NASA Has Mars Announcement

[stillownedbysetters]

If they find any fossilized Martians, I’m hoping for the little fella in the Bugs Bunny cartoons who wears a Roman Empire-era military costume and a push broom head on his helmet.

[burpo_the_wonder_mutt]

There were reports last week that the Face on Mars blinked.

[BrainGlutton]

@GIGObuster

Well, I think they either found the relatives of what sits on the head of Trump or they found who put the metal nuts under the back of the Curiosity Rover.

“What’s the big deal, General? They’ve sent these things before.”

“But this one is about to get pictures of the invasion fleet! DO SOMETHING!”

[Don_t_Panic]

@stillownedbysetters

I’m hoping for the little fella in the Bugs Bunny cartoons who wears a Roman Empire-era military costume and a push broom head on his helmet.

Marvin.

I was always vaguely wondering what was up with that costume. Checking Wiki, the joke is that he’s dressed like Mars, the god.

Of course. :smack:

[Honey]

@stillownedbysetters

If they find any fossilized Martians, I’m hoping for the little fella in the Bugs Bunny cartoons who wears a Roman Empire-era military costume and a push broom head on his helmet.

He’ll be the martian carrying the illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator.

[cmyk]

“Where’s the splash? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering SPLASH!”

[kopek]

@burpo_the_wonder_mutt

Yeah, you’re probably right. It woul…WHOA!! Actual non-NASA video from Mars!! I don’t believe it!!

I would have gone with this

(its towards the end - about 2 minutes in)

[burpo_the_wonder_mutt]

^ Classic.

[BrainGlutton]

Astronomer Derrick Pitts:

Does the new announcement tell us anything about the possibility of life in the present or distant past? And of course life can mean a single-celled organism, up to an intelligent species with language and technology and everything else. Does this move that story forward?

What this does is show us that there were many more locations on Mars where the environment was probably conducive to the development or existence of life.

What the Curiosity Rover showed us was that the places it had already examined were conducive to the development of life. What this discovery tells us is that any of places where we see the same [visual pattern] could support life. What’s great about that is if you can identify in the satellite photographs more locations like this around the planet, you multiply the possibilities, around the planet, where life might have existed. And that’s much easier to do from the satellite photos than to drop Rovers in each and every one of those locations.

It sounds like there’s still a lot of speculation involved, especially when it comes to the existence of life. Will we know more about any of these questions any time soon?

No, we won’t – the short answer is no. The reason I say that is that we may’ve been able to identify locations where water exists as a liquid. But that still doesn’t give us any solid evidence of either the past existence of life, or the current existence of life.

For example, we’re not even sure what the source of the water is. So there’s a lot more work that has to be done. NASA has to be extraordinarily careful to take it step by step. They can’t speculate, they can’t jump the gun on anything. They need to have hard evidence of every step they take, so when they take the ultimate step of saying anything about the existence of life, they will have built that on absolutely rock-solid, incontrovertible, science-community-vetted evidence.

Does NASA have a history of jumping the gun or racing ahead with this kind of thing?

No, they do not – they’re very careful that they do not do that. We’re talking about a group of the highest-caliber scientists and engineers on the planet – they know how to be careful, how not to jump to conclusions. Not perfect, but very cautious.

Kind of a bringdown . . . still:

It sounds like we know more than we used to, but there’s still a lot more to know. Maybe our grandchildren will get some of the answers to these questions.

You’re right – we know far more than we ever have known before. And the knowledge we’ve gained in the last decade has completely changed our knowledge of the solar system and the galaxy and the universe. I think our grandkids are in for a great ride in terms of understanding all of it, and our place in it.

[chappachula]

@chappachula

Me, I want to meet the classic Martians: little green men with antennas on their ears.
Those tall greys with big eyes and anal probes are just soooo 1980’s.

Martians with antennae are sooo 1960s.

Yeah, but the 60’s were cool!
When we meet’ em, the Martians will be wearing bellbottom jeans and flowers in their antenae.

The 80’s…well…would you want to see Martians with big hair?

[bengangmo]

If they do find actual flowing water (or even ice) how much of a move would there be to get a sample back to to earth?

Would such a thing even be possible with our current state of technology? It would presumably mean getting a landing vehicle to Mars, one that could then take off and get back to earth - so what - 10 years planning horizon? (from takeoff to re-entry)

Would it be advisable to bring any water sample back to earth for study? (yeah, we’ve all seen wonderful Alien Invasion movies)

Would such a mission have to be manned or could it be fully robotic?

[Grumman]

@bengangmo

If they do find actual flowing water (or even ice) how much of a move would there be to get a sample back to to earth?

Would such a thing even be possible with our current state of technology? It would presumably mean getting a landing vehicle to Mars, one that could then take off and get back to earth - so what - 10 years planning horizon? (from takeoff to re-entry)

I have seen concepts for a multi-stage sample return mission from Mars - basically the same approach that was taken on the Moon, with one vehicle to land on Mars, one to get around on Mars, one to get back to orbit and one to get between Earth and Mars orbit and back. As long as you’re not relying on ISRU (read: making rocket fuel on Mars) I think it’s plausible.

Would such a mission have to be manned or could it be fully robotic?

Robotic is the only sane approach. It means you can’t provide real-time control of the probe, but it also means you don’t need to lug around tons of stuff whose only purpose is to make sure your crew doesn’t starve, suffocate or go insane during your multi-year mission to a dim, dry, irradiated wasteland.

[usedtobe]

@chappachula

…
The 80’s…well…would you want to see Martians with big hair?

We’ve got one running for PotUS currently.

Maybe we can send it home?

[BrainGlutton]

@Grumman

As long as you’re not relying on ISRU (read: making rocket fuel on Mars) I think it’s plausible.

Well, which is more challenging/expensive – ISRU, or lugging the return-trip fuel all the way to Mars orbit?

[burpo_the_wonder_mutt]

Didn’t ANY of you people watch '50s monster movies? You bring anything back from Mars, it escapes the lab, mutates and wipes out all life on Earth. Who will be our Brave and Handsome Young Scientist this time?
On a more serious note, :rolleyes: , 'twould really be a shame if the only life on Mars already got smushed by a rover, wouldn’t it?

[kopek]

@burpo_the_wonder_mutt

Didn’t ANY of you people watch '50s monster movies? You bring anything back from Mars, it escapes the lab, mutates and wipes out all life on Earth. Who will be our Brave and Handsome Young Scientist this time?

That’s why the town of Phoenixville PA holds a alien-raid alert drill every year.

By golly, we're ready!

[JKellyMap]

@lieu

Do they have streaming video?

Not streaming, but video, yes. (Scroll to third image, “time lapse”.)

[burpo_the_wonder_mutt]

@kopek

That’s why the town of Phoenixville PA holds a alien-raid alert drill every year.

By golly, we're ready!

^ That was GREAT!
(Sometimes I really like being the set-up guy.)

[BrainGlutton]

Andrew O’Hehir: “The Martian” and the big Mars discovery: Here’s why we have to go, no matter what it costs
Was this week’s big NASA announcement a movie tie-in or a leftist plot? Either way, Mars is calling

[BrainGlutton]

Why is it always Mars, though? Why does no pol ever announce, “I challenge America to make a manned trip to Venus by the end of the decade!”? Venus is at least as scientifically interesting.