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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."
Martians took over the rover and programmed it with an ominous message:
"Nothing for you to see here. Please move along."
If they could just find some bottle it, then they'd never need to worry about government funding again.
Now, I want to know, is this Longhorn rock a symptom of this? And if so, is Microsoft giving money to OSDN, or have they gone straight to NASA to participate in "the growing trend of inserting ads more directly into online content"
It's funny... laugh... Please...?
Meanwhile, Spirit, which has now climbed about 10 yards up a hillside, getting above the Gusev plain, found an interesting rock dubbed 'Longhorn'.
No wonder it's taken MS so long to get Longhorn out. They've got to haul it from Mars!
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.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
more evidence from a diff perspective. It seems pretty likely now that water *did* or perhaps is even still, on Mars. cool.
CB)(*&^%$
free ipod and free gmail!
found an interesting rock dubbed 'Longhorn'.
Sheesh, when NASA works faster than Microsoft, there's a cause for concern...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Isn't it possible, since Mars does not have a thick atmosphere like earth, that rocks that are found on Mars's surface are not nessicarly from mars?
Your mammas flamebait.
This is fascinating news, and seems to confirm many astronomer's / xenogeologist's wildest hopes for the Red Planet. But, and forgive my ignorance, where has the water all gone? The atmosphere is mostly CO2, I believe... so, somewhere, there's a bunch of H2 missing. And whether or not Mars ever supported life, I doubt it ever hosted an ecosystem on a scale large enough to convert that much water. Where'd it go? How'd it get there? Anyone?
The rovers are taking some wear from the martian environment. At one point I heard that one of the wheels on one of the rovers began experiencing more resistance to moving. I suppose the dust and dirt are begining to clog and gum parts up on the rover.
Opportunity has found lumpy
I was wondering why I felt like someone was following me yesterday....
This is not going to help my paranoia one bit.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
"There is no way NASA can lead us to believe that THIS [http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mer/images.cfm?i d=787] is a rock! It is very obviously organic. Just LOOK at it. It is some sort of fleshy, wrinkly creature, or remnant of one. Anyone with two eyes and half a brain can plainly see that.
;-)
Now the question is, why is NASA trying to mislead the public YET AGAIN [link to moon landing hoax website] [link to mars face page]!
blah blah blah..."
that the release of the pictures of the Longhorn rock are delayed and will not be available until 2007.
Welcome to the land of the free...pay toll ahead...no photography...please open your bag...
The only thing I hate more than hypocrites are people who hate hypocrites.
From the previous story, "Writing Software Worldwide Proves Difficult", it said 23 of 56 people couldn't find the Pacific Ocean on a map, and yet we can find water on other planets. Looks like all the people who got A's in geography work at NASA.
Finally, more evicence of refreshing, live giving Dasani(TM) on Mars.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
This picture of Endurance rook look realy like Dinosaurus Rex fecess .cfm?id =787
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mer/image
May be this can explain why Dinosaurus was extinguish!
Ceci n'est pas une Signature !
Could that "lumpy" rock be a fossil of a ?
Maybe we deserve this world ?
I don't know about anyone else, but when I first saw the picture, my reaction was not "Oh, it's a rock!"
In fact, not that I believe it is as such necessarily, it looks like a fossilized organic somethingoranother. The back end looks something like a frog. Now, this is probably proposterous (it is most likely a volcanic-produced rock), but I sure wouldn't mind being (accidentally) correct.
With the casual way that they mention that they *might* go by and check it out, I certainly hope that they do! Of all of the "rocks" that they have studied so far, I think that this one merits a much less casual reaction. I find their treatment of this discovery a bit odd.
Who knows...
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
"We are Linux. Resistance is measured in Ohms."
I'd definitely say the rovers have been money well spent. I'm impressed by how long they've lived past their estimated KIA date. Most impressive. If only more NASA projects could be as successful.
You could if there was no tilt to its axis of rotation relative to its orbital plane.
Mars, though, tilts about the same as Earth - 25 degrees or so. But its orbital eccentricity has a 19% variance, versus Earth's 2%. The 'Southern Winter' is much longer and colder than the 'Northern Winter,' and the whole planet is colder. The Martian Southern hemisphere experiences much greater temperature variance than any point on Earth.
