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NASA to Announce 'Significant Findings' of Water on Mars Tuesday!
Space DOT com ^ | 3-1-04 | Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer

Posted on 03/01/2004 2:08:45 PM PST by vannrox

NASA to Announce 'Significant Findings' of Water on Mars Tuesday

By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer

posted: 03:30 pm ET
01 March 2004


NASA will hold a press conference Tuesday to announce "significant findings" about water on Mars based on evidence from its Opportunity Mars rover.

"It's going to be the most significant science results that we've had from the rovers, and it's bearing on their primary mission," NASA spokesperson Don Savage told SPACE.com. That mission is to find signs of water that might support life.

Will the announcement change how we think about Mars?

"Anything of a significant nature has that possibility," Savage said. "Sure."

If there is liquid water presently at the surface of Mars, as several lines of rover evidence have hinted, then most scientists agree there is the possibility that life could exist. Water does not mean life, but it is the key ingredient that makes life possible.

Few scientists doubt that Mars was once warmer and wet. And tremendous amounts of water are locked up as ice in the polar regions. The main question is whether any of that water remains at the surface in liquid form.

Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, are exploring opposite sides of the planet near the equator.

A SPACE.com story Sunday revealed a "palpable buzz" among rover scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, from where the rover mission is run. Sources indicated that a coherent picture of the geology of the rover landing sites was emerging.

Speculation that the announcement might involve any discussion of biology has not been confirmed.

Until now, all rover science news has been revealed at press conferences held in Pasadena. A routine had been established and the next press conference was slated for later this week. Sources indicated a major press conference might come next week. But NASA rushed to set up Tuesday's press conference at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.

"We didn't want to sit on this information for a long time," Savage said, adding that the scientists felt they "had gotten the information they needed."

The panel assembled for the press conference includes top brass and a cast of important science characters.

Speakers will include Ed Weiler, Associate Administrator for NASA's Office of Space Science, Jim Garvin, Lead Scientist for Mars and the Moon, Cornell University's Steve Squyres, the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Principal Investigator, and MIT geologist John Grotzinger, among others.

The press conference will take place at 2 p.m. ET and will be carried live on NASA television.

Opportunity has been investigating the soil and a rock outcropping in a shallow depression at its Meridiani Planum landing site, which may once have been the site of a giant lake or ocean. The rocks are layered and may have formed as sediments settled in the bottom of an ancient lake or ocean, or as part of a river bed, but that is only one hypothesis.

Both Opportunity and Spirit have found sticky, clumping soil that scientists already said could contain water. Only small amounts of water, perhaps sucked from the atmosphere, would be needed to mix with salt in the soil and create a brine, which could exist in liquid form even in the frigid environment of Mars.

Opportunity also appears to sit amid a field of hematite, a mineral that typically -- but not always -- forms in the presence of water. The rover has also found countless BB-sized beads. The spherical objects might have formed in a water environment, the scientists have said before, but there could also be other explanations, including volcanism and meteor impacts.

The rovers have sent back a mountain of other data on rocks and soil that, as of late last week, had not been fully analyzed or in some cases had not yet been released.

The rovers landed in January and are schedule to explore Mars for at least three months. They could last into summer, however. The mission price tag is $820 million.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: bush; cultofmars; god; history; humanity; life; man; mars; martiandesert; moon; nasa; popcornfart; space; stone; wasteof; water
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To: null and void
Maybe the found a shadow vessel?
41 posted on 03/01/2004 4:42:40 PM PST by Truth29
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To: jaz.357
Just think, the underground bypass steals much of the flow for the grid. Back in the 50's the "Maid of the Mist" was really a ride! There was a deadly whirlpool much closer to the falls, also...

This Mars business is a little silly, isn't it?

42 posted on 03/01/2004 4:46:41 PM PST by Dark Glasses and Corncob Pipe (14, 15, 16...whatever!)
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To: Socks C.
Thanks, hope they had some good stuff in the dart for him. ;-)

Good to see you prowling around.

