah, I forgot we going there, but mommy they don't know I a baby now." "Well honey they'll find out soon enough. Besides they love you anyway they won't make fun of you. You'll have fun with all your cousins." She held me and comforted me. We loaded up the car and headed out. It was a two day drive.
I sat in the backseat with Tammy and mom and dad were in the front, Dad was driving. We stopped at a rest stop about an hour into the trip to change me because I was wet, and everyone else had to go potty too. Then we stopped somewhere in a town up the road for lunch. I ate the kids meal and it was yummy. We left there and we drove for what seemed like an eternity. I laid down in the backseat and laid my head in Tammy's lap and she ran her hands through my hair and I dozed off.
Tammy shook me awake a while later. "Honey your diapers loaded, you did poopoo while you were sleeping. We're at a rest stop so lets get you changed, ok honey?" She carried me out of the car and then helped me walk part of the way up to the rest stop building. As we got inside to the restrooms another family was changing one of their babies diapers. The mother said to Tammy, "Wow, isn't she a little old to be doing poopy diapers?" "Um well, she's a baby, I mean she's 8 years old, but she likes being babied and diapered." "Oh well I guess everyone's different... She's quite cute though. Hi little baby girl." she said to me as she carried her child out of the room. I just blushed and kind of felt silly. "Ok honey, now I have to go potty.", Tammy said as she carried me into owe of the stalls. She told me to stand there as she pulled her pants down and sat on the potty. A moment later she wiped herself and then opened the door and washed her hands. "Ok Tiffy, let's get going."
We got back in the car and drove down the road and later that night we found a hotel and checked in. Since I was used to sleeping in a crib they put me in the bed up against the wall and with Tammy on my other side. I snuggled in her arms because I was a bit uncomfortable being in a strange place. She just held me close and kept me warm. I did a little bit of tinkles in my diapers and then I fell asleep.
The next morning we awoke early to get a bite to eat and hit the road again. Mom didn't change me right when I got up. She waited until after breakfast so that I'd have a dry diaper for when we got going again. I sat in the backseat and colored in my coloring book and Tammy was listening to her walk-man. Mom was looking out the window and dad was driving. After a while I wet my diaper but it wasn't too wet yet. By the time we were looking for a place to pull in for lunch I was soaking wet and squirming around trying to get comfy. Tammy noticed and she said, "Hey baby did you go peepee in your dipees." I blushed and looked at her. "Yes, me went peepee." Mom said she would change me in the bathroom of the restaurant while dad and Tammy got us a seat.
After mom and I returned from the restroom we sat down and the waiter took our order and then Tammy and dad went to go use the restroom. Finally our food came and we ate and then left. I was tired after lunch so I laid down in the backseat with my head in Tammy's lap again. I fell right to sleep. When I woke up later on I looked out the window and saw some familiar scenery. I knew by this that we were about 10 minutes from my grandpa's house and from where we were going to be visiting our family on my Uncle's farm.
A few minutes later we pulled up to my grandpa's house. It was an old 1940's style house with 2 stories. I was always afraid of the stares though so when we were going up to our rooms, Tammy carried me up the stares. About this time I needed a diaper change so she laid me on the bed and got me all nice and dry. But now I was put into a cloth diaper and rubber pants instead of the disposables I had worn on the car trip. Now that we were here they could do wash now so I was back in cloth dipees. This made me happy because I didn't like disposables as much.
We were all sitting in the living room when my aunt and uncle came over to visit and have supper. They noticed right away that I was in big thick diapers because when I hugged them they patted my bottom and they felt the crinkly rubber pants under my shorts. "Oh you wear diapers now huh?", my aunt asked me. I just nodded. My mother explained to them how I had wanted to become a baby for so long. "Well you will have fun with Cindy and all your other cousins." My uncle said. Cindy was one of my cousins who was retarded and had to wear diapers, and she couldn't talk. She and I always got along though. She liked me allot.
At dinner I had to go number two so I just leaned over to Tammy and told her. She picked me up and carried me upstairs. I hadn't actually gone poo in my diapers yet but I didn't want to do it at the dinner table. So Tammy sat on the bed in front of me and watched me as I squirmed around and filled my diaper. She then smiled at me when she smelled my loaded diaper. Your poopy aren't you, little girl. " she said teasingly. I smiled and said, "yeah can you change me, I'm all yucky now." She slid my shorts off and also my rubber pants and then undid the diaper. "Oh my gosh, your a messy little baby. I'm glad you didn't do that at the table. Ewww yucky." She wiped my hiney clean and then powdered me and put another diaper on me. After we were done she carried me back down stares and I finished eating and then we all set around in the living room talking for a while and I was on the floor playing with my toys. Everyone thought I was so cute now that I was a baby again. I really enjoyed all the attention too.
