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Mars-Express On Its Way

Posted by michael on from the au-revoir dept.

Nebukadnezar writes "Two weeks ago, Mars-Express tested its sensors and took some marvelous data and pics of the Earth-Moon system from a distance of about 8*10^6 km. Nice to see our neighborhood once in a while. BTW check out the spectrometer readings of Earth: water shows up very clearly. I wonder what this instrument will tell us about water on Mars..."

5 of 26 comments (clear)

  1. Water on Mars. . . by astrobabe · · Score: 4, Informative

    This instrument won't tell us anything about water on Mars in the way in which you're thinking. The spectra of Earth is it's atmospheric spectra. We already know about the atmospheric spectra of Mars from ground based observations and other space missions and we know that the bulk of the water we infer to be there from surface geology is NOT trapped in the atmosphere. At this point in order to find water we need a better gamma ray spectrometer (not optical and IR), but current analysis shows that there isn't enough carbon dioxide on Mars to have caused what water ice there is now to melt.

    1. Re:Water on Mars. . . by corleth · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's the long-wave radar MARSIS instrument that will be doing most of the search for water. Apparently it will be sensitive to the presence of ground-ice layers (i.e. crust where water-ice is present within the pores) at depths of upto a few km. Not only will we be able to detect water-ice, but we should also be able to quantify volumes to some extent.

  2. Re:Methane.. by kinnell · · Score: 2, Informative

    You may be joking, but there is evidence to suggest that methane released by sheep and cow flatulence is a major cause of global warming.

    --
    If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
  3. Re:Methane.. by azav · · Score: 2, Informative

    Termites and cows man. I'm not kidding. Those are the main producers last time I checked.

    --
    - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
  4. Re:Questions For the Sake of Questions by TotalTossa · · Score: 2, Informative

    Mars express is an ESA mission by the way.
    There are two twin NASA probes ('Opportunity' and 'Spirit') following on behind it. And a Japanese craft a bit behind that.

    --
    No, you can't wash your face in my sig!