"Ultra"-HD Render Of Curiosity's descent in 30FPS With (Fake) Sound

First interactive color Panorama from Curiosity

First Images of Mars From Curiosity Rover

Dutch Company Mars One Plans One Way Manned Mission to Mars By 2023

APOTD: Late Afternoon SHadows at Endeavour Crater on Mars

SPIRALS ON MARTIAN SURFACE PROOF OF ALIEN...Nah, just kidding. They're Giant Lava Coils

Looking for Life on Mars: Mars Science Lab

So now we've covered the search for life in distant solar systems, as well the ongoing search for evidence of water on the Martian surface. But what about life on the red planet? Is it possible that Mars may have once been, or that it might even still be, home to some form of life? The answer to both questions would seem to be a definitive- maybe.

As far as we know, life has only ever managed to development once in our solar system. But if Mars really was, once upon a time- the wet world that all of the evidence seems to suggests it to have been, it's seems likely that some form basic life may have arisen. But that of course, is all speculation. Because, although past missions to the red planet have managed to confirm the presence of water on the planet in the form of ice deposits, a compelling amount of evidence of water, both past and present, we have yet to find any evidence of life itself. But that's probably because past missions to the planet haven't really been properly equipped to look.

Enter, The Mars Science Lab.

Launched November 26, of last year, the car sized MSL -which is also being referred to as the Curiosity- rover is slated to touch down on Mars in August of 2012; assuming of course the experimental landing system which is to be used to land the largest rover yet sent to the planet manages to do it's job. MSL is actually housed within a saucer-like platform being referred to as a sky crane. This sky crane, is designed to fire it's own set of rockets and hover just above the Martian surface, while -hopefully- gently lowering the rover down to the planet's surface on a set of wires. If all goes well, the rover will then spend the next 23 months studying, among other things, Mars' climate, geology and, most excitingly, looking for the chemical signs of life.

While MSL is not designed to search for any specific form of life, it is the first probe ever sent to the planet with the express purpose of looking for the chemical building blocks of life on it's list of mission objectives.

-CAINE-

Source: Wired Science

The Growing Evidence for Mars' Watery Past

From questioning the probability of life of distant worlds, we turn to evidence of life, past or present, on worlds within our own solar system. Beginning with a look at the mounting evidence suggesting that Mars may, at the very least, have once been home to one of the key elements to the development of life as we understand it, Water.

In 1877, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, was the first to suggest that water may have once flowed on the Martian surface, after observing what he described as canals or "Canali", crisscrossing the planet's surface. Years later, in 1895, astronomer Percival Lowell, concluded that Schiaparelli's canals, must have been the work of a once great Martian civilization. Though we all now know that no such civilization ever existed on the red planet, and that even the canals themselves don't actually exist. Today, the consensus amongst planetary scientists still seems to be that Mars was once a wet world, much more similar to our own than it is today.

Observations made in recent years during various missions to Mars, have revealed, amongst other things, the presence of Jarosite -a mineral formed in the presence of highly acidic water- as well as gypsum, and other water-based minerals on the Martian surface. In 2008, the Pheonix lander confirmed the presence of water ice just beneath the soil in the planet's southern hemisphere. And in August of last year, images from the HRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance orbiter, seemed to suggest that small amounts of salt water might still be seeping out from just beneath the planets soil.



A series of dark trails were observed radiating down from the edges of steep slopes of Mars' Newton Basin crater in the planet's southern hemisphere. Evidence suggested those lines may have been created by small amounts of salt water -lying frozen on or just beneath the soil- melting in the heat of the sun, and then trickling down the basin slopes. However, no one actually saw the water itself and instruments on board the MRO also failed to detect the presence of water in the Martian atmosphere. So the actual cause of those mysterious dark lines, remains inconclusive.


But the most recent, and what is being described as the most unambiguous evidence yet seen for the presence of liquid water in Mars' past, came in December of last year with the announcement that the Opportunity rover had discovered a small vein of Gypsum (seen in the false-color image to the left) just above the bedrock around the rim of Mars' Endeavor crater. Unlike previous detections of the mineral in the loose sands of various dunes, this newly found deposit -which is only 16 - 20 inches long, and about the width of a human thumb- was found in a fixed state, right where it was originally formed. A fact which Opportunity's principal investigator Steve Squyres, referred to as a; "slam-dunk story that water flowed through underground fractures in the rock,".

