The Everything Mars Thread

[Dryson]

We should keep articles and discussions relating to Mars contained to one thread so they are not lost in the system.


Mars Curiosity Mission -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/...ches_n_7000046.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

Iron Dust on Mars - Oh my Bee...It's a Titan - Plants need iron to form chlorophyll molecules that capture sunlight and use it to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars via the process of photosynthesis. Many animals rely on iron in their blood to transport oxygen throughout their circulatory system. Iron is also present in a wide variety of life-maintaining enzymes in both plants and animals.

Mars is the iron dust factory that we are supposed to use to seed the rest of the planets within our solar system with life from. It's like having a pile of wood and carving knife and sitting and looking the pile of wood and the carving knife for ten million years and then suddenly realizing with a palm to the forehead, smh...Duh that's what I was supposed to do with it. Just add Iron dust from Mars and voila.

We take the iron dust from the surface of Mars and spread it over the planets around Jupiter that have water on them provide some heat and watch the plants grown hydroponically.

http://earthsky.org/earth/iron-from-the-sahara-helps-fertilize-atlantic-ocean

 

[scotthm]

We take the iron dust from the surface of Mars and spread it over the planets around Jupiter that have water on them provide some heat and watch the plants grown hydroponically.

It would probably be easier to take the water to Mars than to take the iron everywhere else.

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[publiusr]

We should keep articles and discussions relating to Mars contained to one thread so they are not lost in the system.

That's a good idea.

Mars on a budget
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=37254.0
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2726/1
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2725/1

Some really good news with regards to that second link:

The workshop, funded by The Planetary Society, is an indication that the organization best known for lobbying for robotic space exploration plans to take a bigger role in human spaceflight. “I’m excited to say that we’re re-engaging with the human spaceflight community,”That includes, he said, supporting the SLS, a launch vehicle that remains controversial in some parts of the space community. “When I first took the job [of Planetary Society CEO], I was under a lot of pressure to criticize the Space Launch System,” he said. “But it’s in the works, and the people doing it seem to know what they’re doing, and it really would be a great thing.”

So even Bill Nye and The Planetary Society have--at last--come around.

Nye said. “I say this about The Planetary Society, you guys: we are not crazy. We are not pie-in-the-sky people,” said Nye.

Some more links--about NextStep:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/04/nasa-space-habitat-nextstep-is-to-get.html
http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/04/nasa-funds-nextstep-deep-space.html

Quote from Gary Church:

NewSpace proponents commonly libel the SLS as the “rocket to nowhere” while their favorite conveyance is actually the inferior lift vehicle. The SLS can deliver worthwhile payloads across cislunar space into lunar orbit. These payloads, in my view, are the building blocks of the next space age. Upper stage wet workshops and semi-expendable robot landers can be used to provide a true space station, shielded from space radiation generated by the worst possible solar events. The robots can land on ice deposits and take off with a load of harvested water, then transfer the water to workshops in lunar orbit- repeatedly. When this scenario is considered, it is the ISS that is a “space station to nowhere.” By adding a propulsion system to these fully shielded lunar space stations they become spaceships- quite unlike the ISS.

http://www.americaspace.com/?p=79541

 

[fonzob1]

We take the iron dust from the surface of Mars and spread it over the planets around Jupiter that have water on them provide some heat and watch the plants grown hydroponically.

It would probably be easier to take the water to Mars than to take the iron everywhere else.

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Mars already has plenty of water frozen in its soil. You could cover the entire planet with 3 inches of ice from the amount water Opportunity found in its soil.

 

[SPCTRE]

 

[B.J.]

^ Everything about that picture is just awesome.

 

[scotthm]

You could cover the entire planet with 3 inches of ice from the amount water Opportunity found in its soil.

Opportunity has found 2600 cubic miles of water in its soil samples? That's astonishing.

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[fonzob1]

You could cover the entire planet with 3 inches of ice from the amount water Opportunity found in its soil.

Opportunity has found 2600 cubic miles of water in its soil samples? That's astonishing.

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From what's frozen in the soil...

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has discovered that there is water locked up in the Martian dirt, with each cubic foot of surface soil made up of 2 percent water.

http://www.space.com/17048-water-on-mars.html

 

[fonzob1]

Here is a another really cool article about Mars' ancient oceans:

"Ancient Mars May Have Had Slow-Moving Monster Waves"

http://www.space.com/28983-ancient-...=10152730534331466&adbpl=fb&adbpr=17610706465

 

[SPCTRE]

First evidence of liquid water discovered on Mars

Researchers analysing the Curiosity data, led by planetary scientist Javier Martín-Torres from the Luleå University of Technology in Sweden, suspect that salt could be at play in tiny pockets of Martian water, accumulating in such quantities that it lowers the freezing temperature of water, so things have to get a whole lot colder than they do on Earth in order for the liquid water to solidify.

