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NASA Announcement/Discovery

Stoked said:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-says-mars-mystery-solved-water-life-on-planet/

I think that is cool. Free flowing water on Mars? If that is the case what are the chances of microscopic life in that water? How will that affect the calculations for what planets can have some form of free flowing water in the galaxy? Then by extension life?
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Very cool. I'll bet the producers of Matt Damon's new movie are feeling like they just hit the jackpot. If this announcement is what we think it is, we can expect to hear plans for a one=way manned trip to Mars in the very near future. That sort of undertaking would redefine our times, and create alliances between many nations around the world. Thanks for the heads up! I'll be tuning in to the presser.
 
This announcement after the supermoon/blood moon? My kid said, "It looks like Mars."

Nooooo way this is a coincidence. And the United Nations meets today? I guaranDAMNtee you when the pope meets with the UN today reveals he's an alien.

Looks like the conspiracy theorists had their tin foil hats finely-tuned after all.
 
Joe Bagadonuts said:
Very cool. I'll bet the producers of Matt Damon's new movie are feeling like they just hit the jackpot. If this announcement is what we think it is, we can expect to hear plans for a one=way manned trip to Mars in the very near future. That sort of undertaking would redefine our times, and create alliances between many nations around the world. Thanks for the heads up! I'll be tuning in to the presser.
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Maybe we will see a renewed space race. But I want to know that exact details. I find stuff like this extremely interesting. I agree that this just put a renewed effort on getting people to Mars.
 
Dr. Jones said:
This announcement after the supermoon/blood moon? My kid said, "It looks like Mars."

Nooooo way this is a coincidence. And the United Nations meets today? I guaranDAMNtee you when the pope meets with the UN today reveals he's an alien.

Looks like the conspiracy theorists had their tin foil hats finely-tuned after all.
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I can't help but be reminded of this...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...alien-life-exists-unlikely-visited-Jesus.html

The Church is prepared for this stuff, which I found to be odd. Always kinda felt like this story was almost an admission(or, possibly, early stages of damage control)..
 
Shouldn't this press conference be going on right now? I can't pull it up on the NASA website (receiving errors) and I can't find it on television. Pretty strange that they would hype an announcement like this and that none of the media would care. Also strange that they are not prepared to handle the traffic on their own website. Hopefully there's a different team in charge of the Mars mission than the publicity.
 
Awesome news, and I guess it does improve the chances for finding microbial life on Mars. But since we only have a sample of 1 (Earth), it is impossible to know the odds of finding it anywhere else. If I was a betting man, I would bet we won't find any in the solar system.
 
Siro said:
Awesome news, and I guess it does improve the chances for finding microbial life on Mars. But since we only have a sample of 1 (Earth), it is impossible to know the odds of finding it anywhere else. If I was a betting man, I would bet we won't find any in the solar system.
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Even if there is no microbial life, this vastly increases the possibilities for a manned mission to Mars.
 
Siro said:
Awesome news, and I guess it does improve the chances for finding microbial life on Mars. But since we only have a sample of 1 (Earth), it is impossible to know the odds of finding it anywhere else. If I was a betting man, I would bet we won't find any in the solar system.
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In addition to Mars there is thought that some of the Jupiter moons (Titan and Europa specifically) might have water under the surface.

We may find microbial life in our solar system but nothing more than that I'd think. But if water is on that many planets/moons in our solar system than NASA would need to rework their mathematical guesses to account for that.
 
In the press conference they are talking in detail about a manned mission to mars in the "near future." They've been talking about growing crops, using plants to create breathable air, collecting drinkable water, etc.
 
Joe Bagadonuts said:
In the press conference they are talking in detail about a manned mission to mars in the "near future." They've been talking about growing crops, using plants to create breathable air, collecting drinkable water, etc.
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Wonder if we will see permanent colonies on the Moon and Mars in our lifetime.
 
Stoked said:
Wonder if we will see permanent colonies on the Moon and Mars in our lifetime.
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I don't think the moon is even under consideration (no water plus other factors) but it sounds like Mars is very likely. The manned missions they are talking about are one way trips.
 
Stoked said:
In addition to Mars there is thought that some of the Jupiter moons (Titan and Europa specifically) might have water under the surface.

We may find microbial life in our solar system but nothing more than that I'd think. But if water is on that many planets/moons in our solar system than NASA would need to rework their mathematical guesses to account for that.
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I'm less optimistic about Europa and other Jovian moons harboring life than I am Mars. A dark frigid ocean where the main source of energy is gravitational tide from Jupiter, or maybe residual energy at the bottom of the ocean, hundreds of miles down? The thermodynamics are just too much of a stretch. Titan has an intriguing atmosphere, and would have been a prime candidate had it been, say, in Mars' orbit. But at the distance of Saturn? Forget about it. Simply not enough energy for kinematics of life. I don't see any plausible path for complex chemistry on Titan.

And we have no actual mathematical prediction for the existence of life outside of Earth. The problem is not only that Earth is our only sample, but that even on Earth, life evolved only ONCE. We all come from the same microbial ancestor. Things like Drake's equation are fun thought experiments, but they are utterly meaningless since most of the terms are made up.

My gut feeling is that simple life is probably fairly common in the galaxy, but I'm not counting on solar system discoveries. Our best bet is finding microbial fossils on Mars from back when it was warmer. That would vastly improve the chances that the universe is teaming with life. But even if we don't, it doesn't really tell us much.
 
Joe Bagadonuts said:
I don't think the moon is even under consideration (no water plus other factors) but it sounds like Mars is very likely. The manned missions they are talking about are one way trips.
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Just out of curiosity, what would be the benefit of a Mars colony? I appreciate the symbolic importance, but I would much rather money is spent on more worthwhile projects, like asteroid mining.
 
Siro said:
Just out of curiosity, what would be the benefit of a Mars colony? I appreciate the symbolic importance, but I would much rather money is spent on more worthwhile projects, like asteroid mining.
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In the long term the survivability of the human species is dependent upon establishing non-earth colonies, eventually even outside of our solar system. The overriding motivator for me, though, is the challenge and how I believe the majority of the world would coalesce behind such an epic endeavor.
 
Siro said:
Just out of curiosity, what would be the benefit of a Mars colony? I appreciate the symbolic importance, but I would much rather money is spent on more worthwhile projects, like asteroid mining.
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Well what minerals does it hold? It could be possibly a gold mine. But to me the biggest benefit of Mars is all the tech advances getting there and staying there will require. Getting to, and staying on Mars, prepares humanity for the next step and beyond.
 
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