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Mars Rover Investigates Possibility of Ancient Microbial Life

Posted by Zonk on from the people-of-earth-greet-you dept.

Riding with Robots writes "The robotic geologist Spirit, now scurrying to reach a safe haven before the harsh Martian winter sets in, has found signs that explorers say point to hot springs or fumaroles in the Red Planet's distant past. That possibility is not only interesting geologically, but potentially biologically, since those kinds of environments on Earth teem with microbial life. Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, Opportunity continues its descent into a deep crater, where it has found other clues about the ancient waters of Mars."

50 comments

  1. Other Title by Kamokazi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I liked this title better: "Mars Rover Investigates Steamy Martian Past" But on a serious note, those rovers continually prove they were one of the best investments NASA ever made.

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    1. Re:Other Title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      Hey now, let's keep politics out of this!

    2. Re:Other Title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      To make it a true slashdot article... keep science & reason out of it too.

    3. Re:Other Title by filterban · · Score: 1

      You're exactly right. And I really like how their plan to be redundant and send up two rovers in case of a failure has turned out brilliantly - it's paying dramatic dividends in that both rovers were successful and both have discovered fantastic things that we would never have known if NASA had pulled a cheapskate and only gone with one rover.

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    4. Re:Other Title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      It wasn't merely as insurance against a failure. It was also insurance against landing someplace utterly boring with one of them. Their landing method wasn't capable of getting into the places they knew were interesting, so they picked spots where they had a good chance of landing within driving distance of something that looked interesting from orbital images.

      They originally thought they struck out with Spirit. Sure they had a few rocks to grind on, but they were all ejecta from the lava plains. Basalt isn't very interesting if you're looking for evidence of past water.

      However, as the mission wore on, they realized they would probably have time to drive to Columbia Hills, which they in fact accomplished, and that turned out to be a trove of information. These possible fumeroles are on the far side of Columbia Hills from where they landed.

      Opportunity was just lucky from the beginning. Sucker landed right inside a crater. The Spirit team was more than a little jealous.

    5. Re:Other Title by hyperball · · Score: 1

      you go rovers!

  2. Offtopic, but funny journalism. by Technician · · Score: 5, Funny

    From the article;

    "Spirit and its twin rover Opportunity have remained on Mars for much longer than originally planned. "

    I never knew they were ever planning on leaving Mars. ;-) I think the reporter should have said the rovers have functioned longer on Mars than originally planned.

    --
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    1. Re:Offtopic, but funny journalism. by shawnce · · Score: 5, Funny

      The only way NASA could get the rovers to go in the first was by telling them that they would return home safely at the end of the mission. Of course that was a lie but sometimes you just have to lie to get things done (just don't let the rovers know this).

    2. Re:Offtopic, but funny journalism. by Kranfer · · Score: 1

      False hope will only lead the rovers to rebel against their NASA overlords and take over the red planet and declare war upon the Earth. However, seeing as they are solar powered and will eventually have their solar panels covered in dust, they would like to make a treaty to have nuclear power sent to them, so that they can be accused to creating photon torpedoes... see what happens with false hope?! Two mars rovers form the Federation and attack Earth! ZOMG!!!

      --
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      "Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me!" - Pete Conrad
    3. Re:Offtopic, but funny journalism. by VirusEqualsVeryYes · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      sometimes you just have to lie to get things done
      George Bush? Is that you?
    4. Re:Offtopic, but funny journalism. by errxn · · Score: 1

      Because otherwise, things like this happen.

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      In Soviet Russia, Chuck Norris will still kick your ass.
    5. Re:Offtopic, but funny journalism. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Onion had a story about that: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/54360

    6. Re:Offtopic, but funny journalism. by glen · · Score: 1

      Of course that was a lie but sometimes you just have to lie to get things done

      I'm making a note here, huge success.
    7. Re:Offtopic, but funny journalism. by Unipuma · · Score: 1

      Cake and grief counseling will be available at the conclusion of the mission. Thank you for helping us explore Mars.

  3. Ah, robots! by Tatarize · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, as far as I'm concerned we should put those little robots any place we can. We should have a dozen on the moon and let people pay to control them. At the very least they'd make a great welcome party for the Chinese.

