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Buried Ice Water Discovered on Mars

nasa.gov

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Re: Buried Ice Water Discovered on Mars

#11

Post by ianai »

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…

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.

Re: Buried Ice Water Discovered on Mars

#13

Post by LeifCarrotson »

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.

And unfortunately, these glaciers are at relatively high latitudes (50+ degrees). Cutiosity and Opportunity are near the equator.

Re: Buried Ice Water Discovered on Mars

#14

Post by Terr_ »

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.

It's relatively easy to keep macroscopic plants from escaping, the real issue is the smaller stuff like bacteria, which will get everywhere no matter what kind of farm you're running.

Re: Buried Ice Water Discovered on Mars

#17

Post by ianai »

Terr_ wrote: post #14
ianai wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's relatively easy to keep macroscopic plants from escaping, the real issue is the smaller stuff like bacteria, which will get everywhere no matter what kind of farm you're running.

Even there, though, they’re going to want to have air tight areas.

Re: Buried Ice Water Discovered on Mars

#18

Post by allemagne »

everdev wrote: post #6

Would this water be drinkable if we inhabit Mars?

A co-author seems to think so:

>The new study ... identifies eight sites where ice is directly accessible, at latitudes with less hostile conditions than at Mars' polar ice caps. "Astronauts could essentially just go there with a bucket and a shovel and get all the water they need," Byrne said.

Re: Buried Ice Water Discovered on Mars

#20

Post by kurthr »

daveguy wrote: post #4

The images are impressively detailed, but first impression is probaby. Water? How do they know from a picture of a cliff? Water has been confirmed by spectroscopy, thermal imaging and (previously) radar. From the article: "Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) confirmed that the bright material is frozen water. A check of the surface temperature using Odyssey's Thermal Emission Imaging System (…

I agree, the SHARAD work was amazing to use mixed mode Radar to image the subsurface ice tomographically (by reconstructing synthetic aperture radar from multiple passes of 2? different radar frequencies from many orbits with limited antenna time).

This is really the first time frozen water (not just frost) has been SEEN with an imaging spectrometer!

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