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.
YO! DuDe!!
Ewe rock!!
. . . but watCh out fur guys witH dart gUns . . .
Oh give me a break the rock was just a few million years old. In galactic terms that is just yesterday. Our Solar System is about 5 Billion years old, and the galaxy is probably about twice that age.
It has Nada to do with the present.
It is the present that will fund the interest in further study of Mars.
We can figure out the past later.
That is what I was trying to imply.
LOL... Thanks, I really enjoyed yours on Phil V.!
Not yet. Lots of waybeast scat, though...
anybody KNOW... am asking because this error would not be a SMALL error...
Satellite analysis (ground penetrating "something") determined massive quantities of water below the ground. I forget the exact specifics, but I do recall reading that they determined there was as much water below the surface of Mars -- in the form of permafrost -- as there is in Lake Michigan, and that it might better be described as dirty ice, rather than dirt with ice.
Of course, this presumes that their assumption that it was accurate. I believe it was not. I believe (as detailed earlier in this thread and others) that the temperatures below the surface are warm enough so that it's liquid water (except at the poles, of course). This has several obvious implications.
Perhaps the "Social Vision" of our "Mentors" is FLAWED!!
Perhaps our "Vision of" Human Culture is NOT "Real!"
Perhaps we come to understand that our Life will--ALWAYS--accept the "Truth Of' our status!," ,,,,,,,
Perhaps we're Just Better Than "Those we Accept as our 'Surrogates!!'"
We'RE the "GOOD GUYS!!!"
There ARE "No Better" People than Us!!--I'm SORRY to Say This, but WE--"AMERICANS"-- are the BEST CULTURE that has existed in Recorded Human History.
So a "Whole Bunch of our 'Contemporaries'" have "Claimed to" equal our Social Status;--TO DATE, there is NO "Social Status" EQUIVALENT TO "America!!"
IF,--By some "Sociological Fluke,"--Iraq manages to Achieve a TRUE Democracy, (by Subjucating "Islam" to an HONEST "Rule of Law!!"), THEN--IF "The People" are Willing to accept a True, Democratic, CONSTITUTION--we MAY, INDEED, see a "Democratic Iraq!!"
WHAT a TRIUMPH!!
& to Consider the CHAOS extant just a few days ago!!
I HOPE that the "Intelligensia" of IRAQ have "Come to Grips With" that Nation's Agony,--& have Created a Poliitical Framework Capable of Directing the Political Energy of "The Young,"--& have accepted the Responsibility to begin Building an energetic, creative Nation!"
HAITI is a "Gawdawful Mess!"
There is Little we can do to help!!
There is MUCH we can do to continue to "Live Our Lives!!"
There is VERY LITTLE we can do to effect the "Great Decisions" made "In our Name!!"
So It Is!!
Doc
wHy?
I DIDN'T DO IT! . . . (so shut yer yap, ok?!!!)
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