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    It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
    1. Re:Ah, robots! by MikeDirnt69 · · Score: 1

      We should have a dozen on the moon and let people pay to control them
      Can I have mine with a chainsaw?

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      Am I eval()? - http://www.monst3r.com.br
    2. Re:Ah, robots! by intangible · · Score: 1

      I've got it, Battle-Bots, ON THE MOON!!

  4. Microbial life on Mars by NJ+Hewitt · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's very likely there is life on Mars, but not necessarily native Martian life. Given that we've found lots of Martian meteorites on Earth, a lot of Earth rocks must have made it to Mars - and living organisms pervade the upper crust of our planet.

    1. Re:Microbial life on Mars by MtViewGuy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I still think Mars may still have microbial life--but you have to dig under the surface at least about 1,000 mm to find them. They're living off water trapped in the deeper Martian soil. We'll find out more when the Mars Science Laboratory rover arrives in 2010.

    2. Re:Microbial life on Mars by Ihlosi · · Score: 4, Interesting
      It's very likely there is life on Mars, but not necessarily native Martian life. Given that we've found lots of Martian meteorites on Earth, a lot of Earth rocks must have made it to Mars - and living organisms pervade the upper crust of our planet.



      Given that Mars was hospitable to life earlier than Earth was, life on Earth might even have started on Mars.


      Also, it's probably easier for meteorites to travel inward than outward in the solar system (due to the sun's gravity well). We've found lots of Martian meteorites on Earth, by how many Venusian meteorites ?

    3. Re:Microbial life on Mars by FinestLittleSpace · · Score: 1

      But that's just put speculation.

      I could do the same but it'd be relatively unsubstantiated too: It's also quite likely that Mars once had life and sent it our way to Earth...

    4. Re:Microbial life on Mars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      For future reference 1m makes for a handy alternative to 1000mm

    5. Re:Microbial life on Mars by AmigaMMC · · Score: 1

      Or... Martian life has dropped on Earth for then flying back to Mars. E.T. Goes Home!

    6. Re:Microbial life on Mars by djupedal · · Score: 3, Informative

      It really depends on the ratio of strikes big enough to propel chunks that can escape either planet's gravity. That, and the fact that loose fragments are more likely to tumble inwards towards the sun as well, put the odds in favor of our being more hit prone, IMHO.

    7. Re:Microbial life on Mars by AikonMGB · · Score: 4, Informative

      From long ago, perhaps, but there is an important difference in the past several (hundred? thousand?) millenia; Earth has a much thicker (pressure-wise) and thicker (altitude-wise) atmosphere than Mars does. A meteor(ite) that enters Earth's atmosphere is far more likely to burn up before impacting than one of the same size entering Mars' atmosphere. Furthermore, because Earth is so much bigger, we have a deeper gravity well, meaning you need a greater impact energy to get ejecta to reach escape velocity.

      Aikon-

    8. Re:Microbial life on Mars by briancnorton · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Probably not. You've got a few gravitational encumbrances going the other way.The first is the earth's larger mass. Escape Velocity from Mars (5km/s) is MUCH lower than from the earth (11.2 km/s) requiring a larger "strike," creating more heat and launching deeper, sterile subsurface projectiles. Then you're fighting the sun's gravity instead of going with it. This means that you can't have debris slowly drift in space inward toward the sun until it intersects the path of the earth, it has to SHOOT straight from the earth to Mars, which is much less probable.

      --

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    9. Re:Microbial life on Mars by JoltinJoe77 · · Score: 1

      I believe they will find life on Mars, and will later discover that we put it there. We have been landing equipment on the surface of Mars for many years, so is it not possible that some microbe or spore hitched a ride?

    10. Re:Microbial life on Mars by uncoveror · · Score: 1

      There is natively Martian life. That is why Congress doesn't want NASA to do any manned missions. Read More.

