Video: Phoenix To See If Martian Soil Is Fertile
(Video: NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander will visit the north polar region of Mars in search of “habitable soil.” Credit: NASA)
Of all the rovers that have or will grace the surface of Mars, Phoenix may prove to be the most important.
While the purpose of the other three rovers is to satisfy geologists by observing Martian rocks, the Phoenix rover’s main duty is to find out whether Martian soil is fertile for life–and perhaps agriculture itself.
(NASA) “Our ‘follow the water’ strategy for exploring Mars has yielded a string of dramatic discoveries in recent years about the history of water on a planet where similarities with Earth were much greater in the past than they are today,” said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters, Washington. “Phoenix will complement our strategic exploration of Mars by being our first attempt to actually touch and analyze Martian water — water in the form of buried ice.” [...]
“In addition, our instruments can assess whether this polar environment is a habitable zone for primitive microbes. To complete the scientific characterization of the site, Phoenix will monitor polar weather and the interaction of the atmosphere with the surface.”
While the overall purpose of Phoenix is to see if any life can survive in the barren soil, the space craft could ultimately inform us whether or not Martian soil is toxic towards life.
If proven to be safe for humans as well as plants, NASA could begin to draw out plans of harvesting crop on the red planet for future generations. Although humans may have to (create their own fertilizer (as importing it would be very expensive), growing our own food on the crimson planet could enable us to establish Mars as a second home for humanity.
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Is Terraforming Mars A Bad Idea?
Of all the worlds ever graced by science fiction, Mars is second to only Earth in honorable mentions. Previously imagined in the past to harbor advanced civilizations, many space enthusiasts today now seek to not only visit Mars, but to transform this rusty world into a second Earth.
Although having a second home world (if not more) in our solar system is probably a wise idea, terraforming Mars into a miniature Earth could present new challenges making it very difficult into calling the red planet home.
Despite their similarities, Martian weather seems to be much more violent than its larger terrestrial brother Earth. Having less than 1% of the air pressure of Earth, Martian gusts seem to be able to generate wind speeds of up to 375 miles per hour.
Although Earth is no stranger when it comes to fierce storms, our planet has yet to encounter one on a global scale, an experience Mars seems to be very familiar with. If our species were ever to raise the air pressure to Earth levels, future colonists may end up finding themselves trapped on a world whose weather would put category five hurricanes to shame.
If raising the air pressure on Mars was not bad, raising the temperatures may be worse. Lacking major oceans, future colonists would be able to establish outposts throughout the red planet’s surface, which area wise is roughly equal (in size) to all of the dry land on planet Earth.
With a large portion of water potentially lying beneath half of the Martian soil, (hat tip: Posthuman blues) as well as the polar ice caps, raising current temperatures on our future home world could end up flooding the planet. Although Martian oceans would definitely compliment this barren world (at least from space), they may provide little “land room” for colonists desiring to set up shop on Earth’s distant neighbor.
Last but not least, a terraformed Mars may not be as “wildlife friendly” as planet Earth, enabling only humans and certain pets to dwell upon the surface. Unlike Earth, Mars lacks a global magnetic field which many animals such as birds, bats and certain insects depend upon for migration and navigation.
Although humans could easily navigate via an artificial GPS system, our animal friends may not be as fortunate. Unless an artificial magnetic field could be constructed, humanity will be unable to create the large ecosystems necessary to recreate the red desert into a thriving oasis.
Despite being a far cry from Earth like conditions, Mars may prove to be more livable in its current state than as a terraformed world. Humanities understanding of weather (especially global warming) is still in its infancy, and if we are not careful, our attempts at turning a world into an oasis may end up turning the world against ourselves.
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Melting Martian Ice Caps Could Flood The Planet
With all the talk about terraforming Mars in the next Millennium, very few have mentioned what would happen to the Martian polar regions if the temperature increased.
Recently scientists have discovered that the southern polar region of Mars, composed mostly of carbon and water ice has enough water frozen underneath to flood the entire planet.
(Mars Today) New measurements of Mars’ south polar region indicate extensive frozen water. The polar region contains enough frozen water to cover the whole planet in a liquid layer approximately 36 feet deep. A joint NASA-Italian Space Agency instrument on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft provided these data.
This new estimate comes from mapping the thickness of the ice. The Mars Express orbiter’s radar instrument has made more than 300 virtual slices through layered deposits covering the pole to map the ice. The radar sees through icy layers to the lower boundary, which is as deep as 2.3 miles below the surface.
“The south polar layered deposits of Mars cover an area bigger than Texas. The amount of water they contain has been estimated before, but never with the level of confidence this radar makes possible,” said Jeffrey Plaut of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena Calif.
