Mars Express Confirms Water on Mars

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Mars Express Confirms Water on Mars

Posted by michael on Friday January 23, 2004 @02:49AM from the scotch-and-soda dept.

jki writes "So, finally: Through the initial mapping of the South polar cap on 18 January, OMEGA, the combined camera and infrared spectrometer, has already revealed the presence of water ice and carbon dioxide ice. This information was confirmed by the PFS, a new high-resolution spectrometer of unprecedented accuracy. The first PFS data also show that the carbon oxide distribution is different in the northern and southern hemispheres of Mars. The MaRS instrument, a sophisticated radio transmitter and receiver, emitted a first signal successfully on 21 January that was received on Earth through a 70- metre antenna in Australia after it was reflected and scattered from the surface of Mars. This new measurement technique allows the detection of the chemical composition of the Mars atmosphere, ionosphere and surface." On another note, NASA has gotten some sort of signal from Spirit, but it's still not fully functional.

7 of 503 comments (clear)

That explains the mute Spirit Rover by addie · 2004-01-23 02:50 · Score: 5, Funny

It's just sitting there sulking.
1. Re:That explains the mute Spirit Rover by woodhouse · 2004-01-23 02:57 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Brain the size of a planet, and they have me looking at stones.
Landers by Ilex · 2004-01-23 02:53 · Score: 5, Funny

Any chance it can confirm the location of our missing landers?
Free Shrimp!! by SwissCheese · 2004-01-23 02:53 · Score: 5, Funny

Sweet, so when do I get my free shrimp?!?
Re:750 bytes by cperciva · 2004-01-23 03:07 · Score: 5, Funny

Given that this response came after they uploaded new code to help them track down the problems, I'm guessing that the data received back included the string "HELLO WORLD".

Which is unusually appropriate in this case, actually...

--
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
NO NO.. Spirit found water! by SenseiLeNoir · 2004-01-23 03:15 · Score: 5, Funny

Last communications between NASA and Spirit....

NASA: MOVE FORWARD 10

SPIRIT: 10? Ok 10 METERS [whir.. Trundle]

NASA: NO NO. 10 FEET!

SPIRIT: OOPS..

NASA: WHAT HAPPENED?!?!?! REQUEST STATUS REPORT!

SPIRIT: LOCATION - OLD RIVERBED
GOOD NEWS - FOUND WATER
BETTER NEWS - LOTS OF WATER
BAD NEWS - NOT WATERPROO...#%$&#..... Bzzzzzzzzzzzt

NASA: DAMN!!!!!!!

--
Have a nice day!
1. Re:NO NO.. Spirit found water! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-23 04:03 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  NASA: Go North
  
  SPIRIT: THERE IS NO WAY THROUGH IN THAT DIRECTION
  
  NASA: Go West
  
  SPIRIT: I AM IN AN OLD RIVERBED. THERE IS A TROLL HERE. HE LOOKS UNFRIENDLY.
  
  NASA: Kill Troll
  
  SPIRIT: WITH WHAT SHOULD I ATTEMPT TO KILL TROLL?
  
  NASA: Kill Troll with Tinderbox
  
  SPIRIT: I AM IN AN OLD RIVERBED. THERE IS A DEAD TROLL HERE.