...Mars Science Lab Rover... entry, descent and landing video

This is a great animation, science fiction becomes fact!
And less than two years to launch!
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/gallery/videos.html


And an almost crater-less (young) landing site
full of hydrated clays with evidence of an
ancient lake.
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_002828_1700


Hydrated clay!

"The clay minerals are especially promising in the search
for ancient life on Mars," UA Professor Alfred S. McEwen,
principal investigator for the high resolution camera, said."
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2007-116


Mars has plenty of underground water/ice, and it's orbit
means ice ages should wax and wane somewhat as
on earth.
Even with the thin atmosphere, underground water melting
out could replenish ice capped lakes faster than the ice
would ablate away. There's no reason to assume Mars
has been dry everywhere for geologic time as has been
assumed.



Odyssey Studies Changing Weather And Climate On Mars

"One explanation could be that Mars is just coming out
of an ice age," Feldman said. "In some low-latitude areas,
the ice has already dissipated. In others, that process
is slower and hasn't reached an equilibrium yet."
http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/odys...20031208a.html


Compare the delicate erosion pattern seen in the ...shadows...cast
in both pics below. And the same gravely surface.
How long ago was water there???

Yellowstone 'mudpot'
http://www.nps.gov/yell/slidefile/th...ages/05402.jpg
Endurance 'mudpot'
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opp...1P2397R1M1.JPG



7000 square miles of ice, about the size of the North Sea, found on Mars?

EVIDENCE FROM HRSC MARS EXPRESS FOR A FROZEN SEA CLOSE
TO MARS' EQUATOR.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2005/pdf/1741.pdf



Ice Packs and Methane on Mars Suggest Present Life Possible
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
http://www.space.com/scienceastronom..._mars_ice.html


Will they find microbes on Mars?

Can't wait!


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