Water found on Mars. Suck it up, skeptics.
ElectricAye
Posts: 4,561
According to the article:
..."If you take about a cubic foot of dirt with the amount of water that we found and heated it up, you could get a couple of pints of water out of that," said Laurie Leshin, dean of science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, who led this study....
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/30/tech/innovation/mars-water/index.html?hpt=hp_c3
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/curiositys-sam-instrument-finds-water-and-more-in-surface-sample/#.Uko6ZihxeGQ
..."If you take about a cubic foot of dirt with the amount of water that we found and heated it up, you could get a couple of pints of water out of that," said Laurie Leshin, dean of science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, who led this study....
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/30/tech/innovation/mars-water/index.html?hpt=hp_c3
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/curiositys-sam-instrument-finds-water-and-more-in-surface-sample/#.Uko6ZihxeGQ
Comments
Be skeptical.
I try to be cynical, but it's hard to keep up.
Dude, remind me never to team up with you on a desert survival course.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_content#Earth_and_agricultural_sciences
looks like that .033 v/v martian water, is below the wilting level of many plants (ignoring other issues for a moment) and typical of our soils Residual water content (Remaining water at high tension)
That solar still is looking unlikely to work on Mars..
But an algae might survive?
Okay, so you won't be able to grow your Epimedium and Yohimbine there.
But I bet some Martian microbes could make a home in it.
The Moon has water too, and the geology is likely able to make good concrete. But I doubt if I'll ever make it that far. Why can't we just accept we have a good deal on Earth and improve the environment rather than exploit it?
Earth ain't bad. Probably beats Mercury or a beach house on Titan. But I'm not interested in martian water because I think people should move there. I'm interested in what kind of life is there, how different is it from that on earth, and can it tell us anything about our own biology, origins, etc.
Travelling by spaceship for three years to seek out water in these proportions is fantasy.
Now if they discovered vast oil reserves on Mars... along with the water.......
Survival of the human race seems to weigh more in the balance on our inability to engage in a realistic political dialogue to protect the environment we now habitate. How would migrating to Mars change that?
The resources off of Earth have one huge liabilty against their use .... distance to the marketplace.
Have you heard of this thing called a "pipeline"?
Though I don't think anyone is actually recommending Mars as a source for raw materials or anything of that nature. There are far better place to go in the Solar System for that.
"Don't put all your eggs in one basket" is a good idea.
It may seem crass to say 'if there were vast oil reserves....', but think about it. The oil is a fossil fuel. And fossils come from life forms, and such life forms had to have a lot of water to prosper. Fossils in any form on Mars would be a huge discovery.... including in the form of oil.
Of course the irony is that if we did find oil on another planet, we would probably go there, set up refineries, and pretty soon have the whole place overtaken by a cloud of smog.
In terms of an alien invasion of Earth, if aliens in the universe had a hydro-carbon based economy... we might have already been invaded and ruled by over-lords. In fact, humans might consider doing it to an alien population. It is the kind of expansion/migration that opened up the New World.
I just want us earlhlings to keep on track with creating a global agenda that really works for 'spaceship earth', rather than looking for anther planet.
So Universal Cooling trumps Global Warming?
By fighting Global Warming, people are contributing to Universal Cooling.
Can we just call it Universal Climate Change and get on with our lives?
(this may or may not have been written with tongue firmly planted in cheek)
While golbal warming is of more concern to me, it is main so because it just might be possible to resolve and useful to do so.
One the other hand, I am not too concerned about the universe, the fact that there is likely to be a majority of aged people in 2050 (I'll be dead and gone), or any other item too far away in the future or distance. In other words, I envy my dog. He doesn't understand what Fox News and CNN are trying to say and seems happy to be missing it all.
I suppose I should write a science fiction novel about a fossil find on another planet and all the implications that humankind have to deal with from the discovery. But actually, I am a bit stumped as to what an extra-terrestrial fossil should look like.
If we did find one I'd have to stay off the internet. The internet might crash in the largest online argument ever. Can you add that to the novel?
The same system can turn urine into drinking water by placing a container in the middle of the water pot and surrounding it with the urine, the moisture collects as shown on the plastic sheet and drops into the container as drinkable water, never tried it and probably wouldn't any time soon. Any volunteers?
Sure. I'd be willing to take a whizz on Mars. Just need somebody to fly me there and back free of charge.
People have been known to drink urine without ill affects. Some even claim that a daily cup of one's own urine will help one live to a ripe old age.
The problem is that you have to do more than drink your own urine (distilled or otherwise) to rehydrate.. as you perspire and resparate water as well. And I can't quite imaging going to Mars without at least a weekly shower or bath.
So even before you arrive, you have to take enough water to go and return (in case you turn back). What is the budget per person for six years of water in transist to and from Mars?
By the way, I don't think that solar water still is going to work well inside a space ship.
A. no gravity
B. no sun