Posted on 11/20/2012 7:03:34 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
Scientists working on NASA's six-wheeled rover on Mars have a problem. But it's a good problem.
They have some exciting new results from one of the rover's instruments. On the one hand, they'd like to tell everybody what they found, but on the other, they have to wait because they want to make sure their results are not just some fluke or error in their instrument.
It's a bind scientists frequently find themselves in, because by their nature, scientists like to share their results. At the same time, they're cautious because no one likes to make a big announcement and then have to say "never mind."
The exciting results are coming from an instrument in the rover called SAM. "We're getting data from SAM as we sit here and speak, and the data looks really interesting," John Grotzinger, the principal investigator for the rover mission, says during my visit last week to his office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. That's where data from SAM first arrive on Earth. "The science team is busily chewing away on it as it comes down," says Grotzinger.
SAM is a kind of miniature chemistry lab. Put a sample of Martian soil or rock or even air inside SAM, and it will tell you what the sample is made of.
Grotzinger says they recently put a soil sample in SAM, and the analysis shows something earthshaking. "This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good," he says.
Grotzinger can see the pained look on my face as I wait, hoping he'll tell me what the heck he's found, but he's not providing any more information.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Did they find the American flag that Yurij Gagarin planted there in 196? ?
It would be the biggest news in human/earth history and would change our research, studies, religion, exploration, they way we view the universe, you name it.
But feel free to continue thinking life found outside earth is no big deal.
Wow....
I’m hoping the rover found a stash of Twinkies.
the rover joined a union while on Mars, now it refuses to work.
Shouldn't it be Marsshaking..?? .. jus sayin.. :)
Where's the Ka-Boom?
You wrote:
“It would be the biggest news in human/earth history...”
I don’t think so. I think the Good News is the bigger news.
“...and would change our research, studies, religion, exploration, they way we view the universe, you name it.”
Not really. Exploration would not change in the least. Former life or even present life on Mars would not give us a warp drive so it wouldn’t effect or affect exploration at all. Research? In some ways yes. To any practical/everyday effect here? No. Religion? Nope.
“But feel free to continue thinking life found outside earth is no big deal.”
They’ve been making movies about it for decades already. Ho hum.
“Wow....”
Yep, wow.
No, only the closed minded here on earth would be shaken to their core in disbelief. The rest of us would try and learn more.
What does the acronym SAM mean really? What type of instrument is it and what is its output? Then we might understand what the announcement could be.
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/instruments/spectrometers/sam/
SAM is for “sample analysis” - covers a whole bunch of things.
What they’ve found on Mars is probably evidence of life on Earth.
No offense, take care.
Whatever it is I’m certain it will make muslims feel better about themselves!
Go Nasa!
Nasa announces they will give $5 million to the charity of choice of any Martian who comes forward with evidence of their own existence.
Huh? That's like saying Earth is the only possible source of iron or nitrogen. Water exists throughout our solar system and the universe.
The rings of Saturn are almost entirely composed of water ice, and Jupiter's moon, Europa, is completely covered with it.
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