Comments on: "We Have Water" on Mars, TEGA Test Confirms

By: Tim N.

Tim N. — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 05:19:39 +0000

What a great time in history to be alive! So many discoveries in the last 30 years, the next 30 might be even more exciting! I'm so glad I became interested in astronomy when I was very young.

By: Gary

Gary — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:18:52 +0000

That's to bad (on the September timeline), should have sent this one up with some Plutonium in its belly. Oh well.

By: marcellus

marcellus — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:50:47 +0000

Now we go after the question: "Is there liquid water in Mars?"

Drill, boys, drill!

By: giovanni

giovanni — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:27:34 +0000

fair enough,tega registered a steep increase of heat while melting the latest sample of soil/ice which was quiqly deduced to be melting ice to liquid water,but eh, no mention of steam ? why?sorry for being such a doubting thomas.

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:59:15 +0000

ok.. i did a little dance.. i had pretty much givin up hope that we'd find it…

By: john

john — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:32:47 +0000

We now have proof of something we have 'known' for many years. Good work Phoenix, and NASA

By: Vitor Martins

Vitor Martins — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:29:22 +0000

EXCELENT!!!

By: Chris Farmer - Adelaide, South Australia

Chris Farmer - Adelaide, South Australia — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 07:53:33 +0000

Just fantastic stuff. I'm impressed that we can try an experiment, get it wrong, learn, try it again and get it right. Instead of a 'one experiment, one go' set up that some ships have had in the past.

By: pantzov

pantzov — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:15:19 +0000

the evidence was there, growing stronger over time. now we have the proof. great news!

next question: how much is there?

By: Astrofiend

Astrofiend — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:00:31 +0000

Gary Says:
July 31st, 2008 at 2:04 pm

"Given the fact that the two rovers have been around 4 years longer than planned, I would hope these guys find something for this ship to do beyond September."

>>>No can do, unfortunately. As Phoenix is so high in latitude on Mars, it will run out of sunlight to power itself much beyond September. It's electronics heaters will fail, and it will die. Not to mention quite possibly getting buried in CO2 ice after that. This is one mission with a firm timeline on its date with destiny…

In regards to the water – this is great news. It will be interesting to see what else they find as TEGA winds up to 1000 deg. C. I was starting to get a little concerned there – they seemed to be coming perilously close to the end of the main 90 day mission without a great deal of progress or usage of the onboard resources. Time to wind it up a bit more NASA lads 'n ladies!

By: Excalibur

Excalibur — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:25:43 +0000

Tested and tried methods – underpromise and overdeliver…

By: Gary

Gary — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:04:36 +0000

Given the fact that the two rovers have been around 4 years longer than planned, I would hope these guys find something for this ship to do beyond September. Maybe they start off with such low expectations for mission lengths, so nobody cries foul if these things blow a serious fuse a few weeks into a mission.

By: TD

TD — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:43:20 +0000

Anybody catch the question at the press conference on whether the Phoenix scientists reported to the Presidents science advisors on what MECA found? It seemed the press guy was expecting some announcement. Peter Smith said the data would be analyzed for a few months more. What's up with that?