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Buried Ice Water Discovered on Mars

nasa.gov

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Re: Buried Ice Water Discovered on Mars

#31

Post by djsumdog »

gabrielgoh wrote: post #29
justinjlynn wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is indeed awesome but I would argue that it also means we would need to undertake a much more thorough search to find out of mars is indeed a dead planet. Once we land a large concentration of biological matter there -- we won't have an opportunity to look again without dealing with massive potential for cross-planetary contamination. Of course, it's a trade off and it's great news if we ever had to undertake a…

is this a real concern? it should be relatively easy to distinguish life on earth from life on mars, should it exist. Especially considering it comes from a completely new path of evolution. Furthermore, a mars station would allow science to be done directly on mars, rather than having payloads of material sent to and from earth.

You should read The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's fiction, but it's one of the most well researched series of novels and is feels incredibly realistic, believable and it has really amazing characters/story to boot.

But this concern is expressed in that series, and it is a real one. The first people we send to Mars will not be visitors. They'll most likely be colonists. They will die there. Once they start to truly colonize (if they survive) we will loose the ability to determine if any microbes we find are Terran or Martian.

Re: Buried Ice Water Discovered on Mars

#32

Post by djsumdog »

gilgoomesh wrote: post #3

I hope so but this type of finding has been wrong before. See the recent discrediting of liquid "brines" on Mars: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001910351... Until a rover or other probe tests it directly, I'll remain skeptical.

Also, if this is accurate, how do we know it's water? I mean most likely it is, but is there a potential for it to be some other type of frozen liquid? Potentially a non-drinking one?

Re: Buried Ice Water Discovered on Mars

#34

Post by zipwitch »

justinjlynn wrote: post #8
ChuckMcM wrote: post #5

In general this is pretty awesome. What we now know are: 1) Earth microbes and soil organisms (worms) can live in hydrated martian soil. ( https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/11/mars-soil-earthw... ) 2) Food plants can grow in martian soil that has had said organisms added to it.( https://www.nasa.gov/feature/farming-in-martian-gardens ) 3) The water to hydrate the soil is already on Mars.(this article) 4) We ca…

That is indeed awesome but I would argue that it also means we would need to undertake a much more thorough search to find out of mars is indeed a dead planet. Once we land a large concentration of biological matter there -- we won't have an opportunity to look again without dealing with massive potential for cross-planetary contamination. Of course, it's a trade off and it's great news if we ever had to undertake a…

If we want to search Mars for life before we contaminate it then we need to launch a crash program to do so now, because our window is swiftly expiring. Right now a small group with minimal resources (on the to build and launch stuff into space scale) could likely launch a cubesat with some sort of bacterial payload that would eventually get to Mars. Such a stunt is only going to get easier in the next few decades.

Explore Mars, in depth, ASAP, or someone will render the issue moot by starting their own terraforming project on the cheap. (Or the not so cheap. I don't believe Musk's colonization plans -if they ever come to pass- would be able to prevent contamination, no matter how hard they might try.)

Re: Buried Ice Water Discovered on Mars

#36

Post by bestest »

Edmond wrote: post #19
dgudkov wrote: post #7

Apparently, the first resource to be mined on Mars will be water ice.

We'll have people living in the "belts" working as ice haulers :) There is a great show called "The Expanse" that touches on this.

The book (or rather books) is even better!

Re: Buried Ice Water Discovered on Mars

#37

Post by iancmceachern »

ianai wrote: post #11
justinjlynn wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is indeed awesome but I would argue that it also means we would need to undertake a much more thorough search to find out of mars is indeed a dead planet. Once we land a large concentration of biological matter there -- we won't have an opportunity to look again without dealing with massive potential for cross-planetary contamination. Of course, it's a trade off and it's great news if we ever had to undertake a…

It might not be quite as bad as you think. I imagine Martian farmers would be doing something like hydroponics. The soil and water might come from mars but the actual plants grow in tiny, isolated compartments within buildings. I doubt the resource scarcity would allow for anything resembling a more traditional farm.

Exactly - like open source food computers! www.openagriculturesupply.com

Re: Buried Ice Water Discovered on Mars

#38

Post by rev_bird »

zipwitch wrote: post #34
justinjlynn wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is indeed awesome but I would argue that it also means we would need to undertake a much more thorough search to find out of mars is indeed a dead planet. Once we land a large concentration of biological matter there -- we won't have an opportunity to look again without dealing with massive potential for cross-planetary contamination. Of course, it's a trade off and it's great news if we ever had to undertake a…

If we want to search Mars for life before we contaminate it then we need to launch a crash program to do so now , because our window is swiftly expiring. Right now a small group with minimal resources (on the to build and launch stuff into space scale) could likely launch a cubesat with some sort of bacterial payload that would eventually get to Mars. Such a stunt is only going to get easier in the next few decades.…

>could likely launch a cubesat with some sort of bacterial payload that would eventually get to Mars

Curious how this might work, given the energy required not only to escape Earth's orbit, but to get into another one around Mars and crash into it. It's my understanding that cubesats don't have anything that could do any of that stuff, and a larger craft doing the heavy lifting would be way more complicated.

Re: Buried Ice Water Discovered on Mars

#39

Post by King-Aaron »

bestest wrote: post #36
Edmond wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll have people living in the "belts" working as ice haulers :) There is a great show called "The Expanse" that touches on this.

The book (or rather books) is even better!

Upvoting both of you for referencing The Expanse (And the books, i.e Leviathan Wakes)... It's so good to see something that resembles hard-sci-fi on television.
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