Evidence of perchlorate salts - which form when a perchlorate ion made from one chlorine atom and four oxygen atoms combines with magnesium, calcium or iron - were detected on Mars back in 2008, so salt could very well be forming enough heavy crusts on the surface for this theory to work.

Publishing in the journal Nature Geoscience, the researchers describe how they think Mars's perpetual water cycle works. It starts out with water vapour in the atmosphere that gets absorbed by the large amounts of salt on the surface. At night, when the subzero temperatures set in, these salts are so saturated by water vapour, that they form "liquid brines in the uppermost 5 cm of the subsurface". These liquid pools remain until the daytime temperatures - which can go beyond 100 degrees Celsius - turning them back into vapour.

Source publication (Nature Geoscience):

Transient liquid water and water activity at Gale crater on Mars

 

[JanewayRulz!]

I like the title of this story

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/14/us/mars-water-feat/index.html

"Briny puddles" makes me think of that old Don Ho song... "Tiny bubbles".

 

[scotthm]

You could cover the entire planet with 3 inches of ice from the amount water Opportunity found in its soil.

Opportunity has found 2600 cubic miles of water in its soil samples?

From what's frozen in the soil...

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has discovered that there is water locked up in the Martian dirt, with each cubic foot of surface soil made up of 2 percent water.

Why is it reasonable to assume that what little soil Opportunity dug up is representative of the entire surface of the planet?

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[PurpleBuddha]

Opportunity has found 2600 cubic miles of water in its soil samples?

From what's frozen in the soil...

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has discovered that there is water locked up in the Martian dirt, with each cubic foot of surface soil made up of 2 percent water.

Why is it reasonable to assume that what little soil Opportunity dug up is representative of the entire surface of the planet?

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This article talks about that:

http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard...ument-finds-water-and-more-in-surface-sample/

This bit at the end summarizes it:

"Mars has kind of a global layer, a layer of surface soil that has been mixed and distributed by frequent dust storms. So a scoop of this stuff is basically a microscopic Mars rock collection," said Leshin. "If you mix many grains of it together, you probably have an accurate picture of typical Martian crust. By learning about it in any one place you're learning about the entire planet."

But sure, we still have a lot to learn. Hopefully we will continue to be surprised.

 

[Dryson]

We take the iron dust from the surface of Mars and spread it over the planets around Jupiter that have water on them provide some heat and watch the plants grown hydroponically.

It would probably be easier to take the water to Mars than to take the iron everywhere else.

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Easier yes...but species do not evolve and survive if it is easy. There is no work involved, no innovation, no imagination, no ideas. Transporting iron dust from Mars would create a thriving infrastructure from iron dust harvestors roaming over the planets surface to transports hauling the dust to new planets. It's actually a must for the human factor to survive.

 

[sojourner]

Nope.

 

[Ithekro]

Probably more economical to mine iron from an asteroid or I suppose one of Mars' or Jutiper's moons with lower gravity than try to ship iron dust from the surface of Mars in bulk.

 

[Dryson]

Iron is mostly obtained from minerals hematite and magnetite. In smaller degrees, it can also be obtained from the minerals taconite, limonite and siderite, according to Jefferson Lab. Iron has four different allotropic forms, which means that it has four different structural forms in which atoms bond in different patterns, according to Los Alamos National Laboratory. Those forms are called ferrites, known as alpha (which is magnetic), beta, gamma and omega.


Iron is an important nutrient in our diet. Iron deficiency, the most common nutritional deficiency, can cause anemia and fatigue that affects the ability to perform physical work in adults. It can also cause impair memory or other mental function in teens, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Women who have iron deficiency while pregnant are at an increased risk of having small and early babies, the CDC warns.
There are two types of dietary iron: heme iron and non-heme iron. Heme iron — which is the more readily absorbed type of iron — is found in meat, fish and poultry, whereas non-heme iron — which is also absorbed but to a lesser extent than heme iron — is found in both plant foods (such as spinach, kale and broccoli) and meat, according to the American Red Cross. People absorb up to 30 percent of heme iron, compared with 2-10 percent of non-heme iron, the ARC reports, adding that foods rich in vitamin C such as tomatoes or citrus fruits can help absorb people absorb non-heme iron.

Two facilities to process the iron rust would be separating the heme iron and non-heme iron into two groups from the rust found in Mars.

The mixture would be spread over and the surface of a planet with water on it similar to how blood flakes are spread over gardens and roses to help enrich the root systems of the plant with oxygen and iron. Microbials on a he surface of the planet would ingest the processed non-heme and heme iron and because of the oxygen present on the frozen planet stored in the ice the process of evolution would begin to take place.

 

[Silvercrest]

And this has to do with Mars ... how?

 

[Metryq]

^ Thanks for cutting-and-pasting an encyclopedia entry; this applies to Mars how?

Silvercrest beat me to it.

 

[Silvercrest]

Just call me Silverninja.