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Mars Express Confirms Water on Mars
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.
It's just sitting there sulking.
Any chance it can confirm the location of our missing landers?
Sweet, so when do I get my free shrimp?!?
It has been confirmed on the north pole before, but not the south. That's why it's news.
it's in my head
As a scientist, although I find it very interesting that they have "discovered" water on Mars, I do no think it is the ground breaking discovery that it has been played up as.
:-)
From the geological appearance water was always expected, Hydrogen and Oxygen are both abundant enough (in the early history of Mars - not in the atmosphere at the moment). H2O is the thermodynamic result.
Although the absence of water would almost certainly have procluded the existance of "life" on Mars, the existance of water is not, in itself, that startling a discovery.
It is important that scientific funding goes towards real science and not satisfying the public demand for fantastic revelations!
Finally, well done ESA for building a spectrometer that accurate, and getting it there
Looks like some telemetry was just received from Spirit:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2004/30.cfm
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
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!
I work in the oilfield operating a 2 tons monstrosity called an MWD. These things are used to transmit data from up to a 10 km deep hole and on the basis of this data the decision of which way to drill a well are made (oil wells are usually not vertical affairs these days). Multi-million dollar decisions are regularly made on a data from a transfer rate of less than 10 bps, 6 bps is excellent and transmission rates are often in the range of 0.5-3 bits per second. You would be surprised at how much system information can be crammed into that bandwidth if the programmers are clever. Incidentally, my tools use a modulation/demodulation scheme similar to that used on the Voyager probes, we just have to transmit through viscous mud with pressure instead of light across the solar system.
-------------------------------END--COMMUNICATION
Why is it bad news for the brits.. it's good news for everyone. Science is not a competitive pursuit.. it's a collaborative one.
i mean...I know they got limited bandwidth and all, but what sort of protocol do they use?
good lord, this is an incredibly geeky question, but I'm serious, i wanna know.
-- Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him? --
Do its moons reflect enough light for detail in nearby objects to be discernable, or is everything just cast in shadow?
Unlikely. Phobos and Deimos are tiny, and orbit very fast, very close to the surface of Mars. They can't even be seen from all points of the Martian surface. I'm guessing that in the Martian night-time, if they pass overhead they're entirely in Mars's shadow and thus cast no light. I think they're only visible at dawn and at dusk, under certain lucky conditions.
What I'd love to see it some photos of the night sky. I've always wanted to see the same constellations from a planet other than Earth. Dunno why, just seems significant to me.
These sigs are more interesting tha
Easy, Martian atmosphere pressure is only 1% that of Earth's. So whilst the winds on Mars can reach enormous speeds, they actually exert very little force.
Best wishes,
Mike.
Well, you can have two kinds of poles: geographic and magnetic.
Magnetic is the way your compass points. Planets do not have to have an appreciable magnetic field, so it is possible to have a planet without a magnetic north.
Geographic is based on the direction of a planet's spin. Here's one way to choose geographic north: the right-hand rule.
Stick out your right-hand like you are going to shake hands, but with your thumb pointing upwards. Now curl your fingers in towards your palm. If the curling of your fingers occurs in the same direction as the planet is spinning then north is in the direction of your thumb. If your fingers are curling opposite to the direction of the spin then your thumb is pointing south.
The right-hand rule is used a great deal in the world of physics.
Life is short: void the warranty.