43 posted on 03/01/2004 4:49:44 PM PST by StriperSniper (Manuel Miranda - Whistleblower)
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To: StriperSniper
Has anyone read "Deception Point" (by Dan Brown)? Eerily similar... Excellent book, by the way, unfortunately, like DaVinci Code, his endings are horrendous.
44 posted on 03/01/2004 4:53:46 PM PST by NYC Republican ("LIE after LIE after LIE after LIE" - TK. GOP Reaction? {{{{{crickets}}}}})
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To: vannrox
Two Words: Sea Monkeys.
45 posted on 03/01/2004 5:07:27 PM PST by searchandrecovery (Justice is the final pillar to fall.)
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To: vannrox
Few scientists doubt that Mars was once warmer and wet.
Maybe most scientists smoke dope.

Mars' atmospheric pressure is the same as would be found at 40 miles altitude on Earth. Liquid water can only exist for short periods, probably due to impact, less possibly due to volcanism, and then only in the presence of water vapor from the same source (the permafrost) which would provide the required denser atmosphere in a transitory way.
Water Gushed 'Recently' on Mars, Experts Say
by Maggie Fox
Feb 20 2002
If the water comes from a geothermal source, similar to geysers on Earth, that would mean a source of both heat and water on a planet where the average temperature on the surface of Mars is far below freezing. It stays so cold on Mars that everything should be frozen hard to the depth of several miles.
Mars Becomes Warm And Wet For Brief Periods
by Victor R. Baker
23-Jul-2001
Confronted by Viking images of young fluvial and glacial features on Mars -- stream valleys that apparently were formed by precipitation and glacial features over large areas of the planet, Baker, Robert G. Strom and other UA scientists in 1991 theorized what has become known as the "MEGAOUTFLO" model. Basically, the hypothesis says that over the long term, water and volatiles remain frozen as ground ice and ground water in the subsurface because Mars is so distant from the sun and extremely cold. The perennially frozen permafrost acts like a cap on a soda bottle. And just as gas and water in a capped soda bottle explode when heated, sporadic bursts of internal planetary heat trigger the dramatic release of gas and water locked under the permafrost.
We also have to remember that the only reason NASA et al wants so desperately to find water on Mars is to justify bankrolling human missions to Mars. One obvious step in proving the concept of going to Mars and back with humans is a sample return mission, but Viking already found microbial life in the soil. NASA denied it then, and continues to deny it now.
New research discounts Mars ocean evidence
by Jeff Foust
April 7 2001
In a paper published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, planetary scientists at the University of Arizona and MIT said that features in images of the planet previously thought to be remains of ancient shorelines are more likely linked to the planet's volcanoes. Paul Withers of the University of Arizona and Gregory Neumann of MIT decided to reexamine the MOLA data for some of the paleoshoreline features identified in the earlier work. They found, though, a closer correlation between the features and tectonic activity than any processes related to the formation of shorelines. According to Withers, the key piece of evidence was the terraces identified in the earlier study. Instead, those features are more likely tectonic stress ridges created by massive volcanism earlier in the planet's history.

46 posted on 03/01/2004 5:22:28 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Permanent human presence on the Moon? Yes. ISS? No. STS? Gotta go.)
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To: vannrox
We have plainly seen many things that seem to be puching the envelope for a "dead" world. I noticed that the announcement did not include a biologist...

Don't be surprised if we see some pics tomorrow that have not been released yet!
47 posted on 03/01/2004 5:29:27 PM PST by djf
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To: ElkGroveDan
They have even mapped which parts of the polar caps are ice and which are C02.

. . . and kitty litter? How's that situation shakin out?

48 posted on 03/01/2004 5:39:19 PM PST by Socks C. (still under the bed @ White House dot com #1gato)
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To: vannrox
"The main question is whether any of that water remains at the surface in liquid form."

It would be very doubtful.

With an average temperature of munus 60 degrees F water would not be around in liquid form.

With an atmospheric pressure of between 4 and 8 millibars, (Earth's atmospheric sea-level pressure is 1,000 millibars) water's boiling point and freezing points get within 8 degrees (F) of each other.

Good luck finding any water at all!

49 posted on 03/01/2004 5:52:48 PM PST by nightdriver
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To: Don Joe; vannrox; Phil V.; Piltdown_Woman; FireTrack; Monty22; wirestripper; Indie; Djarum; ...
Thanks for the ping,

I just received advance copy of Steve Squyres introduction at tomorrows Mars press conference!

March 2, 2004, Mars Press Conference

Steve Squyres:

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. We are very, very pleased to call you here today to announce an historic finding reached after the most careful and painstaking analyses.

