Ice found on Mars for real this time

[lokiju]

Quick, someone make a 3 fingered hand shape up there already and make a insta-atmosphere! (patent pending)

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
Next the lander will find a broken gumball machine of instant martians (just add water!) and an Illudium Q-32 Explosive Space Modulator.

i wonder how many are going to get this joke?

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: lokiju
Quick, someone make a 3 fingered hand shape up there already and make a insta-atmosphere! (patent pending)

Get your ass to Mars.

 

[bigi]

Mmmmmmmmmm, Martian Water!

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
Next the lander will find a broken gumball machine of instant martians (just add water!) and an Illudium Q-32 Explosive Space Modulator.

i wonder how many are going to get this joke?

Pretty much anyone over 30 should.

 

[sjwaste]

Don't make me post "Coca-Cola Sponsored Mission Finds Evidence of Dasani on Mars" again.

 

[Jeff7]

Can't they use some kind of spectrometer on the stuff to find out what it is?
I don't have the instrumentation suite of Phoenix memorized. Yet.
Spirit found white grainy stuff closer to the equator, and it turned out to be hydrated compounds.
Hopefully it wasn't just light powder blowing away in the breeze.
- Wait, nevermind, I was looking at the light powder, didn't see those larger chunks vanishing. Nifty.

Originally posted by: archiloco
what if some germs/bacteria accidentally was left on the probe???

There are always some bacteria on probes that leave Earth. Sterilizing something entirely would be extremely expensive, if not impossible. I think if they'd find anything though, it'd be sufficiently different from any Earth-based life to tell the difference.

Originally posted by: dsity

of organic molecules, among other substances, but the lander does not have instruments that could directly detect life.

WTF

One step at a time.





And the blooper reel:
Text

User "Astro0" of another forum came up with this

From user "Airbag"

 

[randay]

NUKE FROM ORBIT!!! MAKE THE CALL!!!

we dont have time to discuss this! we must act now!

 

[rh71]

Astronaut's Wife movie comes to mind for when they bring anything back.

 

[TehMac]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
Next the lander will find a broken gumball machine of instant martians (just add water!) and an Illudium Q-32 Explosive Space Modulator.

i wonder how many are going to get this joke?

That Martian Walt Disney film, amirite?

 

[SirStev0]

This is awesome. Now if only we'd apply some more money to NASA we'd maybe actually end up with some really cool discoveries.

 

[AbsolutDealage]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: archiloco
what if some germs/bacteria accidentally was left on the probe???

There are always some bacteria on probes that leave Earth. Sterilizing something entirely would be extremely expensive, if not impossible. I think if they'd find anything though, it'd be sufficiently different from any Earth-based life to tell the difference.

Yup. Here's the skinny (from here), for those interested:

Planetary Protection
In the study of whether Mars has had environments conducive to life, precautions must be taken to avoid introduction of microbes from Earth. Consistent with this, the United States is a signatory to an international treaty stipulating that exploration must be conducted in a manner that avoids harmful contamination of celestial bodies. ?Planetary protection? is the collection of rules and practices used to avoid biological contamination in the process of exploration. NASA has a planetary protection officer responsible for establishing and enforcing planetary protection regulations. Spacecraft missions are responsible for implementing measures to comply with the regulations. In compliance with the treaty and NASA regulations, the Phoenix flight hardware has been designed and built to meet planetary protection requirements.

NASA?s primary strategy for preventing contamination of Mars with Earth organisms is to be sure that all hardware going to the planet is clean. One of the requirements for the Phoenix mission is that the exposed interior and exterior surfaces of the landed system, which includes the lander, parachute and back shell, must not carry a total number of bacterial spores greater than 300,000, with the average spore density not exceeding 300 spores per square meter (about 11 square feet) so that biological load is not concentrated in one place. Spore-forming bacteria have been the focus of planetary protection standards because these bacteria can survive harsh conditions for many years as inactive spores.

The standard of cleanliness is much higher for hardware that will touch parts of Mars thought to have potential for sustaining life. This applies to the soil containing water ice, which scientists believe lies just below the surface where Phoenix will land. The robotic arm is the only part of the spacecraft that will touch Mars? icy subsurface layer. Consistent with the higher cleanliness standards for subsurface contact, the robotic arm was designed and built to stricter cleanliness requirements than the rest of the lander. It must comply with a standard that allows less than one spore per square meter on the arm?s total surface area.

