Water found on Mars
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1853031.stm
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The Mars Odyssey has spent ten days gathering data


By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor
Vast amounts of water-ice may have been discovered beneath the surface of Mars.
After just 10 days of gathering data, the Mars Odyssey spacecraft has found significant quantities of frozen hydrogen located near the southern polar region.

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A Gamma Ray Spectrometer is mapping the planet

Researchers say that the hydrogen is most likely due to substantial quantities of ice, although the amount of ice cannot be quantified yet.

William Boynton, of the University of Arizona, US, said: "If this is confirmed, it is fantastic. There is the equivalent of at least several percent water south of 60 degrees latitude."

For many years, scientists have speculated that near-surface water may exist on Mars.

There is evidence that water had flowed on its surface in vast quantities in the distant past and there is some evidence that it has done so far more recently.

Experts delighted

Now, the Gamma Ray Spectrometer instruments on board Mars Odyssey have made the first direct measurements that confirm there are significant amounts of hydrogen and probably water - just beneath the surface.

These instruments have detected just the type of signal expected from a large amount of ice.

"We are delighted with the quality of data we're seeing," said Dr Steve Saunders, Odyssey project scientist.

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Ice shows up blue on the Gamma Ray Spectrometer

"We will use it to build on what we have learned from Mars Global Surveyor and other missions. Now, we may actually see water rather than guessing where it is or was.

"With the thermal images, we are able to examine surface geology from a new perspective."

The researchers have determined the amount of hydrogen in the soil by two different techniques.

One relies on the ability of hydrogen to slow down, or moderate, neutrons and the other relies on the fact that hydrogen can absorb a neutron and then emit a gamma ray of characteristic energy.

Scientists have seen both of these effects in the initial data from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft.

The first maps produced by this data indicate that there are substantial amounts of hydrogen, and by inference water ice, on Mars.

Detailed assessment

A map of the southern hemisphere of Mars from the equator at the outer edge to the South Pole shows water ice marked as blue. It indicates that all areas south of 60 degrees south latitude could contain large amounts of ice.

Over the next few months, scientists will make a more detailed assessment of the data.

Mars Odyssey will also continue to collect new data over the next couple of years, which should allow researchers to make more detailed maps.

These will show where and how much ice is present on Mars, as well as maps of other elements and minerals.

Dr Jim Garvin, Lead Scientist of the Mars Exploration Program at Nasa, said: "These preliminary Odyssey observations are the 'tip of the iceberg' of the science results that are soon to come, so stay tuned."

Good Find! I always knew they would find water on Mars, Mars research is odd about 70% of the probs we send out there fail or never make it home!

Yeah I was excited myself reading this , In a related artical the Polar Probe crashed , and wasnt able to send back info ............. Now that we have water , sending man there should be a reality

Well, this is rather amusing from my standpoint. They are feeding us information thru a bottle.

Yeah , I forgot about the Dam on mars .........

I think I agree with you! but what exactly are you saying?

He is saying you and me are not as smart as he is , and we are just now beging to understand what he knew decades ago ;D

oh then I must Disagree lol!
not my fault the Governemnt did not want to admit all this **** in the past and it takes Press releases like this for me to prove it to others!

hmmmm maybe I should have left him on ignore.

oh I'll keep the negative rep coming little feller

your such an idiot, it's too easy though

it's "wack" LOL

hell now that they found water on Mars , my dream of opening up a All you can eat frog legs dinner on Mars is now a reality , we can do the Dishes ....... Now all I have to figure out is importing frogs ........

:thumbs: Sounds like a great franchise hehe

Nah, if there is water there then there are frogs there somewhere. If there isn't then I'll Fed-ex you some. Have tons of them down here.

Martians are not very tasty. They are extremely hard to shell, not unlike something from "Alien", and not particuliarly fond of being fished out the Martian desert.

Imagine a lobster with incredible acidic venom and what tastes like a rubber tire.

They also get really pissed off if you fish one out of a volcanic vent. The hive is prone to go postal on yo ass.

what you say could hold some truth! where there is Water there is life! so just wait till they tell us there is "Life On Mars" and then in 30 years Intlegant life in outerspace! :D

Mock went thru this class a couple years ago.

The big news is not that they found water on Mars. We have known there is water on Mars for about 2 decades, all trapped in ice under carbon-dioxide-ice at the poles.

The big news is that they found hydrogen-ice under the surface that gives to the liklihood that water-ice is also under the surface of Mars.

This is not big news because of water. Its where its located. See if all the water was merely at the poles, that makes colonization of Mars difficult at the equator. But if water is under the surface on a lot or even just a partial amount of the surface area, then colonization does not have to be restricted to the polar regions AND further exploring of a greater area is possible.

If explorers can build a habitat there, and manage a well to get to the water-ice under the surface, it can be melted and pumped up to the surface. Fresh, clean water. Cold too! It extends the range at which we will be able to build temporary settlements in the future. This is good news and Im glad you found this Spider.

Thanks ;D

I agree Alec , this is a bit far fetched ,but if we could seed the Martian clouds , perhaps we could get a water cycle going , nothing as complex as here on earth , but enough to replace the water we do use

The martian clouds are carbon dioxide vapor, not water vapor.

We wouldnt need a lot of water. I mean, proportionately. Our water recycle systems are superb and we can basically only lose a liter of water a month per person (or something like that, i forget the exact numbers, but its not much).

Even a moderate amount of underground ice (figure on a scale of say 10,000 gallons of water trapped in ice) would last any crew we would send a very long while.

Wrong. It means we have unlimited ice cubes for cocktails! and then frogs will jump out of the ice cubes for amusement and then destabilize the eco-system and eventually kill all insect life on the planet, eliminating pollonization and then creating mass famine and the extintion of....

On second thought just give me the Ice Water.