The days passed slowly because I was kind of board. I hadn't seen any of my cousins, but we were going to have a picnic at my Uncle's farm on Saturday and everyone was going to be there. Finally Saturday got here and I was so glad. We pulled up at my Uncle's house at about 10:45am. We got out of the car. Some of the kids were already swimming in the pond and some were just sitting on the dock talking. As I waddled over to them they were all saying hi. Then they noticed my diapers. "Um why are you in diapers Tiffany?", my cousin Anna asked. "Um well, I kinda like it now, I'm a baby too, my mommy let me get back in diapers because she found out that I wanted to be a baby because of something I wrote in my diary and stuff and well... now here I am." I explained the whole situation to all the kids. "Cool we can play house then and baby you." "YAY! I'd like that. I missed you all, I always love to come up here and see you." "You wanna go swimming?" my cousin Sharon asked. "Um well I don't know if I can, I mean I'm in a diaper." "Well its ok, Cindy goes in the water with her diapers on. I mean they get all puffy and soaking wet but you can still go in the water if you want, go ask your mom." "Ok I will." I walked over to where my mother was talking to some of the adults. "Mommy can I go swimming? Pweez?" I asked in my baby voice. "Yes honey but you'll need a diaper change when you get out because your diapees will be soaked." I said ok and then ran back to the dock where my cousins were sitting. Then I went to the edge of the dock and then slipped off my shorts since I was in a diaper. I jumped in with my diaper plastic pants and my t-shirt on. It was quite hard to swim in wet diapers though. "Help... Help me!", I cried out to one of my cousins. I could barely stay afloat because the diapers were so thick and heavy and restricted my movement. They pulled me over to the shallow end and I sat next to Cindy and Anna and Sharon. We were in about 2 feet of water and just talked to them. They asked me allot of questions about what it was like to be a baby again, and what it was like being in diapers.
After a while they called us up for lunch. When I got out of the water I realized how soaked and soggy my diaper was. My cousin Anna wanted to change me. She was used to changing diapers for her sister Cindy. So she took me over to her dad's truck and opened the tailgate and laid me there and changed me and put me in another diaper. Sharon and one other girl watched. Finally we got over to the picnic tables and ate. We had hamburgers and all kinds of yummy stuff.
After a while we were all just sitting on chairs talking. Anna got up and started to walk toward the outhouse. Sharon called out to her and said, "Hey Anna, do you gotta go 1 or 2?" Anna just turned around and stuck up 2 fingers which meant she had to go poo. "I bet she wishes she had a diaper on and could just load her baby pants like I do." I smiled at Sharon. "Ewww! That's yucky though, isn't it?", Sharon asked. "Well yeah if you stay in it a long time, or for the person who is changing you it can be kinda yucky, but when your doing it in your diaper and when you first sit in a loaded diaper it feels wonderful!" A big smile formed on my face as I thought about how good messy diapers felt. "Wow cool, maybe I'll use one of Cindy's diapers when I stay over at Anna's house sometime." She seemed quite excited about the idea of being in diapers now.
A while later Anna came back and sat down. "Feel better Anna?" I asked. She nodded. We continued to talk a while and then Sharon said she had to go pee. Instead of walking to the outhouse, she just ran and jumped in the pond. She turned toward us with her head above water and she was smiling at us. We could tell she was doing tinkles in her clothes underwater by the look on her face. When she finished peeing her pants, she got out of the water and came back over and sat down. "Wow, now your clothes are soaked. But anyway, that's a cool way to do tinkles in your pants and get away with it." I remarked. I then became still and started blushing. Anna knew what I was doing too. "Well looks like you're doing your tinkles in your diaper like the cute little baby that you are." I just smiled at them. It felt so good to be in a wet diaper with a cool breeze blowing and just being outside and being with my family.
