Water Confirmed on Mars!

[BobHegwood]

See Phoenix Mission extension page located HERE.
Water Ice confirmed on the Martian Surface. This is an exciting time to be alive. All kinds of new things coming from our tiny excursions into the Universe.

[linuxm@n]

See Phoenix Mission extension page located HERE.
Water Ice confirmed on the Martian Surface. This is an exciting time to be alive. All kinds of new things coming from our tiny excursions into the Universe.

Perhaps other revelation ? I don't know if it's true...
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/ ... nnel=space

Linuxman

[BobHegwood]

Perhaps other revelation ? I don't know if it's true...

Well, I'm sure that we will hear about it if they can ever confirm such results.
Thanks, Bob

[LordFerret]

See Phoenix Mission extension page located HERE.
Water Ice confirmed on the Martian Surface. This is an exciting time to be alive. All kinds of new things coming from our tiny excursions into the Universe.

Perhaps other revelation ? I don't know if it's true...
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/ ... nnel=space

Linuxman

The key is in the soil and water, and how the two behave together at that site on Mars, not the expected confirmation of water ice at this stage in the mission, Mars investigators told Aviation Week.

The MECA instrument, in its first of four wet chemistry runs a month ago, found soil chemistry that is "Earth-like" and capable of supporting life, researchers said then.

Sounds to me like dirt & water make mud, and that all that's needed up there is a dome and some atmosphere and some heat and we can start growing things.

[Goonster]

What do you fancy growing? I know how about grapes. Grapes make wine!

Goonster

[LordFerret]

How about some vegetables to start with... then grass for cows to eat (we'll have to work on getting cows up there quick)... you work on the wine... and in no time at all we can begin the feast!

[alexvorn2]

What water on mars means?

[BobHegwood]

What water on mars means?

Well, to me personally, it means that there are confirmed resources available on the surface of Mars itself.
This is important if one is keeping an eye toward further explorations and perhaps, one day, settlements on other
planets in our Solar System.

In practical purposes, it means that perhaps a crew landing on the surface of Mars sometime in the future
would NOT necessarily have to carry tons of the stuff with them for use while on the surface of Mars. Of course, there are
many other questions still to be answered, but this looks very promising.

[MKruer]

I wonder if this means that they will/can change the mars semi-direct mission to fully refill the ship

IIRC originally the idea was to carry all the hydrogen on the ship to mars, land the ship and then use the hydrogen and the CO2 in the mars atmosphere to create Methane and use that at the propellant for the return. now that water is available, it could be used to create the bulk of the hydrogen on the plant further reducing the weight required for the mission.

[Enio]

But we can't put too methane in Mars atmosphere because it will be transformed into a Titan-like world. What I want to say is if we put too much methane, this gas will suffer reactions by ultraviolet light, because G2V stars emit much ultraviolet and there's not a magnetic field. So because of the low gravity, methane will go to upper atmosphere, suffering breakdown by UV rays producing more complex molecules, forming an opaque or semi-opaque haze, like in Titan. Mars would be a bigger Titan.

If colonizers produced methane constantly, such gas could be the source of that orange haze, that would substitute ozone for some time until acceptable levels of oxygen to be in the air and latter forming ozone. After this, methane production would not be more necessary, because ozone would protect the surface and the rest of methane in the air avoiding the breakdown of such gas near the surface. And also because Mars would be hotter due to the resulted methane.

The resulted complex substances formed by methane breakdown in contact with water could start the development of life, like Earth billions of years ago.

If too much methane would be placed in atmosphere after heating Mars, the planet would be too hot and water would boil.

[LordFerret]

I would think the methane produced (both manufactured, and as by-product of human presence) would be captured and used as fuel rather than be released into the atmosphere. Any colony would be (I would think) in a closed environment, like under a dome perhaps, with all wastes being recycled, methane included.

[half0]

Finding water on mars is definitly an exciting find but everyone is forgetting one very important piece of info. Mars has no magnetic field. What do you think would happen if we were able to get an atmosphere up quickly and then a solar flare hit? The atmosphere would be stripped away and we would be back where we started. All other things considered Mars seems like the perfect "next world" in which we can start to colonize but the lack of a magnetic field would just make it a prime candidate for failure and certain death for all those who just happened to be there. Now if any of you can tell me a way to jump start a planets magnetic field then more than likely I need to be working with you

Nick

[MKruer]

I would like to think that if we are able terraform Mars, then we would also have a way to generate a sizable magnetic field. That being said, for a long term plan (millions of years), it might be best to move Venus out of its orbit and move it into mars orbit (we can adjust earths orbit at the same time) Allow mars an Venus to collide, and create a second earth.

Or we can collect the remaining asteroids and smash them into Mars, building up its mass and increasing the core mass, temperature and pressure should be able to increase the magnet field. Providing of course we don't stop the spin of the core first.

[half0]

Wow, that last response is kinda out there. I would say that if mars did have a magnetic field then the best idea would be to try to direct a comet into it. The comet would contain some of the gasses to create an atmosphere, hopefully more water, and the dust thrown up would warm the planet up enough to melt the ice that already is there. You never know, we might be able to in the future to create a planet sized magnetic field but then I think that if we gain that type of technology then mars wouldn't be at the top of our priority list.

Nick

[BobHegwood]

Even more fun coming now as India has launched its first unmanned mission to the Moon.
See HERE for more information. Before you know it, space will be too damned
crowded to allow anyone to go anywhere else.

[LordFerret]

Even more fun coming now as India has launched its first unmanned mission to the Moon.
See HERE for more information. Before you know it, space will be too damned
crowded to allow anyone to go anywhere else.

Bah... I didn't see this post of yours Bob. I just put up a similar (late) post in Purgatory.

[JamesGarry]

i so cant wait for something big to happen, just hope we don’t screw it all up by showing the water on mars to the sun(might evaporate it all) but at least now we know 2 thing good for mars, the ground is nutritious, and theres water

[Hungry4info]

Wow. I absolutely love the flare visible in Fomalhaut? How did you accomplish this?