1. SPS Accounts:
    Do you find yourself coming back time after time? Do you appreciate the ongoing hard work to keep this community focused and successful in its mission? Please consider supporting us by upgrading to an SPS Account. Besides the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from supporting a good cause, you'll also get a significant number of ever-expanding perks and benefits on the site and the forums. Click here to find out more.
    Dismiss Notice
Dismiss Notice
You are currently viewing Boards o' Magick as a guest, but you can register an account here. Registration is fast, easy and free. Once registered you will have access to search the forums, create and respond to threads, PM other members, upload screenshots and access many other features unavailable to guests.

BoM cultivates a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. We have been aiming for quality over quantity with our forums from their inception, and believe that this distinction is truly tangible and valued by our members. We'd love to have you join us today!

(If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you've forgotten your username or password, click here.)

Water on Mars - Confirmed!

Discussion in 'Whatnots' started by Taluntain, May 28, 2002.

  1. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2000
    Messages:
    23,653
    Media:
    494
    Likes Received:
    570
    Gender:
    Male
    Remove all ads!
    [​IMG] May 28, 2002: Using instruments on NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft, surprised scientists have found enormous quantities of buried treasure lying just under the surface of Mars -- enough water ice to fill Lake Michigan twice over. And that may be only the tip of the iceberg.

    "This is really amazing," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona. "This is the best direct evidence we have of subsurface water ice on Mars." Indeed, he says, "what we have found is much more ice than we ever expected."

    Boynton is the principal investigator for a suite of instruments onboard Odyssey collectively known as the gamma-ray spectrometer or "GRS." The GRS has been mapping Mars since February 2002 and has detected telltale signs of water ice in the upper meter (three feet) of soil in a large region surrounding the Red Planet's south pole.

    "It may be better to characterize this layer as dirty ice rather than as dirt containing ice," adds Boynton. The amount of hydrogen detected corresponds to 20% to 50% ice by mass in the lower layer. Because rock has a greater density than ice, this amount is more than 50 percent water ice by volume. This means that if one heated a full bucket of this ice-rich polar soil it would result in more than half a bucket of liquid water.

    How does the GRS detect underground water from Mars orbit? When cosmic rays from space hit the Martian surface, gamma-rays and neutrons fly out of the soil. The GRS can detect those gamma-rays and neutrons and measure their energies. Such data reveals to scientists what elements are present in the soil. Researchers are particularly interested in hydrogen, a telltale sign of H20. Because hydrogen is most likely present in the form of water ice, the GRS can measure the amount of permanent ground ice and how it changes with seasons.

    Read the rest at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/28may_marsice.htm?list121879

    This is excellent news for future exploration (and exploitation) of Mars. Shouldn't be long now before we send a crew to check the Red Planet up close & personal. ;)
     
    Taluntain, May 28, 2002
    #1

  2. Extremist Gems: 31/31
    Latest gem: Rogue Stone

    Joined:
    Apr 3, 2001
    Messages:
    4,366
    Likes Received:
    0
    Nice one. After 50 years of knowing for it, suddenly they are releasing an info on it now. Must be some threatening budget restrictions for no-discoveries... :toofar:

    I don't care for it Tal. Water is a simple chemical structure easily produced. Yes, even Mars has it's atmosphere.

    All I want is some info on artificial stuff. Magic word: Cydonia.
    Well, I guess I have to wait another 50 years for that...
     
    Extremist, May 29, 2002
    #2
  3. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2000
    Messages:
    23,653
    Media:
    494
    Likes Received:
    570
    Gender:
    Male
    [​IMG] No. Not knowing it, but suspecting it. Everyone suspected it was there, but no one had any concrete proof. Only this last probe actually produced evidence to support the theories.

    And uhm, water is easily produced? Maybe I'm missing a point here, but I don't know of any "easy" or cheap way to produce water, especially for inter-planetary travels. Astronauts have to haul water with them, unless there's a water source where they're heading.

    [This message has been edited by Taluntain (edited May 29, 2002).]
     
    Taluntain, May 29, 2002
    #3

  4. AMaster Gems: 26/31
    Latest gem: Diamond

    Joined:
    Jul 26, 2000
    Messages:
    2,495
    Media:
    1
    Likes Received:
    50
    woohoo. maybe 200 years after I die a city will be built near that water. Maybe.

    Tal's right, water is extremely difficult to produce in useful quantities (more than a teaspoon) if it wasn't, we wouldn't have problems with draughts and such in the Western US
     
    AMaster, May 29, 2002
    #4

  5. DragonRider SkyWard Gems: 16/31
    Latest gem: Shandon

    Joined:
    Sep 22, 2001
    Messages:
    830
    Likes Received:
    0
    Now all we need is a few world leaders that will start "Race To Mars." I would hope that they at least send one team to mars in my life time.
     
