Mars Exploration

[Tormod]

Since no less than 2 missions to Mars are being launched this week (the European Mars Express on Monday, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover on June 8) I have updated the Mars Exploration hypography.

A quiz is coming up in a day or two...was going to finish it tonigh but there's too much else going on...

Tormod

[Oracle]

At the same time, NASA is sending two Mars Exploration Rovers, which will pace the surface at up to 100 meters per day, also looking for water and signs of past or present life.

didn't they already find water? or remains?

If they find life that would be amazing :-) I was just thinking where would I immigrate next....

[Tormod]

Yeah, they have already found water but it is bound up in the polar caps. What they want to find out is if they can locate water close to the surface.

If Mars has a permafrost surface (meaning frozen water below the surface) then water could possibly be extracted for use by human explorers.

As of today, water can't exist on the surface due to the thin atmosphere - it would simply evaporate.

Tormod

[bluebanana]

I'd like to visit Mars too. I think it'll be possible soon, which would be great. Just think--people visiting Mars in your lifetime, maybe even you! There are billions of people on Earth, making your chances slim, but sometimes we are lucky.

And I'm not planning on going to live there anytime soon!

[Uncle Martin]

Ammonia was detected in Mars' atmosphere by the ESA's orbiting spacecraft Mars Express. This is really big news in that ammonia only exists in the Martian atmosphere for several hours before decomposing. Which means it must have a continuous source. If its presence is confirmed, that would be strong evidence of life on Mars. The only other possible source of ammonia, besides microbial life, could be active volcanoes, which have not been detected. We are very close to answering a truly important question; Is there life elsewhere?

Beagle 2 was designed to detect lifeforms, sadly it failed. Does anyone know if a "Beagle 3" type mission is in the works?

[Freethinker]

Boy talk about BIG NEWS! New research shows serious possibility of life existing right now on Mars!

"Methane on Mars causes controversy

16:26 21 September 04

NewScientist.com news service

Methane and water vapour are concentrated in the same regions of the Martian atmosphere, say scientists studying data from Europe's Mars Express orbiter. They say the link may point to a common source - possibly life... "
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996425

[Freethinker]

If we do find that there is actually bacterial life on Mars, as seems to be a serious possibility at this point, what does that mean?

What if we find that the basic structure of this life form is so extremely different from life on Earth that they would most likely not have had a single common source, how does that change our view of life overall?

Or OTOH, if it turns out to have genetic similarity, then what?