Posted on 10/05/2010 6:41:11 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US space agency NASA announced Tuesday it has given the green light to a mission to Mars aimed at investigating the mystery of how the "red planet" lost its atmosphere.
NASA gave the approval Monday for "the development and 2013 launch of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission," the agency said in a statement, noting that the project may also show Mars' history of supporting life.
"A better understanding of the upper atmosphere and the role that escape to space has played is required to plug a major hole in our understanding of Mars," said MAVEN's lead investigator Bruce Jakosky of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
"We're really excited about having the opportunity to address these fundamental science questions," he added.
Three main scientific instruments will be launched to Earth's neighbor aboard a craft in November 2013 as part of the 438-million-dollar project.
Clues on Mars' surface, including features that resemble ancient riverbeds and minerals that could only form in the presence of liquid water, suggest the planet "once had a denser atmosphere, which supported the presence of liquid water on the surface," said NASA.
However, most of the Martian atmosphere was lost as part of a dramatic climate shift.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
This NASA image, which combines data from two instruments aboard NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, shows an orbital view of the north polar region of Mars on May 27, 2010. US space agency NASA has announced that it has been given the green light to a mission to Mars aimed at investigating the mystery of how the "red planet" lost its atmosphere. (AFP/NASA/Ho)
Mars Had Icebergs, Researchers Think
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/10/04/mars-icebergs-new-evidence-suggests/
Ancient Mars once had surprisingly frigid primeval oceans complete with their own icebergs, new evidence suggests.
There are currently two leading ideas for what the climate of ancient Mars might have been like.
One is that it was cold and dry, contending that valley networks and other geological features suggestive of liquid water in Mars’ past were essentially results of bursts of heat confined in space and time, suggesting that Mars could not have sustained oceans. The other is that Mars was once warm and wet, implying that it could once have supported lakes, seas and rainfall for long periods.
Chains of crater marks on Mars such as these could have been made by
icebergs rolling across ancient Martian ocean floors, researchers
suggest.
Mars is such a fascinating planet. Just by looking at it, you almost know ‘something’ else was there before, but no longer is.
Perhaps it had a tectonic system similar to ours, and it burned itself out. I could imagine something like that leading a chain of events that would cause a ‘dead’ planet.
They should have turned JPL and NASA over to Bob Zubrin many years ago.
We would not be dawdling along as we are. We would have people on Mars today.
Ping.
just as we have solved the global “warming - cooling” issues...yea right?
Totally against this nonsense. As a conservative the waste of money on this crap is welfare for geeks.
We need to give Mars a rest for a while. At this point, Europa is a more important target.
We should have been walking on Mars 20 years ago.. imho.
squandered wealth can do that to a nation. leave them in the cosmic dust.
“welfare for geeks”...give our financial situation you are dead on!
I was of the understanding that Mars lost, loses, it’s atmosphere due to insufficient mass. This seems to be rather well worn data. Gravity can’t hold it on Mars.
While this project sounds interesting, the next major NASA project should be to send a tunneling robot to the Moon. Landing in a crater, they approach a wall and start tunneling, with the idea of creating an “extended stay” situation for an eventual manned mission.
Their Lunar lander is on a one way mission, so can be cannibalized for pressure doors, flooring, walls and ceiling in the tunnel.
The reason for a tunnel is that it is out of the cosmic and enhanced radiation, extremes of heat and cold, vacuum, and the extremely abrasive Lunar dust. By having a place to go to, the eventual astronauts can bring far more supplies and equipment.
Since the tunneling robot would have to be nuclear powered, once it had finished its main mission, it might even go tunneling for water ice. Otherwise, it would be a ready and reliable power source for the habitation and equipment, and could electrolyze water into both oxygen and hydrogen.
Doing so would extend Lunar missions by weeks, and by being so relatively close, the technique could be trouble shot for eventual use on Mars.
I think due to colder temperature, Mars’ gravity could have held on to the atmosphere. The clincher is the size of the core. Mars may have had a liquid iron/nickel core in the past, which would have resulted in a strong magnetic field. Such a magnetic field would have shielded Mars from the solar wind (note the significant bow shock due to the solar wind interacting with Earth’s magnetic field.) Once the core cooled (solidified), the magnetic field weakened. thus much of the atmosphere ablated.
I read it happened when the core of the planet cooled and the magnetic dynamo turned off. Without a global magnetic field Mars was unable to repel incoming cosmic rays and they eventually stripped away the atmosphere. There is geologic evidence that Mars once had a global magnetic field. But it is true that Mars has a relatively weak gravitational field and would have a hard time holding on to a substantial atmosphere. It does have a very thin one.
Dang! You beat me to it!
:)
And incandescent light bulbs.
You watch. This will result in some brand-new ginned-up fairy story about global warming and CO2 before the payload is even spec'd.
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