[PS] Liquid Water on Mars! Really for Real This Time (Probably)

On Jul/27/2018 at 6:37 AM, Jeff Findley wrote :
In article ,
says...

Planetary Society Blog

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Liquid Water on Mars! Really for Real This Time (Probably)

Posted: 25 Jul 2018 09:11 AM PDT
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...rs-really.html

A radar instrument on one of the oldest operational Mars orbiters has
discovered possible evidence of present-day liquid water on Mars.

This is really big news. We really, really need to explore this area to
determine how much water is there and how easy it is to get to. Water
means air to breathe and rocket fuel (CO2 from the atmosphere plus H2O
gives you liquid methane and liquid oxygen).

I agree with you that this is big news, but not for the same reasons. In
my opinion it is interesting for the possibility to find life in there.
For rocket fuel, mining the ice caps is probably an easier way to get
large amounts of water. For an initial base needing smaller amounts of
water (but still many many tonnes), extracting water from the small
amounts of moister in the air should be easier.

There are many means to make rocket fuel, on Mars. But finding life that
has originated independently from the life on Earth would be one of the
biggest scientific discoveries of all time, maybe even the biggest.


Alain Fournier