Later for dinner we had leftovers from lunch and then we were inside watching TV and playing some games. I loaded my diaper and my mommy changed me. Cindy had also done number two in her diapers, so her mom changed her too. We then returned to the living room and played a while longer. I fell asleep on the floor later on and dad carried me out to the car as we drove back to my grandpa's house for the night. I was sad to leave, but I knew that the time I had had there I would remember for a long time to come. As I cuddled into bed with Tammy I told her I loved her and that I was going to miss everyone up here. She comforted me and I fell asleep in her arms.
A few days later we got ready to go back home. I called Anna on the phone to say goodbye and we said we would write each other. Once the car was packed up we headed out down the road on our way back home. I fell asleep in the car and we drove till late that night and then pulled over at a rest stop and slept in the car and then left that morning early. We only stopped two times to get something to eat. Tammy changed me in the backseat when I needed to be changed. She had on one of my disposable diapers and had gone pee in it and changed herself. Mom and dad both were in adult diapers the whole way home and only pulled over to quickly change each other. We made it back allot quicker this way. We had to do it this way because dad had to be back by Monday so he could get back to work. If it wasn't for this we would have took our time going back down. I thought it was cute that everyone decided to wet their diapers. At least no one else had to go number two accept for Tammy and I. Mom had to crawl in the backseat one time to help Tammy clean up. I don't think Tammy liked dirty diapers like I did though. We arrived home late Sunday night and we all just went inside and through our suitcases down and got our showers. Tammy and I in one bathroom and mommy and daddy in the other. Then we got our jammies on, Tammy changed me and we all went to bed and slept very well because we were all tired. I had a dream that night about the wonderful times I had on that vacation.
I'm looking forward to the day we can actually dig to some depth and see if some liquid water remains. DNA from a primitive lifeform might provide more info on how life emerged in the primordial soup. I know mars was geologicaly active (whats the name of that big 15km volcanoe...), so there's a chance that some heat is left inside. Was there a study done on this?
Imperium et libertas
Autocracy and freedom
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The water on Mars COULD be different than the water on earth. It might be H2O, but what's floating around in it? Just because there is water on Mars doesn't mean there is life. There could be, but maybe not. Might not be a good idea to drink the water until we find out for sure.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
We have quite a bit of He3 right here on the Moon. However if I were on a space ship to Mars and back, I would feel a lot better if there were 2 or more engine types. For example, nuclear and ion; H - O and He3; etc... That way if one fails, you won't be stranded. That would suck.
youre a fool! i hijacked your account! never post your password in public hahahahahahaha.
There are actually a few ideas in progress to melt the ice and Terriform Mars so that the climate is sufficient to support human life.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
Remember in that movie, apparently you can melt the ice to produce oxygen or something?
If I remember correctly back from high school, electrolysis breaks it into oxygen and hydrogen.
I wonder if that's gonna be useful at all?
I watched a special on the Discovery channel abut meteors, it had some insightful information on meteors and some near-misses in the past, if you get a topographical map of the earth and remove all the trees, water, and man made stuff, what's left makes the moon look like glass. The Earth has been hit my multiple meteors and even since the presence of the human race we have had some near devastating close calls, we don't currently have enough centers/people to monitor the entire sky for meteors, but it is a likely case that a one could cause the destruction of the human race unless we populate another planet as well to ensure the survival of the species.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
I've seen and read quite a bit of whacked out shit on /. but this tops everything.
Ooops -- they thought the red one was called Europa.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
(For those that don't get the Niven reference, water is deadly to the Martians in the Known Space series, and one of the characters in Protector used this to good advantage).
Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
Who would have thought? Well, half right, at least. Or, should I say, half-assed right?
"Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same
distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures
where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that
means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, 8/11/89
One neat thing about the info released today is that it supports what Richard Hoagland has been saying for months. See pictures here and here.
At his website you can find out how this validates the theory that Mars was once the satellite of the planet that formed the asteroid belt when it broke up for unknown reasons. (The pattern of water is indicative of tidal action.)
Oil of Wormwood: because absinthe makes the heart grow fonder.
A few years ago after NASA first concluded there may be water on Mars (from the patterns in the hillsides), I put this up, with toungue half in cheek: http://www.marshydro.com. I wonder how much people would pay to drink the stuff? If people will pay $100,000 (on eBay) for a Segway, what will they pay for bottled Mars water bought back from missions?
O'WONDERWe're working on it.
Damn I am glad about this discovery. Actually I am almost feeling good enough to get off Prozac.
That means that our couragous space explorers are able to drink a decent whiskey on the rocks after travelling to mars for years, fleeing the problems of Planet Earth. After a ride like this, they will need one, that is for sure.