Normally, this would be the part where I warn you not to get to excited about the implications of such findings. And like any other new scientific discovery, this one will require multiple confirmations before it truly becomes an accepted fact. But it does, to my completely uneducated eye, seem as though the Phoenix rover's latest find is in fact another major step towards the absolute confirmation of Mars' watery past. Which would obviously have profound implications where the potential for life on the red planet -past or present- is concerned. But then again, I know as much about geology, as I do the ancient Mongolian art of fish-juggling. Which is to say nothing, since I just made that whole fish-juggling thing up. So I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

-CAINE-

Source: NASA/JPL
Image credits: NASA/JPL/Caltech/Cornel/ASU

NASA Finds Possible Proof of liquid Water on Mars

Earlier this month, NASA sent out a press release along with a series of images taken by the HRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance orbiter showing a series of dark trails radiating down from the edges of steep slopes of Mars' Newton Basin crater, located on the planet's southern hemisphere. These trails first begin to appear and grow throughout the warmer months on the planet, and then recede as temperatures drop in the winter. Because the temperature in this particular area is too warm to allow for the creation of carbon dioxide frost, researchers concluded that the the most likely candidate behind the unusual markings were deposits of salt water, either on or just beneath the planet's surface, thawing and draining down the slopes with the changing of the seasons.

While it is generally accepted that Mars once had liquid water, possibly even an ocean flowing on it's surface, and the existence of water ice just beneath the planet's soil has been confirmed in various regions. These strange dark trails in the martian sand represent the best evidence to date that liquid water could in fact still exist on the red planet. Which would of course greatly increase the odds that Mars is also potentially host to at least microbial life.

However, while the images are compelling. The argument they make as proof of flowing water, is little more than circumstantial. As the water itself has yet to be directly observed or detected, and an attempt to confirm it's presence using the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars on board the MRO, was unsuccessful. Which could either mean that the water isn't there, it evaporates too quickly to detect, or that there simply isn't enough of it present in the atmosphere for it to be detected at all. Only time and further observation will tell for sure.

-CAINE-

Source:NASA

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NASA and DARPA to Build 100 Year Starship

According to Simon Worden, director of the NASA Ames Research Center, NASA and DARPA have joined forces to create a Hundred-Year Starship, a vessel meant to take explorers on a one way trip to other planets and star systems.

One way settlement missions have long been discussed as a plausible way of sending men to Mars and beyond and I personally believe such missions are not only likely but a necessary step in space exploration. But Worden's belief that "we’ll be on the moons of Mars by 2030 or so", manned mission or otherwise, Seems optimistic at best given NASA's inability to develop a suitable shuttle replacement over ten years and billions of dollars worth of trying. Not to mention the fact that we have yet to make it back to our own moon in nearly 40 years.

But Worden insists that the space program is now "really aimed at settling other worlds" and hopes to persuade billionaires like Google founder Larry page to invest in the project. Which is at least a step in the right direction given that many, myself included, believe the advances in technology needed to advance space exploration will come from the private sector rather than the Government.


-CAINE-

Source:Popsci

Also check out this article from Science News Daily for a more detailed discussion of a one-way mission to Mars.

Does the methane cycle on mars point to life?(probably not but it's still pretty cool.)

According to a study conducted by Italian scientists using five years worth of data collected by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, methane concentrations on mars change with the seasons as well as location.

led by Sergio Fonti of Italy's Universita del Salento, scientists studied around three million observations from the Mars Global Serveyor made between July 1999 and October 2004, which is around three years on Mars. They found that during the fall methane peaks in three regions on the planet: Elysium, Arabias Terre, and Tharsis. The methane concentration in these regions then falls to it's lowest level in winter before rising to it's highest level of concentration in summer, allowing the gas to spread throughout the Martian atmosphere before dissipating and then somehow being replenished, beginning the cycle again.

The discovery and observation of extraterrestrial methane tends to excite researchers and the public alike because methane is most commonly produced one of two ways. Either through geologic activity, volcanic eruptions, or biological processes, the life cycle of plants and animals. But methane can also be produced through chemical processes such as carbon dioxide combining with melted ice beneath mars' surface. This, obviously, seems the most likely scenario given that the Tharsis and Elysium regions are home to the two largest volcanoes on Mars, and the Arabia Terrae region is believed to poses a vast amount of water ice beneath it's sands.
-CAINE-

Source:Popsci

Oblong Martian Crater:Orcus Patera

While the crater is situated between two volcanoes, Elysium Mons and Olympus Mons, and has been designated a petera -the name for irregularly shaped volcanic craters- scientists are not certain that Orcus has a volcanic origin. In fact, the most likely explanation for the crater seems to be from a small object striking the planet at a shallow angle like a rock skipping on the surface of a pond leaving the oblong shaped crater in it's wake.
-CAINE-

For more info, check out this article on Wired Science and go HERE to view the original article on the ESA website. Also, if you've never done so before then be sure to visit the ESA website and check out more images from Mars Express.

Image credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum). More images available on the ESA website