NASA Spacecraft Data Suggest Water Flowing on Mars (opens in new tab)

(nasa.gov)

79 pointsRonkdar14y ago7 comments

7 comments

ranman14y ago

NASA -- The happiest $0.005 of my tax dollars.

bfe14y ago

I love how the NASA administrator uses the opportunity to remind everyone of the goal to send human explorers to Mars.

rl4114y ago

Another discussion here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2847028

ChuckMcM14y ago

I am glad that one of the current rovers wasn't in a position to have water wash over them. Especially salty water which is very conductive. That would be like 'instant death' for a robot probe.

Of course all of these things could have been discovered and analyzed much more quickly and definitively with a person present ...

gus_massa14y ago

The Mars' circumference is ~13000 miles / ~21000 Km. If the landing site is on the correct side of Mars, the astronauts have to travel, let's say 2000 miles / 3000 Km, without roads or gas stations. So probably in the fists expeditions the persons will explore only the neighborhoods of the landing site, and will not be able to travel to the interesting sites.

mturmon14y ago

The analysis in the OP was from an orbiter, not a lander. The chances of landing a crew near such a site by chance seem low. And it would not happen this decade anyway. You need unmanned surveys to determine if and where it would be worthwhile to send a crew.

RonkdarOP14y ago

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 <-- live press conference

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