Some scientists have even discovered what appears to be a “bright spot” underneath the ice which may be an indicator of water beneath the surface despite the freezing temperatures.
Mars it seems has more than its fair share of water frozen underneath, which may end up being its “golden resource” that future colonists can exchange for goods on other worlds (and asteroids). If humanity ever begins to colonize this world, they may need to watch how fast they raise the temperature on this planet as the last thing we need is another flooded world causing havoc for our species.
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More Evidence Of Martian Underground Water
Martian scientists are getting excited with more evidence showing that Mars may have liquid water flowing underneath its surface.
(New Scientist Space) Water may have once flowed several kilometres beneath the surface of Mars in underground piping, according to new images of pipe-like fractures in bedrock taken by the most powerful camera in orbit around Mars. [...]
“These deeper underground areas may have been an oasis for any sort of biologic activity that may have been occurring,” says Chris Okubo, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, US.
Some scientists think that Mars may hold oceans beneath its surface. If so, locating these underground reservoirs will definitely be key towards conquering the red planet as water can provide not only life, but fuel (via hydrogen) as well.
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Searching For Martian Life In All The Right Places
Despite the fact that the red planet’s soil may be toxic towards life, scientists intend upon sending a robot towards the northern pole of Mars.
(MSNBC) Scientists are scrambling to find an alternative landing site for a long-armed robot set to launch this summer on a mission to dig into Mars’ icy north pole to search for signs of primitive life. [...]
Scientists scouring images of the Martian arctic have narrowed options down to three possible candidates for where the spacecraft can safely touch down. They have until March to choose a destination.
The three sites are clustered around the north pole, which is believed to have a huge amount of ice just below the surface. A site dubbed Green Valley is located within a shallow valley and looks the most secure, Smith said.
It is doubtful that this robot will discover anything within a few yards beneath the surface as the soil has taken a serious beating from cosmic radiation (enough to kill life as we know it).
However this robot’s little adventure in the north should provide a useful map of icy ponds, which will be quite useful when pondering where to set up shop on this distant world.
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Are Martian Oceans Underneath Its Soil?
With evidence of liquid water beneath Martian soil recently appearing, some scientists speculate that the red planet may have a wet, frozen secret buried beneath its crimson sands.
(New Scientist Space) Mars is losing little water to space, according to new research, so much of its ancient abundance may still be hidden beneath the surface.
Dried up riverbeds and other evidence imply that Mars once had enough water to fill a global ocean more than 600 metres deep, together with a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide that kept the planet warm enough for the water to be liquid. But the planet is now very dry and has a thin atmosphere.
It had been previously assumed that Mars had lost its atmosphere and water due to solar activity from the Sun. However, new evidence suggests that this theory may be just that–a theory.
Observations by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express hint that Mars is not losing enough atmosphere and water to justify the previous theory, leaving not only more questions about how Mars lost its original atmosphere but hope that oceans may lie beneath a world some see as a second Earth.
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More Evidence Of Martian Water Arises
(Hat Tip: Mars News)
NASA has released news of water existing on the red planet, perhaps in liquid form underground. If so, future colonists may be able to tap into the “water line,” although doing so may cause a flash flood.
(NASA) MALIN: We think that the water is coming from deep in the ground. It’s warmed as it gets closer to the center of Mars. The outer parts of Mars are really, really quite cold, but the inner part is probably still warm, just as the Earth’s interior is warm. As the water came up, it reached the surface and initially froze at the surface. But as more and more water came up, it would build pressure behind the frozen water in front of it and eventually it would break out of behind that barrier and flow down the surface. So we think there’s an ice dam that is holding back water for some period of time, and then that dam breaks, and water comes out, and as it comes out, and as the dam breaks, it consists of rock debris from the rock around that water, it includes ice fragments from the dam and it includes liquid water.
How thick that “ice dam” is would be something future Martians would have to find out. Of course any water found on Mars would have to be filtered out for contamination (as Martian soil can be toxic and that may include some of the sub layers as well).
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Drilling For Water On Mars
Before we can actually establish a colony on the red planet, we first need to locate adequate supplies of water. If scientists are able to locate where possible sources of water lie on Mars (via new technology, rovers or telescopes) then it will be much easier to set up a colony on that dusty world.
But before humans are sent towards Mars, robots will have to do the dirty work first. And it looks like scientists are building one smart enough to handle the job.