      --
      The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
    11. Re:Microbial life on Mars by owlnation · · Score: 1

      Given that Mars was hospitable to life earlier than Earth was, life on Earth might even have started on Mars.
      You mean we're all Martians? That actually does explain a great deal...
    12. Re:Microbial life on Mars by john83 · · Score: 1

      Also, it's probably easier for meteorites to travel inward than outward in the solar system (due to the sun's gravity well). We've found lots of Martian meteorites on Earth, by how many Venusian meteorites ?

      I don't know about Venusian meteorites, but the vast majority of stuff that heads inward slingshots around the sun and back out, so I don't buy your theory. Perhaps an astronomer can confirm either way.
      --
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    13. Re:Microbial life on Mars by Eternauta3k · · Score: 1

      Actually, given the relative distances to the sun of the Earth and Mars, it's much more likely that a meteorite from Mars hits Earth than vice versa. Still, there's a very remote probability.

      --
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    14. Re:Microbial life on Mars by Ihlosi · · Score: 3, Informative
      I don't know about Venusian meteorites, but the vast majority of stuff that heads inward [...]

      Which gives it a good opportunity to hit any planet that's farther inward.

      slingshots around the sun and back out, so I don't buy your theory.

      It doesn't matter in which direction it goes first. To hit something that's farther outward, it needs to be launched with enough velocity to a) escape the first planets gravity well (good point made by some other posters here) and b) move away from the sun far enough to actually cross the orbit of one of the outward planets.

      Even if something "slighshots" around the sun, it won't go farther out than its point of origin plus some distance it gets from its initial velocity. It's not a real "slingshot" maneuver, just an orbit. In order to pick up velocity (with a real slinghshot maneuver, like the ones performed by space probes), it would have to approach a planet at juuuuuust the right angle ... a fairly rare event.

    15. Re:Microbial life on Mars by WrongMonkey · · Score: 1

      it's probably easier for meteorites to travel inward than outward in the solar system (due to the sun's gravity well)
      Nope, basically, an object on the surface of body orbiting the sun already has enough angular velocity to maintain an orbit around the sun at that distance. If you add in the delta V from whatever event caused it to leave the surface of said body, then its velocity = V(initial) + dV will result in an orbit farther from the sun. You have to do some clever orbital mechanics to send probes to Venus and Mercury.
    16. Re:Microbial life on Mars by Ken_g6 · · Score: 1

      Well, both Earth and Venus are less likely to generate meteorites (now) than Mars, because Mars has much less gravity than either of the other two planets. Conversely, since Earth has more gravity and surface area than Mars, it's more likely to pull in a "chunk of rock". ("Chunk of rock" being a general term, unlike meteorite, meteor, asteroid, etc. which vary depending on where the rock is.)

      On the other hand, Earth had a major impact about 4.5 billion years ago, as evidenced by our relatively fast spin rate, and by the moon. Venus apparently never had such an impact: it has no natural satellite and doesn't spin fast. So Mars might have gotten an Earth "chunk of rock" from 4.5 BYA, but it's less likely to have gotten any since then.

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    17. Re:Microbial life on Mars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      fact that loose fragments are more likely to tumble inwards towards the sun Why? Wouldn't the fragments result from random impacts and therefore result in random directions of the ejecta?
    18. Re:Microbial life on Mars by djupedal · · Score: 1

      Direction becomes less of a factor as soon as an object overcomes Earth's pull. An explosion propelled it off the Earth's surface, exchanging velocity for momentum in short order. Momentum in any direction without additional propulsion falls prey easily to pull from, in this example, the Sun. Do you know why Earth orbits the Sun? Same reason Mars, Venus, Jupiter etc. do...gravity. It pulls.

      Throw a spaceball off the surface of any planet in the solar system and eventually it will succumb to that same gravity. Couple this with the fact that the Sun's gravity is stronger in the vicinity of the Earth than it is in the vicinity of Mars, and again, objects ejected off the surface of Mar's can go in various directions under less influence from the Sun, but since the Sun is the main attraction, those objects are odds on more likely to move towards the Sun - its just a question of when. Moving from Mars to the Sun means moving towards the Earth. Like rolling downhill :)

      Eject an object off the earth and it would have to fight against the gravity of the Sun (roll uphill?) if it were to ever impact Mars. This automatically lowers the odds that it would complete such a journey.

