It's life, but not as we know it - Red Plant

Martian minerals 'strongest evidence yet' of life on the red planet - and it could still be there

• Red Planet could have hosted microorganisms
• McLaughlin Crater holds traces of water altered minerals
• Findings could reveal clues about life on Earth

Martians may well have existed, and still be on the red planet - but not in any recognisable form, British scientists said today.
Scientists believe the discovery of minerals below the Red Planet's surface is the 'strongest evidence yet' it may have supported life.
But far from hosting little green men, our celestial neighbour was likely inhabited by simple microorganisms.

The huge McLaughlin Crater created by a meteorite which smashed into the surface of Mars, has been shown to reveal signs of life

Layers with Carbonate Content Inside McLaughlin Crater on Mars This view of layered rocks on the floor of McLaughlin Crater shows sedimentary rocks that contain spectroscopic evidence for minerals formed through interaction with water

Go fishing! Scientists amazed by ancient river on Mars

Mars is still an amazing planet, but billions of years ago, it must have been something even more remarkable. The Mars Express spacecraft has produced a stunning new image of a massive riverbed that was once filled with water providing more evidence of the rich, and watery history of the Red Planet.
 
 LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Scientists are very interested in Mars for two reasons. First, the planet was once wet with large quantities of water flowing over the surface, but today it appears to be much drier. Certainly, nearly all of the surface water is gone, both evaporating into space and seeping into the frozen ground. What little remains is locked in the polar caps and in pockets of underground ice. Why this happened, and what are the implications for Earth is an important question, if we can answer this, then we can better understand the Earth.

The second reason is to ask if Mars can support human colonization sometime in the future. If water still exists on Mars, then where can it be found and can it be extracted to support colonization? It is thought by scientists that at some point, the future of humanity lies amongst the stars. To prepare the way, pioneering work must be done. This is part of that work.

Incidentally, the search for life is more of a secondary quest, with the best hopes being that some form of microbial life once existed on the planet during its warmer, wetter past. However, the likelihood of such a discovery varies from virtually nil to almost certain depending on which scientists are asked and their perspective on the data. Nonetheless, this is not the primary focus on Mars.

The great "river-like structure" as scientists describe the canyon in the image, is Reull Vallis, a broad, dry river flanked by ancient bluffs. Measurements suggest the river would have been 4 miles wide and as much as 1,000 feet deep, meandering for 900 miles before empyting into the vast primeval Hellas basin.

The river, like any other on Earth, was fed by smaller tributaries, which also appear in the high-resolution photographs. They also say the region shows evidence that it was once covered with glaciers.

Water likely flowed though Reull Vallis somewhere around 3.5 to 1.8 billion years ago, before Mars finally became a dry planet. Mars didn't become dry all at once, but gradually lost its surface moisture and became cold over a long period spanning millions to billions of years. Why this happened remains a mystery.

For scientists, seeing that Mars had a more Earth-like climate than previously thought encourages them to redouble their research. Dedicated as ever, they hope to decipher to the silent testament of Mars's dry rivers and to learn what they have to say about Earth's future. 

Mars Rover Ready to Dig In

After months of trial runs, NASA's Curiosity rover is ready to scratch the surface of Mars, positioning itself this week to drill into the crust of the red planet and wildcat for evidence of life for the first time.

NASA's Curiosity rover is ready to scratch the surface of Mars. What do scientists expect to find, and what challenges lie ahead for the mission? Robert Lee Hotz reports on The News Hub. Photo: AP.

After months of tests, NASA's Curiosity rover is settling down to the serious business of planetary exploration, positioning itself to drill into the crust of the red planet for the first time. WSJ's Robert Lee Hotz reports.

Scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California said Tuesday that they have targeted a fine-grained fractured slab of bedrock for the rover's first drilling attempt—a tricky procedure made all the more difficult by the complexities of the rover.
In a milestone for planetary exploration, researchers expect to extract and remotely analyze a mineral sample from the interior of Mars beginning in about two weeks. Scientists hope the specimen—its chemistry unsullied by the harsh surface conditions—will reveal whether conditions on the cold, arid world were once favorable for life.
"We will go into the sequence of rocks that are the brightest prospects for telling us about the early habitability of Mars," said mission project scientist John Grotzinger at the California Institute of Technology. "We are at a very sweet spot to do that."
The spacecraft voyaged 352 million miles to reach Mars this past August, but its next critical step will be measured in fractions of an inch. The rover's drill can chip about 2 inches into the interior of Mars to extract a small spoonful of powdered rock for analysis in an onboard chemistry kit. The effort may take six weeks or more. Researchers want to ensure the rock won't break the drill bit and that the mineral sample won't be contaminated by machinery as the rover scoops it onboard.
"Drilling into a rock to collect a sample will be this mission's most challenging activity since the landing. It has never been done on Mars," said Mars Science Laboratory project manager Richard Cook.
In the months since Curiosity's landing, the mission has mostly generated waves of rumor about life-related chemistry on the distant world that, one by one, mission scientists debunked as they made their findings public. So far, they have detected no traces of methane in the Martian air, no unequivocal chemical evidence of water on Mars today, and no native organic compounds that would indicate that life had once been present.

What they are finding in Gale Crater, where the rover landed, is an arid landscape of wind-swept badlands that in some ways seems hauntingly like Earth. Wheeling across the uneven terrain at 1.5 inches per second, the rover has recorded panoramic vistas that often resemble the Mojave Desert. It spotted rounded pebbles that scientists believe were likely shaped by an ancient ankle-deep, fast-flowing stream. Its chemical sensors detected basalt rocks that could have been lifted from a Hawaiian lava flow.
By all accounts, engineers are finding the $2.5 billion Curiosity rover—the most complex spacecraft ever landed on another planet—more difficult to operate than anticipated. The 1-ton, nuclear-powered vehicle totes 11 instruments, from a laser to a robotic whisk broom designed to sweep samples clear of the Martian dust. Even as routine a task as extending the craft's heavy mobile arm has proved tricky because the craft can more easily overbalance than engineers had estimated.
"It is a complicated beast," said Rob Manning, chief engineer for the Mars Science Laboratory, as the Curiosity craft's overall mission is called. "Everything is taking longer than we had hoped."
Even so, the mission's 425 scientists are feasting on data. "Scientifically, it is fantastic," said NASA planetary soil scientist Doug Ming at the Johnson Space Center in Texas, who helps run the rover's X-ray spectroscopy apparatus. So far, the craft has beamed back 18,226 images and nearly 10 gigabytes of raw information about the planet's geology, mineral chemistry, soil composition, and atmosphere. In five months of prospecting, scientists have thoroughly analyzed three air samples and three soil samples. The researchers also have tested 100 rocks and soil specimens by blasting them with the rover's laser and then scrutinizing the vaporized material.
In all, the rover has traveled 2,312 feet from where it touched down on Aug. 5. Recently it rolled by a sinuous set of dark-colored rocks that NASA scientists named "Snake River," before parking itself in a shallow flat depression called Yellowknife Bay.
There, the rover's cameras and sensors revealed a range of rocks that may have been formed by water, including veins, nodules, cross-bedded layering, and a lustrous pebble embedded in sandstone.
NASA officials named the rocky outcrop chosen for drilling after John Klein, a former Mars Science Laboratory deputy project manager who died in 2011.

"We are now less than a mile from where we landed yet the geology is intensely diverse," said space scientist Roger Wiens at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, who is principal investigator for the rover's laser sensor. "It is a scientist's dream."

Flights targeted for 2017 and 2021

 

NASA, Europeans uniting to send space capsule to moon, flights targeted for 2017 and 2021

APE CANAVERAL, Fla. –  NASA is teaming up with the European Space Agency to get astronauts beyond Earth's orbit.
Europe will provide the propulsion and power compartment for NASA's Orion crew capsule, officials said Wednesday. This so-called service module will be based on Europe's supply ship used for the International Space Station.

