Hi everyone, I am opening this topic with a brief summery of how the JPL/NASA rovers Spirit & Opportunity identified that water was once plentiful on the surface of the red planet. I would be greatly interested to read your comments and observations about this important discovery.

Spirit travelled 487m kilometres to reach Mars after its launch from Cape Canaveral on June 10, 2003, and landed successfully at Gusev crater on January 4. NASA chose Spirit’s landing site based on evidence from earlier Mars orbiters that this crater may have held a lake long ago. A long deep valley apparently carved out by water leads into Gusev crater. On Jan 19 Spirit moved forward to its first target named Adirondack rock and began to use its instruments with interesting results. The Moss-Bauer spectrometer detected the mineral olivine, which does not survive weathering well. Another instrument detected that the Martian soil was rich in silicon and iron, and significant levels of chlorine and sulphur confirming similar findings by the JPL Viking Lander craft of 1976. After an abrasion tool on the rover’s robotic arm growned away a little of the surface layer of Adirondack rock, it was determined to be a crystalline rock so hard that if it were possible to whack it with a hammer, it would ‘ring.’ :huh:

Looking around its landing site using its infrared spectrometer Spirit identified deposits of Hematite. This mineral aften (not always) forms in the presence of water. Further analysis of the Martian soil around its landing site by rover Spirit identified small sphericals, nicknamed blueberries by the NASA science team. The sphericals were of various shapes, colours and composition, however Hematite was the dominant mineral. This was puzzling since it meant the sphericals may have formed in the presence of water, and yet may also be the result of a volcanic eruption or meteor impact. Slowly a picture was emerging confirming that the Spirit landing site at Gusev crater was once a true lake of running water.

As Spirit continued to carryout experiments around its landing site it determined that the Martian soil was not a dry powder like talcum powder, it was clumpy showing that very small amounts of water vapour from the atmosphere was combining with the Martian soil to form a sticky brine. On the other side of the planet on plains called Meridini Planum, Spirit’s twin rover Opportunity confirmed its landing site out cropping was also composed of the mineral Hematite and the Martian soil their was also very similar to that studied by Spirit. The Hematite at both sites confirmed that it was of the type usually formed in the presence of water. In March came the historic announcement by JPL/NASA that large amounts of water did once flow freely on the planet Mars.

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Richard Pearson
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Should that be olivine? Did that Freudian slip come from the collective consciousness where total oblivion is rare?

My bias is that there are copious amounts of sub-surface liquid water in acquifers. If life is not already there, it will prosper once we plant it there.

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For those inclined to oppose human meddling with the structure of the universe or the composition and configuration of objects and groups of objects within the universe, consider:
Whether there is a limit to the magnitude of a modulation of chaos below which order remains invariant? Or, is order but a fiction invented by perspectives applied over finite, however large, time intervals?

Hi Gourhead,

Yes it was Olivine; my spell checker gets a bit excited sometimes.

I entirely agree with your point, that's why NASA and the ESA have to be very careful to send sterile Landers to the planet. Also the rovers Spirit and Opportunity were equipped with science instruments to study the Martian geology and atmosphere, while Beagle-2 had a fine additional instrument to look for life signs in and under the Martian soil. Sadly Beagle was never seen again after it separated from its mother ship Mars Express on December 19.

Thank you Gourhead for pointing this out.

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Richard Pearson
Science Correspondent
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