Slashdot Mirror
Mars Rover Turns Up Evidence Of Water
New submitter horselight writes "Recent data obtained from Mars indicates the environment is not as hostile to life as once thought. 'An examination of data gathered by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity reveals deposits that, on Earth, are only created by water moving through the rock.' The study's lead author, Steve Squyres, said, 'From landing until just before reaching the Endeavour rim, Opportunity was driving over sandstone made of sulfate grains that had been deposited by water and later blown around by the wind. These gypsum veins tell us about water that flowed through the rocks at this exact spot. It's the strongest evidence for water that we've ever seen with Opportunity.' Gypsum veins and other features indicating water movement on the surface of Mars have been observed to be much more common than previously thought."
Howard managed to get if off the ditch?
Mars probes typically return this kind of water on Mars data every few years or so. The problem is, it's nowhere close to the water level found on Earth and therefore it's ability to support any form of life is quite low. I'm not sure how newsworthy this is. It doesn't make much sense to me.
... as it remaining there for any length of time.
With mars's current enviroment water on the surface in the summer at the equator would explosively boil away in seconds and even highly concetrated brine wouldn't last much longer. In the winter or at the poles its a toss up as to whether it would boil or freeze first. Either way liquid water cannot currently exist on the surface of mars.
We need to find water on Mars in order to support manned missions, bringing it from Earth makes the cargo weight that much heavier.
Simple life lives here on Earth in the driest of dry places. Now Mars is dryer still, but that does not preclude the possibility of life still existing there.
Furthermore, this is valuable information for any future manned Mars mission. Any such mission will need a native supply of water. And if there was water on Mars at one point, then there must still be at least a small amount left, though it's probably locked up in hydrates and under the surface.
Finally, information like this is valuable as it shows that water on planets is very common (we've found it on Earth, Venus, Mars, and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn). This lends credence to the idea that water is common on extrasolar planets.
Great warrior...hrmph! Wars not make one great.
The mineral deposits described are formed in water here on Earth. They would have a different chemical composition if they were deposited in something other than water.
What would be interesting to know would be the age of the rocks.
We need to find water on Mars in order to support manned missions, bringing it from Earth makes the cargo weight that much heavier.
Um...there's plenty of it...at the poles.
NASA, you know I love you, but it's time for an intervention.
It's time to stop pretending to be surprised every time you find evidence for water on Mars. The evidence for a persistently wet -- or at least damp -- ancient Mars has been indisputable for a decade. Move your press releases beyond that, to the same questions you're asking in the scientific literature: just how much water, when, and for how long?
They'll have all the budget they'll ever need.
I know. Just look at all that money we waste on science.
The previous 500 articles about evidence of water on Mars just weren't sufficient to drive the point home. Anyone could have missed these articles that are posted. Every. Bloody. Month.
Mounting Evidence for Water on Mars
Surprising Further Evidence for a Wet Mars
Mars Images Reveal Evidence of Ancient Lakes
Strange Globs Could Signal Water On Mars
New Images Reveal Pure Water Ice On Mars
"Puddles" of Water Sighted on Mars
Positive Proof of Water on Mars
A Third of Mars Could Have Been Underwater
NASA Says Mars Once "Drenched With Water"
Recent Evidence Of Water On Mars Near Equator
NASA Announces Water Found On Mars
I suspect NASA has a PR department dedicated to nothing else other than churning out press releases about discoveries of water on Mars, and for some strange reason, every one of them must be reposted on Slashdot by some OCD person.
You think I'm exaggerating? Check this out! A search for "water" and "mars" restricted to the "nasa.gov" site yields over 842,000 hits. That PR department has been busy!
I can't wait for the MSL rover to arrive this August so that we can read even more fascinating press releases about hints of water on Mars.
In Mars' low-pressure atmosphere, water will behave much like dry ice does on Earth - it converts straight between a solid and a gas without entering a liquid phase.
Phase Diagram of Water
Note that the air pressure averages around 600 pascals. That's below the solid-liquid-gas triple-point in the diagram. And temperatures on Mars tend to be well below the freezing point as well.
