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calendar   Thursday - January 15, 2009

Life On Mars?

NASA Science Update to Discuss Mars Atmosphere Activity

The stodgy Official NASA press release:

WASHINGTON—NASA will hold a science update at 2 p.m. EST, Thursday, Jan. 15, to discuss analysis of the Martian atmosphere that raises the possibility of life or geologic activity. The briefing will take place in the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St., S.W., Washington, and carried live on NASA Television.

The briefing participants are:

- Michael Meyer, Mars program lead scientist, NASA Headquarters in Washington
- Michael Mumma, senior planetary scientist and director, Goddard Center for Astrobiology, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
- Geronimo Villanueva, planetary scientist and astrobiologist, Goddard Space Flight Center
- Sushil Atreya, professor of atmospheric and space science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
- Lisa Pratt, professor of geological sciences, Indiana University in Bloomington.

Reporters may ask questions from participating NASA locations. They also may listen or ask questions by phone. To reserve a phone line, contact J.D. Harrington at 202-358-5241.

For information about NASA TV, streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv




The same news from the rather more excitable UK SUN:

ALIEN microbes living just below the Martian soil are responsible for a haze of methane around the Red Planet, Nasa scientists believe.

The gas, belched in vast quantities in our world by cows, was detected by orbiting spacecraft and from Earth using giant telescopes. Nasa are today expected to confirm its presence during a briefing at their Washington HQ. And the find is seen as exciting new evidence that Martian microbes are still alive today. Some scientists reckon methane is also produced by volcanic processes. But there are NO known active volcanoes on Mars. Furthermore, Nasa has found the gas in the same regions as clouds of water vapour, the vital “drink” needed to support life. Experts speculate that the methane is being emitted as a waste product by organisms called methanogens living in water beneath underground ice. And they would have to be alive today because the methane would otherwise have been lost from the Martian atmosphere.

John Murray — a member of the Mars Express European space probe team — believes the mini-Martians may be in a form of suspended animation and could even be REVIVED. He has found overwhelming evidence of a vast frozen ocean beneath the dust near the Martian equator where simple life could have thrived as microbes.

Very interesting.

UPDATE: Like the actual scientists that they are, NASA’s team gave us the big I DON’T KNOW. And they had several good theories. But the facts are that they have found lots of methane on Mars, and it shows up only in 3 discrete areas of the planet, and it appears seasonally. Summer, IIRC.

Now, whether this means that there is an underground monster with bad digestion who lets a big one rip every X months, or whether this is indicative of a simple life form living at the subsurface water/ice boundary which goes on a seasonal feeding frenzy. or whether it means that a bit of extra heat seeps down under the surface and allows a bit of ice to melt, which in turn allows pockets of ancient methane trapped in the rocks to escape, they can’t say. But it does look like they have observed this seasonal methane outgassing several times, although they dodged that question at the end of the interview when asked directly. Still in all, pretty amazing, seeing as they got all this evidence through a telescope and a gas spectrometer. Landers on Mars have already located water ice. For a bit more on the methane surprise, go here. I don’t really understand why NASA made this announcement today. Politics? Obama? Because the methane awareness is at least 5 years old now, and the water ice news is not new either.




In other NASA news, ANITA is still up there. ANITA is an enormous superpressure balloon. The acronym stands for ANtarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna. Built of high strength poly, it is an eliptica shape (ie a pumpkin) that keeps constant volume regardless of internal gas pressure. Carrying a rather huge payload, ANITA has been hovering over Antarctica for 26 days now at an altitude of about 23 miles. The balloon itself is enormous, with an internal volume of 7 million cubic feet. It is the size of the Rose Bowl football stadium. It is expected to stay up, at the very edge of space, for at least 100 days. Cool!

This project is really just (pardon the pun) a trial balloon. NASA wants to build an even bigger one, more than 22 million cubic feet in volume, that can lift over a ton to the same altitude, and keep it there. For a long long time. Skyhook much? Have to hang the space elevator from something during construction, right? Imagine a ring of a hundred of those, tethered to a central platform. Think of the fuel savings, launching your shuttles and rockets from 20 miles up to start. A sky gantry. Awesome.

image

ANITA attains “float” - static altitude - shortly after launch


image

The little thing hanging from the balloon is actually this antenna array. ANITA is huge!


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 01/15/2009 at 01:00 PM   
Filed Under: • Amazing Science and DiscoveriesSpace •  
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