Gotta love science.
+++ath0
To do the weeks instead of months thing, you need something more exotic again, like an Orion (push the craft along by exploding nuclear weapons behind it), a fusion drive, or maybe a laser-powered light sail (though presumably you need a laser on Mars to slow it down again . . . ).
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
When you are growing plants, you need to have nitrogen all around in the soil and air or not much will get produced. Where are we going to be getting this vital chemical for life on other planets? Importing huge tanks of nitrogen from Earth limits the size of our hermetic domes, and greatly increases maintenance costs.
Is there enough nitrogen in the Martian atmosphere or soil, or will we have to import it?
"Look at me, I invented the stove!" -- Ben Franklin
Did you know the the US Government and President Eisenhower believed. that the Martian moon Phobos was actually a hollow artificial moon created by an alien species, yet they hid this news from the American people. What else are they hiding?
What's really interesting is to compare the neutron maps with photo maps of the Martian ice cap on the south pole here. You've got to be careful about the scale and orientation of these two images, since they are totally different (90 degrees is at three-o-clock on the neutron map, nine-o-clock on the photo map) but what's really facinating is that the visible ice pack is not circular-symmetrical around the pole and the neutron data IS.
i'll get my spacecraft ready, i bet they are bad bad aliens there, let's whoooop some green alien ass !!!
I'd tell you the chances of this story being a dupe, but you wouldn't like it.
Finding water in it's solid form taking up percentages of the soil instead of topping out at maybe one percent is amazing. This puts a whole new perspective on the whole hydrosphere of Mars. If they also find ice in the northern hemisphere it would be even better. (for humans the northern hemisphere is much more practical, less storms, lower overall elevation [radiation] more evidence of recent liquid water)
Now all we need is geothermal water, greenhouse gasses, a spacecraft that can accellerate continuously at 1 g for half the ride and brake at 1 g for the other half (creating a 40 hour journey to Mars) and the planet is ours..moahhh ha ha ha.... oops sorry about the last part.
found on earth in every place from near boiling geysers
to the extreme lightless
pressure depths of the ocean to deep caves to
arid deserts.
in a sense,
liquid water is the main requirement of
'life' as far as people can tell....
ok so 'life' does not mean pumpkins
and tomatoes and corn, but it is a step.
They are:
- Red Mars
- Green Mars
- Blue Mars
By Kim Stanley Robinson.These are some of the best science fiction books I've ever read, and if you're into Mars, I bet you'll really enjoy these.
-Corren
For everyone else, in cowboy bebop, martian cities are essentially built like large bowls with atmosphere generator-equipped walls on the outer edge. These generators produce a heavy, moist mix of earth-like atmosphere which then floods into the bowl, since it's heavier than mars's atmosphere. These generators have to stay online all the time, constantly replacing the gases that escape into space.
Actually, to me, it seems that the Cowboy Bebop solution is more feasible, and cheaper. There is no evidence currently that you could set up any global greenhouse gas sytem that wouldn't simply dissipate into space because of mars' low gravity, let alone one with earth's water content and density. However, if you concentrate your resources on generating atmosphere for a few dozen (hundred?) square miles, scattered across the planet, you can sustain the process for a long time. At least, for longer than if you try to cover the entire surface at once.
In any case, I think something like cowboy bebop would be more likely to happen as a preliminary stage of terraforming, simply because of the drastically reduced logistical requirements.
Even MORE interesting is THIS image from the press kit that shows not only lots of water at the south pole but a significant concentration around the north pole and best of all - three or four EQUATORIAL (read warm) spots that seem fairly wet. Oaises, anyone? We just found our landing sites...
This is a wonderful discovery, however, I thought we've suspected for some time that there's polar ice-caps though. And so those clouds that the rover saw sometime ago could in fact have been water clouds(I think they thought it was some other toxic substance)? So the fact that there's water and that we seem to be heading towards a future of profitable martian water companies. So what's missing is a greenhouse effect to make the temperature go up. I believe that this could solved by declaring Mars to be a smoking zone. The dwindling smoking areas on earth should produce the kind of tourism that would make martian exploration possible. Imagine the kind of funding that would be given by philip morris. We'd additionally eliminate the health threats of second hand smoking on earth by shipping them all out there and raise the temperature on mars by several degrees (Something on the order of Buffalo in February). It'll also make a nice dump site for our nuclear waste. Mars, the landfill of the solar system.
