Mars Express finds more subsurface ponds of liquid water on Mars:
ESA's Mars Express orbiter has found evidence of more liquid water beneath the ice cap in the south polar region of Mars. Based on data from the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) radar instrument, researchers found three new subsurface ponds, with the largest measuring 20 x 30 km (12 x 19 mi).
In 2018, the Mars Express team discovered that the Martian ice caps are not ice throughout, but actually have large, subsurface lakes of liquid water. Using the MARSIS instrument to probe beneath the southern polar cap from May 2012 and December 2015, the orbiter mapped out a lake 20 km (12.4 mi) wide under 1.5 km (0.9 mi) of solid ice. Now, more ponds are being revealed at the same depth by a reanalysis of the same data.
The ponds could serve as habitat for extremophiles.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 30 2020, @06:48PM (2 children)
These are like the playbook for Mars colonization
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_trilogy [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 30 2020, @09:01PM (1 child)
Too utopian. Therefore we will probably do it differently.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 01 2020, @07:01AM
> Too utopian
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 30 2020, @09:20PM (3 children)
Seems pretty much inevitable at this point.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday September 30 2020, @09:44PM (2 children)
This sounds like a hypersaline slush. It might not be promising for life forms. But there could be deeper reservoirs that are not easily picked up by radar. It's a good reason to set up a science colony there.
Enceladus, Europa, Ganymede [businessinsider.com], etc. seem more promising.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 01 2020, @02:58PM (1 child)
Considering how extreme extremophiles are, it would really be a statement on the possibility of alien life in the whole universe if there is no life on Mars at all.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 01 2020, @03:33PM
Massive 'ocean' discovered towards Earth's core [newscientist.com]
We need to go deeper.
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(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Thursday October 01 2020, @05:46AM (3 children)
so with all this water, can't we put a dome over there, some solar panels, and start pumping oxygen and hydrogen into tanks? then we send up a robod with some carbon and some potatoes and shit (literal shit). this can all be prepackaged and set up on earth -just dump the dome on some ice.
then by the time we're ready to go there, we got air fuel and food, making the trip much easier. martian chronicles had it right.
oh what am i thinkng. we have a hard time landing a toy electric car there and moving it around.
fuck mars. what we need is a self-sustaining large moon base. something actually useful beyond curiosity, and quite doable, for like 10% of our military budget. why the fuck is this not done yet, like seriously.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 01 2020, @06:59AM (1 child)
oh seriously? seriously? what u gonna do on the moon except rich people selfies drinking bubbly,
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Thursday October 01 2020, @08:09PM
there's a shitload of deuterium for energy generation. telescopes and research facilities in low grav with no atmosphere to block your view. even testing or pollution and radiation generating industry that's not good to do on earth. building spacecraft to go out further, without the need for huge rockets to get out of earth orbit. there's plenty to do, and none of it involves selfies.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 01 2020, @05:06PM
Pretty sure that is a bad idea:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waters_of_Mars [wikipedia.org]
/s