concentrations of H2O2 in humans, since it is a twoelectron intermediary of metabolism.
That must rule out life here, too. [LOL]
Many -outside of, and derided by, NASA- speculated water on Mars,
for example ['WATER ON THE MOON AND MARS'].
Posted on 03/01/2004 4:20:00 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Mariner 9 ***Martian orbiter probe, launched May 30, 1971, which went into orbit around Mars on November 13, 1971 and subsequently returned 7,329 pictures of the planet's surface before contact was lost on October 27, 1972. These images showed a world very different to that seen in the lower resolution images of the earlier Mariners. In particular, they revealed a diversity of terrain including channels and other features that indicated there had once been liquid water on Mars (see Mars, water on). This discovery revitalized interest in the possibility of extant or past Martian life (see Mars, life on) at a time when preparations were being made to send Viking in search of it.1 ***
Viking Mission to Mars***NASA's Viking Mission to Mars was composed of two spacecraft, Viking 1 and Viking 2, each consisting of an orbiter and a lander. The primary mission objectives were to obtain high resolution images of the Martian surface, characterize the structure and composition of the atmosphere and surface, and search for evidence of life.Viking 1 was launched on August 20, 1975 and arrived at Mars on June 19, 1976. The first month of orbit was devoted to imaging the surface to find appropriate landing sites for the Viking Landers. On July 20, 1976 the Viking 1 Lander separated from the Orbiter and touched down at Chryse Planitia (22.48° N, 49.97° W planetographic, 1.5 km below the datum (6.1 mbar) elevation). Viking 2 was launched September 9, 1975 and entered Mars orbit on August 7, 1976. The Viking 2 Lander touched down at Utopia Planitia (47.97° N, 225.74° W, 3 km below the datum elevation) on September 3, 1976.
The Orbiters imaged the entire surface of Mars at a resolution of 150 to 300 meters, and selected areas at 8 meters. The lowest periapsis altitude for both Orbiters was 300 km. The Viking 2 Orbiter was powered down on July 25, 1978 after 706 orbits, and the Viking 1 Orbiter on August 17, 1980, after over 1400 orbits. The Orbiter images are available from NSSDC on CD-ROM and as photographic products. These images have been converted to digital image mosaics and maps , and these are also available from NSSDC on CD-ROM. An index giving the latitude and longitude of each Viking Orbiter image is available at the Viking FTP site. The Viking Landers transmitted images of the surface, took surface samples and analyzed them for composition and signs of life, studied atmospheric composition and meteorology, and deployed seismometers. The Viking 2 Lander ended communications on April 11, 1980, and the Viking 1 Lander on November 13, 1982, after transmitting over 1400 images of the two sites. Many of these images are also available from NSSDC online and as photographic products.
The results from the Viking experiments give our most complete view of Mars to date. Volcanoes, lava plains, immense canyons, cratered areas, wind-formed features, and evidence of surface water are apparent in the Orbiter images. The planet appears to be divisible into two main regions, northern low plains and southern cratered highlands. Superimposed on these regions are the Tharsis and Elysium bulges, which are high-standing volcanic areas, and Valles Marineris, a system of giant canyons near the equator. The surface material at both landing sites can best be characterized as iron-rich clay. Measured temperatures at the landing sites ranged from 150 to 250 K, with a variation over a given day of 35 to 50 K. Seasonal dust storms, pressure changes, and transport of atmospheric gases between the polar caps were observed. The biology experiment produced no evidence of life at either landing site.
Further information on the spacecraft, experiments, and data returned from the Viking missions can be found in the September 30, 1977 issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research, "Scientific Results of the Viking Project", vol. 82, no. 28. ***
March 1, 2004 - Mars: A Water World? Evidence Mounts, But Scientists Remain Tight-Lipped***There is no doubt that the Opportunity Mars rover is relaying a mother lode of geological data. Using an array of tools carried by the golf cart-sized robot -- from spectrometers, a rock grinder, cameras and powerful microscopic imager -- scientists are carefully piecing together a compelling historical portrait of a wet and wild world.
Where Opportunity now roves, some scientists here suggest, could have been underneath a huge ocean or lake. But what has truly been uncovered by the robot at Meridiani Planum is under judicious and tight-lipped review.
Those findings and their implications are headed for a major press conference, rumored to occur early next week -- but given unanimity among rover scientists and agreement on how and who should unveil the dramatic findings. Turns out, even on Mars, a political and ego outcrop hangs over science.***
Had I, upon reading Larry Miller's column, suffered a heart attack and fallen to the pavement, I would hope that a passerby would flip open their cellular phone to call for help. If so, they would be using a communication device powered by a monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) computing chip which came from the space program, and placing their call over cellular and terrestrial networks that depend upon space systems (GPS satellites) for the precision timing necessary to operate. The 911 operator would dispatch an Emergency Medical Services crew, which in many cities would use space-based satellite navigation systems to get to me as quickly as possible.
Once on the scene, the paramedics might get my heart beating again using an automatic external defibrillator whose high-capacity discharge surfaces came from space technology. Once my condition was stable they would hook me up to a blood-oxygen monitor that was developed to fit in the glove of Apollo astronauts, and take my temperature using an infrared "in the ear" device developed from NASA technology. In many instances the paramedics would hook me up to a harness of medical monitoring devices, invented by NASA for the Apollo program, and beam my medical vital signs back to a team of doctors at the hospital. If they worried about me slipping into shock on the ride to the hospital, they might put me in an anti-shock suit, again developed originally by NASA for astronauts.
