Huge Buried Water Glaciers Discovered on Mars!

Huge Buried Water Glaciers Discovered on Mars!

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This is another amazing step towards colonizing Mars!

blog.wired.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by HunkaHunka

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It's a good way to help us finally figure out if there was/is life on Mars. I don't see how it gets us any closer to colonization though.

Very interesting story regardless. Thanks for posting.

reply to post by nyk537

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Well without easily accessible water on Mars the chances of colonizing the planet aren't very good. Because of this discovery it takes humans one step closer to colonizing Mars, probably not in out lifetime though but still cool news.

I understand that.

I just don't see easy access to water as our biggest obstacle to colonizing another planet right now.

Where their is water their is LIFE! I have long suspected Mars of having plant life of some kind ... or maybe plankton or something. I base that off of the fact that mars has some tangible albeit sparse oxygen. For the levels oxygen to cover the globe however sparsely that means something is intaking Carbon and exhaling oxygen .

I would put my money on an extreme amount of micro biological life.

Baby steps, first they get you comfy with bacteria and other single cell alien organisms. Then we're more ready to believe in bug-eyed anal probing spacemen. What's the next tablescrap they'll feed us?

Lets see bottled water is about 1.79 for 20 ounces in the stores, I wonder what it will cost when it takes a shuttle launch to get the water?

Who cares and who knows for sure what's up there, ground penetrating radar aint that perfect of a science technique. In my opinion water/ice or not, there is no life on the Mars or any other planet.

Why would we colonize Mars anyways, is this planet depleted or overpopulated or something? Earth is beautiful and we were made to live on it and it sustains us for ages and you suggest moving to some cold planet that can't support us. I will stay here thanks, ya'll have fun though.

Or maybe there is no large government conspiracy and they are finding this stuff out right along with us.

Just an idea.



[edit on 20-11-2008 by nyk537]

reply to post by nyk537

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nyk, we don't always agree, but on this we do.


This is great news. And the access to water was discussed in the article as being able to provide the essential element to astronauts while planetside on mars.

A star and a flag for you on this one!

I love hearing about things like this on ATS.

If you haven't read the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, check this out:

Trilogy Info

OMG.

The water on Mars would never be brought back to earth. It would be for the Mars explorers and later colonists, who wouldn't have to bring it all the way from earth.

reply to post by centurion1211

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I agree! The Mars Trilogy is great. There are some dry areas, but that's because the books were very well researched.

All in all, I loved them!

Anyone who is interested in colonizing mars, and it's socio-political impact should read these books as a pre-req.

Water on Mars represents possibilities. I love it.




Thanks, Centurion. I can't wait to read them.

Find water here on earth for everybody,then worry about mars,but interesting discovery none the less.

We haven't found water on Earth yet??

Where the hell have I been?

[edit on 20-11-2008 by nyk537]

reply to post by HunkaHunka

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Great find Hunka. Star and a flag for you!

My only concern is what could be swimming around in it once they thaw some out. If I'm not mistaken we have some microbial life here that can survive for quite awhile even though they are frozen solid in glaciers, thaw out the glaciers and they start swimming around.

Went and looked it up. The kind I'm talking about specifically are called Psychrophiles. (Yes, it's a wikipedia link. Ewww!) Also found this page on them from thinkquest.org.

reply to post by nyk537

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I agree on the good find. That this could indeed give solid proof one way or the other. However, the impact on colonization is HUGE! If there is a source of fresh water within drilling distance of a landing zone then this would speed things up considerably. Think about it. The idea of having to synthetically manufacture water is daunting with all of the equipment and extra weight they would have to bring. Sanatizing the water over and over (including urine) only does so much. With an actual source they can bring less fresh water of their own.

However, I would want to make DAMN sure that this ice is indeed potable water first! lol

Yeah, but it's not as if everyone has access to it.



Water Aid

i knew eventually it would be discovered. Now we must worry about what is frozen in it. Micro organisms alien to our planet could be the thing that wipes us out if it ever gets here. So nasa may not try but other countries are reaching the moon and most definitely will aim for mars. Take a sample and bring it back here could be the worst mistake of our existence. It could flourish and poison our ecosystem or worse could be a viral organism that attacks us and wipes out life as we know it. Or to be more positive maybe it could be used to kill all viruses and cure cancer. But anything that samples the water on mars should stay on mars. Perhaps we should design robots to take care of animals in a biosphere and use the water to see how life reacts to it whether or not probes discover microbes in it or not.
I am very curious to know what may be in the ice. I m sure others are to but i just hope they handle it accordingly.