(Red Orbit) NASA scientists plan to drill someday into the surface of Mars to look for water and signs of possible life. So, scientists are developing an automated, unmanned drill rig that can operate totally on its own, unsupervised for hours at a time. [...]An eight-person team, made up of scientists and engineers from NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., will set up drilling equipment that is a little taller than a human being, and sits in a footprint of about one square yard (one square meter).
Earth-based experiments will help scientists learn if synthetic brainpower is able to control a rig on Mars for many hours of drilling without human intervention. Future Mars missions with drills will likely have the ability to communicate with Earth only once or twice a day.
Since people will be unable to directly observe what is happening on Mars, scientists were forced to create an AI (or artificial intelligence) for the bot. Using lasers, vibration sensors and logic, this machine will be able to tell when to stop drilling, adjust and (hopefully) locate any problems that come along the way.
Called the Drilling Automation for Mars Exploration project (or DAME for short), this piece of technology will become very useful once we begin the first stages of colonizing Mars.
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Slamming Ice Into The Moon?
(MSNBC) A strikingly simple concept would provide efficient water provisions for human outposts and even bases on the moon. The idea is to clobber our already crater-rich neighbor repeatedly with tons of water ice  to establish an “anywhere, anytime” delivery system.
Not only could chucking a payload of water ice to the moon help sustain an expeditionary crew there, the impact would mimic–in experimental form  a comet strike. Therefore, itÂs a double-whammy: A science mission wrapped within an exploration capability test mission.
The theory behind the idea is to provide astronauts with ice water “whenever, wherever” on the moon. Although some of the ice would be lost on impact, the majority of it would survive on impact. Future astronauts would be able to “mine” water ice from any location within the crater, saving time and energy.
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Could Life Exist On Enceladus?
(Hat Tip: Space Blog Alpha)
While Earth is the only world known to harbor life in our solar system, several others may have some of the basic conditions for life–even tiny Enceladus.
(Science @ Nasa) NASA’s Cassini spacecraft may have found evidence of liquid water reservoirs that erupt in Yellowstone-like geysers on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The rare occurrence of liquid water so near the surface raises many new questions about this mysterious moon.
“We realize that this is a radical conclusion — that we may have evidence for liquid water within a body so small and so cold,” said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. “However, if we are right, we have significantly broadened the diversity of solar system environments where we might possibly have conditions suitable for living organisms.”
Enceladus is one of the icy moons of Saturn, lying within the E-ring system. Unlike Jupiter’s moons of Europa and Ganymede, Enceladus may harbor liquid water tens of meters below its surface (as opposed to several kilometers). But what surprised scientists was not the fact that this tiny world contained geyers, but rather the temperature readings from the surface.
(Science @ NASA) High-resolution Cassini images show icy jets and towering plumes ejecting huge quantities of particles at high speed. Scientists examined several models to explain the process. They ruled out the idea the particles are produced or blown off the moon’s surface by vapor created when warm water ice converts to a gas. Instead, scientists have found evidence for a much more exciting possibility. The jets might be erupting from near-surface pockets of liquid water above 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), like cold versions of the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone.
If this is true then that means that bacteria (and other organisms) could survive beneath the icy crust of Enceladus, protected from the vacuum of space. Even if life is not discovered on this small world, it would mean that future colonists could exploit Enceladus’s underground oceans and perhaps develop oceanic colonies instead of building on the surface.
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In Search For Lunar Ice Water
(Hat Tip: Lunar News Network)
In an attempt to discover water upon the moons surface, NASA is preparing one of two probes on a kamikaze mission towards the surface. The idea behind the stunt is to determine whether or not the southern pole contains ice water–a critical element if we are to establish future colony.
(Space.com) “I think aggressively touching the Moon is an understatement,” said Scott Horowitz, NASA’s associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, in a Monday press conference.
“What this mission buys is an early attempt to know what some of the resources we’re going to have…we know for sure that for human exploration to succeed we’re going to have to essentially live off the land.”
While one probe suffers an early death, the purpose of the other craft is to analyze the “flying debris” for signs of ice water. Unfortunately it seems as if NASA is having way too much fun and has decided that the second probe will suffer a similar fate of its sibling.
(Space.com) The 1,940-pound (880-kilogram) LCROSS probe will fly through the resulting plume and use its instruments to scan for water while taking photographs, then–15 minutes after the upper stage booster’s impact–the “shepherding” satellite will also crash into the crater floor, Andrews said.
“We know that we can steer it sufficiently to sample another region of the crater,” Andrews said, adding that smashing into the same place twice would likely not yield additional valuable data.
Ladies and gentlemen, your tax payer’s money at work.
If water is discovered (in abundance) then that would indicate that a thriving colony on the moon could be possible. If not then we could always haul tons of it from the Pacific ocean.
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