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Phoenix Mars Lander Deploys Robotic Arm, Possibly Finds Ice
The Phoenix Mars Lander has successfully deployed its robotic arm and tested other instruments including a laser designed to detect dust, clouds, and fog. The arm will be used to dig up samples of the Martian surface, which will be analyzed as a possible habitat for life. A camera on the arm will allow pictures to be taken of the ground directly beneath the lander. The camera has already seen what may be ice, which was exposed when the soil was disturbed by the landing. The data collected by the arm will be compared to recent findings which suggest that water on Mars may have been too salty for most known forms of life.
...that this lander does as well as the other two.
United States is going to send shipments of ice from Mars to cool the warming caused by its gas guzzlers
They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me. -Nathaniel Lee
I'm speechless. If someone's this ignorant, where do you start?
Lets wait for the test data to confirm if it is ice. For all we know it "could" be oil ;-)
They can't tell if it's ice or not because the photo is in black and white. It's 2008, why are the these image sensors not capable of color?
The rovers can't dig as deep, nor could they have survived more than a season at these polar latitudes either. There isn't as much ice (or for that matter, any ice that we've been able to find) at the latitudes where the rovers are operating.
As for what we already have on Mars, we have rovers that have amazingly gone almost 10km each. That's about 1% of the distance they'd have to cover to get to where this one is. So in terms of "what we have on mars" that "are capable of finding out what the polar ice caps are like", we currently had nothing until Phoenix.
Just because its too salty for 'most' life doesn't mean its too salty for ANY life.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Salty. Red. Once covered in liquid.
It's clear to me that Mars was once a giant Bloody Mary for the gods. It's the only explanation that fits.
I love science!
"... compared to recent findings which suggest that water on Mars may have been too salty for most known forms of life."
Sure, but don't count the halophiles out. Happy in 2 Molar salt solutions? Wow.
...if they'd landed a couple kilometres to the West, they'd've landed in the middle of the town square...
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
. . . I could have given them some.
Not a typewriter
We should send Halliburton to investigate, immediately!
If attitudes like yours were more prevalent during the rest of human history we wouldn't have any of these problems... and we may never have gotten out of our caves... progress needs risk takers even if the risk is only that we are using resources to explore something rather than ensuring the security of what we already have... don't be such a luddite.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
A lot of intelligent people believe that humanity + earth is a lost cause.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
Most native Martians seem to be robotic immigrants....
Uh eventually resources are going to run out on Earth. The only way to prevent that from happening is for a large portion of the human race to die off and give the Earth a chance to replenish itself. Examples of this can be seen all over the place (take a college level biology course). If that happens then you can kiss your little comforts goodbye. If that doesn't happen, then the resources will dry up. The only other solution is to find resources somewhere else. It is a well known fact that in order for the human race to survive we will eventually have to expand .... where else is there to expand to?
Why dont they put some granades on those robots so we can beat the shit out of those red-commie-martians?
Hell, I bet they are ay-rabs as well with all that sand arround and all.
Perhaps they have WMD's as well!
And also, if a big hit as the landing "uncovered" ice, well the granades could be of certain scientific use....
NO SIG
Before the lander even took off, we all knew it might find ice. Now it's landed there's a press release saying it might have found ice. Is there any news content here? Maybe what's different is that previously we knew it might have found something that might be ice, but now it's definitely found something that might be ice. But previously we also knew it might have found something that was definitely ice. Might be definitely, definitely might be? Please, someone wake me when it's definitely definite.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
It isn't the degree that makes a politician. It's good that you understand that you didn't study any science though.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
"A lot of *people pretending to be intelligent* believe that humanity + earth is a lot cause. "
There, fixed that for you!
Brett
Being a PolSci graduate does not make you a politician.
It makes you, very probably, a pothead, a great guy to converse with.... and a somewhat disturbing character since youre posting on slashdot.
Now "saying blatant things about science without knowing anything you talk about", THAT makes you a politician.
NO SIG
Well, according to the incredibly accurate news reporting here in Western Australia, the rovers never happened. The report on Phoenix said it was the first successful landing of a craft on Mars in 30 years. :P
Sometimes the saltiness is not the problem. Some women just can't handle the texture.
