Water on Mars

[BigDoom]

EUROPEAN SCIENTISTS FIND ICE WATER ON MARS

(Reuters) Orbiting Mars Express spacecraft confirms the presence of water at the planet's south pole. Scientists believe that if water had once existed commonly on Mars' surface that there was also the potential for life to have formed.

Wow! Move on "Spirit", go for it! Fantastic

[Cincinatus]

We've known about this for over 30 years.

[mewzilla]

The Euro-weenies are just trying to boost their non-existant self-esteem.

[Brett66]

Images, links, more detail?

[Conspiracy Guy]

Ice Water? Add tea abd sugar.

CG

[Bogey78O]

Yay! Free Jumbo Shrimp for everyone!

[New Horizon]

Wow! Move on "Spirit", go for it! Fantastic.

The rover moves like a turtle, and can cover about 20 yards in a full day. Don't hold your breath waiting for this one.

Plus, it's malfunctioning with a "major anomaly", and we have recently lost communications to it.

Sad but true.

[xzins]

Water...and LIFE on Mars?

Quick, let's get to the cities and to "where the deer and the antelope play" and to the "thundering herds of buffalo."

I'm excited about what their cars look like.

[xzins]

Water...and LIFE on Mars?

Quick, let's get to the cities and to "where the deer and the antelope play" and to the "thundering herds of buffalo."

I'm excited about what their cars look like.

[BigDoom]

Mars Express sees its first water – scientific results

OMEGA image of the southern polar cap of Mars 18 January
23 January 2004 ESA PR 06-2004. Mars Express, ESA’s first mission to Mars, will reach its final orbit on 28 January. It has already been producing stunning results since its first instrument was switched on, on 5 January. The significance of the first data was emphasised by the scientists at a European press conference today at ESA’s Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt, Germany.
OMEGA observation of the South polar cap "I did not expect to be able to gather together - just one month after the Mars Orbit Insertion of 25 December – so many happy scientists eager to present their first results", said Professor David Southwood, ESA Director of Science. One of the main targets of the Mars Express mission is to discover the presence of water in one of its chemical states. Through the initial mapping of the South polar cap on 18 January, OMEGA, the combined camera and infrared spectrometer, has already revealed the presence of water ice and carbon dioxide ice.
PFS shows different CO distribution in northern and southern hemisphere
This information was confirmed by the PFS, a new high-resolution spectrometer of unprecedented accuracy. The first PFS data also show that the carbon oxide distribution is different in the northern and southern hemispheres of Mars.
The MaRS instrument, a sophisticated radio transmitter and receiver, emitted a first signal successfully on 21 January that was received on Earth through a 70- metre antenna in Australia after it was reflected and scattered from the surface of Mars. This new measurement technique allows the detection of the chemical composition of the Mars atmosphere, ionosphere and surface.
ASPERA, a plasma and energetic neutral atoms analyser, is aiming to answer the fundamental question of whether the solar wind erosion led to the present lack of water on Mars. The preliminary results show a difference in the characteristics between the impact of the solar wind area and the measurement made in the tail of Mars. Another exciting experiment was run by the SPICAM instrument (an ultraviolet and infrared spectrometer) during the first star occultation ever made at Mars. It has simultaneously measured the distribution of the ozone and water vapour, which has never been done before, revealing that there is more water vapour where there is less ozone.
ESA also presented astonishing pictures produced with the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). They represent the outcome of 1.87 million km2 of Martian surface coverage, and about 100 gigabytes of processed data. This camera was also able to make the longest swath (up to 4000 km) and largest area in combination with high resolution ever taken in the exploration of the Solar System.
This made it possible to create an impressive picture 24 metres long by 1.3 metres high, which was carried through the conference room at the end of the press event by a group of 10-year-old children. http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEM8ZB474OD_0.html

[newgeezer]

Ooh, water? Maybe they should have added some "Heet" to the rover's gas tank. ;^)

Tsk, tsk, tsk...

[Lazamataz]

(Reuters) Orbiting Mars Express spacecraft confirms the presence of water at the planet's south pole. Scientists believe that if water had once existed commonly on Mars' surface that there was also the potential for life to have formed.

Feh.

I'm waiting until they announce Bourbon on Jupiter.

THEN we can party.

[smith288]

Well, we knew water was there. There is ice on the caps. What we want to know, i think is, is there waters near the equater just beneath the surface?

[eastforker]

Breaking????? Sheesh, give us a break will ya.

[biblewonk]

410,000,000.00 out da window. What a waste. I wonder how many windmills that could have build if used as a subsidy.

[capt. norm]

I have heard that there is ice on Mars...leading me to believe that the planet, at one time, may have had a crude form of room service.

[Conspiracy Guy]

That makes sense to me. Have they found any of those little buckets yet?

CG

[sarasota]

My sentiments exactly. This appears to me as a hobby for space junkies and a competition for continents.

[Fudd]

We've known about this for over 30 years.

An elevation map of Mars makes this clear. The lowlands of Mars are much less cratered, as if there were once an ocean to erode geographic features.

Link

[StriperSniper]

Great link.