(Article) Big news from Mars?

[DrJohnZoidberg]

November 20, 2012
Scientists working on NASA's six-wheeled rover on Mars have a problem. But it's a good problem.

They have some exciting new results from one of the rover's instruments. On the one hand, they'd like to tell everybody what they found, but on the other, they have to wait because they want to make sure their results are not just some fluke or error in their instrument.

It's a bind scientists frequently find themselves in, because by their nature, scientists like to share their results. At the same time, they're cautious because no one likes to make a big announcement and then have to say "never mind."

The exciting results are coming from an instrument in the rover called SAM. "We're getting data from SAM as we sit here and speak, and the data looks really interesting," John Grotzinger, the principal investigator for the rover mission, says during my visit last week to his office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. That's where data from SAM first arrive on Earth. "The science team is busily chewing away on it as it comes down," says Grotzinger.

SAM is a kind of miniature chemistry lab. Put a sample of Martian soil or rock or even air inside SAM, and it will tell you what the sample is made of.

Grotzinger says they recently put a soil sample in SAM, and the analysis shows something earthshaking. "This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good," he says.

Full article here: http://www.npr.org/2012/11/20/165513016/big-news-from-mars-rover-scientists-mum-for-now

Now to wait for the news.

 

[Wogan]

Grotzinger says it will take several weeks before he and his team are ready to talk about their latest finding.

ffffff

 

[biometrics]

Got to be water.

 

[AthenianOwl]

inb4 "omg we have found at least a real concrete evidence that proves that we are not alone in the universe."

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

How they can use the word "earthshaking" and then make us wait several weeks. Pfft, amateurs!

 

[ponder]

They found the remains of John Carter!

 

[ClintZA]

"They have some exciting new results from one of the rover's instruments. On the one hand, they'd like to tell everybody what they found, but on the other, they have to wait because they want to make sure their results are not just some fluke or error in their instrument."

So instead they'll just tell us that they can't tell us. Bloody scientists!

 

[ponder]

How they can use the word "earthshaking" and then make us wait several weeks.

Should that not read "marsshaking"?

 

[HavocXphere]

So an announcement announcing a future announcement. Thats the very worse kind of announcement.

Hell even movie trailers give *something*.

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Hope the world doesn't end before we find out

 

[mercurial]

It better not be another boring, "Oh, look, water!" announcement. Give us something really "earthshaking".

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

I wonder where earthshaking sits on the scale?

1. Pleasing.
2. "That was unexpected."
3. Excellent find.
4. Amazing new discovery.


5. Earthshaking.
6. Monumental discovery.
7. Eureka! We've hit the motherload!
8. We have discovered everything in the universe.

or

5. Monumental discovery.
6. Earthshaking.
7. Eureka! We've hit the motherload!
8. We have discovered everything in the universe.

If it is number 6, then it better be a fossilised exoskeleton from some water dwelling creature.

 

[AlphaJohn]

Well
1. We KNOW Mars has water, so can not be it
2. Any life found on Mars can just as well come from earth* so even if they find life it will not prove anything

So must be something else

*Computer simulations already demonstrated how debris can reach escape velocity so its not that far fetch that some of this debris could make its way to Mars. This makes proving "alien" life inside this solar system that much more difficult. Only DNA tests can prove this and as far as I know they do not have such equipment on Mars.

 

[Unhappy438]

1. We KNOW Mars has water, so can not be it

Its a soil test so im pretty sure its got something to do with water on Mars.

 

[mercurial]

If it's water, then fsck these guys. I'm tired of these boring, overhyped water announcements. It doesn't take a genius to know that the universe is filled with water. Show us some gaad-damn goggas

 

[AlphaJohn]

If it's water, then fsck these guys. I'm tired of these boring, overhyped water announcements. It doesn't take a genius to know that the universe is filled with water. Show us some gaad-damn goggas

^ This

 

[Yuu]

I wonder where earthshaking sits on the scale?

1. Pleasing.
2. "That was unexpected."
3. Excellent find.
4. Amazing new discovery.


5. Earthshaking.
6. Monumental discovery.
7. Eureka! We've hit the motherload!
8. We have discovered everything in the universe.

or

5. Monumental discovery.
6. Earthshaking.
7. Eureka! We've hit the motherload!
8. We have discovered everything in the universe.

If it is number 6, then it better be a fossilised exoskeleton from some water dwelling creature.

Good find Dr

Am now subscribed to this thread and waiting

If i had to pick one, my guess would be 2. "That was unexpected."

 

[Jings]

We can rule out microbes since the instruments on the rovers are incapable of detecting life.

Their mission is to search for building blocks and test if conditions of favourable for sustaining life, sampling soil 4 inches below the surface.

Maybe worms have been found.

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Okay, looks like there isn't going to be any earthshaking news. Bummer.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-377

 

[Jings]

It's still early days, less than four months into the mission. Next exciting phase is when the rover cracks open some rock.