Seasons on Mars
A NASA spokesperson said that the rover was projected to reach the Longhorn rock "sometime in 2005... no wait! 2006... um... 2007?"
Screw this "NASA found water today" and "Spirit discovered more water this month" and "scientists believe there's water in this rock" crap.
/. news. Sigh...
When is NASA going to bring back a sample of killer DNA bacteria back to Earth from Mars, clone a fast-growing horny chick in a glass box, and then let her loose to find the first guy to fuck hard and nasty before ripping his groin in two with her alien scissor legs?
'cause I'm waiting on that kind of woman, and I think it'd be a great way to go out in a blaze of...wait...never mind. I'm a computer nerd with a gut, pale white skin, and a rash that we won't talk about here. She'll be hunting a prime specimen with whom to sow her seed.
Back to Far Cry and
IronChefMorimoto
I'm glad you're smart enough to dismiss your observations of a video sent from thousands of miles away as wishful thinking- there are millions that look at that and see God.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
I think the JPL press release the link i sposed to point to is here
done
Everyone is so excited about the possibility of liquid water on Mars, but has anyone considered that it might be some other type of liquid? Something with different properties that would explain the odd patterns?
This article intrigued me, but why is everyone so focused on water? Could the carbon dioxide or some other atmospheric gas be condensing in the cold north to form the odd runoff channels on the rock. This rock faces away from the sun and would therefore be one of Mars' coldest points. Could that be why there is little other than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? Could wind erosion and perhaps even blast shockwaves from meteorites have been causing the errosive-looking paterns in such an enviroment? With the atmosphere being lighter, wouldn't meteorites hit harder and more frequently than Earth? Finally, can we draw any similarities to our own moon's surface, a place which we know much more about?
(I ask because I have no idea)
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
The entry in the afformentioned website was posted after the slashdot story broke. its obvious intention was to get free advertising on Slashdot.
In fact, this is the third story I've seen today with an advertisement for illuminedgaming.com
More free shrimp?
http://www.ljsilvers.com/press/freeshrimp.htm
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.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
Why will the rovers fail?
Here's the likelyest causes.
1. The solar cells accumulate dust and their efficiency reduces.
2. Heating and cooling cycles cause micro-fracturing of the crystals in those solar cells. Their power production decreases for sure, AND the cracks increase how much dust clings to them, so if #1 isn't a problem, it possibly will become one.
3. Flexable materials will outgass some of their lubricants and plasticisers. Plastic parts are particularly vulnerable to multiple combinations of thermal cycling, low pressure and the daytime UV. Greases and oils will eventually break down for similar reasons, causing moving parts to stick.
4. Many electronic components are mounted on plasticized boards, not that different from the ones used in commercial designs, although the NASA ones are ruggidized quite a bit. The boards are still vulnerable to the thermal cycling and outgassing problems, although their mostly being buried deep inside the spacecraft helps with thermal cycling problems.
I'd expect to see the craft brought down eventuallly by a wheel lock-up, though either of them may be able to drag one wheel at reduced efficiency for a time.
Before the main control circuits in the craft's center fail, I'd guesstimate that we will hear of boards in the peripherals (like out in a camera arm), going out and taking down those functions.
Who is John Cabal?
....And showed some amazing geological formations that looked like dried riverbeds and water-carved deep canyons, most serious planetary astronomers assumed that some time in the distant past water flowed on Mars. The fact that the two Mars Exploration Rovers has shown that it's more than likely we did once have liquid water on Mars means that the chances are good that life of some sort did evolve on that planet, though when the planet's atmosphere thinned the surface water vanished and what water is left on that planet is likely found about 1 meter or more under the surface of the planet.
My guess is that right now what the two MER's have seen will help guide the final design of the Mars Science Laboratory lander, a larger lander (about the size of a subcompact car) powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) for operations lasting over a year and fitted with all kinds of highly advanced probes, including possibly a soil sampler that uses a special drill to probe up to 1,000 mm into the ground for soil samples. I believe that MSL will likely provide the definite answer on just how much simple lifeforms are still existing on Mars living off the water trapped in the soil.