Any updates on the Mars Mission?

[TomInTib]

I was thinking back to when georgie was making all that noise about manned missions to Mars.

Since I do not pay much attention to the Space business, maybe I missed something.

Anyone here know anything about it?

[Mz Pip]

1. Mars was a cool idea

but Iraq was better. Easier to get to.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[Lex]

2. I was hoping we could put him in a can and shoot him up there

for the first manned mission to Mars.



______________________

[Wilms]

3. Good idea. But just to be safe...

NASA oughtta make it one of those where the software is messed-up and the payload drifts out of the solar system.

[Tulum_Moon]

4. What about the last mission?

I thought I heard something about the last "rovers" we sent. Something about them killing the possible life that was found. I have no link to an article or anything. So if another kind :hi: DU'er has any info, please post! Thanks.
The story sounded strange, but, I would not put it past us to kill off another life form just for Christ's sake.

[Warren DeMontague]

13. Jesus. Where do people get this nonsense?

There is absolutely no evidence for anything like what you describe in that post. Really, if you can find a link for the "story", I'd love to see it.



The Rover missions have been a scientific bonanza.

http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/home/

Good grief. Just because something is done by the US Government doesn't mean George W. Bush and the Republican Party are personally in charge of fucking it up.

[ruiner4u]

20. Here's a link to what I assume the prev poster was referring to..

the poster you responded too was misinformed, which you have to admit is easy to do with fast news headlines being bombarded on us all 24/7...

The research idea is that the probe 'could have' killed life 'if it existed' because we didn't know what we were looking for...To me it just seems like a scientist thinking of 'what ifs'

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16516952/

In the ’70s, the Viking mission found no signs of life. But it was looking for Earthlike life, in which salt water is the internal liquid of living cells. Given the cold dry conditions of Mars, that life could have evolved on Mars with the key internal fluid consisting of a mix of water and hydrogen peroxide, said Dirk Schulze-Makuch, author of the new research.

The Viking experiments of the ’70s wouldn’t have noticed alien hydrogen peroxide-based life and, in fact, would have killed it by drowning and overheating the microbes, said Schulze-Makuch, a geology professor at Washington State University.

[Warren DeMontague]

21. Thanks for clearing that up. Still, I hardly find that a compelling argument against going to Mars.

And on the off chance that back in 1977 the Viking probes did kill some peroxide-based microorganisms in the small dirt samples they dug and tested-- perhaps I am indicating an unacceptable bias towards complex, multicellular life forms here, but I wouldn't get too worked up about it.

[ruiner4u]

23. Oh im in no way saying we shouldn't goto Mars...

Personally I think it would be a great idea when we can finally afford it <thanks bush>....


I was just saying how there could be a possible misunderstanding...

And if you got that impression because of my 'what if' statement, I didn't articulate it well...my bad...

[Warren DeMontague]

24. Nah, now that I see the original article, it makes more sense.

Apologies to the original poster upthread; now I see where the confusion came from. :hi:

[krispos42]

18. It was the Viking probes in the '70s, I believe

Some of the tests the miniaturized chemical labs would have destroyed any bacteria or such during the chemical analysis, IIRC.

It's not like an alien approached the spacecraft and knocked on the hull, and a little robotic arm with a revolver came out and shot it dead between the eye stalks.

[bananas]

19. What you heard was a new analysis of the 1970s Viking mission data

The Viking lander scooped up some soil and put it through various tests for signs of life. The first tests indicated life, the later tests didn't. Some researchers think the first tests may have killed whatever was in the soil sample.

Here's a link to the press release, it's kind of technical:

http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/New_Analysis_of_Viking_Mission_Results_Indicates_Presence_of_Life_on_Mars_999.html

http://www.marstoday.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=21613

PRESS RELEASE
Date Released: Monday, January 8, 2007
Source: Washington State University

New Analysis of Viking Mission Results Indicates Presence of Life on Mars

We may already have 'met' Martian organisms, according to a paper presented Sunday (Jan. 7) at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch of Washington State University and Joop Houtkooper of Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany, argue that even as new missions to Mars seek evidence that the planet might once have supported life, we already have data showing that life exists there now -- data from experiments done by the Viking Mars landers in the late 1970s.

"I think the Viking results have been a little bit neglected in the last 10 years or more," said Schulze-Makuch. "But actually, we got a lot of data there." He said recent findings about Earth organisms that live in extreme environments and improvements in our understanding of conditions on Mars give astrobiologists new ways of looking at the 30-year-old data.

The researchers hypothesize that Mars is home to microbe-like organisms that use a mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide as their internal fluid. Such a mixture would provide at least three clear benefits to organisms in the cold, dry Martian environment, said Schulze-Makuch. Its freezing point is as low as -56.5 C (depending on the concentration of H2O2); below that temperature it becomes firm but does not form cell-destroying crystals, as water ice does; and H2O2 is hygroscopic, which means it attracts water vapor from the atmosphere -- a valuable trait on a planet where liquid water is rare.

<snip>

[JeffR]

5. You didn't hear? We went. No oil was found. End of Mars program.

[Bill McBlueState]

6. going quite well

There are a number of probes in orbit and on the surface, including the highly successful Spirit and Opportunity rovers. See here: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/present/

[Big Pappa]

7. Hell

we cant even rebuild New Orleans, much less go to Mars.

[high density]

8. I guess it's a backup for the corporations in case the Dems succeed in pulling us out of Iraq

I see no other purpose for it other than the corporatism.

[Warren DeMontague]

10. I'd much prefer that we spend money on space exploration than the M/I complex.

But maybe that's just me.

[high density]

14. Me too

But I don't think we can afford giving more handouts to these corporations right now.

[NanceGreggs]

9. Apparently you didn't hear the latest ...

... Katherine Harris sent two probes to Mars last month, Spunk and Moxie.

And here's the beauty part -- didn't have to launch; they actually reach the red planet from Florida.

[lligrd]

11. The Last I Heard

was that Bush had declared all of space his.

[Warren DeMontague]

12. I'm not going to join in a jolly dogpiling on NASA, here.

I'm of the strong opinion that scientific advancement and peaceful exploration of space- both unmanned AND manned- are worthwhile endeavors for the human race. And it's not a question of "fixing our problems here first", either- retreating into caves isn't going to fix anything. NASA has been one of the premier scientific agencies on Earth investigating climate change, for instance.

Humans should go to Mars, and eventually we will- the fact that George Bush said it (despite the fact that his administration is staffed with anti-science nutjobs who believe the Earth is flat and 6,000 years old) doesn't make it any less true.

[The_Casual_Observer]

15. Same thing happened with bush sr. he also promised a mars mission.

I knew it was all bullshit when jr brought it up. It was an excuse to scuttle the Hubble.

[Warren DeMontague]

16. I wonder if that's because of pressure from the Creationists, too?

Hard to explain to Junior Jesus Warrior about those pictures of Galaxies from 10 billion years ago when everyone "knows" The Earth (and the Universe!) is only 6,000 years old.

[The_Casual_Observer]

17. Personally I don't think so. All the money is going to Iraq,

They wanted to set aside a "whopping" 2 billion toward the Mars thing & nothing for Hubble. They spend 2 billion a week in Iraq or something.

[Warren DeMontague]

22. Yup. It's something like a thousand dollars a second.

Whooo! There goes another one!