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NASA is inviting the public to take part in virtual activities and events ahead of the launch of the agency's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, which is targeted for 7:50 a.m. EDT (4:50 a.m. PDT) Thursday, July 30, on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Live coverage and countdown commentary will begin at 7 a.m. EDT (4 a.m. PDT) on NASA Television and the agency's website, as well as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, Daily Motion, and Theta.TV. As part of the broadcast, Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Gregory Porter will perform a special rendition of "America the Beautiful."
Perseverance is NASA's latest Red Planet rover, designed to search for astrobiological evidence of ancient microbial life on Mars. Following a seven-month journey, it will land at Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. There, Perseverance will gather rock and soil samples for future return to Earth. It also will characterize the planet's climate and geology and pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet. The robotic scientist, which weighs just under 2,300 pounds (1,043 kilograms), also will carry the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, a technology demonstration that marks the first attempt at powered, controlled flight on another planet.
"This little rock's got quite a life story," explained Prof Caroline Smith, head of Earth sciences collections at the NHM and a member of the Perseverance science team.
"It formed about 450 million years ago, got blasted off Mars by an asteroid or comet roughly 600,000-700,000 years ago, and then landed on Earth; we don't know precisely when but perhaps 1,000 years ago. And now it's going back to Mars," she told BBC News.
Discovered in the deserts of Oman in 1999, the meteorite, known as Sayh al Uhaymir 008, or SaU 008, is a classic piece of basalt - very similar to the type of igneous rock you will find, for example, at Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.
originally posted by: LookingAtMars
If this rover makes it safely to Mars the chances are pretty good it will find biosignatures on Mars of past life
I don't think so . We've heard for decades of evidence of life once upon a time on mars. Hasn't happened . Won't happen. We can't just keep wasting money on these dumb projects chasing a ghost. Scientists were wrong about mars. This is just a ego thing now. Billions wasted to know mars has rocks.
We need to focus on new technology for further and faster space travel. Earth is getting trashed . We need a a plan B .
I don't think so . We've heard for decades of evidence of life once upon a time on mars.
We can't just keep wasting money on these dumb projects chasing a ghost. Scientists were wrong about mars. This is just a ego thing now. Billions wasted to know mars has rocks.
We need a a plan B
TPTB do not think we are ready for that information yet
It is not wasted money and it is a very small percent of the US budget. To me it looks like the US has had a great return from the money it has spent on space.
The possibility of life on Mars is a subject of huge interest in astrobiology due to its proximity and similarities to Earth. To date,no proof has been found of past or present life on Mars.
originally posted by: LookingAtMars
a reply to: seedofchucky
I don't think so . We've heard for decades of evidence of life once upon a time on mars.
TPTB do not think we are ready for that information yet.
Life on Mars could be found within two years but world is ‘not prepared’, Nasa’s chief scientist says
We can't just keep wasting money on these dumb projects chasing a ghost. Scientists were wrong about mars. This is just a ego thing now. Billions wasted to know mars has rocks.
It is not wasted money and it is a very small percent of the US budget. To me it looks like the US has had a great return from the money it has spent on space.
We need a a plan B
Agree with you here 100%.
ETA- New ways to travel in space are being worked on.
Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket
Fusion rocket
And there are more system being worked on and tested.
What if the tic-tacs are ours? They look pretty fast.
To date,no proof has been found of past or present life on Mars.
s it cool? Yes. Is it necessary? No. When we have homeless vets and people struggling to pay bills it's a waste of our]/url] money.
Perseverance will gather rock and soil samples for future return to Earth.
originally posted by: LookingAtMars
a reply to: seedofchucky
To date,no proof has been found of past or present life on Mars.
Not true, the first lander we sent found life. Since then there have been no more tests like that to find life.
If there is life on Mars now, it is mostly underground and we aren't looking for it there much at all.
One prominent proponent of this view is Gilbert Levin, Experimenter of the Viking LR experiment. At first, Levin thought that the LR results were unclear, and stated merely that the results were consistent with biology. However, in 1997, after many years of further experiments on Earth, along with new discoveries on Mars (which NASA has now declared "habitable"), and the discovery of microorganisms living under conditions on Earth as severe as those on Mars, he and his Viking Co-Experimenter, Dr. Patricia A. Straat, have argued that the Mars results are best explained by living organisms.
phys.org...
show me source of first lander who "found life" .... i'm waiting.
To make sure it was a biological reaction, the test was repeated after cooking the soil, which would prove lethal to known life. If there was a measurable reaction in the first and not the second sample, that would suggest biological forces at work – and that's exactly what happened, according to Levin.
However, other experiments failed to find any organic material and NASA couldn't duplicate the results in their laboratory – so they dismissed the positive result as false positives, some unknown chemical reaction rather than proof of extraterrestrial life.
"NASA concluded that the LR had found a substance mimicking life, but not life," said Levin in his article. "Inexplicably, over the 43 years since Viking, none of NASA's subsequent Mars landers has carried a life detection instrument to follow up on these exciting results."
originally posted by: LookingAtMars
a reply to: HalWesten
s it cool? Yes. Is it necessary? No. When we have homeless vets and people struggling to pay bills it's a waste of our]/url] money.
There are so many stupid things that the US spends much more money on than Mars.
It would be a much different world if the US had not spent the money it did on space exploration.
originally posted by: LookingAtMars
a reply to: seedofchucky
show me source of first lander who "found life" .... i'm waiting.
Wait no longer, here it is from the horses mouth, Gilbert V. Levin.
The principal investigator on the NASA experiment that found life on Mars.
Interesting the experiment has never been repeated on Mars. Because that is what the scientific method would require.
To make sure it was a biological reaction, the test was repeated after cooking the soil, which would prove lethal to known life. If there was a measurable reaction in the first and not the second sample, that would suggest biological forces at work – and that's exactly what happened, according to Levin.
However, other experiments failed to find any organic material and NASA couldn't duplicate the results in their laboratory – so they dismissed the positive result as false positives, some unknown chemical reaction rather than proof of extraterrestrial life.
"NASA concluded that the LR had found a substance mimicking life, but not life," said Levin in his article. "Inexplicably, over the 43 years since Viking, none of NASA's subsequent Mars landers has carried a life detection instrument to follow up on these exciting results."
Former NASA scientist says they found life on Mars in the 1970s
"NASA concluded that the LR had found a substance mimicking life, but not life,"
originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: seedofchucky
Here's one.
One prominent proponent of this view is Gilbert Levin, Experimenter of the Viking LR experiment. At first, Levin thought that the LR results were unclear, and stated merely that the results were consistent with biology. However, in 1997, after many years of further experiments on Earth, along with new discoveries on Mars (which NASA has now declared "habitable"), and the discovery of microorganisms living under conditions on Earth as severe as those on Mars, he and his Viking Co-Experimenter, Dr. Patricia A. Straat, have argued that the Mars results are best explained by living organisms.
phys.org...
I agree with them.
"NASA concluded that the LR had found a substance mimicking life, but not life,"
Like? How has space exploration improved our society?
originally posted by: HalWesten
originally posted by: LookingAtMars
a reply to: HalWesten
s it cool? Yes. Is it necessary? No. When we have homeless vets and people struggling to pay bills it's a waste of our]/url] money.
There are so many stupid things that the US spends much more money on than Mars.
It would be a much different world if the US had not spent the money it did on space exploration.
Like? How has space exploration improved our society?