Mars News and Discussions

[weatheriscool]

Giant volcano discovered on Mars
https://phys.org/news/2024-03-giant-volcano-mars.html
by Rebecca McDonald, SETI Institute

In a groundbreaking announcement at the 55th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference held in The Woodlands, Texas, scientists revealed the discovery of a giant volcano and possible sheet of buried glacier ice in the eastern part of Mars' Tharsis volcanic province near the planet's equator.

Imaged repeatedly by orbiting spacecraft around Mars since Mariner 9 in 1971—but deeply eroded beyond easy recognition, the giant volcano had been hiding in plain sight for decades in one of Mars' most iconic regions, at the boundary between the heavily fractured maze-like Noctis Labyrinthus (Labyrinth of the Night) and the monumental canyons of Valles Marineris (Valleys of Mariner).

Provisionally designated "Noctis volcano" pending an official name, the structure is centered at 7° 35' S, 93° 55' W. It reaches +9022 meters (29,600 feet) in elevation and spans 450 kilometers (280 miles) in width. The volcano's gigantic size and complex modification history indicate that it has been active for a very long time. In its southeastern part lies a thin, recent volcanic deposit beneath which glacier ice is likely still present.

[Time_Traveller]

Future Mars plane could help solve Red Planet methane mystery (exclusive)

published 7 hours ago



Mars methane is hard to trace, but a solution might be on the way.

An early-stage airplane concept called MAGGIE will soon kick off a nine-month NASA-funded study to explore its feasibility for soaring over Mars. It won't go to the Red Planet any time soon, if ever, but there's a clear science need for more flying vehicles on Mars.

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter, the first heavier-than-air vehicle to soar on Mars, finished 72 flights after arriving with the Perseverance rover in February 2021. While Ingenuity had a hard landing in January 2024 that grounded it for good, there's plenty of room for more flying vehicles in the future.

MAGGIE — short for "Mars Aerial and Ground Intelligent Explorer" — is designed to operate for a Martian year (nearly two Earth years) anywhere around the Red Planet. Flying 3,300 feet (1,000 meters) above the surface, one of its prime missions could be finding methane. That elusive molecule could be a sign of life, but scientists have had little luck figuring out its presence in the Martian atmosphere after decades of searching.

Methane, a possible biosignature gas, has been hard to find on Mars. It pops up now and again in the atmosphere, detectable by spacecraft on or orbiting the Red Planet or by powerful telescopes here on Earth. NASA's long-running Curiosity rover mission (ancestor to Perseverance), for example, has repeatedly detected methane since 2012, but the levels go up and down — a background level of less than 0.5 parts per billion (ppb) molecules of air, sometimes spiking up to 20 ppb.

https://www.space.com/mars-plane-maggie-methane-mystery

[weatheriscool]

Curiosity rover searches for new clues about Mars' ancient water
https://phys.org/news/2024-03-curiosity ... cient.html
by NASA

NASA's Curiosity rover has begun exploring a new region of Mars, one that could reveal more about when liquid water disappeared once and for all from the Red Planet's surface. Billions of years ago, Mars was much wetter and probably warmer than it is today. Curiosity is getting a new look into that more Earth-like past as it drives along and eventually crosses the Gediz Vallis channel, a winding, snake-like feature that—from space, at least—appears to have been carved by an ancient river.

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

Life on Mars was discovered 50 years ago and then eradicated - astrobiologist

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo ... r-AA1fQxrm

If this is true I hope we didn't kill the only life on the planet. That would have sucked.

[firestar464]

NASA plasma propulsion project promises Mars in a flash

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo ... r-AA1o32jd

[weatheriscool]

NASA Steps in to Get ESA's ExoMars Rover to the Red Planet
NASA will provide launch services and some key lander components.
By Ryan Whitwam May 20, 2024

The European Space Agency's long-delayed ExoMars mission is back on track with a little help from NASA. The US space agency has signed an agreement to offer launch services and lander components for the mission. With NASA's help, the European Space Agency (ESA) hopes to get the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover to Mars before the decade is out, resuming an operation derailed by COVID, hardware failures, and war.

The agreement was signed on May 16, handing NASA several key responsibilities for the second phase of ExoMars. While the ESA is building the rover itself, it needs several components for the landing system, including throttleable braking engines that will slow the lander's descent. NASA will also provide three radioisotope heating units (RHUs), which use the heat of decaying plutonium-238 to keep the spacecraft warm.

https://www.extremetech.com/science/nas ... red-planet

[caltrek]

Agriculture on Mars Is Closer to Reality Thanks to Mayan Farming Practices
by Elizabeth Beiser
May 28, 2024

Introduction:

(My Modern Met) Humans visiting Mars will likely happen within the next 15 years. However, it will be a nine-month-long journey one way. Finding a way to feed humans on Mars is, therefore, critical before anyone steps foot on the Red Planet. A recent study done by researchers in the Netherlands may have come up with a viable method for growing nutrient rich vegetables by drawing upon ancient farming techniques used by the Mayans.

While dehydrated food has become a staple of space missions, it's not an ideal method of feeding humans long-term. It is less nutritious than fresh food, and being able to pack enough for a Mars mission is unfeasible. Regular supply missions are not efficient economically, leaving agriculture as the best method to feed Mars-bound humans. Of course, with an atmosphere 100 times thinner, with more carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and argon than Earth's atmosphere, Mars isn't readily hospitable to our crops.

Building upon past studies, scientists at Wageningen University & Research are looking for ways to optimize plant growth. Centuries ago, Mayans started using a method of farming which involved intercropping. Their descendants still use this method today, resulting in drought and disease resilient farms. Intercropping, as opposed to monocropping, consists of multiple plant types being grown together in the same plots of land.

Researchers compared three different crops in an approximation of dusty Martian soil called regolith, as well as soil and river sand, both by monocropping and intercropping. Tomatoes, carrots, and peas were grown for 105 days. These three vegetables are high in nutrients that are destroyed during food dehydration. Also the researchers believed they would be complementary to each other. Tomatoes provide climbing support to peas and shade to carrots that are heat-sensitive, while peas “fix” nitrogen in soil by turning it into ammonia which becomes food for plants. Carrots, in turn, help aerate soil, thus improving water and nutrient uptake.

Read more here: https://mymodernmet.com/agriculture-on ... actices/