We were as excited as anyone when MARSIS (the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding) experiment announced there was possibly liquid water under the southern polar ice cap. If there is liquid water on Mars, it would make future exploration and colonization much more feasible. Unfortunately, SHARAD (the Shallow Radar) has a new trick that suggests the data may not indicate liquid water after all.
While the news is a bummer, the way scientists used SHARAD to confirm — or, in this case, deny — the water hypothesis was a worthy hack. The SHARAD antenna is on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, but in a position that makes it difficult to obtain direct surface readings from Mars. To compensate, operators typically roll the spacecraft to give the omnidirectional antenna a clearer view of the ground. However, those rolls have been under 30 degrees.
Computer modelling indicated that rolls of 120 degrees would greatly improve the SHARAD data. So far, four of these “very large roll” or VLR maneuvers have allowed more detailed probes of the surface with SHARAD. Unfortunately the new data didn’t back up the early findings. Scientists now think the reflection may be just an unusually flat surface under the ice.
Of course, just because there might not be water in that location doesn’t mean there isn’t any at all. Want to live on Mars? There’s a lot to think about.
Oh man, this is so funny. Here all this time I actually though you sent a probe and brought back an ice chip to prove it. Yet now your telling me to this day you don’t actually have proof? Yet so many want to go to a place that has no sustainability? There is a word for people like that but if i said it i would get removed.
…Explorers? What’s your beef, that there are forms of evidence besides direct sample return
Even Musk said going to Mars is a suicide mission.
There is no doubt that if you try to go there a good percentage will die along the way and the rest will arrive in poor condition, only to then either die soon or to end up committing suicide.
But we know that.
You go there to help the robots establish a base I suppose. It’s about caring for robots.
Oh man, this is so funny, you actually thought that they returned a chip of ice from Mars?
Yet now you’re telling us you didn’t know anything about the research and missions which produced the data?
There’s is a word for people like you but if I said it, I’d get removed.
Mars is a one-way trip. We’ve never taken gotten off Mars. Any analysis is done on-site. What have you been reading?
That’s planetary science for you, a lot of ideas developed from remote sensing data. How would returning a chip of frozen water prove or disprove the idea of liquid water under a kilometer of ice?
Sending people to Mars would just be stupid or as the King of Pop would say “ignorant hee hee! Shamon!” Negligible atmospheric oxygen, negligible atmospheric pressure, negligible ROI.
What if we used mission to Mars as an excuse to get rid of undesirable scientists? (Just like Russia uses Ukraine to rid itself of convicts.)
We’ll tell them they’re doing something great that will benefit the whole mankind. Once they land we’ll tell them rescue mission is happening “soon” and then it’s just a matter of time before radiation finishes them.
Please define “undesirable scientists”. Do you mean those whose world-views or findings upset you?
Poor little snowflake !