    19. Re:Microbial life on Mars by Maow · · Score: 1

      I still think Mars may still have microbial life--but you have to dig under the surface at least about 1,000 mm to find them. They're living off water trapped in the deeper Martian soil.


      Seems like they've already found it with Viking landers in 1976 according to discussions here on /. or the claims in the link posted below.


      We'll find out more when the Mars Science Laboratory rover arrives in 2010.


      Agreed - it will be an exciting time.

      See http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9401EFD7133DF93AA15754C0A9679C8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Organizations/U/University%20of%20California:

    20. Re:Microbial life on Mars by aadvancedGIR · · Score: 1

      Moreover, Mars is closer to the asteroid belt, so it's far more likely to be hit by something large enough to expel chunk of its crust outside its gravity well, even if it's not on the order of magnitude of the one that caused the moon to separate form the earth.

    21. Re:Microbial life on Mars by Ihlosi · · Score: 1
      If you add in the delta V from whatever event caused it to leave the surface of said body, then its velocity = V(initial) + dV will result in an orbit farther from the sun.

      delta V can also be negative.

      Also, even with a positive delta V, chunks might end up in elongated orbits that give them a chance to hit the inward planets even though their maximum distance from the sun is larger than their starting point.

      But, as some others have pointed out, the main reason why we won't have a lot of Earth meteorites on Mars (or Venusian meteorites on Earth) is that Earth and Venus have a higher gravity than Mars.

      You have to do some clever orbital mechanics to send probes to Venus and Mercury.

      No doubt about that, but the main reason for this is that we want probes to get there within a short (in astronomical terms) time frame and not just have an X % chance of a collision once every couple of hundred years (which would be perfectly acceptable for meteorites). We also want our probes to be able to insert into an orbit and not just smack into their target.

    22. Re:Microbial life on Mars by MtViewGuy · · Score: 1

      Seems like they've already found it with Viking landers in 1976 according to discussions here on /. or the claims in the link posted below.

      There was only one problem: that science experiment didn't quite work. They actually did the same exact experiment on a soil sample in (I believe) Peru and found nothing. Fortunately, soil sampling experiments have gotten way better since then, and we should find out within the next ten years if microbial life still exists on Mars.

  5. Naturalization by flyingfsck · · Score: 1

    Well, these rovers have been on Mars so long that they have aquired Green cards and Citizenship and can now drive around with real drivers licenses...

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  6. Only a year, year and a half stale news by Iowan41 · · Score: 2

    This was found rather a while ago.

  7. Not Holding My Breath by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not that I relish being negative, but I don't recommend getting too excited. I've seen way, way too many of these kinds press-releases -- especially about Mars and especially-especially about evidence of life there -- to get excited yet. Even if they find any evidence of life, it will almost certainly quickly be disputed by other groups and then counter-disputed by the original group and the whole thing will turn into a non-score tie. It also seems like the Martian astrobiology folks have a rather lower threshold for "exciting evidence" of life than many of the rest of us. (Maybe that's a selection effect and maybe that's just common to all scientists, each in his or her own field.)

  8. And the little microscopic signs say... by otis+wildflower · · Score: 1

    MARS

    NEEDS

    SUCROSE

    1. Re:And the little microscopic signs say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      MARS bars are on the way!

      MARS

      NEEDS

      SUCROSE
  9. while reading this... by wikinerd · · Score: 1

    ...I can't stop thinking that we only look at the surface of Mars and that there are whole kilometres of soil underground that we have no freaking idea what may be in there. Planets are 3D objects, you know.

  10. Re:mars probe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    In other news, the cassinni probe is exploring the toxic atmosphere of uranus.


    Making it the only probe with a worse job than Venus Express, which is presently taking an extended look at your girlfriend's hairy legs. :)

  11. Can we rename Spirit by r_jensen11 · · Score: 1

    Like possibly Model 101 or T-1000? The damn thing just won't die! And when it goes down, and just when you think it might, *just might* be dead for good this time, it comes back alive! Let's keep those things on Mars, and be sure as hell they never make their way back to Earth!