Ok, NASA, i give up. You just go ahead and keep acting surprised to find water on Mars for another 10 years. See if i care.

FTFAThis mineral is almost certainly gypsum that was deposited by liquid water billions of years ago

My god, the Martians were drywalling!

Still no evidence for water on Milky Way

Smiths: WHY WON'T IT JUST DIE ALREADY

The good news - Water may have been found on Mars
The bad news - The Opportunity rover has contaminated it with its lethal zombie virus

Alright, we're done here. Turn that big new one around and bring it back.

TFA: "There's no ambiguity about this, and this is what makes it so cool."

HEY! Shut up! Ambiguity is totally cool!

Are there any bloggers dumber than Fox News bloggers?

So what's next on the agenda for our little robot friend?

Inigo: Smiths: WHY WON'T IT JUST DIE ALREADY

The good news - Water may have been found on Mars
The bad news - The Opportunity rover has contaminated it with its lethal zombie virus

We'll call the movie "Red Rover."

"This summer, it's coming over..."

nyseattitude: Are there any bloggers dumber than Fox News bloggers?

I don't know. Do you have a blog?

Know what would be strong evidence of water on Mars? Water.

/you read that in Norm MacDonald's voice

nekom: My theory is that if there ever was life on Mars (which seems possible), there probably still is. Look at all of the extremophiles here on Earth. We find life in the damndest places. I don't think life could begin there now, but if life ever did flourish there I'd bet there are a few stragglers still living it up there.

Terrestrial bacteria can survive there. So we may well have already created an ecological catastrophe on Mars.

Further evidence that Satan's a dick.

My primary question is this:

What does Sheldon Cooper think about it?

TF2_Pyro: Inigo: Smiths: WHY WON'T IT JUST DIE ALREADY

The good news - Water may have been found on Mars
The bad news - The Opportunity rover has contaminated it with its lethal zombie virus

We'll call the movie "Red Rover."

"This summer, it's coming over..."

*desperately calls agent*

I think I know where this is going...

Has anyone put together a case study for the design and execution of the Spirit/Opportunity mission? The performance of these rovers is simply astounding.

While I realize that NASA engineers would be inclined to low ball the expected performance of the rovers, I doubt any of them imagined them both operating for 7+ years and one of them still going strong after 8.

NASA has got to stop competing with themselves by announcing these "amazing" and "powerfull" pieces of evidence and discoveries only to have them either diminished or out right retracted a few weeks later. I get they are trying to stay relevant and compete for funds but they are coming across like a infomercial attention ho.

NASA needs to stop grasping at straws, decide on a couple of ambitious projects and get on with it.

/I want my new and improved Tang dammit.

COME ON, SHEEPLE, IT'S FAUX NEWS!

They're just saying Mars has water so corporate Multi-nationals have an excuse to invade and defile the virginal Mars lands with Exxon effluent and Neo-con terra-forming....

WAKE UP!!!

/go Mars Rover, go Mars Rover.....
//in yer face, Energizer Bunny

nekom: t3knomanser: Terrestrial bacteria can survive there. So we may well have already created an ecological catastrophe on Mars.

It's not impossible, but I'm pretty sure NASA went to extreme lengths to prevent that from happening.

But did the Soviets? They were the first(functional or not) to get surface equipment on the planet.

cgraves67: So what's next on the agenda for our little robot friend?

A slow, cold, death.

Apeboy: NASA needs to stop grasping at straws, decide on a couple of ambitious projects and get on with it.

They want to, the problem is the politics is just too thick.
The space program isn't just the greatest thing mankind has ever done, it also represents billions of dollars in potential pork to the politician that finds the secret code for unlocking it.
Its path is being decided in the argument over which state should get the rocket building money. Not our nations objectives in space.

NASA keeps making announcements in the hope that the scientists will pull their fat out the fire and set everything back on the right track for exploration... but "science" is all about verification of the evidence and will never be happy with any result from a probe.
Scientists just aren't into engineering or expansion of the high frontier.

What NASA needs is leadership. Someone with a "just farking do it already" approach to things.
Unfortunately that hasn't existed in US politics since the Kennedy era.
No ones stepping up to the plate, so we go nowhere.

nekom: My theory is that if there ever was life on Mars (which seems possible), there probably still is. Look at all of the extremophiles here on Earth. We find life in the damndest places. I don't think life could begin there now, but if life ever did flourish there I'd bet there are a few stragglers still living it up there.

THIS.

Ok, call me a dumbass, but I just don't understand how there can ever have been liquid water on the surface of Mars. I mean, it's way out there, much further from the Sun than Earth. How can the surface ever have been above zero degrees C? Vulcanism? Greenhouse effect?

The National Geographic channel had a program on about these rovers the other night, and they showed the little blue BBs, but they did not show the little stacked disks that look like Chrinoid fossils that were found on the 30th Sol of Opportunity !