The really interesting part of this report is in the beginning: "The process continues generating a cascade of protons and neutrons in the upper few meters (yards) of the martian soil." What do they mean by the upper few meters? I would tend to think no more than a dozen, but that's the problem with language like "few". At any rate, this does not preclude the existence of water in the more central latitudes, it only rules out water 'close' to the surface. It's still possible that there are underground aquifers buried beyond the range of the method they used to detect hydrogen. Their own map even supports my theory; there are slightly bluish regions in figure three as far north as the equator (the limit of the map). Since the signal strength is dependent on both the depth and size of the hydrogen sample, this interpretation is highly probable, I think.
This also has interesting consequences on the search for life on Mars: if they want the best odds of finding life, they will need to go to the edge of the region that has the water signals, and dig down until they hit the upper edge of the permafrost. Things like Viking and Sojourner (if it looked for life) only looked at the surface, and didn't have a good idea of where on the surface of the planet to land to look (I'm not sure where they landed, but I'm betting it wasn't outside of the 120 degree belt where the water signals are scarce [assuming the North and South poles are approximately the same]).
I wonder why they didn't publish data for the North polar region? I find it hard to imagine that there was an asymmetry on the planet, or that the probe switched it's instruments off because they were only interested in one pole. I'm not implying that NASA is trying to hide anything, perhaps the data was symmetrical enough that they didn't want to waste their time publishing it on a preliminary report like this one. They may also not be finished crunching the data from the North, which would make this a very preliminary report. I'd still like to see the results for the whole of Mars, though.
The last interesting possibility is that some of their data doesn't point at water at all. They have detected the presence of hydrogen, and water is only the most abundant hydrogen containing compound on Earth. Other chemicals that contain hydrogen that may (this is a big may) be present are: methane (CH4), lipids (too many to list), oil (again, many), ammonia (NH3), carbohydrates (name literally means that it contains carbon and hydrogen, e.g. C6H12O6) etc. What I'm saying is that there may be oil deposits on Mars (very slim chance, but not nonexistent). More likely it's just water and/or ammonia, but all this means is that I'm even more eager to at least send another probe that can test a sample for life and run a spectral analysis on a small core sample (assuming they can get the sample to the surface before it evaporates).
I'd still like to go back to the Moon and get stations established there first (availability year round and shorter distance being two of the main reasons), but I am suddenly a lot more interested in going to Mars, too.
BlackGriffen
I wonder if it was summer in the North when this was taken? If it was, I'd like to see more data half a Marian year from now, to see just how permanent this permafrost is. If you look at the picture, there is a concentration of hydrogen in the North, but it is not nearly as large as in the South. This raises some very interesting possibilities. What this means is that there is condensation on mars (of one form or another), and thus it may be possible to make (inefficient compared to on Earth) stills on Mars! Visions of Dune are flying through my head right now. I wonder if there are sandworms there (bow before Shai Hulud)? ;)
BlackGriffen
Haven't we screwed up our planet enough? Why would we even want to go to Mars without even figuring out how to provide a decent, respectable life for people here? It's not like we need to just keep spreading expodentially over the entire damn universe.
Isn't this "water on mars" thing old news yet? Talk about micro-updates making the front page.
Since this started as a Kim Stanley Robinson thread, I steal one of his ideas and twist it. How about a giant sunshade (parasol, umbrella, what-have-you) blocking light to Venus?
Of course, it is far beyond our current capability, but what about a satellite in Venus orbit that occasionally seeds the Venusian atmosphere with the designer bacteria described above? (Reminds me of to facilitate plankton growth and remove environmental CO2.)
You are confusing issues here. Yes to get abundant life (crops, forests, plankton, etc) you need lots of nitrogen. But to get some form of life wouldn't need that much.
I agree, water DOESN'T, necessarily, mean life. But the converse seems to hold true ("Life means water.") Finding evidence of life somewhere else in the universe is pretty darn important. Why not look where there is water?
I could be wrong (and please feel free to correct me!) but there is a pretty big difference between the northern and southern hemispheres on Mars.
The northern hemisphere is much lower. A hypothetical ocean on Mars would cover much of the northern hemisphere while leaving the south high and dry.
Also the polls themselves have different amounts CO2 ("dry") ice.
Please see this great NASA site with pictures showing that it's not a face.
Of course, I fully expect a reply that this is all just a government sponsored cover-up/conspiracy.