Posted on 03/01/2004 2:08:45 PM PST by vannrox
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.
This Mars business is a little silly, isn't it?
Good to see you prowling around.
Few scientists doubt that Mars was once warmer and wet.Maybe most scientists smoke dope.
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.Water Gushed 'Recently' on Mars, Experts SayIf 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.
by Maggie Fox
Feb 20 2002Mars Becomes Warm And Wet For Brief PeriodsConfronted 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.
by Victor R. Baker
23-Jul-2001
New research discounts Mars ocean evidenceIn 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.
by Jeff Foust
April 7 2001
. . . and kitty litter? How's that situation shakin out?
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!
They now have proof of the composition I believe.
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.
It was meaningless to me.
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.
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