It also tends to depend on how much red meat and asparagus you've been eating, too. Sometimes it's good to sweeten it up with some diet coke. (The caffeine is a good diuretic, the water dilutes it, and the water-soluble aspartame sweetens it up).
Your mom doesn't care for the saltiness though.
NASA is the catalyst behind much of the research and development in areas that might help solve this problem you are so worried about.
Fuel Cells, Solar Technology, and a better understanding of the Sun and it's fission come to mind.
Planetary geology, atmospheric science, agriculture (thanks for the weather satellites and accurate maps of the Earth guys) gee I could go on.. all these things are directly beneficial to humanity and the quest of sustaining our existence on this planet.
I just can't fathom how anyone thinks planetary science and exploring space is pointless intellectual drivel. Wow.
A lot of intelligent people believe that humanity + earth is a lost cause.
Then they ought to off themselves now, or use their time machine to change history and save us all.
What's that, no time machine? Then they probably should shut their mouths and stop contributing to global warming.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
/)
I just can't fathom how anyone thinks planetary science and exploring space is pointless intellectual drivel. Wow.
:(
Welcome to America, 2008. The stupid people won.
Because if it is ice, this would be the first time in history that fire has melted ice. Let's get a physicist in to verify prove this.
>> Why are we constantly relying on Earth standards to predict what life on an other planet requires?
Thinking about this question for all of one half of a second, I can only come up with the answer that Earth based life is the only type of life we have ever encountered.
Maybe, just maybe, this is why we use that metric.
Do we (meaning those who truely contemplate such things) know that this is a narrow window in which to frame our query? Yes. Contrary to your beliefs, this has occurred to people other than yourself.
Carry on.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
It's the first successful landing that used retrorockets since the Vikings (IIRC) in the 70s. All other retrorocket-based landings have failed. The rovers used airbags.
Really? ROFL, in Sydney they did a slightly better job, but not by much.
Do you have a link by any chance?
http://www.zombieapocalypse.tv/
Without counting the fact that the Rovers don't have all the sensors necessary to perform the analysis that the Phoenix is doing, and they can't dig either. For the They just... rove :)
For the most part they are digital cameras with wheels.
The camera has already seen what may be ice, which was exposed when the soil was disturbed by the landing.
I have been wondering about this. I'm sure NASA would have taken into consideration that the retro rockets firing as it landed might melt ice and/or destroy signs of life. Right?
True enough, but that's not the way it got reported here. I was most disappointed. Any news service worth its salt should be well aware of Spirit and Opportunity.
The news report is correct in the aspect that the rovers crashed haphazardly to the surface unlike the Phoenix which soft-landed in a controlled manner - the previous being the twin Viking probes in 1976.
Ron
Oh they are well aware of Opportunity, but dont have much Spirit, and even less Soul.
Hmmm, I thought they were going there to find a new source of oil.
Because there's no way to predict in advance what something that we have absolutely no experience with (life that is in no way like any form of life on Earth) would be like. As such, looking for radically different life is like looking for "anything" -- it's not very productive.
Hmm, I would assume that the parent to your reply was meaning that humanity staying on Earth alone is the lost cause.
http://www.space.com/news/060613_ap_hawking_space.html
Yes, the man that article references is truly only "pretending" to be intelligent.
Try again.
Say bad words about my book, in cold oatmeal, or I shall sue!
Ah... it seems to me, Doolittle... Sorry, I've drawn a blank. Hold it. I'll have it again in a minute. I forget so many things in here, so many things. Hold on, just a minute, let me think...
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
I know this is important to geek news and all, but Slashdot is treating the Phoenix like their firstborn.
"Phoenix started walking today!"
"Phoenix said his first word today!"
"Phoenix poopied like a big boy today!"
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
I just can't fathom how anyone thinks planetary science and exploring space is pointless intellectual drivel. Wow.
Robotic missions are a scientific bargain. It's the *manned* missions that are poor economics.
Table-ized A.I.
