...really could've used the vacated space.
I was about to post this article, when I found it had already been posted (I searched for it before posting).
Moving right along...
My WAG is that they're playing the "limited hang-out" gambit and will not 'fess up to the obvious evidence of life found by the rovers, but will make great hay over the (already known) water.
What will (IMO) be new will be the revelation that there is liquid water in the immediate sub-surface region. One implication would be that the earlier satellite data of massive amounts of sub-surface water -- in the form of permafrost -- will have to be revised. This would mean that it could be fairly trivial to sink a shallow well and draw up liquid water. Whether it's sweetwater or "brine" is yet to be determined.
My theory is that the bitter cold temperatures reported in the Martian air are meaningless WRT the ground temperature. Some time ago it was reported that there was a dramatic air temperature gradient, with the air at the surface level being very warm, IIRC in the 70 deg. F range.
The extremely thin Martian air would be a very poor conductor, so, it would not be very effective at bleeding off the ground heat either by conduction or convection.
Meanwhile, the ground would continue to soak up heat from the Sun, and retain it. If there is residual heat from the core, it could contribute to maintaining the heat. In essence, it would be sort of a "greenhouse effect", only based in the soil, rather than the atmosphere.
A "warm, wet Mars" from the ground level on down could easily be teeming with life. (And, those "blueberries" might actually be turds afterall!)
I wish you wouldn't say that. It is very offensive to us Hindu followers.
If you said "tasty cow," that would be different.
I'm not impressed with the way they ran over the Mars rabbit and RATed into smithereens an interesting morphology!
anybody KNOW... am asking because this error would not be a SMALL error...
Few scientists doubt that Mars was once warmer and wet.Maybe most scientists smoke dope.
We also have to remember that the only reason NASA et al wants so desperately to find water on Mars is to justify bankrolling human missions to Mars. One obvious step in proving the concept of going to Mars and back with humans is a sample return mission, but Viking already found microbial life in the soil. NASA denied it then, and continues to deny it now.Water Gushed 'Recently' on Mars, Experts SayIf the water comes from a geothermal source, similar to geysers on Earth, that would mean a source of both heat and water on a planet where the average temperature on the surface of Mars is far below freezing. It stays so cold on Mars that everything should be frozen hard to the depth of several miles.
by Maggie Fox
Feb 20 2002Mars Becomes Warm And Wet For Brief PeriodsConfronted by Viking images of young fluvial and glacial features on Mars -- stream valleys that apparently were formed by precipitation and glacial features over large areas of the planet, Baker, Robert G. Strom and other UA scientists in 1991 theorized what has become known as the "MEGAOUTFLO" model. Basically, the hypothesis says that over the long term, water and volatiles remain frozen as ground ice and ground water in the subsurface because Mars is so distant from the sun and extremely cold. The perennially frozen permafrost acts like a cap on a soda bottle. And just as gas and water in a capped soda bottle explode when heated, sporadic bursts of internal planetary heat trigger the dramatic release of gas and water locked under the permafrost.
by Victor R. Baker
23-Jul-2001
New research discounts Mars ocean evidenceIn a paper published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, planetary scientists at the University of Arizona and MIT said that features in images of the planet previously thought to be remains of ancient shorelines are more likely linked to the planet's volcanoes. Paul Withers of the University of Arizona and Gregory Neumann of MIT decided to reexamine the MOLA data for some of the paleoshoreline features identified in the earlier work. They found, though, a closer correlation between the features and tectonic activity than any processes related to the formation of shorelines. According to Withers, the key piece of evidence was the terraces identified in the earlier study. Instead, those features are more likely tectonic stress ridges created by massive volcanism earlier in the planet's history.
by Jeff Foust
April 7 2001
It would be very doubtful.
With an average temperature of munus 60 degrees F water would not be around in liquid form.
With an atmospheric pressure of between 4 and 8 millibars, (Earth's atmospheric sea-level pressure is 1,000 millibars) water's boiling point and freezing points get within 8 degrees (F) of each other.
Good luck finding any water at all!