Back at the hospital (we raced there safely thanks to anti-lock braking technology pioneered by NASA), doctors would probably want to take an image of my heart using a space spin-off technology like a CAT scan or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). If they found my ticker needed regulating, they might give me an implantable pacemaker--again, a NASA spin-off technology. If things were more serious, they might need to implant a ventricular assist device (VAD), better known as the NASA-Debakey heart pump; invented by NASA engineers and famed heart surgeon Dr. Michael Debakey, the VAD is based upon space shuttle main engine turbo-pump technology and is expected to save some 30,000 lives each year in the United States as it takes its place alongside so many other NASA technologies in our nation's medical centers.
Space technology is absolutely everywhere, ubiquitous, and the technologies developed or derived from human space flight programs are essential to our quality of life and standard of living. Miller's inability to put his finger upon anything more serious than Velcro or Tang highlights one of NASA's biggest challenges in advancing the new space vision articulated by President Bush--the trivialization of the vast technology benefits of space exploration by the arrogant or misinformed, and the poor job that the space agency has historically done of communicating the vast benefit of the NASA enterprise to all of us on Earth.
The United States enjoys a high quality of life and is the technology leader on the planet because of the investments our nation made 40 years ago. The fact that space technology has become so ingrained in our lives that we no longer recognize it when we see it is not necessarily a bad thing. But we do need to consider whether remaining at the leading edge of technology for the next 40 years is important, and perhaps might be worth the paltry less-than-one- percent of the federal budget that we invest in NASA.
--Elliot G. Pulham President and CEO The Space Foundation Weekly Standard
Let's give the inspectors time to do their jobs.
Bush's return to the Moon Initiate just might save NASA from NASA.
Antiseptic and life-killing, the chemical helps explain why the martian atmosphere and surface are void of life.
Finding it could spur attempts to look for other theorized elements -- like nitrogen compounds. And the result, reported in this month's issue of the journal Icarus, could drive decisions to design an instrument to measure hydrogen peroxide during future Mars missions.
Guy Webster, a NASA Jet Propulsion Lab spokesman, said it was unlikely to alter the scientific missions carried out by rovers currently on the red planet.
To detect the chemical, which was long theorized but never before confirmed, researchers had to be in the right place at the right time.
The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, perched near the 14,000-foot summit of a dormant Hawaiian volcano, is a sleuth that works in a slice of the light spectrum that boldly reveals the fingerprint of even trace amounts of hydrogen peroxide. The team pointed the scope into clear skies at midnight last summer, when Mars and Earth drew closer than they had been since Neanderthals ruled Europe.
The scientific legwork that allowed the astronomy team to peer through Mauna Kea's high, dry atmosphere was Todd Clancy's, the research team leader.
Clancy had worked on the Big Island telescope before. Up to a year before the historic event, he asked for time on the telescope during the Mars opposition.
At that time, Mars was closest to the sun, meaning the planet warmed, said project team member Brad Sandor. Warmth produced more water vapor in the atmosphere. Hydrogen peroxide is produced by the action of sunlight on water.
When past searches for the chemical came up empty, researchers wondered if their atmospheric models were wrong.
So the project could have given new life to the models or helped to undermine their credibility.
"If you're looking under these very best of conditions and with this particular telescope, and you don't see it, you might be able to say more concretely maybe it's not there," said Sandor, a Space Science Institute researcher whose specialty is the atmospheres of Earth, Mars and Venus. Hydrogen peroxide exists in trace amounts in the martian atmosphere -- in doses as low as ozone-eating chlorofluorocarbons on Earth. But the small amount pulls more than its weight.
Acting as a catalyst, it drives the abundance of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide in the martian atmosphere. Without hydrogen peroxide, molecular oxygen -- now a tiny sliver -- would soar to compose 10 percent of the martian atmosphere. [End]
Many -outside of, and derided by, NASA- speculated water on Mars,
for example ['WATER ON THE MOON AND MARS'].
You mean the geologist rover robots?
Never send a rover to do a man's work.
Seriously, robots can do some things man can't or shouldn't, but improvising isn't one of them. It takes a human behind the machine to do that and if the man isn't clever enough, or the machine isn't capable enough, that isn't going to happen either.
Clementine detected water-ice at the Moon's south pole, because the men operating the orbiter improvised a radar experiment on the fly.
If some other life is out there we'll eventually come across it. But making it your mission is crazy! What President Bush has proposed is to get back to the basics and learn how to use the Moon to build a capability and do it within a budget. His initiative sees resources (which includes lunar ice) as things to exploit. It's so clear and direct, it's simplicity is hard for many to grasp.
The average concentration in the body may be micromolar, but at specific points and circumstances, it can be far higher. As I understand it, white blood cells actually generate H202 as part of the mechanism by which they kill foreign bacteria.
Importantly, Cincinatus' Wife accurately points out our major weakness:
Lack of a Earth-Moon taxi.
Goldin was afraid of the Moon because it would slow his Saganized vision of NASA. Sean O'Keefe quickly saw NASA had painted itself into a corner (which Colombia emphasized) and went to President Bush. Now things can change and NASA can be saved to do all the things they have to advertise they do, but in fact haven't been doing.
Of course this is being met with hostility from those who see their projects in jeopardy.
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