'You don't design a car to just go to the grocery store.'

- NASA's human exploration chief, Bill Gerstenmaier

Orion's first trip is an unmanned mission in 2017. Any extra European parts will be incorporated in the first manned mission of Orion in 2021.
“Space has long been a frontier for international cooperation as we explore,” said Dan Dumbacher, deputy associate administrator for Exploration System Development at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This latest chapter builds on NASA’s excellent relationship with ESA as a partner in the International Space Station, and helps us move forward in our plans to send humans farther into space than we’ve ever been before.”
NASA's human exploration chief, Bill Gerstenmaier, said both missions will be aimed at the vicinity of the moon. The exact details are being worked out; lunar fly-bys, rather than landings, are planned.
NASA wants to ultimately use the bell-shaped Orion spacecraft to carry astronauts to asteroids and Mars. International cooperation will be crucial for such endeavors, Gerstenmaier told reporters.
The United States has yet to establish a clear path forward for astronauts, 1 1/2 years after NASA's space shuttles stopped flying. The basic requirements for Orion spacecraft are well understood regardless of the destination, allowing work to proceed, Gerstenmaier said.
"You don't design a car to just go to the grocery store," he told reporters.
Getting to 2017 will be challenging, officials for both space programs acknowledged. Gerstenmaier said he's not "100 percent comfortable" putting Europe in such a crucial role. "But I'm never 100 percent comfortable" with spaceflight, he noted. "We'll see how it goes, but we've done it smartly."
The space station helped build the foundation for this new effort, he said.
Former astronaut Thomas Reiter, Europe's director of human spaceflight, said it makes sense for the initial Orion crew to include Europeans. For now, though, the focus is on the technical aspects, he said. NASA will supply no-longer-used space shuttle engines for use on the service modules.
“NASA’s decision ... is a strong sign of trust and confidence in ESA’s capabilities, for ESA it is an important contribution to human exploration,” said Thomas Reiter, ESA director of Human Spaceflight and Operations.
Reiter put the total European contribution at nearly $600 million.
Orion originally was part of NASA's Constellation program that envisioned moon bases in the post-shuttle era. President Barack Obama canceled Constellation, but Orion was repurposed and survived.
A test flight of the capsule is planned for next year; it will fly 3,600 miles away and then return.

Europe and US agree details for Orion astronaut spacecraft

 

An artist's impression of the Orion capsule attached to its European-built service module

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The US and Europe have cemented their plan to work together on the Americans' next-generation capsule system to take humans beyond Earth.

The Orion vehicle is being built to carry astronauts to the Moon, asteroids and Mars, but it will need a means to propel itself through space.
Europe has now formally agreed to provide this technology.
Space agency executives have just signed an "implementing agreement" to cover the legal aspects of the work.
The first flight of Orion with its European-built "service module" will take place in 2017.
This demonstration will be unmanned and will see Orion go around the back of the Moon before returning to Earth for an ocean splashdown.
If all goes well, a crew is expected to repeat the feat in about 2021. The venture would echo the famous Apollo 8 mission of 1968.
The service module is the unit that sits directly behind the capsule and provides the propulsion, power, temperature control, as well as holding the astronauts’ supplies of water and air.
"This is a new page in the transatlantic co-operation," said Thomas Reiter, the director of human spaceflight and operations at the European Space Agency (Esa).
"This is the first time that Esa is involved in the critical path for a human transportation system. It is a fantastic perspective for the future, taking humans beyond low-Earth orbit to new destinations for exploration," he told BBC News.
The current plan calls for Europe to build the prototype module for 2017 and a number of components that would be needed for the second vehicle in 2021, although a formal go-ahead to complete this additional model is some years off.
A clear subtext, of course, is that Europe hopes this initial deal will develop into a long-term relationship, and that this will increase the chances of its astronauts joining their American colleagues on missions into deep space.