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Mars Express Begins Search for Water on Mars
H_Fisher writes "The BBC reports that the Mars Express spacecraft team is ready to deploy a radar antenna to search for traces of water and ice beneath the Martian surface. The deployment has been delayed for a year due to concerns that the unfurled antenna might damage the spaceship. Mission controllers are optimistic; perhaps the ESA will be the next to make an important discovery about the red planet?"
I'm sure Wal-Mars has some water at low low prices.
they already found water on mars!
The ESA's dog is very thirsty.
wrong article? what am I missing?!
Close but no cigar. I think you were looking for the article before this, but maybe I'm wrong.
AFAIK, all the "water" finds on Mars have been indirect - albeit very convincing - evidence of surface water in the past.
But the radars on this puppy might just punch down - maybe only a few feet - and get a hard f*ing ice reflection, which would put paid to all the surmise and deduction. Then we would know its still there.
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
It won the Noble Piece Prize, not the Nobel Peace Prize.
Those damn Martians will rip you off!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
The Long John Silver Restaurant chain will be willing to offer free shrimp for a second time if this finds any fresh water. Of a man's appetite can dream.
I bet we can charge twice as much as Evian gets!
I'm not a troll, but I play one on Slashdot.
I was watching something on the Learning Channel about Mars. They showed this strange face-looking thing on the surface. Wouldn't it be wild if there were actually water on Mars? That would almost certainly mean life and maybe, given this weird face thing, even some ancient civilization.
Of course, these Learning Channel shows always encourage the viewer to believe in crazy speculation -- sort of irresponsible really. I would really have to rethink a lot of things if there turned out to be life on Mars though. Everyone would.
It's good to see that people are still pursuing space exploration.
-- Molly Lipton, Born Again Technologist.
A friend of mine is a planetary geologist that has been working with data from this probe since it reached Mars. He's reasonably convinced that Mars has had active hydrology in the recent past geologically-speaking, so from what I gather he'd be really, really surprised if they found no water at all.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
We've had this discussion now for several centuries, as if to argue that there'd be something significant about this. Truth be told, we know that there's water just about everywhere where the temperature and pressure doesn't turn it to steam. I mean, take hydrogen, oxygen, two very abundant elements in the solar system, and bam!, you have water.
How could that not happen? Answer: it couldn't not happen. There's simply no chance that it couldn't not unmaterialise.
There's ice on the moon you know. Yes. The Moon. The moon was part of the Earth once, so you can be pretty sure that the moon has ice on it. Maybe not a lot, but it's there. Probably under the surface. Under that dust.
Want to know why there's so much water on Earth? Why Europa's positively drenched in the stuff? It's because the solar system has more hydrogen and oxygen than it knows what to do with. Same goes for carbon which is why if a planet's not drenched in water, ten to one it's flooded with methane or some other hydrocarbon. Do you seriously think Mars is covered in methane? Well, do you? I don't.
Blue moon! You never saw me alone - without a dream in my heart; without a love of my own.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
"Close but no cigar. I think you were looking for the article before this, but maybe I'm wrong."
A few years ago I made a little mistake like that. I had opened a bunch of Slashdot windows to different stories and replied to the wrong one. The mods were having fun at my expense. I'd ask why I was modded down, they'd mod that off topic. Finally, somebody told me to scroll up.
Yep, it was bonehead stupidity on my end, but I really wish I hadn't been modded down 5 or 6 times before finally getting told.
"Derp de derp."
Well duh, like it is on earth: you have the surface of the ocean (where it meets the air), and most of the water is below that. Go figure (gravity and all).
Choo-choo!
I wonder how long it will take before the bacteria riding aboard the various spacecraft we send to Mars begin to spread all over the planet?
If we then "discover" bacteria on Mars, imagine the excitement, and the loss. The loss of our chance to truly know if it was there already. The loss will go unnoticed, though, as anyone broaching the question will be lumped with the Creationists, an object of scorn.
Raise your children as if you were teaching them to raise your grandchildren, because you are.
To quote Agent Smith, "They're not out yet."
In this case, it's the antennas for the survey instrument that aren't out yet. While the engineers seem very optimistic that the antenna deployment will go well and allow the survey to begin, there also seems to be some trepidation that the deployment could seriously damage the spacecraft.
Wait another two weeks, then celebrate the start of the search.
With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter. -- William Lloyd
Dude, you got the wrong article. This is about that CMU professor's rebuttal against RIAA propaganda. I think.
maybe they should work on making a boat so they can go skii on all that water the next time they're there... Another good idea would be an in-depth study of metric conversion.
I like losing arguments, it just means that I can take your point and make it my own.
Once again, another article covered earlier in the day by The Register.
"What kind of music do pirates listen to?" -Paul Maud'dib
"Yeeeaaarrrrr n' Bee!!" -Stilgar, Leader of Sietch Tabr
...the most expensive divining rod ever built...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowsing
Mars Express spacecraft team is ready to deploy a radar antenna to search for traces of water and ice beneath the Martian surface.
I can see the story now: Microwave beams from MARSIS radar melts ice causing chain reaction, releasing frozen atmosphere and water.
"Quaid...Quaid...Start the reactor." .
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
NASA has been coloring the pics to hide the GREEN seen on Mars...
o rs.htm
http://www.themarsrecords.com/mars_red_planet_col
http://www.lunaranomalies.com/colors.htm
As if it wasn't enough throwing bits of solid metal and stuff at the Martians, now we're going to increase their risk of cancer by nuking them with radio waves! If there is intelligent life down there they've got to be pretty pissed by now. We could at least beam them cable TV or something to make up for it.