The three primary methods used for reducing the number of spores on the spacecraft are precision cleaning, dry heat microbial reduction and protection behind high-efficiency filters. For the arm, an innovative biological barrier wrapping was also developed to supplement the dry heat treatment. This biobarrier is essentially a customized enclosure to protect the arm from recontamination before it is put to use at Mars.

Technicians who assembled the spacecraft and prepared it for launch routinely cleaned surfaces by wiping them with alcohol or other solvent. Components tolerant of high temperature were heated to reduce spore burden according to NASA specification, at temperatures ranging from 110 to 146 degrees Celsius (230 to 295 degrees Fahrenheit) for durations up to 50 hours. The planetary protection team carefully sampled the surfaces and performed microbiological tests to demonstrate that the spacecraft meets requirements for biological cleanliness. Whenever possible, hardware was contained within a sealed container vented through high-efficiency filters.

The most distinctive feature for planetary protection on Phoenix is the biobarrier sealing the robotic arm, which is constructed of a film that holds up to baking, like a turkey basting bag. The film is made from Tedlar, a trademarked polyvinylflouride material with commercial uses ranging from durable surfaces on airline cabin furnishings to backing sheets for photovoltaic panels. The biobarrier film is supported by a skeleton of spring-loaded, aluminum-tube ribs to maintain its shape. Workers sealed the arm inside the biobarrier before beginning heat treatment to reduce spores on the arm. This prevented any new spores from getting onto the arm during final preparations before launch, and in the subsequent launch and cruise environments. The biobarrier will remain sealed until the lander reaches the Martian surface. On the Martian surface, the springs will retract the ribs and the film, allowing the arm to deploy.

Another way of making sure Phoenix doesn?t transport Earth life to Mars is to ensure that any hardware not meeting cleanliness standards does not go to Mars accidentally. When the Delta launch vehicle?s third stage separated from the spacecraft, the two objects were traveling on nearly identical trajectories. To prevent the possibility of the third stage hitting Mars, the shared flight path was deliberately set so that the spacecraft would miss Mars if not for its first two trajectory correction maneuvers. By design, the third stage is never aimed at Mars. For hardware expected to impact Mars, such as the cruise stage after lander separation, a detailed thermal analysis was conducted to make sure that plunging through Mars atmosphere gets it sufficiently hot that few to no spores survive.

 

[OutHouse]

umm mars has polar caps so why wouldnt mars have water?

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: AbsolutDealage

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: archiloco
what if some germs/bacteria accidentally was left on the probe???

There are always some bacteria on probes that leave Earth. Sterilizing something entirely would be extremely expensive, if not impossible. I think if they'd find anything though, it'd be sufficiently different from any Earth-based life to tell the difference.

Yup. Here's the skinny (from here), for those interested:

Good stuff.
It's why they sent Galileo into Jupiter's atmosphere near the end of its life, rather than let it just orbit indefinitely. They didn't want to risk having it smash into Europa, which very likely has a sub-surface ocean of liquid water. The surface has very little vertical relief, and very few craters, indicating constant resurfacing.

If there's not life there already, a probe crashing into it very well may introduce it.

Originally posted by: Citrix
umm mars has polar caps so why wouldnt mars have water?

I think the big deal is that the ice is within the reach of Phoenix, which was the objective of the mission: To land on ice. It'd have sucked if they'd have gone all that way to check out Martian ice, only to land in a big field of nothing but dirt.

 

[FlashG]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
Next the lander will find a broken gumball machine of instant martians (just add water!) and an Illudium Q-32 Explosive Space Modulator.

i wonder how many are going to get this joke?

Text

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: FlashG

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
Next the lander will find a broken gumball machine of instant martians (just add water!) and an Illudium Q-32 Explosive Space Modulator.

i wonder how many are going to get this joke?

Text

This episode.
Unfortunately, this one lacks the original sound, and has some weird voiceover.

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: Citrix
umm mars has polar caps so why wouldnt mars have water?

Yeah, this isn't exactly news. There are plenty of photos of large areas of ice.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: Citrix
umm mars has polar caps so why wouldnt mars have water?

Yeah, this isn't exactly news. There are plenty of photos of large areas of ice.

You missed my post earlier.
It's news because it means that Phoenix can do what it was sent to do. They wanted to land on ice. Now they have confirmation that they found ice.

 

[ballmode]

I better go alert the DARPA chief

 

[FlashG]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: FlashG

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
Next the lander will find a broken gumball machine of instant martians (just add water!) and an Illudium Q-32 Explosive Space Modulator.

i wonder how many are going to get this joke?

Text

This episode.
Unfortunately, this one lacks the original sound, and has some weird voiceover.

better