Please, will someone photoshop a more convincing picture?

An even more telling example of why the space program flounders is two threads up. Despite Fox not being the best place to go get news, the story is still about NASA and actual, tangible, "We did that!" facts from farking mars. The discussion in this thread covers optimism, pessimism, hope and reality about what is happening in the current reality of space.

Then a thread gets greelit about not just Star Trek or Star Wars but about them both! And what is happening now, in reality, in our universe doesn't merit a second glance when there is an opportunity to get pedantic about Star Wars or Trek at the same time. These nerds, these faux lovers of space and science would rather discuss fantasy and fiction as opposed to the reality. And that's the common public mentality the space program must deal with. Putting on a real life NASA suit and just standing in it for 5 minutes would be millions of times cooler than watching every Star Trek or Wars movie, and owning any ancilliary toy or thing ever made about it.

Apeboy: NASA has got to stop competing with themselves by announcing these "amazing" and "powerfull" pieces of evidence and discoveries

To be fair, if you study Mars (like I do), then this is a big deal. Pretty much everyone assumes* that Mars has or had water at one point, but we actually haven't found any direct evidence (yet) of that yet, or more importantly, how much water, how long it was there, and where it was distributed. You have to remember, in scientists' minds, you can't really trust an assumption unless there's direct evidence for it, no matter how obvious it may appear otherwise.

*And, to be fair, there are some planetary scientists who have been skeptical that there was ever running water on Mars, and explain the outflow channels and valley networks with non-aqueous means. They are generally not in the majority, however.

t3knomanser: nekom: My theory is that if there ever was life on Mars (which seems possible), there probably still is. Look at all of the extremophiles here on Earth. We find life in the damndest places. I don't think life could begin there now, but if life ever did flourish there I'd bet there are a few stragglers still living it up there.

Terrestrial bacteria can survive there. So we may well have already created an ecological catastrophe on Mars.

To be fair, Mars and Earth exchange meteorites every couple million years or so, and anything that can survive a trip on a space probe can probably survive that as well, so if terrestrial life is capable of pulling that off, then it's probably already been on Mars for sometime (and vice versa for Earth). However, my guess would be that any indigenous Mars life is probably far better adapted to the environment (in terms of oxidizing agents being everywhere, cold, desiccation, high radiation, etc) than any terrestrial interlopers.

/astrobiologist

nekom: That's a good question. I'm sure they knew how to sterilize equipment, it's not incredibly difficult, but who knows.

well considering it was the soviet union, they probably knew how and just straight up didn't give a crap.

the russian space program is a terrifying, terrifying thing

rudemix: Putting on a real life NASA suit and just standing in it for 5 minutes would be millions of times cooler than watching every Star Trek or Wars movie, and owning any ancilliary toy or thing ever made about it.

There are some pretty rare and valuable ancillary Star Wars toys out there. Owning a few of them could put enough money in your pocket to walk into NASA, pull out your checkbook, and start shopping for experiences.

I'm with the oldnews.jpg crowd.

spacermase: Apeboy: NASA has got to stop competing with themselves by announcing these "amazing" and "powerfull" pieces of evidence and discoveries

To be fair, if you study Mars (like I do), then this is a big deal. Pretty much everyone assumes* that Mars has or had water at one point, but we actually haven't found any direct evidence (yet) of that yet, or more importantly, how much water, how long it was there, and where it was distributed. You have to remember, in scientists' minds, you can't really trust an assumption unless there's direct evidence for it, no matter how obvious it may appear otherwise.

*And, to be fair, there are some planetary scientists who have been skeptical that there was ever running water on Mars, and explain the outflow channels and valley networks with non-aqueous means. They are generally not in the majority, however.

t3knomanser: nekom: My theory is that if there ever was life on Mars (which seems possible), there probably still is. Look at all of the extremophiles here on Earth. We find life in the damndest places. I don't think life could begin there now, but if life ever did flourish there I'd bet there are a few stragglers still living it up there.

Terrestrial bacteria can survive there. So we may well have already created an ecological catastrophe on Mars.

To be fair, Mars and Earth exchange meteorites every couple million years or so, and anything that can survive a trip on a space probe can probably survive that as well, so if terrestrial life is capable of pulling that off, then it's probably already been on Mars for sometime (and vice versa for Earth). However, my guess would be that any indigenous Mars life is probably far better adapted to the environment (in terms of oxidizing agents being everywhere, cold, desiccation, high radiation, etc) than any terrestrial interlopers.

/astrobiologist

I thought the bigger news in this story was not just the confirmation of liquid water, but that in order for that mineral formation to occur that water needs to have a pH of around 7.

It's not a Fox News story, it's a Space.com story. Feel better?
Link (new window)

spacermase:
/astrobiologist



/oblig