If some smart alien decides to put a glass a water on Mars just to screw with NASA.
Step 1: Find water on Mars
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit!
R(k)
...that the folks at ESA who operate Mars Express brace themselves for people with far-out ideas like Richard C. Hoagland, who's going to do some very strange explanations of the MARSIS radar images when we start receiving these radar images. Given Hoagland's reputation, you know it was happen literally at the drop of a hat. (rolling eyes skyward)
And what if Asteroid 2004 MN4 comes head-on towards earth?
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news146.html
We may become extinct along with the other species on earth.
May be that's paranoid. But there is a possibility. Having an extra-terrestrial colony is a safe bet in such situations.
The amount of knowledge we gain from these missions justifies the funds we put into them.
Homo Sapiens are not a perfect species. We have our problems. We always had. But that should not stop us from exploring. This exploring habit is one of the traits which makes us fit for survival.
I accept your thought that we should try to alleviate the hazards facing our planet, but that should not be at the cost of these explorations.
The Solar System doesn't "know" how to do anything, because it's as dumb as a brick.
And not one of those super-intelligent bricks you've heard of that scientists have created in laboratories, either, but just a plain, ordinary, everyday brick, the kind that you may pass by every day on the way to work or to the dentist, the kind that just sits there and doesn't say anything, and that doesn't listen, not really, to anything that you may say to it.
I couldn't find it. After hours of staring at the picture, I still could not find the water on Mars. Perhaps someone could help me out? I couldn't find the spam either though so maybe there isn't any and this is all a stupid joke.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Because there will always be people in poverty or poor. Even if you make them richer, then you just reset the amount of money at which you are considered poor. By the way, the current poverty line is pretty high - my stepdad made enough money to support a house, 4 kids, internet, cable tv, regular big dinners and a new van, but we were considered in poverty by the state, and qualified for free lunch, etc
"We need to get over this notion, that, for Apple to win... Microsoft must lose." - Steve Jobs, 1997
When do they begin the search for Scotch?
next to make an important discovery? ..
The only were the first to find water on that planet
ESA is doing pretty well whilst we are catching dust and poking rocks.
My cousin Vern over at NASA in Huntsville has CB(/vert) in his Coon truck.
Before you yankees and ethnics get all hot and bothered, have a look at some old timey hunters with coons. Oh yeh, all you city slicker preservationists. Here's what you do with the coon after nailing his salty skin on a board and hanging it on the side of the barn. That's a joke son. Look here if you need a coon recipe. Nothing gets wasted. Even the scent gland which the dogs love to roll in. Besides, there's a culture that needs preserving! A culture of sensitive souls.
If don't know it by now, a coon truck is a modern tool used by present day coon hunters to haul the dogs. Coon hunting being a social sport leads to more than one truck. The favored form of communication is CB radio. Which gets me to the point.
To keep the CB 'whip' antenna from chipping the trucks paint as it 'whips' arond, Vern put a tennis ball on the end. He suggested that the ESA install something similar but they just wouldn't listen to a dumb ole redneck.
AFAIK, all the "water" finds on Mars have been indirect - albeit very convincing - evidence of surface water in the past.
Radar sounding will produce no more direct evidence of water/ice than this or this. Radar just adds another plodding data point to something that has already been established, by NASA by the way.
an ill wind that blows no good
I thought it was "generally accepted" that the Hindenburg disaster was as big as it was more the genius combination of hydrogen, gun cotton and thermite in the construction, rather than just hydrogen.
All that money isn't going into space, it's being spent on Earth. And the people that money is going to (albeit indirectly) are spending it on housing, food, clothing, education and so on - so it's keeping THEM off the poverty line. And also the people teaching their kids, selling them cars and houses, assembling and shipping their TV sets and so on and on. It's a trickle down effect - keep pouring money in at the top, and people will keep spending it. And for the rare breed who just stick it in the bank, the bank will turn around and lend it to someone for a house, a car, whatever.
That's not even touching on the scientific benefits, or the intangible effect of pictures from the surface of a distant planet being beamed into our lounge rooms.
Hal Spacejock: Science Fiction with Nuts
once we colonise mars, we can send the poor people there! its two birds with one stone! seriously though, poverty inspired huge numbers of people to venture to the new world 400 years ago. crossing the atlantic on a 17th Century tallship was probably a similar venture in relative terms to going to mars in about 50 to 100 years, when it becomes feasible. obviously its all completely different now, no need to stack up all the 'are you comparing yadda yadda...? replies below, however there may well be some parallels. furthermore, space travel is just as valid a use of resources as sport, or art. it doesnt feed your kids, but it does feed their spirits.
Anybody can see the Martian icecaps in a telescope. I presume the article deals with discovering liquid water or water closer to the equator.
MARSIS instrument. Will shortwave radio work for Mars colonists? Ionospheric sounding, 0.1 to 5.5 MHz, will provide some clues.
It seems to me that hey should use that costly technology here on earth to find water for those country that dont have any drinkable water.
At least the people on the bus the Daily Sport spotted on Mars won't have died of thirst.
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What if they don't find water, but instead, find out the planet is composed of Vodka? :-) Hey, it could happen...
-- Game Developers: Stop porting badly-textured games from crappy console systems!
>Why is there so much water on Earth?
Because it's in the right temperature zone, and comets (made of ice) from the OORT belt have been bombarding our planet for billions of years.
Same goes for Europa, though I was under the impression they had tons of ice but the only liquid water might be deep beneath the surface.
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
I'm hoping that within my lifetime we had started colonizing Mars and begun terraforming efforts.
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