Phoenix Confirms Presence of Water!

[Alpha_Geek]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PHOENIX_MARS?SITE=NYPLA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

"By melting icy soil in one of its lab instruments, the robot confirmed the presence of frozen water lurking below the Martian permafrost. Until now, evidence of ice in Mars' north pole region has been largely circumstantial."

 

[FatherRob]

I call dibs on the first well!

This is good news indeed, and I'll be interested in seeing what it does to future missions. What track will they follow? How well will they be funded?

Only time will tell.

Rob+

 

[SchwEnt]

But the poles have been confirmed to be composed of frozen carbon dioxide and/or water ice (depending on your pole).

So what's the discovery here? Not liquid water. Water ice?
Didn't we already know this about the Martian poles?
I mean, you can see the huge white polar caps from orbit.

 

[Zachary Smith]

That's a long walk to go for a drink, man . . . A long walk . . .

 

[Alpha_Geek]

But the poles have been confirmed to be composed of frozen carbon dioxide and/or water ice (depending on your pole).

So what's the discovery here? Not liquid water. Water ice?
Didn't we already know this about the Martian poles?
I mean, you can see the huge white polar caps from orbit.

We've long suspected it, but...
Mars Recon Orbiter could detect subsurface hydrogen, but not in what form.

Phoenix showed us sublimation at the right temp and pressure earlier, but this time they actually took a sample, analyzed it and the instruments said:

"Hey, that stuff in the test chamber has water in it."

So this is direct evidence, unlike earlier data.

 

[Zachary Smith]

Now we just add SEA-MONKEYS!!

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

.

So what's the discovery here? Not liquid water. Water ice?
Didn't we already know this about the Martian poles?
I mean, you can see the huge white polar caps from orbit.

Yes this will probably be the 10th time we've discovered water for the First Time on Mars.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/opportunity_news_040302.html
http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=4796
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/19215
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/28may_marsice.htm
http://www.universetoday.com/2006/12/06/new-spurts-of-water-discovered-on-mars/

IMHO sample return mission would be a much more effective NASA science mission and a better use of taxpayer money

 

[SchwEnt]

Yes this will probably be the 10th time we've discovered water for the First Time on Mars.

^^^^ Exactly.

 

[fancier]

Water itself a enough proof for Life on others planets.............

 

[USS KG5]

Water itself a enough proof for Life on others planets.............

It is not PROOF by any stretch of the imagination, but it is evidence that the things that support life on Earth exist elsewhere.

 

[fancier]

Yes............ that's what i'm saying...........as first Life has to come from water..............

As On earth.............. First Blue Green Algae came from water..................

 

[USS KG5]

Yes............ that's what i'm saying...........as first Life has to come from water..............

Hopefully this constant chain of discoveries, more planets, water on mars etc - will eventually lead to some kind of concrete evidence (more than the wow signal for example) of the existence of alien life or even alien intelligence.

 

[Canadave]

.
IMHO sample return mission would be a much more effective NASA science mission and a better use of taxpayer money

I would think this would be a very expensive undertaking. You'd have to launch (and land) all the fuel and rockets needed to get the probe back up into orbit, and then probably have it rendezvous with yet another rocket so it perform a TEI burn. That's a lot of steps for an unmanned probe and greatly increases the chances of it becoming an expensive failure, I would think.

 

[SchwEnt]

^^^ MSR isn't my quote