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NASA Selects Mars Landing Sites

Posted by michael on from the lawn-dart dept.

carstene writes "NASA has announced the finial landing sites for the upcoming mars rover missions. Looks like they are going looking for water in a dried lake bed and a promising site that looks like it contains hematite."

8 of 15 comments (clear)

  1. If Kryptonite make Kryptonians weak by wowbagger · · Score: 5, Funny

    If Kyptonite makes Kryptionians weak, does hematite make Hemos weak?

    Perhaps Hemos should stay away from that area of Mars...

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  2. Some harder than others by djupedal · · Score: 1

    "Landing on Mars is very difficult, and it's harder on some parts of the planet than others," said Dr. Ed Weiler, NASA associate administrator for space science in Washington, D.C. "In choosing where to go, we need to balance science value with engineering safety considerations at the landing sites. The sites we have chosen provide such balance."

    And the Finial site, may well prove to be the hardest of all...

  3. Re:Hematite? by eggstasy · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you remember the controversial meteor of martian origin that was found a while ago, you will also recall that the alleged signs of life were iron crystals of a kind that is usually, at least on Earth, only produced by bacteria.
    Hematite is an iron ore. It's logical to assume they're looking for more rocks like that one, which could point towards the existance of life on Mars, past or present.

  4. Re:Hematite? by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    What would be the use of hematite?

    To fix the hemaloose :-P

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    Table-ized A.I.
  5. Re:Hematite? by young-earth · · Score: 3, Informative
    Check out the article which explains that researchers now
    think that there is now abundant evidence that most and probably all of the magnetites in ALH 84001 formed because of shock heating of carbonate. Faceted magnetites resembling the supposedly biogenic magnetites are crystallographically oriented in the carbonate lattice and could not have formed inside bacteria. We infer that ALH 84001 magnetites differ from abiogenic terrestrial magnetites because terrestrial carbonates never experienced the unique impact history of ALH 84001.
    So if NASA is looking for hematite in order to prove something, they'll just be proving that the rocks they found got banged around.

    Somehow that seems like a colossal waste of time and money, so hopefully they have some more noble, or more useful, reason to pick that location.
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  6. Re:Hematite? by barakn · · Score: 1

    The problem with Creationists is that they'll post without knowing what they are talking about. Gray hematite can precipitate out of hotsprings here on Earth, and spectroscopic evidence has been found of gray hematite on Mars. NASA is looking for evidence of ancient hotsprings on Mars. The Martian meteorite has nothing to do with it. young-earth's post should be modded Overrated.

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    "I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
  7. Not biological by barakn · · Score: 2, Informative

    Gray hematite can precipitate out of hotsprings here on Earth, and spectroscopic evidence has been found of gray hematite on Mars. NASA is looking for evidence of ancient hotsprings on Mars, which would only point to liquid water, not life.

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    "I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
  8. Re:They oughta send one to the Face by assosiation · · Score: 2, Funny

    note the quote "Once they reach their landing sites, each rover's prime mission will last at least 90 martian days (92 Earth days). The rovers are solar-powered, and in approximately 90 days, dust accumulating on the solar arrays likely will be diminishing the power supply. "

    Have those people ever heard of wipers????? :)