Probes May Drill For Liquid Water On Mars

spike hay writes: "According to this article at Space.com, we may send a sample-return probe to Mars in 2005 that will drill a few hundred feet into the Martian surface to look for liquid water. Scientists believe that great quantities of briny water could exist under the surface permafrost, warmed by volcanism. Finding liquid water on Mars would help sustain future colonists, and it even may open up the possibility that life might still exist on Mars."

I realize it's an extremely amazing discovery...

[Ieshan]

I realize it's an extremely amazing discovery, but I fail to realize the immense value of spending billions of dollars which could go to research on AIDS, Cancer, or serious human need to fuel the possibilities that extremely small bacteria still exist in the martian environment.

Maybe I'm being pessimistic about the whole thing, but I'm concerned that NASA and other science agencies aren't focused on the real question - intelligent life.

Of course, that's a problem, I know. I can't expect for NASA to find intelligent life before they find life at all. It just seems like a cash drain. Does anyone else feel the same way, or is everyone pro-digging-into-Mars-for-stuff?

Re:I realize it's an extremely amazing discovery..

[big_hairy_mama]

I'm pro-doing-anything-to-spur-pure-research. It doesn't really matter whether they are searching for intelligent life, microscopic life, or just seeing what the dirt looks like. NASA is one of the last government agencies doing the research and technological development that is keeping our future growth possible.

Besides, even if they do find intelligent life, how is that in itself going to be better than curing diseases? The intelligent life thing is a PR campaign because people liked the movie "E.T.".

Bottom line is, anything to learn about the universe around us is good. It might not cure cancer tomorrow, but it feeds our technological growth (someday we'll invent replicators like in Star Trek and solve *all* the problems with "serious human need").

Re:I realize it's an extremely amazing discovery..

[redcliffe]

Another thing to remember: If it wasn't spent on digging on mars, where would it be spent? Sure as hell not on curing disease. Most likely it would go straight to the military where it would be as useless as a hip pocket on a singlet.

Re:I realize it's an extremely amazing discovery..

[prisoner-of-enigma]

What needs to be understood is the concept of spin offs. The computer you use today is largely the result of the Apollo space program's needs for a (then) powerful (then) compact system that could pilot something to the moon and back. Teflon, Kapton, Kevlar...many of the "space age" materials you see used around you every day were born in the race to space.

CDROM's? DVD's? All make use of lasers, something so commonplace that kids use them to put red dots on people's foreheads. Lasers were developed by the space program and the military, and the civilian applications have been astounding.

How about commerical aviation? Stronger, lighter planes using less fuel, engines using advanced ceramics that last three times as long. Superconductors, advanced cryogenics, crystallography, holograms...all of these technologies that are changing our daily lives were not the results of stringent research on their particular application, but instead spin off's from other research applications.

Even today, with the cracking of the human genome, we may see a cure for cancer, diabetes, and many other ailments.

To say that we should not do bold things because the money could be better spent elsewhere denies all the advancements of the latter half of the twentieth century, nearly all of which were the result of spin off technology.

The human race is always at its best when driven to do something difficult. Mounting a manned mission to Mars, or creating a permanent Lunar colony would drive the world, its economy, and science in general to new heights that we haven't seen since the late sixties. Not only should we go to Mars and drill, but we must do so.

Re:I realize it's an extremely amazing discovery..

[spike hay]

We still need to put money in our space program. You could say the same about say, cutting the military's budget for AIDS research.
I believe, for now, NASA should stop all manned flights. Before we worry about shooting people up on rockets for a half a billion dollars a pop to see if spiders spin their webs right in space, we need to get low cost space transport. It costs $5,000 dollars a pound to send crap up on the shuttle. We should just cancel the shuttle program NOW and use the ~5 billion dollars a year we save to develop a low-cost space plane that will open up space for all kinds of uses. We may even want to research how to build intersteller probes.
I think NASA needs a major overhaul. The shuttle flights and the ISS aren't really accomplishing anything usefull. Before we worry about the ISS, we just need to bring the cost of space down.

Life on mars

[Tuxinatorium]

It is very unlikely that life could exist on mars because temperatures on the surface vary between -120 and -20 degrees C, as I recall, plus it has low atmospheric pressure. Life requires some kind of liquid solvent to exist. Ammonia boils at -33C in 1atm pressure, but with Mars' pressure, it's probably more like -60C. There aren't any common chemicals that would be viable solvents for life in Mars' environment. Conditions below the surface might allow liquid water, but there would be no replenishable food resource, so life couldn't exist there very long. Mars has minimal volcanic activity, so there aren't hydrothermal vents to be used by chemosynthesizing bacteria. If there ever was life on mars, it's dead now.

Re:Life on mars

[kasnol]

I don't think so, I always thought all living organisms will evolve and survive to adapt their surroundings.
Therefore I think different lifeforms could still be living in Mars even between -120 and -20 degrees.

Re:Life on mars

[big_hairy_mama]

The point of this article is that the water is warmed by volcanic activity underground, and so -120 to -20 degrees is not an issue. There have been countless articles on the subject of how there are many forms of life, on Earth and possibly elsewhere, that don't need to live on the surface. They live in hydrothermal vents or miles deep in rocks or oil deposits, all of which are seemingly just as inhospitable as those cold temperatures, but there nevertheless.

Return of samples of Mars important.

[Yazeran]

This is great news indeed.

For the first time earth based scientists can have samples from Mars that thay can study and analyse in an earth based lab.

The important differece between this and the analysis of the Mars soil by the Mars Pathfinder/Sojuner and earlier Mars missions that made soft landings on Mars is that they did the analysis on Mars, and they could only do a limited mumber and types of analysis.

Having the samples here on earth (and unpoluted by atmospheric reentry as the Mars meteorites found in Antarctica is) allows scientists to do more sofisticated analysis.

This way we will have a much more detailed knowledge of the Martian soil and Rocks than before, and just possible, fossil records of earlier Martian life could be found by microscopy analysis of the returned samples.

Apart from sending geologists and other scientists to Mars this is the best thing to do.

Yours Yazeran

Plan: To go to Mars one day with a hammer.

Call me crazy,

[NickFusion]

But I'm hoping the hit oil.

Just see how fast we go to Mars then...

Re:Call me crazy,

[savage_panda]

Liquid Water is much more important, It will be the first step in colonization of the red planet. It can be converted to Oxygen, and Hydrogen for breathing and power, not to mention hygene and survival for almost all biological things on earth. It doesn't matter if there is oil or not. I don't think most conventional engines would work anyways in that thin atmosphere, conventional combustion requires oxygen to be burned with the oil. Gas is on its way out as a source for power, It's all about the Hydrogen.

Re:Call me crazy,

[Tessera]

Yeah, if they find water, Mars interest will shoot up overnight. You'll have all the major news networks misinterpreting the truth to boost ratings, NASA will be trying to plug their role to get more funding, and the scientists will be stuck in the back row going "Could we have an experiment too?" EVERYONE will want a piece of the pie. Don't mean to be too pessimistic, but I can see how everyone will be trying to turn it to their best interest. We can only hope that the scientists will be supported enough so that their voices can be heard.