Comments on: Area Beneath Phoenix Lander Is Changing

By: genesis continuous

genesis continuous — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:06:20 +0000

- Eric Near Buffalo – Earth has probably been through many temperature cycles, but I think Mars has been through the same and more. Venus could well be going through cycles that Mars and earth have already been through. However, that's what Genesis Continuous is all about.

Sure, there will be variations, for instance, because of impacts from various sized meteorites, and Mars is much closer to the asteroid belt than we are, so probably is more vulnerable. But when it's all boiled down, science is finding similarities in composition between earth and Mars. I remember how surprised they were to find andesite. If life did exist on Mars, as I think it did, that was 2 to 3 billion years ago. Chances of finding fossil remains? Not good, because over that period of time and the lack of atmosphere, impactive material may have covered most of those remains over.

David
OK those are my thoughts on the matter. Go to my website to see why I say what I say.

By: Eric Near Buffalo

Eric Near Buffalo — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:17:40 +0000

~~~Charles Ray, back in the '50s, said that Mars once had oceans and that earth would also evolve to that stage.~~~

Right. But instead of being cold and desolate, Earth will become extremely hot. Any water and other surface objects will effectively be boiled and burned away. It won't happen in an instant, but in time with the Sun as it grows weaker and hotter.

Earth went thru a cold cycle, as theorized in the "Snowball Earth" cycle. The whole planet, if the theory is correct, was completely encased in ice and snow.

Either something catastrophic happened to Mars that blew most of it's atmosphere away or it never had much of an atmosphere to begin with that would help it retain heat. I tend to lean toward the first belief. There are too many features on that planet to have been shaped only by wind erosion, meteors and/or asteroids and volcanism. Volcanism has been dormant on Mars, as far as we can figure, for eons. So if the planet itself is brutally cold, has no habitable atmosphere, and doesn't seem to have much going on beneath it's surface, could it really be a place to go in the event that Earth becomes inhabitable?

By: genesis continuous

genesis continuous — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:49:23 +0000

News tonight that water has been truly identified on Mars. So that's one definite after all these years. Charles Ray, back in the '50s, said that Mars once had oceans and that earth would also evolve to that stage.

[Wish we could see all of what looks like a ring-spanner].

By: A person

A person — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 08:51:49 +0000

*gasp* is it sinking?

By: Bill Illis

Bill Illis — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:23:28 +0000

What about the moving pebble / living organism that moves in the centre of the picture.

By: Dstec

Dstec — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:18:11 +0000

Interesting… It looked like shadows to me. Both of the "popped up" pebbles, and the cracks, from one picture to the next, looks like they were always there. The shadows seemed to have moved. The brighter pic. seems to have washed out the features, the darker seems to have revealed them. Just my observation. But, I'm no rocket scientist… Phoenix and its support staff are awesome!

By: PHWilson

PHWilson — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:36:31 +0000

I found it curious that little attention was given to the Martian winds and their impact on newly uncovered ice sublimation. One particular article discusses quite turbulent temperature changes in the thin surface air.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/martian_winds_040213.html

To me, the pebble rolling down hill shows that something wet/tacky is drying and loosing its grip to gravity.

By: genesis continuous

genesis continuous — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:01:21 +0000

Very interesting – that little ring spanner like object in the right hand bottom corner is going to have to be identified or we'll all go nuts. (Now, now, who said it was s.a.e Martian?)

Also, almost in the middle of the same image is a little pebble that is moving left and right with the reciprocating image whilst the whole image is moving back and forward. Could it be falling into the hole from somewhere.
David

By: IceGuy

IceGuy — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:21:34 +0000

You can crack a glass pane with a torch. I think I've heard extra cold ice cubes crack as they decend into room temp liquid. So, could heat from the thruster exhaust have cracked a brittle, icy solid below the lander? Could slow paced sublimation have eventually exposed those cracks? Thanks for the puzzle. Keep them comming.

By: Eric Near Buffalo

Eric Near Buffalo — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:24:23 +0000

The lander itself may have caused the cracks. It's had to vibrate to get soil into it's oven, right? Couldn't that cause them?

By: Derek

Derek — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:37:45 +0000

That thing in the bottom right corner looks really strange. Is that something that came from the lander?

By: kcuhC

kcuhC — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:13:17 +0000

I appreciate none of this is as "simple" as it looks, but it is frustrating to me that a machine built to find proof of water on Mars seems to be looking at ice, and they (to my knowledge) have not absolutely confirmed this…it even seems unlikely to me that it would have been so close to the surface, and still we don't KNOW…arg!

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:27:35 +0000

Perhaps the lander itself caused the cracks when it landed or the gradual stress of its weight on the surface has caused the stress cracks.

Just thought I would throw that out there since its never anything we have done.

By: s0l

s0l — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:20:03 +0000

Interesting, once thing crossed my mind, could someone "in the know" detail the differences between Viking & Phoenix missions?

I know TEGA goes up to 1000degrees instead of viking's 500 but apart from that?

Thanks for not turning this question into a pro/con phoenix thing!