I thought this would be a nice place to monitor and post the progress of the Mars expeditions(past, present, and future).

Updated: 05:49 AM EST
-Mars Rovers See Water-Linked Mineral-

PASADENA, Calif. (Dec. 14) - The Mars rover Spirit found a mineral linked to water during its exploration of the Red Planet, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said Monday.

Scientists identified the mineral goethite in bedrock studied in the Columbia Hills.

Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, were sent to Mars to look for geologic evidence of a watery past. Both rovers, especially Opportunity, have found such evidence in their nearly year-long treks over the martian surface, but the goethite find is particularly important, a mission scientist said in a JPL statement.

"Goethite, like the jarosite that Opportunity found on the other side of Mars, is strong evidence for water activity," said Goestar Klingelhoefer of the University of Mainz, Germany, lead scientist for the spectrometers on each rover. The instruments are designed to analyze iron minerals.

Goethite forms only in the presence of water, although it may be in liquid, ice or gaseous form.

The Columbia Hills bedrock was previously found to have hematite, a mineral that usually, but not always, forms in the presence of water.

Klingelhoefer's findings were being presented this week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

Spirit will continue to study the hills to determine whether water there only remained underground or ever pooled on the surface.

On the other side of the planet, Opportunity has recently seen frost and clouds marking seasonal changes, according to science team member Michael Wolff of the Brookfield, Wis., branch of the Boulder, Colo.-based Space Science Institute.

"We're seeing some spectacular clouds," Wolff said. "They are a dramatic reminder that you have weather on Mars."

Frost has also been seen on the rover during some mornings, according to Wolff.

But the search for signs that water was once widely abundant on the planet continues.

Opportunity is concluding its survey of deep Endurance Crater. Close looks at lower rock layers in part of the crater wall show strong indications that the material was last transported by wind rather than water, as happened with some layers higher up, said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, the principal investigator for the rover's instruments.

"The combination suggests that this was not a deep-water environment but more of a salt flat, alternately wet and dry," Squyres said.

On the Net:

JPL: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov


12/14/04 00:21 EST

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press.

This is even cooler stuff.

=========================================================================

Planet swapping microbes

The idea that the seeds of life hobnob between far-flung celestial localities is known as panspermia.

Could Mars be a domain for both microbes flung off Earth due to asteroid and comet impacts, as well as a planet where a "second genesis" might have also occurred? Furthermore, if this was the case, could external life and made-on-Mars biology co-exist?

"Absolutely," advised Blank, adding yet another scenario: That life originated on Mars and was transferred to the Earth, and then went extinct on Mars.

"At present, there is no geologic evidence that the origin of life occurred on the Earth. So one hypothesis is that the origin could have occurred elsewhere, like Mars, and then transferred to the Earth," Blank suggested. Alternatively, life could have originated on the Earth -- but left no evidence since we don't have any rocks for the first billion years of Earth history -- and then transferred to Mars, she said.

"If life was transferred between the planets, then Martian life, past and present, should have similar characteristics to early Earth life," Blank said. "On the other hand, if there was a second genesis, then life on Mars should be very different than life on Earth, and may in fact be quite difficult to detect or even recognize as life�particularly if it has gone extinct!"

Deepest branches on the tree of life

Meanwhile back on Earth, Blank said that more research is needed to understand whether interplanetary transfer of life could have been possible. In particular, additional work on hyperthermophiles -- microbes that live at very high temperatures and that form the deepest branches on the tree of life -- is required, as they were the early inhabitants of the Earth and therefore were the ones most likely to have been transferred around the solar system by impacts, she said.

"We know very little about the origin of life on the Earth�how it happened, what kind of environment it might have happened in, and how long it look to go from the origin to the last common ancestor of life as we know it - a very complex organism very much like modern life," Blank said.

Casting her eye back on Mars, Blank also said an unknown is whether conditions on early Mars were similar to what they were like on the early Earth when the origin of life likely happened.

