Spirit Finds Possible Evidence of Water on Mars

Voice of America ^ | 1/9/04 | David McAlary

[LibWhacker]

Less than a week after landing on Mars, the U.S. Spirit spacecraft has found possible evidence that water once flowed on the now-barren planet, the goal of the mission. The scientists are cautious about their interpretation.

Although the Spirit robotic rover has not yet begun its trek over Martian terrain, one of its scientific instruments has remotely detected small amounts of a mineral in nearby soil that hint of ancient water.

The instrument that did this is an infrared camera designed to sense the composition of material from afar by measuring heat emissions.

Mars mission scientist Phil Christensen says the presence of the mineral, called carbonate, might mean its is a remnant of rocks that formed in water from dissolved carbonate particles.

"So it might be that this carbonate actually does indeed have to do with the water that we came to look for," he said.

But Mr. Christensen warns that the mineral does not necessarily mean the landing site called Gusev Crater was an ancient lake, as is believed. The carbonate could have come from atmospheric dust that interacted with rocks and soil without water present.

The six-wheeled robotic explorer will help them determine the answer by examining rocks and soil closely when it eventually departs the Spirit lander. The nature of the soil in which the carbonate is found will reveal a lot.

Cornell University researcher Steven Squyres says if it is in wind-blown dust, it probably came from elsewhere and says nothing about a watery past for Gusev Crater. But if the soil that contains carbonate is coarse, like water sediments, that is evidence that the crater is an ancient lake bed.

"I think we're going to be chasing this carbonate story [for] weeks, months maybe," he said. "What we can do as we start to head out across the countryside is we can look at different patches of soil and we can measure the carbonate abundance is different kinds of soil."

The rover's expedition to do this has been delayed because airbags that cushioned the landing cannot be fully retracted and continue to block its path down Spirit's front ramp. To get around this obstacle, engineers have decided to rotate the lander one-third of a turn to the right and roll it off a secondary ramp on the lander's side late next week.

Steven Squyres says his team is prepared to command the rover to dig with its mechanical arm in whatever direction it heads.

"We always knew that we could egress in any direction and that the egress direction was going to be picked on the basis of safety," he said. "That's part of why we make sure to get a full 360 degree panoramic view. So we're going to be ready to pick targets, ready to do science no matter which direction the egress turns out to be."

In preparation for dispatching the rover, engineers have begun to raise it from its compressed travel position, as if it were a newborn stretching and kicking. The process of expanding the vehicle's legs and wheels to their fully extended position is taking two days.

[chmst]

I didn't see that Discovery show but let me guess. Move asteroids using M2P2 technology, slam them into the ice caps to liberate CO2 and some water, and then burn fluorine in the atmosphere to create carbon tetrafluoride a super greenhouse gas.
(M2P2 mini-magnetic plasma propulsion)

[Johnny_Cipher]

Interesting article, that. I'm glad you enjoyed it - speculation about terraforming is such a staple of science fiction that its nice to see it put into non-fiction terms every once in a while.

[LibWhacker]

I don't recall any mention of carbon tetrafluoride, but as I say, I was drifting in and out of sleep! But they did mention one scheme that involved using asteroids to generate heat and liberate carbon dioxide and water. Also, the time-honored nuclear bomb method was covered and dismissed; too slow waiting for half-life decay to make surface safe, particularly considering the genetically engineered bacteria approach.

[GeekDejure]

Okay, all you Doubting Thomas's . . . Whaddya gonna say when the Rover's undercarriage looks like this after traveling a few hundred feet across the crater floor, hmmmm? :-)

Hey, that's a pretty impressive piece of art. Did you create it... or did some other artist paint it???

.

[F16Fighter]

"The U.S. has a head start when it comes to space technology. Other countries are racing to catch up, though. It seems a shame to squander our lead on what will be - clearly - the most valuable commodity of the future."

IF we were in the least serious about taking advantage of our so-called "lead" in space, we would have had Neil Armstrong -- or at least -- Bugs Bunny, annex the entire moon "on behalf of the United States of America" and set up a lunar camp years ago.

Face it -- whatever overpaid-for "commodity" or stardust NASA discovers will be shared equally with the UN.

[Flavius]

well, can we setup an corporate headquorters on mars, and will it be tax free...

or could we set an martian low income production facility

thats the reall issue are there any cheap martians...

[aruanan]

Right - now go to China, India, and the rest of the overpopulated world. We enjoy an extremely low population density here in the U.S.

India and China consist of vast tracts of relatively unpopulated land. The ratio of population to arable land in India is the same as that of France and no one thinks of France as being overpopulated. Besides, the U.S. is the 3rd most populous country on earth after China and India.

[F16Fighter]

"There are many theories that support the idea that Mars could be terraformed into a habitable climate."

Taken from Mr. Mojo's link at post #63:

Terraforming Mars will be a huge undertaking, if it is ever done at all. Initial stages of terraforming Mars could take several decades or centuries. Terraforming the entire planet into an Earth-like habitat would have to be done over several millennia.

I have seen the future guys, and it ain't pretty. Or comfortable. Or realistic. Rent out Ahnold's Schwarzenegger's 'Total Recall' and you'll see what I mean...

In the meantime, you'll find me on planet earth, prefering to bask in the relative tropical January "habitat" of Earth's Lambeau Field and it's temperature of 10 degrees.

[F16Fighter]

"well, can we setup an corporate headquorters on mars, and will it be tax free...

or could we set an martian low income production facility"

We are already running that scam. It's called Mexico.

[F16Fighter]

"Looking at this from the vantage point of Fairbanks, we're not so far from ready right now."

Apparently, even from the edge of desolation where you are isn't quite enough elbow room for some of these guys.

BTW, here at the Jersey Shore we're supposed to get down to about 6 degrees tonight. Got us beat??

[hedgetrimmer]

Wowee zowee. This is neat stuff.

[longtermmemmory]

Do they have the ability for movie images? It would be interesting to show a martian wind blowing across the sand.

[longtermmemmory]

They have to figure out how to kick start mars' electromagnetic field to protect from solar winds before anything elso could be done.

[longtermmemmory]

Having a military base on the moon before china seems pretty conservative to me.

We had large military planes before we had large civilian planes. Same for jet engins.

Private industry will be the settlers.

[tubebender]

If you see my brother-in-law in
Fairbanks would you ask him why he is mad at his sister...

[longtermmemmory]

There used to be a magazine called "Omni", they had a article about an experiment when animals were exposed to the atmosphere of mars. (simulated) They did reptiles and a monkey. If memory serves, the monkey lasted 20 something minutes.

[reformed_dem]

Don't forget the most important thing...."this is not a living, breathing document."

[longtermmemmory]

Fromt the teraforming link.

"""A rotation rate of 24 hours 37 min (Earth: 23 hours 56 min.).
An axial tilt of 24 degrees (Earth 23.5 degrees).
A gravitational pull one-third of Earth's
It is close enough to the sun to experience seasons. Mars is about 50 percent farther from the sun than Earth. """

Hmmm. We can get women to DEMAND we take them to mars because they would weigh 1/3 less. NO DIETING, let the Chocolate flooowwww.

[TiaS]

Thanks for all the information -- doesn't sound like a place I want to visit real soon.

[NeonKnight]

We'd have to develop a system to shoot down any of their approaching spacecraft to keep their ideas out of our culture.

You wouldn't have to worry about that very long. They wouldn't be able to build one. Perhaps they would feel that we owed them one or something though, and of course their courts would agree.