As you may or may not know, Opportunity traveled a little over 24 meters to reach a rock target called "Guadalupe" where the RAT was last used. Spirit on the other side of the planet Mars traveled over 111 meters to also reach a RAT target. As I’m sure you must know, each rover has six wheels. We have discovered that after multiplying distances traveled to date times the number of wheels on both rovers (one dozen) an unprecedented and historical event has occurred.

That event stunned us after we realized a uniquely human invention “the wheel” has now traveled over one mile across the surface of Mars. We have available photographic evidence of each meter traveled along with wheel slippage data adding additional certainty of this historical accomplishment.

Just downloaded as well are 66 new panoramic camera images of the historic, first ever sundial that humanity sent to another planet and inscribed with the motto "Two Worlds, One Sun,” The sundials will continue to reveal the passage of the hours and seasons as the sun moves across the Martian sky.

The sundial design team included Jon Lomberg, an artist and creative consultant to the Mauna Kea Center for Astronomy Education, Hawaii; Tyler Nordgren, an artist and astronomer at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz.; sundial expert Woodruff Sullivan, professor of astronomy at the University of Washington; Louis Friedman, executive director of the Planetary Society; Cornell University astronomers Steven Squyres and Jim Bell; and Bill Nye, the television writer and host of the public television children's science program, "Bill Nye The Science Guy."

Finally, we have an entire week’s listing of upcoming songs that will be radioed to each rover!

:-)
50 posted on 03/01/2004 5:59:29 PM PST by FireTrack
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To: nightdriver
They think the water is in a chemical compound, like a brine.

They now have proof of the composition I believe.

51 posted on 03/01/2004 6:01:16 PM PST by Cold Heat (In politics stupidity is not a handicap. --Napoleon Bonapart)
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To: FireTrack
LOL!
52 posted on 03/01/2004 6:03:25 PM PST by Cold Heat (In politics stupidity is not a handicap. --Napoleon Bonapart)
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To: wirestripper
Interesting take Don.
I will have to agree, the announcement of life on Mars would be delayed as they do not know how to do it.

Didn't they announce that during the dark ages of the '90s?
53 posted on 03/01/2004 6:10:03 PM PST by gitmo (Thanks, Mel. I needed that.)
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To: nightdriver
Have they determined the soil temperature at various depths?
54 posted on 03/01/2004 6:14:30 PM PST by gitmo (Thanks, Mel. I needed that.)
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To: nightdriver
Have they determined the soil temperature at various depths?
55 posted on 03/01/2004 6:16:08 PM PST by gitmo (Thanks, Mel. I needed that.)
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To: gitmo
yes, sort of.

There was a experiment run on the old lander that had a positive result for some amino acid.

That is all I recall.

Better proof would indeed be a fossil, or microscopic evidence that is un-refutable.

I do not know for sure, if they will get anything like that this outing, but we continue to speculate.

Now, the water has always been talked about, but not located. If water is sub surface, then fuel can be manufactured from it.

That is what is important for a manned flight.

56 posted on 03/01/2004 6:16:37 PM PST by Cold Heat (In politics stupidity is not a handicap. --Napoleon Bonapart)
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To: wirestripper
I thought they found some meteorites determined to be of Martian origin that contained fossils. They were found in the Antarctic.
57 posted on 03/01/2004 6:18:52 PM PST by gitmo (Thanks, Mel. I needed that.)
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To: vannrox

58 posted on 03/01/2004 6:22:08 PM PST by DaughterofEve (W)
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To: gitmo
Yeah, I do not consider that find a big thing, as far as the present is concerned. We are talking about a very old rock that came from the earliest times of the galaxy.

It was meaningless to me.

59 posted on 03/01/2004 6:24:58 PM PST by Cold Heat (In politics stupidity is not a handicap. --Napoleon Bonapart)
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To: gitmo
Interesting take Don. I will have to agree, the announcement of life on Mars would be delayed as they do not know how to do it. Didn't they announce that during the dark ages of the '90s?

Yes I believe Bill Clinton told Dick Morris about life on Mars (before the rest of us knew) as Morris having his toes sucked by a high-priced hooker.

60 posted on 03/01/2004 6:25:14 PM PST by ElkGroveDan (Fighting for Freedom and Having Fun)
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