I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
I wonder how you would go about dating the rocks on Mars. On Earth we have good estimates of initial U-235/U-238 ratios (and other radioactive materials) and the carbon cycle allows us to C-14 date things. But on another planet with so many differences from Earth what good assumptions do we have to key off of?
I wonder how you would go about dating the rocks on Mars.
Oh, same as here. Treat it with respect, bring some flowers, take it to see a movie, compliment it on its geological features, and dont try to bang two rocks together right away.
Boy, how awesome would society be if we limited scientific research to what was deemed "useful"?
As we're projected to top 9 billion people by 2050, I think finding new places to live and new sources of resources is incredibly useful, especially now, before the mass starvation and death. Perhaps you think it would be best to wait until after the fact? Or do you just not give a shit because you'll probably be dead by then?
No. The analogy is perfect. It is about adapting to live in another environment. In the grand scheme of things, the earth will be a dead end eventually...just like the first of our ancestors who wouldn't follow their family members out of the trees and into the savannahs to scavenge. Colonizing the universe is inevitable. You're just one of the animals that won't leave the trees because wandering across the savannah is risky and uses too much energy.
Huygens probe found almost every basic hydrocarbon there. Liquid methane flows shape Titan's continents and oceans. Super cold ice behaves like bedrock there.
And any new probe to Titan before 2030 has been shelved.
And thats even before the Tea Party wields its knife in a possible Romney victory later this year.
These researchers are fighting for their careers!
Mars is not the Earth. You just don't understand that what you just wrote does not apply to Mars. This is the response I get constantly. Apparently, people just do not yet get that Mars is not an extension of the Earth and the ways we are used to expressing ourselves about the Earth do not apply to Mars. What savannahs? What animals? What anything?
It's about learning to live in environments that we're not already biologically suited to. Wearing animal skins enabled us to live in colder climates. Agriculture and hunting animals with spears allowed us to live in environments that didn't have enough gatherable food to sustain us. Mars is no different. Off planet, we will have to figure out new ways to survive. It's the endeavor of moving into new territory and figuring our how to survive that keeps us learning and figuring out new ways to survive. Moving into the savannahs forced us to walk on two legs. It forced us to develop tools to cutting up dead animals and transporting the food we found. It forced us to develop fire. It forced us to develop all of the knowledge that we have today. It's that knowledge which makes us what we are. The most adaptable animal on the planet. It's what makes us the ultimate winners in the game of evolution and there's absolutely no reason we should limit it to our own planet.
Before we get to the point of colonizing Mars we would do well to learn to live in all environments on Earth first. It will give us necessary experience.
There is a not a section of land on Earth that would be harder to colonize than the easiest section of Mars.
The Atacama desert is a rather Mars like, try perfecting living there first, then decide if you want to go someplace even more inhospitable as that.
Space exploration in general may give us more places to live, but it won't give us better places to live.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Robbing the mass of people scrambling to make a living in a declining economy to plant a flag on a desert orb borders on psychopathy.
Tell you what, how about we all get to pick and choose what our tax dollars support? I'll go ahead and make sure no fucking oil company, multibillion dollar corporation, or other collection of ridiculously wealthy assholes get my tax dollars for no other reason than the fact that they bribe our government officials, and you can go ahead and scratch NASA off your list.
I'm willing to bet most Americans would rather put their tax dollars into research that benefits all mankind, such as that driven by NASA, then subsidizing the profit margin of an already profitable organization. Which is precisely why we'll never get the chance.
How many childless couples do you think subsidized your fucking education? Do people stop paying property taxes for schools when their kids graduate? Can you imagine how quickly our education system would fall apart if it wasn't a cost borne by all of society? Or are you one of those people that doesn't give much of a shit unless you benefit directly from a given program?
I bet if we cut every subsidy to an already profitable business in this country we could fund NASA ten times over. The problem is, NASA doesn't throw billions of dollars at lobbyists and public relations campaigns like certain "clean energy through natural gas fracking" commercials I see every 3 fucking minutes on CNN...so they don't have shills like you to advocate for them, just us losers that see the benefit in pure research.