Mars
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Will humans ever really go to Mars? Let’s face it, the obstacles are quite daunting. Not only are there numerous, difficult, technical issues to overcome, but the political will and perseverance of any one nation to undertake such an arduous task just can’t be counted on. However, one former NASA engineer believes a human mission to Mars is quite doable, and such an event would unify the world as never before. But Jim McLane’s proposal includes a couple of major caveats: the trip to Mars should be one-way, and have a crew of only one person. McLane worked at NASA for 21 years before leaving in 2007 to work for a private engineering firm.
Universe Today » A One-Way, One-Person Mission to Mars
JPL.NASA.GOV: News Releases
This view from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows bedrock within a stratigraphic layer informally named "Lyell," which is the lowermost of three layers the rover has examined at a bright band around the inside of Victoria Crater. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University BOSTON -- Like salt used as a preservative, high concentrations of dissolved minerals in the wet, early-Mars environment known from discoveries by NASA's Opportunity rover may have thwarted any microbes from developing or surviving. "Not all water is fit to drink," said Andrew Knoll, a member of the rover science team who is a biologist at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, began their fifth year on Mars last month, far surpassing their prime missions of three months.
"If it was an image of Earth, I would say 'glacier' right away," Dr Gerhard Neukum, chief scientist on the spacecraft's High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), told BBC News. "We have not yet been able to see the spectral signature of water. But we will fly over it in the coming months and take measurements. On the glacial ridges, we can see white tips, which can only be freshly exposed ice." This is found in very few places on the Red Planet because as soon as ice is exposed to the Martian environment, it sublimates (turns from a solid state directly into gas). Not all researchers share his view of events.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Active glacier found' on
Nasa says its robot rover Spirit has made one of its most significant discoveries on the surface of Mars. Scientists believe a patch of ground disturbed by the vehicle shows evidence of a past environment that would have been perfect for microbial life. It has been described as a fortuitous discovery.