Posted on 12/14/2001 2:39:25 PM PST by grimalkin
The Mars Odyssey (MO) spacecraft has made its first significant discovery: it has detected large deposits of hydrogen - possibly water - near the Red Planet's poles.
Reporting MO's preliminary observations, scientists said the first pass by the probe's neutron spectrometer had revealed evidence of the element in soil at high latitudes.
"It is big," Bill Feldman, of Los Alamos National Laboratory, said of the strength of the signal picked up by Odyssey.
The results indicate large amounts of hydrogen on the surface, a likely sign of water-ice. The observations "are precisely what you would expect for a very hydrogen-rich environment", Feldman said.
Water, water, everywhere?
American space agency (Nasa) scientists said they were excited by the initial indications of hydrogen deposits, describing the readings sent back as clearer, more definite and much earlier than had been expected.
"We were expecting that it would take many orbits to determine the presence of hydrogen," said Stephen Saunders, a MO scientist. "But we saw it the very first time."
Scientists already know that water exists on Mars; it is frozen in the polar icecaps and exists as vapour in thin clouds.
There is also good evidence that water flowed on the planet's surface in the recent past, carving out deep channels and canyons.
Mapping mission
Significant water-ice deposits easily accessible from the surface would make it much more likely that life existed at some stage on Mars.
The MO is currently tightening its orbit around the Red Planet for a mapping mission that will get underway in January. It will use a battery of instruments to survey the planet's surface.
As well as the neutron spectrometer, its gamma-ray spectrometer will chart the chemical composition of the surface. Its infrared camera will peer at areas on the night side of Mars.
"We think it will be a very exciting winter and spring," James Garvin, a Nasa scientist, told a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
Thin air,little water,no neighbors,just the place for Osama.
No need. We'll have a still up and running within minutes of getting there. Trust me. Astronauts spend years studying rocket fuel.
Yep! The whole world's income!
Everytime some politician says there is no reason to go into space, I want to scream in response, "You're a frigging idiot!!"
You may be wrong. Take a simple look at Mars. There are polar ice caps. The planet actually has seasons. That in itself is very revealing. Think of it. Our own world has polar ice caps, and this planet, Mars is in our immediate neighborhood, within the life sustaining distance from our own sun.
Microbes or microscopic organisms could easily exist in the ice or just under the ice, or just under the surface.
Its really not that hard to believe. Micro organisms could exist in the massive wind storms that sweep the surface, or under any rock as a means of protecting itself from those windstorms and elements. It seems stranger to me, the fact that no life, not even micro organisms, was ever detected on the planet Mars.
Its a great book although kind of dated since it was published first in 1992.
It lays out in a step by step fashion how we could go about accomplishing a presence all throughout space in one thousand years.
- The first step is a self sufficient ocean based habitat. Create small man made islands to mine and drill for resources in the ocean and generate energy.
- Then work on a ground based laser + magnetic rail system to propel craft into space efficiently.
- Use that system to create and man a large self sufficient station in the Clarke orbit. Use that and a few relay satellites to make money in the telecommunications business.
- Shortly after starting that establish bases on the moon from which near earth asteroid mining will be managed.
- build another launch system on the moon to support the mining and travel to mars.
- Colonize and terraform mars (will take a long time)
- Start mining some of the ice moons of Jupiter launching the blocks inwards towards mars and the earth for processing.
- Build more launching systems to ease navigation around the solar system and to other stars.
- Go to other stars and repeat.
The author did his homework, laying out the engineering, and business model for the entire endeavor.
Give it a look sometime, its an interesting read.
But once they accessed that much metal, the value of metals around the world would drop precipitately and the value of the asteroid would be a lot less. Simple supply and demand.
That being said, it would be interesting to what would become economically possible with a vast supply of cheap ore.
Do we know of any asteroids containing platinum metals?
That, plus the fact that the Martians have refused to sign the Kyoto Treaty, has led to global warming on Mars.
With current technology there are no profits to be made in space. I wouldn't count on any of those other countries dominating the Solar System. It's too costly.
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