NASA Announces Discovery of Salty Water On Mars ... Maybe
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Today's promised mystery announcement from NASA has finally been made: dotancohen writes "A NASA orbiter has found possible evidence for water on the surface of Mars that flows seasonally. The water likely would be salty, in keeping with the salty Martian environment."
Adds an anonymous reader: "Dark, finger-like features appear and extend down some Martian slopes during late spring through summer, fade in winter, and return during the next spring, NASA says, and repeated observations have tracked the seasonal changes in these recurring features on several steep slopes in the middle latitudes of Mars' southern hemisphere."
You can find more on the claimed find at NASA TV.
Important for two reasons (Score:5, Interesting)
This is important for two reasons. The first reason this is important is the obvious issue that the presence of liquid water makes the existence of life a lot more likely. It seems that conditions for life are really surprisingly common. What we still don't know is how likely life is to form in the first place and how easily it travels. There is speculation about panspermia and life on Earth having come from Mars on meteorites but the orbital mechanics make that direction a lot more likely than from Earth to the Mars.
The second reason this is important is that in the long-run colonization and exploration of Mars will be a lot easier if water is easily available. The presence of water will be directly helpful for some plans aside from directly helping humans. For example, the Mars Direct plan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Direct [wikipedia.org] involves exploratory missions to Mars where some of the rocket fuel for the return is methane made on the surface. Current versions of that plan call for bringing the necessary hydrogen to Mars. This isn't too bad since hydrogen is only a small fraction of methane by mass. But if we could split the water using electrolysis and get the hydrogen directly from that that would potentially further reduce the amount of mass needed to be launched from Earth. Unfortunately, the water here seems to be not so common that one could actually rely on this. This is probably non-viable unless one had much better maps of where the water was, how deep it normally was, the exact locations of the water, detailed knowledge of what salts were making the water briny and any other major chemical contaminants which could make electrolysis machinery unhappy. So overall, this is unlikely to impact missions to Mars in that direct a way.
Re:Drake Equation (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Important for two reasons (Score:5, Interesting)
As they used to say back in the day (and I guess will be doing again soon) "How will it help us feed children in Somalia?"
Launching a manned expedition to Mars only involves engineers, aerospace workers, sufficient budget, and if you were determined it would take three to five years. Feeding children in Somalia, now there's a serious undertaking... first you'd have to invade the country to get rid of the Islamic warlords who are not allowing aid in to feed the children now and then engage in multi-decade nation building. Would take easily 50x to 100x the cash and about 20 years longer than sending someone to Mars, plus casualties.
Re:civilisation is collapsing (Score:4, Interesting)
It wouldn't be the worst idea if some tried. People are obsessed with thinking their viewpoint is marginalised, but there are a whole lot of people in the US struggling and not taken in by Kodos, Kang or the Koch brothers' experiment. The might listen to a group of rational men who get a thrill out of problem-solving rather than power-mongering.
But I think choosing to work for NASA already says a lot about your priorities. Your mind can change as you grow, of course.
As for up-and-coming scientists, people forget that withdrawal of labour is the most powerful collective tool of the common man. There are too many scientists who have become cogs in military-industrial production lines. The majority of NASA's resources are directed toward this: creating blueprints for the likes of Lockheed and Boeing. Good, clever people must take a stand and say I am not going to work for you - I want to do something better. I am not arguing against space science. I am arguing against what has happened to space science. It is not a worthy money vacuum.