Posted on 04/14/2015 4:10:47 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Mars has liquid water just below its surface, according to new measurements by NASA's Curiosity rover, The Guardian reports.
Until now, scientists had thought that conditions on the red planet were too cold and arid for liquid water to exist, although there were known to be deposits of ice.
Professor Andrew Coates, head of planetary science at the Mullard Space Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, said, "The evidence so far is that any water would be in the form of permafrost. It's the first time we've had evidence of liquid water there now."
The latest findings suggest that Martian soil is damp with liquid brine, due to the presence of a salt that significantly lowers the freezing point of water. When mixed with calcium perchlorate liquid water can exist down to around -70C and the salt also soaks up water vapour from the atmosphere.
New measurements from the Gale crater show that during winter nights until just after sunrise, temperatures and humidity levels are just right for liquid brine to form.
Morten Bo Madsen, a senior Mars scientist at the University of Copenhagen and a co-investigator on the Curiosity rover, said, "The soil is porous, so what we are seeing is that the water seeps down through the soil. Over time, other salts may also dissolve in the soil and now that they are liquid, they can move and precipitate elsewhere under the surface."
(Excerpt) Read more at dailytimes.com.pk ...
They found damp ground.
If there is abundant water in some form on Mars then we can send equipment that can convert it to drinking water, hydrogen fuel and oxygen.
With water we can grow food there, with hydrogen and oxygen we can power vehicles and will have fuel for returning spacecraft.
Water is the thing we need there that we cannot take with us.
Making electricity on Mars is easy, solar and nuclear...but water needs to be found there waiting for us.
If the ground is damp there must be mold there.
Long-term thinking: Find and divert an ice asteroid/moon into Mars atmosphere at the proper angle. Even tho most of it would “burn up” it would still add some necessary components to the Martian atmosphere. And some amount of water/ice as well.
I read there’s ice aplenty circling Saturn. There’s probably some in the asteroid belt, who knows that?
But i thought the science was settled about liquid water on Mars? :)
A few thousand of them possibly
Without a strong magnetic field (as Earth has), solar wind would just blow the additional atmospherics right off (over time)...
Our moon - and how our Earth-moon system came to be - is apparently quite unusual, and is responsible not only for our planet being so stable, but also for having such a rich atmosphere.
Even tho most of it would burn up it would still add some necessary components to the Martian atmosphere. And some amount of water/ice as well.
Without a strong magnetic field (as Earth has), solar wind would just blow the additional atmospherics right off (over time)...
Our moon - and how our Earth-moon system came to be - is apparently quite unusual, and is responsible not only for our planet being so stable, but also for having such a rich but complex-life-supporting atmosphere.
Once government is established Mars’ future is over.
Gene Hunt’s Cortina maybe leaking some coolant.
With the millions spent on this Mars rover, why didn’t it carry a microscope to examine anything it dug up?
That would be man made climate change therefore not possible for US to do it. The Russians or some other country could and it would be OK.
A clump of dehydrated water is proof positive of life. Yet, a baby, with a heartbeat, movement and all body parts can be dismembered with a vacuum cleaner, because after all, it’s not really viable life.
Uh huh.
There’s no life on Mars until Martin the Martian snaps a selfie with the rover
No, it isn't easy. In fact, power will be the key limiting factor preventing the early and/or easy (much less cheap) attainment of permanent presence on Mars. Solar flux is half that of Earth's, meaning that twice the mass of solar arrays have to be soft-landed on a planet with twice the gravity of the Moon, so evaluate that multiplicative factor of four by the rocket equation. It's ugly.
Nuclear could provide the requisite power levels, except that a space reactor of appropriate size (10 megawatt-class) does not exist -- and won't for the foreseeable future.
Thanks for the info.
It’s time to switch your bottles :)
I warned the poodles.. Dont pee there.
It does have some analyzing capability.
ON Mars?
Never mind
Jerry Brown! California is saved!
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