Weather On Mars Surprisingly Warm, Curiosity Rover Finds

[n2doc]

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is enjoying some nice, warm weather on the Red Planet — and spring hasn't even come to its landing site yet.

Curiosity's onboard weather station, which is called the Remote Environment Monitoring Station (REMS), has measured air temperatures as high as 43 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius) in the afternoon. And temperatures have climbed above freezing during more than half of the Martian days, or sols, since REMS was turned on, scientists said.

These measurements are a bit unexpected, since it's still late winter at Gale Crater, the spot 4.5 degrees south of the Martian equator where Curiosity touched down on Aug. 5.

"That we are seeing temperatures this warm already during the day is a surprise and very interesting," Felipe Gómez, of the Centro de Astrobiología in Madrid, said in a statement.

more

http://www.space.com/17828-mars-weather-curiosity-rover-discovery.html

[On the Road]

1. Oh No!`

We've brought global warming to Mars! lol

[tclambert]

10. It's Al Gore's fault!

[krispos42]

2. So it's warmer than Minnesota?

[On the Road]

3. I Always Assumed That NASA Would be Able to Measure Air Temperature

near the surface of Mars. I would have thought all the factors -- surface albedo, atmosphere density and composition, etc -- would be already known. But obviously, it's not that easy.

[tridim]

5. My first thought too.

It's one of those things that seems trivial, but obviously isn't.

I guess this explains why we've seen wet martian soil.

[Control-Z]

4. Thank you for the OP

and the link. I spent some time over there, at space.com, and it was just wonderful!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

6. I'm expecting a few more surprises yet to come from that dark patch.

[img][/img]

[alfredo]

7. It's the Keystone pipeline.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

8. ....black gold,.....Texas tea.....

[alfredo]

12. A drag strip?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. The color is right,...

....but I don't see any stars....

[img][/img]

[alfredo]

17. There's one behind every tree.

[fleur-de-lisa]

9. It's a BP oil spill . . .

[alfredo]

11. Or dust abatement on a dirt road.

[Fearless]

13. Zing!

[Diclotican]

15. n2doc

n2doc

Interesting, to say at least.. Maybe it is not that a dead planet after all?.. Or at least, the planet is able to sustain some warm in places as it is..

Just imagine how it can be, 100 or 200 year from now, with a few city's on Mars, under domes of course, as a terra forming will take forever to make possible, maybe a thousand year or so. But at least a few city's on the surface...

Oh well, thats is a long away from now anyway, the only thing we can do, it to dream..

Diclotican

[alfredo]

18. Most life on earth is under ground. That might be the best place to look on Mars.

[Diclotican]

19. alfredo

alfredo

At least a lot of the life, is underground - so it might be a good idea to look for caves at Mars too.. We know primitive forms of life can live in rock here on Earth - even if they never have seen day light for millenniums, they thrive and is alive down there in solid rock.. And if life was able to evolve at Mars, before the apocalyptic events who ended the sea and life as we know it - it might be able to discover some life, in caves out of sight, and with moist or even water... They have found deep caves here on earth, with life, who have possible never seen the light from the sun... So it is absolutely possible, that in remote corners, deep underground, it exist forms of life who is able to survive even om Mars.. Maybe even laying dormant a meter underground - as bacterias here on Earth have shown many times over the last couple of decades, where even bacterias who have been out in space, show that they can survive to wake up, and exist, as they never was in a dormant stage at all..

I guess life is far harder to kill of, when it just get going..

Diclotican

[alfredo]

20. Look at the water bear here on earth. That a tough little bugger.

[Diclotican]

21. alfredo

alfredo

Absolutely, a small creature, but who manage to survive almost everything the life trow at it.. Impressive to say at least... I guess it have had time to evolve into a surviver even if the world turn upside down for a while

Diclotican

[alfredo]

22. Humans survived by mobility. Play out a valley,

move to the next valley. We are running out of valleys. A massive shakeout of our population might be a key to our survival.

[Diclotican]

23. alfredo

alfredo

True, we have been able for the most part, to move to the next valley, or the next plain, to get new land to farm, and new places to live.. Today I guess we for the moment is out of valleys and plains to discover - And we have to do something with our population, or at least to be able to stop it from exploding, with the catastrophic consequences it would have on our planet. Or at least until the population have stagnated to a more normal level.. We either do that - or we must put humans on other planets - like Mars to build new colonies - and discover new valleys and plains to live on...

But it will take a long time, and cost a lot of resources to be able to put even a tiny colony at mars - and it would not be easy a task to even make a colony safe enough and stable enough to survive on its own.. A whole different economy will have to be build from scratch - maybe a better one, as we are able to build on our experience from Earth, and take the best from each ideology, and make it into one, at the brand new planet..

And, compared to our own technology and means to produce energy, on Mars we have to use the best alternative forms to produce the necessary energy to build, and to sustain a economy, and a colony independent of Earth (or at least the first couple of hound res of years semi-independent of Earth, as I doubt it will be easy to discover new forms of travel between Earth and Mars anytime soon... )

Diclotican

[alfredo]

24. Submarine colonies might be a quicker workaround. If we can't stop what is happening,

we need time to adapt.

[Diclotican]

25. alfredo

alfredo

It properly is a quicker workaround - to we have other tools in the shed, to make spaceflight a possibility - but even then, it is a few challenges to be worked out before we can build colonies at the sea bed - quite a few challenges.. But it could at least be made possible, as we know the basic about building underwater constructions - and I suspect if we was willing to it, a lot of new knowledge, and resources will be available the next 10 or 20 year - to build if not big city's under the sea, so at least colonies who can to a degree exist as single unities, and the inhabitants live and survive on their own.. Or at least to a degree on their own.. In 50 or 60 year, it could exist city's under sea, who is maybe a couple of hundreds of thousands people large - and they maybe have a economy on their own, down there.. Or at least, it could be used to discover new forms of energy.. The possibilities in a colony underwater is endless - it is just the fantasy who in the end, give us the possibilities - as it is if we ever decide to go into space in a grown up way - and use the resources necessary to build up a future out there.. If we had been used the military spending to push into space programs alone, I guess I could have traveled to Moon on Holiday by now.. At least it was what they promised could be the possibility by 1990 in 1969...

But then again in 1969, the possibility of having a PC in your living room, and connected to something called internet was also far fetched - and we are on internet..

[alfredo]

26. The space program has taught a lot about surviving in hostile environments. Things would have to

be really bad to have to resort to such things. Still, planning for the worst pushes the technology.

[Thor_MN]

16. Aw shit. Now we have another thing we have to prove to conservatives...