After years of research and several missions to explore our neighboring planet, NASA has finally struck gold, er, water that is. There is water on Mars! The Phoenix Mars lander was finally successful in delivering a fairly fresh sample of Martian soil to the TEGA analyzer after several failed attempts and, after a "bake and sniff" analysis, water was identified in the soil sample.
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Laboratory tests aboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander have identified water in a soil sample. The lander's robotic arm delivered the sample Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by the heating of samples.
"We have water," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. "We've seen
evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted."
However, much as I am thrilled with the news that there is water on Mars, I'm not exactly sure what it means, how it affects (and will affect) ordinary mortals like us. Sure, it's a great discovery and scientists all over the world are rejoicing but everybody else's question is, what now? I am no expert (not even close) but I can only speculate on what this discovery means:
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Does this mean that there is, there was or there will be life on Mars? As water is the source of all life forms (at least here on Earth), this discovery raises questions on the existence of life on Mars. Should we then be prepared to discover life in the dark recesses of Mars, in its underground caverns or in some distant side of the red planet we have yet to explore? I don't want to sound too Twilight Zone-ish or X-Files but is this discovery just the start of a bigger breakthrough that will prove that we are not alone? Should we expect to see little green men (too cartoonish huh?) in the next probe of the Mars lander? Yikes!
Does this also mean that Mars is livable, fit to sustain human life? Will Mars be the new frontier? The new New World? With Earth's population exploding to uncontrollable proportions and depleting its resources, it is but natural for leaders to look for new land to conquer and inhabit in the future, just like during the time of Columbus and Magellan. Is Mars the answer? Are settlements like those in Total Recall a big possibility now? Will I have Martian descendants? He he.
I know it's too early to have answers to these questions, and even scientists involved in the project won't have anything conclusive for years to come, but I can't help but play these
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