[Keith_McClary]

He's not joking, just confused. Hint: water combusts at 4950 deg F, and freezes at 32 deg F, and methane freezes at -295.6°F. So yes it combusts, just not on the surface of Titan.

Not without oxygen, was my point.

[dinopello]

Cool video of SpaceX rocket landing (with good sound too!)

[onlooker]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/29/scien ... water.html
It is pretty much official NASA believes their is water on Mars. I have always thought their is life out there and quite possibly intelligent life.

[onlooker]

[Sixstrings]

It's been suspected for some time that there's water on mars. They've found other signs before, but didn't want to make premature conclusions.

The latest data is from a satellite that determined there are hydrated salts, so it's for sure.

I was reading some scientific tweets about it, and someone said the water is more saline than any there is on Earth. But anyhow I'm no expert on it.

Conclusive evidence for flowing water on Mars adds impetus for a manned mission..

ESPECIALLY since the site where the water was found is on steep cliffs and inaccessible to current rover tech. But -- human astronauts COULD check those cliffs out (according to the press conference). And find the source of the water.

Atmosphere is too thin to grow crops in the dirt, but a greenhouse would work.

If there is accessible, flowing water on mars, that's a big deal for habitability. (and there could be life.. on Earth, where there is water there is life. It's possibile life was actually seeded on Earth from Mars, in the first place -- or a comet from elsewhere, it's theorized that life probably spreads through the universe via comets).

[GHung]

Pretty good timing for the release of "The Martian"

The Martian is directed by Ridley Scott and stars Matt Damon as Mark Watney, an astronaut stranded on Mars after being presumed dead when a dust storm forces his crew to evacuate their base without him. Watney must find a way to contact NASA while also surviving on a planet without food or water.

This movie does not waste time getting started, and quickly sets the plot in motion by forcing the crew to evacuate and stranding Watney on Mars. Aside from one or two large time jumps, the film's pacing was solid and kept the plot moving while never overwhelming the viewer. For a survival movie, it had a rather sparse amount of the thrills, however those it did provide were unpredictable and truly felt consequential, each one radically altering Watney's situation.

The film's script inherits the books humorous and snarky dialogue, and manages to balance it with the perils of Watney's situation perfectly. Watney provides comic relief and often makes light of his dire situation, however through Matt Damon's performance and a sharp script, the humor never clashes with the film's survivalist tone.

Speaking of Matt Damon, he proves massively watchable as Mark Watney, and even gives a surprisingly committed performance as his body begins to suffer from his food rationing. He delivers the dialogue well, and I feel in the hands of a lesser actor a lot of the snarky writing would have come off as awkward or out of place. While I would not say his performance goes as far as Sandra Bullock in Gravity, another one-person space survival, it is nonetheless solid and at times quite impressive....

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/

Sounds like a pretty good yarn. If the writers knew about the flowing water, maybe he could have built a micro-hydro system and a hydroponics setup using astronaut dung as fertilizer

[Plantagenet]

The source of the water is probably ground ice i.e. permafrost. Its long been known there is permafrost in many areas of Mars----and this implies the ground itself in many areas contains fresh water...i.e. water may not be restricted just to the cliff sides where they see the wet streaks.

When you freeze water on earth it excludes salt---i.e. sea ice created by freezing ocean water is composed of fresh water. If this process operates the same way on Mars a lot of the ice in the soils and the water streaks from melting permafrost seen at the surface of Mars are probably drinkable without much treatment.

The "hydrated salts" detected by the satellite sensor are produced when the liquid water encounters salts in the soil and hydrates them. The hydrated salts then disappear as the water evaporates away into the atmosphere.


Patterned ground indicative of permafrost is widespread on Mars

[kiwichick]

never thought i'd see a manned/ personed ? mission to Mars in my lifetime ; but now......?

[SeaGypsy]

Let's try another Sputnik or two first lol.

[onlooker]

A manned mission to Mars from what I have heard is extremely extremely difficult.

[Subjectivist]

A manned mission to Mars from what I have heard is extremely extremely difficult.

This Australian technology would make it a lot more plausible but NASA loves Russian technology.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/ ... s-mission/

The Neumann drive is very different from NASA’s HiPEP counterpart, relying on basic principles to power the drive. In Neumann’s system, he uses a solid propellant and an electrical arc to vaporize the propellant into a cloud of ions, electrons and neutral vapor. This mixture is accelerated through an anode ring and then focused using a magnetic field. This combination pushes the gas mixture out in a contiguous pattern of short and light bursts.

Neumann’s engine has several advantages that set it apart from competing ion drives. First, the Neumann prototype uses basic principles of physics for its propulsion system and is simple in design, which makes it easy to operate and repair. Also, it can be powered by several different commonly-found metallic substrates, with the best thus far being magnesium. This multi-fuel capability contrasts with NASA’s drive, which requires the gas Xenon to run.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/digitaltrends-u ... ruster.jpg

[SeaGypsy]

Ion engines have very little to do with Earth-Mars, maybe of some assistance for fine tuning trajectories, but wont ever solve the problem of getting back. Thrust rockets, burn, a lot of stuff, including O2, which is free on Earth, unknown on Mars.

Mars will be a suicide mission. No return. Death by either radiation or system failure. The glamour from this side of that event is overwhelming.

My 10c- go on get on with it. The sooner that pipe dream dies the better. We need to wake up on this planet.

[Subjectivist]

Ion engines have very little to do with Earth-Mars, maybe of some assistance for fine tuning trajectories, but wont ever solve the problem of getting back. Thrust rockets, burn, a lot of stuff, including O2, which is free on Earth, unknown on Mars.

Mars will be a suicide mission. No return. Death by either radiation or system failure. The glamour from this side of that event is overwhelming.

My 10c- go on get on with it. The sooner that pipe dream dies the better. We need to wake up on this planet.

Constant thrust at even very low acceleration provides you with a hyperbolic transfer orbit instead of a Holman parabolic coasting orbit. A trip of years becomes a trip of a few months, greatly limiting all the problems that arise while coasting in deep space.

[careinke]

Constant thrust at even very low acceleration provides you with a hyperbolic transfer orbit instead of a Holman parabolic coasting orbit. A trip of years becomes a trip of a few months, greatly limiting all the problems that arise while coasting in deep space.

Then you just have to make an ecosystem at your destination. So far, we haven't even had much success with the nice one handed to us on a platter. Good luck with that.

[Lore]

Interesting, but we are never going to Mars at our current trajectory. When it comes to water, it well may be harder to find the stuff to drink for billions of inhabitants here.

[Tanada]

As much as I want the human species to colonize Mars I think a self sustaining space station and lunar colonies are necessary before we can successfully colonize anywhere that is months away at the very best and years away at the worst.

[Newfie]

Reading this I channels Crosby Stills Nash.

Love the one your with.