Mars Rovers Find More Evidence of Water

loconet writes "Space.com and JPL are reporting that the Mars Rovers might be on the verge of confirming that large amounts of water once flowed in a region of Mars that has looked curiously dry until now. Such a finding could be comparable to their discovery earlier this year of an ancient shallow sea on the other side of the red planet. Opportunity has found lumpy, odd rock unlike anything its seen to date. The rock concentration seems much rougher than the 'blueberries' found earlier on in the mission. Researchers hope to swing by the rock on the way out of Endurance for further study. 'It could just be one big mass of concretions,' Squyres said. 'I just don't know.' Meanwhile, Spirit, which has now climbed about 10 yards up a hillside, getting above the Gusev plain, found an interesting rock dubbed 'Longhorn'. Both rovers have been exploring more than twice as long as they were designed to last. And even though the Martian winter is at its coldest, engineers are confident that the rovers will continue, despite showing signs of mortality."

Comments

I still want to see. . .

[smooth wombat]

the remains of the parachute and heat shield which were seen in other photos early on.

Yeah, not the most exciting thing but you could send the rover(s) on a long trip to see the remnants and examine stuff along the way.

Checking the remains would provide information for future designs regarding heat shield and parachute technology.

Re:I still want to see. . .

[Devar]

Although it would be interesting to see, there's no way they'd do it. We can test heat shield technology and parachutes here on earth any day. And it's a proven design anyhow. Sending the rover back to have a look at them wouldn't reveal any scientific data that we don't already know or can extrapolate.

Re:more evidence...

[Jesrad]

Are the rovers equipped to identify traces of life if there are some around ? Or would that specifically require an entirely different mission ? I know Beagle2 was built for this purpose but the poor thing slept to its death on the way down...

After Galileo, battles still to fight

[panurge]

The thing I find seriously interesting is that so much effort has to be put into demonstrating the presence of water on Mars. Starting from the philosophical standard we apply to most things, we would expect to find it there (we live on a planet, it has water, it has life, why would we not expect to find it on the next planet out?)

I have a feeling that we are still fighting Galileo's battle. A particular strand of Christian thought - medieval Aristotelianism - is still making the running. Aristotle, on no particular evidence, thought that the planets were perfect, lifeless and unchanging - the Schoolmen adopted this as dogma - and scientists and engineers at Nasa are still trying to demonstrate that we occupy what is probably a very ordinary little planet, with a very ordinary set of dominant life forms, against people who think we are unique and very important in this huge universe. You know who you are.

You can still see the lens of Galileo's original telescope, which actually destroyed Aristotle's ideas for anyone with an open mind. I hope one day someone brings the Mars Rovers back to Earth, perhaps along with the Hasselblad left on the Moon. They are signs of a human achievement bigger than the Pyramids, St. Peter's or the Great Wall of China - and an achievement which is under threat from fundamentalists, whether Islamic or Christian. I still find it amazing that the country that has produced insitutions like NASA and Woods Hole has places that mandate the teaching of Creationism, and I find that far more worrying than a survey that suggests that only a minority can find the Pacific.