simply amazing

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050729_mars_ice.html

Quote :

"The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express has snapped an image of a modest ice lake on the Red Planet. The frozen patch of water ice is tucked away in an unnamed impact crater. The feature is located on Vastitas Borealis, a broad plain that covers much of the far northern latitudes. The crater is 22 miles (35 kilometers) wide and has a maximum depth of roughly 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) beneath the crater rim. The ice patch is present all year round, as the temperature and pressure are not high enough to allow the frozen water to escape into the atmosphere. The poles on Mars are known to contain large quantities of water ice. At the south pole, the water ice is covered by carbon dioxide ice, commonly called dry ice. There is also ample water ice beneath the surface of Mars. But it is not so common to see isolated patches of water ice away from the poles. Faint traces of water ice are also visible along the rim of the crater and on the crater walls, ESA officials said. The absence of ice along the north-west rim and walls may occur because this area receives more sunlight due to the Sun’s orientation. A portion of a patch of underlying dunes is visible at one edge of the ice lake. Colors in the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) image are very close to natural, but the vertical relief is exaggerated three times, officials said. Mars Express reached Mars and swung into orbit on Dec. 25, 2003. Earlier this year, ESA scientists said subsurface ice they detected on Mars could provide habitats for life. But so far, there is no convincing evidence for martian biology. "

7/30/2005 5:50:45 PM

so this article makes me wonder.... if they know liquid water is present deep below the surface at the poles wouldnt that water contain the best chance for us to find organisms that we recogonize? shouldnt all our efforts be put into robotic drilling of some sort?

7/30/2005 5:56:10 PM

^not certain

^also, very hard to do

but yea, there are plans to do such missions...in 2012 or something

[Edited on July 30, 2005 at 5:59 PM. Reason : 0]

7/30/2005 5:58:46 PM

too bad they don't have a little beagle that could drive over and investigate

7/30/2005 7:44:55 PM

i don't think it said there waws liquid water under the surface of mars...

7/30/2005 9:00:42 PM

^ Total Recall says otherwise

7/30/2005 9:53:18 PM

If I was going to setup an outpost on Mars, it would be on that spot with a small nuclear battery and a few fuel cells.

And some bitches. There's no way I'm flying across the solar system just for a sausage fest.

7/30/2005 10:51:41 PM

^^^ i forgot to mention, i didnt like the idea that this info was coming from space.com or some such thing, which i had never heard of, so i looked it up on the bbc and read that article. very similar except they said there was a ice/water mixture deep beneath the poles.

7/30/2005 11:01:14 PM

well there must be water on mars if their is ice

temps rise as u move to the core, so somewhere that ice is melting

7/31/2005 9:07:47 AM

haha you've never heard of space.com -- aren't they run by nasa or something?

7/31/2005 9:14:38 AM

yea

7/31/2005 9:50:44 AM

autonomous submarine that can melt through ice - go!

7/31/2005 12:22:45 PM

bingo

7/31/2005 7:15:54 PM

space.com is private i'm pretty sure. they sure do have enough banner ads to make me think its not a gov't thing. also: they're pretty reputable about space sorts of info. they're at all the nasa press conferences and whatnot and are pretty on top of all that sort of news. i would probably trust them to have more insightful and thorough coverage than the bbc. perhaps not as much with european space agency stuff. but definitely nasa stuff.

8/1/2005 12:40:34 AM

I WANT THAT ICE

8/1/2005 7:29:57 AM

too bad we're pansies about space travel now

OH NO
A LITTLE FOAM FELL OFF
OH DEAR
CANCEL ALL SPACE MISSIONS

8/1/2005 9:05:01 AM

^ Oh dear, a little foam fell off and blew up a multibillion dollar space shuttle (craptastic Lockheed engineering). Perhaps the Russians have a better design philosophy for this sorta thing; their designs may be old, but it works and is durable.

8/1/2005 10:12:16 AM

Yeah, if it weren't for the Russian Progress rockets, those guys on the ISS would have starved to death a couple years ago...

8/1/2005 11:14:41 AM

the russians have that automated thing that brings up supplies without a crew. It's mad cheap and reliable. WTF NASA

it's not like the ISS is valuable for anything, anyway. Just pay the russians to keep the shit box up, and take the rest of the money and use it to fire yourselves for being pussies.

[Edited on August 1, 2005 at 7:58 PM. Reason : sdfdfs]

8/1/2005 7:43:20 PM

whats that thing about
america spending millions on a pen that would write in space
while the russians just sent pencils

8/1/2005 7:48:07 PM

lots of floating graphite particles causes a problem i guess....

8/1/2005 8:05:47 PM

i bet thats some tasty ice

8/1/2005 11:19:56 PM

^^^its an urban legend. the so-called "space pen" was developed by a private company and was bought by nasa for use in space. russia also bought these pens. you can buy them too at plenty of gift shops at science museums and places like the johson space center and the like.

8/1/2005 11:24:21 PM