"If they were similar, then perhaps a �second genesis� could have been possible on Mars. Even if conditions were different on Mars, there could still have been a second genesis only with a very different result than what happened on the Earth," Blank stated. "If these different life forms were spread throughout the solar system, then they might have co-existed if they could learn to depend upon each other. If, on the other hand, they were in direct competition for resources, then you might expect that one would �win� and survive, and the other go extinct," she advised.

War of the worlds?

Jack Farmer, an astrobiologist at Arizona State University in Tempe, also contends that the chance for life having existed on Mars is definitely in the cards. He is a Mars Exploration Rover science team member.

"We now have what I consider to be definitive evidence for standing bodies of water on Mars and this has opened up a serious and focused discussion of habitable environments on Mars early in the planet's history. This discovery marks a first step in implementing a strategy for Mars exopaleontology," Farmer told SPACE.com.

Farmer said the idea that Mars could have played host to Earth-launched microbes, as well as being a planet where a second genesis might have also taken place "are both contenders for an origin of Martian life and deserve serious consideration."

"I also think the idea of a �War of the Worlds� on Mars between life forms that originated there and those that arrived from Earth is a serious possibility," Farmer said. And that prospect, he continued, raises some key questions: Who would win? Is there the possibility for a competitive co-existence between life forms that originated on a different basis?

"The good news is [that] these alternative hypotheses appear to be testable in the context of future missions. But this discussion also points, again, to the importance of planetary protection and the potential for back-contamination arising from a Martian sample return," Farmer concluded.

This article is part of SPACE.com's weekly Mystery Monday series.

Grassstains:

Enjoyed the posts. I am absolutely fascinated by the things we're doing with probes. The stuff coming back from Saturn and Titan are also stunning. I have loved the images we've gotten from the Hubble and am glad to hear it rumored that NASA is re-examining the decision NOT to fix it again. The images we've gotten from the space scope, and the things we've learned are phenomenal. I'm hearing rumors that we may be looking at probes to Venus and Mercury, as well. That would be very cool. Is Cassio the name of the other huge telescope? The rovers on Mars are incredible to me. We have things driving around on Mars that are taking samples, readings and measurements, and are sending back tons of data. I read somewhere that just sorting through the data and examining it and its ramifications will take years.

I say we keep developing the probes and figure out everything we can about our solar system.

I want Hubble up and running for years. The images and information are unbelievable.

I'd like to see us upgrade the Space Shuttle program or replace it with another "space bus". We need to be up and down.

I'd love to see us re-invogirate the International Space Station (ISS) and get that program more active. I love that multiple nations are working on this and manning it.

I also think it's time to put men (and women) on the moon again and develop colonies. Let's learn how to live in space on other planets. Once that gets going, it may be time to do a manned mission to Mars and back.

What an exciting time to be alive. When I was in HS, we knew there were nine planets, and that Saturn had rings, and that was about it. The things we've learned through the various facets of the space program are unbelievable.

I love Bradbury's assertion that we are the martians. I hope that comes true as quickly as possible!

Here's some really cool pics from Mars.
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/10topImages/01.html

Those are cool images! Thanks for posting the location!

Does anyone know anything about a Japanese space probe which was supposed to produce closer and clearer images of the moon and Mars?

Here's something about Japan's space program, including moon and Mars missions, but it appears that it hasn't been updated in a year or more.

http://www.spacetoday.org/Japan/Japan/Planet_B_Nozomi.html

Here's something more current, but you'll have to do some browsing and you may need to download translation, as I did, but it's a neat site and well worth it.

http://www.isas.ac.jp/e/enterp/missions/index.shtml

=======================================================================
Here's some info and pics from a multi-national European moon mission currently under way.

http://space.com/scienceastronomy/smart1_pictures_050126.html

=======================================================================

France recently had to suspend their space program due to budget problems.