Big Mars Announcement - September 28

[Pete Dero]

Turns out the news is that they have found no evidence so far of non-frozen water ever existing on Mars.

Not true : New findings from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-evidence-that-liquid-water-flows-on-today-s-mars

[endfire79]

This old diddy from The Chappelle Show always comes to mind:

[JasonPratt]

Yeah, I totally read that Facebook article alert wrong.  :-[  :-[ :-[ :-[ One hundred percent my fault.

Oh well. Liquid water on Mars maybe, woo! :D

That would be pretty important for trying to set up a colony there (since there's no feasible way possible to send someone there and back like to the Moon). Frozen water can be melted of course, but that takes energy.

(On the other hand, it's a huge question as to what would take more of an energy budget, thawing ice or tapping and preparing subsurface streams.)

[Bison]

So basically as expected NASA's big news was something that they'd previously called attention too as possible big news.  Mars may or may not have liquid water that may or may not actually exist on the surface and may or may not be a possible source to sustain life...possibly.  /sigh/  NASA is nothing if non-committal.

[bbmike]

Or maybe Jason doesn't want us to know about that base on Mars...  ^-^

[Staggerwing]

I got the impression from news reports that confirming the presence of liquid water (as in moist sandy deposits) was the big reveal. Granted I have not had a chance to read the actual NASA release.

[Sir Slash]

I'm glad I didn't bet on it being Jimmy Hoffa.

[bbmike]

I'm glad I didn't bet on it being Jimmy Hoffa.

He's still waiting in that Nazi gold train.

[LongBlade]

I'm glad I didn't bet on it being Jimmy Hoffa.

He's still waiting in that Nazi gold train.

You guys are awesome :)

[MikeGER]

I followed the press conference live on Nasa TV  8)

It is really good news, the brine solution of this perchlorate can be processed into pure water and into the solid chemicals.
what to do with water is self-explanatory  (oxygen, rocketfuel, live support, you name it....)
The chemicals can be used for solid boosters (with organic material containing carbon for example remains from food-plants grown in Mars green houses), and for blasting purposes on the surface

Mars exploration will become much more cheaper.
First step would be a robot, who generate the fuel on Mars to send home probe samples with 'tiny'-rockets (reentry vehicles) fueled up and then launched back to Earth.

and now it make sense to setup dust saturated with different perchlorate brine-solutions in the bio-lab and test all kind of bacteria samples from halfway similar harsh places on earth (like dried-up saline sees around the globe at high altitude and cold climate zone) to find a stem that is able to survive.
Then we know better what to look for in this dark streaks  ...and hopefully evidence of 'similar' bacteria can be even discovered with remote sense-methods looking for trace gases emitted in that spots or general spectroscopy focused  on a small spot