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NASA Mars Press Briefing & "Significant Findings"

An anonymous reader writes "NASA will have a press briefing today at 2 p.m. EST to announce "significant findings". Salty liquid water maybe? Bacteria? This meeting will also be broadcast on NASA TV."

7 of 485 comments (clear)

  1. NASA TV via Internet - RTFA by michael+path · · Score: 5, Informative
  2. What they found. by neodymium · · Score: 5, Informative

    German newsmag "Der Spiegel" has the story: They found a certain kind of iron sulfate compound, which forms only in bodys of standing water. Discoveries were made using the MIMOS-II Moessbauer spectrometer and the APXS x-ray spectrometer. Images are available in the article.

  3. Re:I hope it's not life by tmasssey · · Score: 5, Informative
    Mars probes already go through some sort of expensive sterilization process. They want to avoid contamination.

  4. Re:NASA TV streaming by sam1am · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can view NASA TV online, as well, it seems... (The page also has satellite coordinates, and alternate sources for NASA TV)

  5. Re:Microbes? I doubt it. by BRSQUIRRL · · Score: 5, Informative

    You are correct...I don't believe the microscopic imager has the magnification muscle to view something as small as bacteria, and the Mossbauer spectrometer is very specific in what it can analyze (iron-bearing minerals). These rovers are, as designed, primarily geological instruments.

    For details about what the rovers are carrying, instrument-wise, see this page.

  6. NASA TV is viewable with mplayer! by david.given · · Score: 5, Informative
    Do this:

    mplayer mms://wmbcast.nasa-global.speedera.net/\
    wmbcast.nasa-global/wmbcast_nasa-global_jan\
    212004_1021_53608

    (Watch out for the \ that mark line continuations!)

    Frame rate is low, but the audio's nicely in sync and is certainly decent enough for watching press releases.

    Beware, though, that as I post, NASA TV is broadcasting some ghastly children's programme. You have been warned...

  7. NASA TV also available via Internet2 Multicast by Danathar · · Score: 5, Informative

    NASA does not put it on their page (I emailed them asking them to), but if you are on an Internet2 enabled + multicast enabled network (college/university) it is available via MPEG1 multicast feed.

    You can view it with Quicktime, Real 9 (real 10 crashes with SDP), VideoLan and CISCO IP/TV.

    To view it on Videolan start the player with

    --extraint SAP

    and look at the playlist....it can take up to 10 min before you'll see the NASA listing.

    If anybody wants the sdp file I'll try and find a way of posting it. I tried to...but the slashdot forum filters killed my post!