    DragonRider SkyWard, May 29, 2002
    #5
  6. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2000
    Messages:
    10,416
    Media:
    40
    Likes Received:
    232
    Gender:
    Male
    Water is an extremely easy thing to make, you simply burn hydrogen in the presence of oxygen.

    The reason we don't make water on earth is that the earth is water-rich and free-hydrogen-poor, so it is far more expensive to make water than to get it from where it naturally occurs.

    Water is also made during spaceflights because they often use hydrogen fuel cells to produce their electricity, and water is a byproduct.

    [This message has been edited by Blackthorne TA (edited May 29, 2002).]
     
    Blackthorne TA, May 29, 2002
    #6
  7. Sir Belisarius

    Sir Belisarius Viconia's Boy Toy Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2000
    Messages:
    4,257
    Media:
    23
    Likes Received:
    4
    Gender:
    Male
    [​IMG] WhooHoo! Exciting stuff! I'm all fired up! Astronomy and space exploration is one of my favorite hobbies, aside from babbling endlessly on SP!

    Now all we need to do is start firing rockets full of carbon dioxide (or is it monoxide) to begin a greenhouse effect...after about 25-30 years of doing that, start planting trees and then sit back and watching it all percolate!!!

    Terraforming at its finest!!! How cool would that be? Taking vacation on Mars! Reading Mars Today! Etc...
     
    Sir Belisarius, May 29, 2002
    #7

  8. total Guest

    Yes and we do have too much CO2 so we can sell it to martians :) But the best thing for that would be those damn CFC or similar.
     
    total, May 29, 2002
    #8

  9. Mollusken Gems: 24/31
    Latest gem: Water Opal

    Joined:
    Aug 12, 2000
    Messages:
    1,952
    Likes Received:
    0
    Is there anything you can burn without the presence of oxygen? ;)

    [Some people refer to nuclear fusion as "burning" :) - BTA]

    [This message has been edited by Blackthorne TA (edited May 29, 2002).]
     
    Mollusken, May 29, 2002
    #9

  10. Turambar Gems: 13/31
    Latest gem: Ziose

    Joined:
    Apr 4, 2001
    Messages:
    518
    Likes Received:
    0
    One point of having water is that it can be used for making fuel, making manned flights to Mars possible and effective alot sooner.

    Just send some unmanned flights with the factories ahead of the manned mission and you will be in business for making fuel for the journey back.
     
    Turambar, May 29, 2002
    #10

  11. SlimShogun Gems: 13/31
    Latest gem: Ziose

    Joined:
    Apr 7, 2002
    Messages:
    585
    Likes Received:
    0
    [​IMG] ...and then head out to the Holodeck for some R&R!
     
    SlimShogun, May 30, 2002
    #11

  12. Shadow_Goddess Guest

    Now that we know that, we might even be able to find oxygen there. As far as I know, once we trash *this* planet up, we will all move there and trash *that* place up. Too bad other scientists say our galaxy is moving, so there is suspicion that we are being slowly sucked into a black hole outside of our galaxy.
     
    Shadow_Goddess, May 30, 2002
    #12

  13. Faerus Stoneslammer Gems: 16/31
    Latest gem: Shandon

    Joined:
    Apr 10, 2002
    Messages:
    852
    Likes Received:
    0
    Of course our galaxy is moving, all galaxies are moving...
    It's good to know they've found ice on Mars, but it's not the first place in our solar system they've found it.
    Now, we only have to wait several decades for NASA to start sending crews to Mars and maybe even build a biodome...
     
    Faerus Stoneslammer, May 30, 2002
    #13

  14. Turambar Gems: 13/31
    Latest gem: Ziose

    Joined:
    Apr 4, 2001
    Messages:
    518
    Likes Received:
    0
    As I see it, the only way for the human race to survive is to spread to other planets. Eventually some sheitt will happen to this place and kill everything.

    Remember what that guy in Matrix compared the human race to, a virus. Fits awfully good doesen't it.....:mommy:
     
    Turambar, May 30, 2002
    #14

  15. Mollusken Gems: 24/31
    Latest gem: Water Opal

    Joined:
    Aug 12, 2000
    Messages:
    1,952
    Likes Received:
    0
    Yes, but the other place is one of Jupiter's moons, which isn't really considered to be a place to live atm.
     
    Mollusken, May 30, 2002
    #15
Sorcerer's Place is a project run entirely by fans and for fans. Maintaining Sorcerer's Place and a stable environment for all our hosted sites requires a substantial amount of our time and funds on a regular basis, so please consider supporting us to keep the site up & running smoothly. Thank you!

Sorcerers.net is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to products on amazon.com, amazon.ca and amazon.co.uk. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.