Life On Mars

Just this past June scientist have made an amazing discovery of the presence of water on Mars. Two scientists (Ken Edgett and Mike Malin of Malin Space Science Systems)authored a paper of their reserach on their new findings. they found images of gullies carved in hillsides. What they didn't expect was to find ice on the polar caps of Mars, too. Recent findings of glacial activity and flood channels have also been found on the planet. With the findings of these new images of water being on the planets surface scientists are now forced to throw out their old theories of Mars being a dead planet .

Just this past July a scientist (William Hartman) has also come across another amazing discovery on Mars-the presence of volcanic activity. This scientist has discovered what appears to be the youngest lava flows on the planets surface.He estimates that lava has flowed on the planets surface for the past 10 to 100 million years. Therefore,if volcanoes have erupted that recently there is a good chance that it would just not stop this soon. At NASA's Ames Research Center scientist have been busy cataloging over 200 craters in which there appears to be lakes collecting at the bottom. These crater bottoms exhibit shorelines and feed channels that appear to be flowing down the crater walls and some of these channels form deltas of deposited material at their inlets.

In 2003 NASA plans to launch two landers into planets which will arrive on the planet Mars's surface in 2004 (after each traveling 7 1/2 months to get there). These two identical landers will land 18 days apart from each other. Once they land on the planets surface they will head for the water that has been recently found on the surface of the Red Planet. Scott Hubbard (NASA's Mars program director) siad that the entire mission will cost $350 million to $400 million . These robots that they are sending to the planets surface will act as geologists. They will examine and break open the rocks to search for more clues on Mars's history. All of this mission will be just to "follow the water" and see just where it leads us. Each of the rovers will weigh about 300 pds. and they will roam the surface on 6 wheels that are powered by solar-charged electrical power. Each of these rovers will communicate with Earth scientists by using a dish with a pop-up antenna. Both robots will also be packing 20/20 color vision from 10 cameras on each vehicle. Once of the cameras, placed on each robot, will be used for navigating the planets surfaceand it will be be linked to a computer that will let the rovers plot their course to a specified destination.

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