Eh, I am not a big fan of the manned missions, but some relatively cheap robotic missions are hardly going to spell the difference between the end of the world and a happy utopia.
As for the "OMFG OIL!!!11!!!" comments, I would relax. We already have plenty of alternatives to oil, we just don't use them. The most obvious alternative to oil is expensive oil, as seen in the tar sands of Canada. Beyond that, you can merrily make synthetic oil, as Germany show way the hell back in WW2. Civilization is not going to collapse. At worst, prices climb, people switch to now relatively cheaper alternatives, and grumble about the price.
The US (you know, the home of NASA) in particular is pretty well isolated from the effects of rising oil costs. It is sitting on top of the world's largest supply of coal, meaning that power is not going to be a problem in this century providing CO2 emissions don't keep you up at night. It also has the worlds most productive farm land, meaning that it can merrily turn food into fuel without collapsing civilizations. Toss on top of this the merry fact that a half a dozen oil alternatives are waiting in the wings for the cost of oil to inch up just a little higher, and I sleep well at night.
There are good reasons to worry about energy. High energy prices suck, global warming is no fun, and not everywhere in the world can roll with the punches as easily as the industrialized west can. That said, it certainly is not to such a level that we need to stop tossing the few paltry bones at NASA that we currently do because "OMFG OIL!!!111!!"
IMO it's still a landing if It was in accordance with the designated procedure for coming into contact with the land and surviving.
obvious troll is obvious
I wonder if it's hard to crack? We have a couple of satellites there, but can they work it out? I wish we would soon get to the caves and the princesses, so all the effort would not have been a waste. We'll club them unconscious and take their women. I wonder if we already have blueprints for such a machine, maybe a bio-chemical one this time?
Manned missions give you immensly more information then the probes do however. On the moon its not as big of a deal, but issueing commands to a drone that take 45 minutes to arrive, and the results take 45 minutes to get back to you makes remote controlling anything extremly difficult.
Now, not saying we should strap ourselves in and explore every rock in our solar system, but at the very least we can learn a lot more about climate and how we effect it.
WA is just jealous because Mars gets more tourists than it does.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
"recent findings which suggest that water on Mars may have been too salty for most known forms of life"
Genuine question - if the water is too salty, wouldn't organisms have evolved over the millenia that could survive in that environment?
--- Band: Joey Ultra
You sir, are an imbecile.
If you are going to squeeze the picture down to a hundred kb, you are also using a lossy algorithm. Which means that your "high resolution" pictures are now completely useless for science purposes.
Plus, last I heard, one red, one green and one blue picture will form a complete color image. Incidently, that's precisely how color CCDs work. But, to do that, they'll decrease the effective resolution by a third. By using filters, you are able to retain the full resolutions, getting color anyway.
So, you want blurry color images? Nice one, idiot.
The data collected by the arm will be compared to recent findings which suggest that water on Mars may have been too salty for most known forms of life.
What about most unknown forms of life?
// TODO: Insert Cool Sig
ssueing commands to a drone that take 45 minutes to arrive, and the results take 45 minutes to get back to you makes remote controlling anything extremly difficult.
"Slow" is not the same as "difficult". The tortus is cheaper than the hare in the long run.
Table-ized A.I.
No link unfortunately - that's just what was read out on the news that night.
Thats kinda harsh. I consider polsci a science. As much as a social science can be considered "science" anyway.
I myself wouldve studied polsci if the powers that be wouldve let me become one. Alas... my parents thought it was "unproductive" (and one of them IS a polsci master) and managed to convince me of it.
Now that im in the field of IT, with very good results, i might add, consider that is just about as productive as any other work that does not include surfing in the pacific ocean at day, and smoking diverse herbal products at night.
From that standpoint, i hold a violent grudge against any social science graduates: fsking lazy bunch, you should be suffering just like the rest of us!
NO SIG
Yeah, it's probably kind of harsh.
The problem is that reading five really good books (on political science) is a lot worse than a good political science degree, but a lot better than a bad political science degree. That isn't quite so true when you get outside of the humanities (or really, in psychology and history and economics), so really, outside the sociological humanities.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.