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NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered ancient organic molecules on Mars. That plus the methane is strongly suggesting that life may have existed on Mars back when liquid water existed on the surface.
NASA's Curiosity rover has found new evidence preserved in rocks on Mars that suggests the planet could have supported ancient life, as well as new evidence in the Martian atmosphere that relates to the search for current life on the Red Planet. While not necessarily evidence of life itself, these findings are a good sign for future missions exploring the planet's surface and subsurface.
The new findings – "tough" organic molecules in three-billion-year-old sedimentary rocks near the surface, as well as seasonal variations in the levels of methane in the atmosphere – appear in the June 8 edition of the journal Science.
Organic molecules contain carbon and hydrogen, and also may include oxygen, nitrogen and other elements. While commonly associated with life, organic molecules also can be created by non-biological processes and are not necessarily indicators of life.
"With these new findings, Mars is telling us to stay the course and keep searching for evidence of life," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, in Washington. "I'm confident that our ongoing and planned missions will unlock even more breathtaking discoveries on the Red Planet."
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday June 08 2018, @05:07PM (5 children)
Well for the polar lander, the Wikipedia page says that chronic underfunding and mismanagement were the underlying causes of failure there. So maybe Mars is telling us to stop being so incompetent about management and funding.
And the climate orbiter I think was the one that failed because the teams didn't know what units they were using (one metric, one English, with the data given without any units, and the units merely assumed). So on that one, maybe Mars is telling us to not be stupid and to stop using archaic measurement systems and to always specify units no matter what system you're using (this is something I was taught in first-year engineering school!!!).
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday June 08 2018, @05:54PM (1 child)
A few molecules telling us all that?
Don't anthropomorphize molecules. They hate it when you do that.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Immerman on Friday June 08 2018, @06:11PM
Do you really? After all, you're just a bunch of molecules...
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Friday June 08 2018, @06:18PM (1 child)
So in that vein, for Curiosity's mission to determine habitability and life factors eventually finding hydrocarbons in 2018 after landing in 2012, it is maybe saying "Years after your lander was supposed to be long dead, you finally found some molecules that might be interesting and might not."
I can actually see hearing that as "stay the course", like Zurbuchen did. It's encouraging. And maybe the fiery deaths of the polar and climate landers were saying "Mars could use some global warming", which would sure make it more comfortable for explorers, settlers, and castaways from Earth.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday June 08 2018, @09:32PM
Wouldn't it be funny if after all this time, the lander is dead and they've got an AI computer in some room feeding the other computers fake data showing results.
NASA: "Yeah...we got nothing, but we gotta keep funding coming, sooooooo....." plugs in computer.
Roy: "We set up a voice activation system on your computer... i think you're going to like it...might just take a while to get the pitch right on the voice but none the less, go ahead."
NASA: Exciting! Hello....hello computer....
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 08 2018, @07:00PM
You use units in binary encoded transmissions? So 4 bytes for the value and ?? bytes for the unit name? ouch.