Mars Rover Sniffs First Hint of Water?

mhw25 writes "It is reported that the Mars rover Spirit is already well into its scientific mission, and may be detecting hints of water. The mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer has returned its first image, with probable evidence of carbonates and hydrated minerals. We may know more after the rover rolls off its landing base, after making a 120 degree turn to avoid the airbag blocking its front ramp, to start analyses on soil from Thursday or Friday. An ongoing intrigue is already developing - a scientist reckoned that some of the soil around the airbag 'looks like mud, but it can't be mud'."

Comments

hydrated minerals?

[gr8_phk]

"evidence of carbonates and hydrated minerals"

Isn't that what commets are primarily composed of? I fully expect H2O molecules to be present on Mars and every other planet. This should not be a suprise to anyone.

Re:intrigue

[NanoGator]

"I am curious though as to why they dont think it could be mud if they are indeed suspicious of water being present?"

Nasa doesn't like to operate that way. They don't want to finger a suspect and look at only proof that it's what they're after. Instead, they want to look at all the data and try to learn everything they can.

Seems to me they're just avoiding being overly zealous in their approach. In the process of proving something does exist, you risk avoiding the evidence that it doesn't.

Re:intrigue

[BWJones]

because as far as we can tell water cant exist in a liquid state on mars.

Ah, but how much water is the question. Certainly atmospheric pressures would indicate that large volumes of water may not be possible unless they were seeping or somehow otherwise protected from atmospheric effects. So, a correlative question might also be, how much water would be required for particle wetting to provide enough cohesiveness? I don't really know and my background is not in materials science but if the dust particles were small enough, perhaps a few water molecules could provide enough van der walls forces to hold the material together enough to resemble mud?

Re:"Looks like mud, but it can't be mud" ???

[The Bungi]

Actually it would probably boil first. Freezing is a much slower process. The lack of atmospheric pressure would get to it long before the temperature ever did.

Re:intrigue

[GabeK]

I'm guessing that its more of a simple issue of temperature. The rover is currently operating in -19degs F.

Re:When will they learn

[Sgt York]

You actually think NASA should sit on anything from Spirit until it has been published in Nature? Can you imagine the public outcry? Spirit lands, and they don't say anything except "Look at the pretty pictures! No, we won't tell you what we've found. Yes it is moving around and everything's working fine, but we won't tell you anything until publication. You'll just have to wait." The public would go apeshit. The people on /. would be out for blood. With a program this big, they can't sit on everything they find, it's just a fact of modern life. They are doing their best by keeping everything low key. Lots of "maybes" and "appears-to-bes" and "looks likes"

Even once it has been released into the peer reviewed world, it will be sensationalized. How many times has there been a panacea cure for cancer published in Science? If you read the NYT, you'd say dozens. If you read Science, you'd say never.

Re:Planting Life

[cmpalmer]

I'm pretty sure the highs get well above -40 C in the temperate and equitorial areas.

One particularly nasty thing about Martian soil (and one that would preclude planting most Earth plants -- even in greenhouses using Martian soil) is the high concentration of superoxides in the soil, making it like OxyClean. Earth's extremophiles, however, make me wary about making blanket statements that "life couldn't evolve or exist" in those conditions.