New Mars Forums

The more I read about Mars the more i'm convinced that its a planet that held potential habitats for life to develop but somehow got stalled by the major climate change caused by loss of magnetic field and consequently loss of its atmosphere.At this time that this major change happened ,that is, about 3.8 billion yeras ago,life could not have devekloped further than microbial level,assuming that life would have taken the same time scale to develop as on Earth.From time to time there could have been major water events caused by melting of groundice by volcanic activity or meteoritic impacts but these were temporary phenomena possibly causing the huge floods we still see today in orbital pics!Ofcourse if life ever got a hold on Mars ,i would still think its there somewhere underground or in polar regions.

Given the new findings from Mars express that methane and water vapour concentrations seem to overlap in regions such as Arabia,Elysium and Arcadia,,would it be logical to send probes to investigate these areas from the surface..what i see most fit are seismic probes and perhaps life detectors,provided that infrared studies of these sites render such landing areas low risk compared with the great scientific value of landing in these areas!

just hope the parachute system on huygens doesnt suffer the same faith as Genesis probe ???

It seems that mineral jerosite (hope its written correctly!) has been found in areas  of Mariner valley..other pics suggest sedimentary deposits  in other areas such as Holden crater,,,well..mapping the areas containing minerals that could be linked to a water story on Mars would give us an idea as to where the presumed lake or ocean was on the planet or locations as to where the water system if any,on Mars back in the Noachian period!Mars Express is doing a lot of progress as well as i expect that to be supported by the operation of Mars Reconnossance orbiter in 2 years time.Exciting times in the exploration of the RED planet!

Looking again at those pics of Titan makes me wonder if those bright features are low lying clouds rather than surface features!!What u think Cindy? ???

Single cloud over Titans south pole..the size of Arizona..dark areas seem to be pure water ice whereas the brighter areas seem to be mixed with hydrocarbons..quite the contrary to what scientists had previously thought!It turns out Titan is more puzzling then previously thought! ???

Just out today,they've detected very high winds in Titans upper atmosphere!!Is it worse for Huygens probe as it descends into Titan??Who knows?Fingers crossed ???

well...havent commented for a while in this forum but i bet that Spirit will rise to Opportunity's status in finding evidence of significant water after examining those rock outcrops on the Columbia hills As for Opportunity,i think we'll have to wait for some time for the rover to get to anywhere near the dune fields at the bottom of E ndurance crater;i would think that Nasa will send the rover to the rock outcrops first and then leave the crater again to go inside the crater later on towards the end of the mission!

Cassioli..what the hell is that...smoke??

Those hills look so appealing..as if we're there walking in that direction...looking forward for better pics as the rover moves further closer in.   Even the Gusev crater rim is visible!

Mountains on Mars..i agree they are shield volcanoes....what about the mountain chain south of Mariner valley..are these due to past tectonic activity on Mars???Magnetic maps seem to show the presence of a spreading centre very much like a mid oceanic ridge on Earth in very early Mars history before magnetic field died out....

Yes,i was referring to your post Cindy...i'm just hopeful as all of you here that Huygens probe will be a success after all these years waiting to get to see what Titan looks like!