Meanwhile... the truth!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNqc_SeLLcs&NR=1
Steve
Full Version: Phoenix Lands On Mars!
Is anyone else excited about this? The odds on the spacecraft landing successfully were about 50% and it's much closer to the pole, so perhaps more chance of finding water ice close to the surface.
Meanwhile... the truth!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNqc_SeLLcs&NR=1
Steve
Meanwhile... the truth!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNqc_SeLLcs&NR=1
Steve
Yes - my OH is hopping up and down and has been glued to his computer screen !
Interesting stuff about ice and temperature. What sort of rock are those blue-ish bits do you think?
Interesting stuff about ice and temperature. What sort of rock are those blue-ish bits do you think?
Presence of water confirmed yesterday!!!
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/
Fantastic news!
We have the ice and water. Growing sugar cane in a controlled environment shouldn't be difficult and fermenting the sugar to alcohol will be a doddle.
Not sure about the lemon slices though!
The next step: Ginntonix on Mars!
Douglas Adams would be proud!
Steve
QUOTE
Scientists relishing confirmation of water ice near the surface beside NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander anticipate even bigger discoveries from the robotic mission in the weeks ahead.
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/
Fantastic news!
We have the ice and water. Growing sugar cane in a controlled environment shouldn't be difficult and fermenting the sugar to alcohol will be a doddle.
Not sure about the lemon slices though!
The next step: Ginntonix on Mars!
Douglas Adams would be proud!
Steve
Wow - it is quite exciting - what next!!!!
Thanks so much for this link, stevensfo - it's fascinating! I can't get over the quality of the pictures - you may not be as old as I am, but to anyone reared on 1960s black-and-white (plus an awful lot of blurring on the space ones!) they look terrific.
QUOTE(stevensfo @ Jun 21 2008, 10:34 AM) 
Presence of water confirmed yesterday!!!
QUOTE
Scientists relishing confirmation of water ice near the surface beside NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander anticipate even bigger discoveries from the robotic mission in the weeks ahead.
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/
Fantastic news!
We have the ice and water. Growing sugar cane in a controlled environment shouldn't be difficult and fermenting the sugar to alcohol will be a doddle.
Not sure about the lemon slices though!
The next step: Ginntonix on Mars!
Douglas Adams would be proud!
Steve
If you're growing sugar, then rum rather than gin, surely?
nick
Well I'm just old enough to vaguely remember Neil Armstrong landing on the moon. The teachers put a tv in the hall and left it on most of the day. It was all very exciting, but at the time I was probably more concerned with my toy cars! 
Later I was obsessed with the space program from the age of ten and remember keeping a scrapbook for newspaper cuttings - everything to do with space, UFOs etc.
The presence of water means that a permanent base on Mars will be much easier to maintain. From water, it's very easy to produce oxygen (to support life/use as fuel) and hydrogen (Fuel-either via combustion or electricity cells). Electricity will be from solar panels. Despite the distance from the sun, the thin atmosphere and lack of ozone layer means that the rays hitting the surface are highly energetic. No sunbathing there!
I once read that hydrogen could even be used to fill balloons to assist with transport over the surface. No danger of explosion, because the thin atmosphere is carbon dioxide - as used in fire extinguishers!
It won't be in our lifetime, but I'm sure that there will be humans living there one day.
Of course the major question is: How often will the ABRSM examiners visit?
Steve
Later I was obsessed with the space program from the age of ten and remember keeping a scrapbook for newspaper cuttings - everything to do with space, UFOs etc.
The presence of water means that a permanent base on Mars will be much easier to maintain. From water, it's very easy to produce oxygen (to support life/use as fuel) and hydrogen (Fuel-either via combustion or electricity cells). Electricity will be from solar panels. Despite the distance from the sun, the thin atmosphere and lack of ozone layer means that the rays hitting the surface are highly energetic. No sunbathing there!
I once read that hydrogen could even be used to fill balloons to assist with transport over the surface. No danger of explosion, because the thin atmosphere is carbon dioxide - as used in fire extinguishers!
It won't be in our lifetime, but I'm sure that there will be humans living there one day.
Of course the major question is: How often will the ABRSM examiners visit?
Steve
I have a dog called Phoenix. (He's a whippet and they're very fast.)
So that's what he's been up to! How interesting!
Last time I saw him he was lying in the sun in the garden but all those mole-hills must really be inverse-craters on the planet's surface
So that's what he's been up to! How interesting!
Last time I saw him he was lying in the sun in the garden but all those mole-hills must really be inverse-craters on the planet's surface
QUOTE(stevensfo @ Jun 21 2008, 03:17 PM)
It won't be in our lifetime, but I'm sure that there will be humans living there one day.
Of course the major question is: How often will the ABRSM examiners visit?
Steve
I love your sense of humour!
First results of soil analysis arrive!
Somehow, that last bit doesn't fit very well with the 'frontiers of space' idea.
"To go out where no man has gone before....and, er... to plant more asparagus!"
Steve
QUOTE
Nasa scientists who have reviewed the results of the first analysis of soil collected by the Phoenix Mars lander say they were 'flabbergasted' to find that it contained all the basic requirements, in terms of minerals and nutrients, to sustain life on the Red Planet.
It was also much less acidic than the experts had expected - and suprisingly similar to garden dirt back on Earth.
“There is nothing about the soil that would preclude life. In fact it seems very friendly,†said Professor Samuel Kounaves of Tufts University, the project’s lead chemist, told reporters in a telephone conference.
“The soil you have there is the type of soil you have in your backyard,†he added. “You may be able to grow asparagus very well."
It was also much less acidic than the experts had expected - and suprisingly similar to garden dirt back on Earth.
“There is nothing about the soil that would preclude life. In fact it seems very friendly,†said Professor Samuel Kounaves of Tufts University, the project’s lead chemist, told reporters in a telephone conference.
“The soil you have there is the type of soil you have in your backyard,†he added. “You may be able to grow asparagus very well."
Somehow, that last bit doesn't fit very well with the 'frontiers of space' idea.
"To go out where no man has gone before....and, er... to plant more asparagus!"
Steve
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