Mars Soil Has Nutrients Capable of Supporting Life

[sanman]

The soil on Mars has been found to have nutrients which would be conducive to supporting life:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25396378/

All the more reason for us to go and start farming over there.

 

[sanman]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/science/space/27MARS.html

 

[sanman]

Sounds like promising news

http://uk.reuters.com/article/scienceNewsMolt/idUKN2634952620080626

 

[waht]

Martian soil can support life

More exciting discoveries:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080626/sc_nm/space_mars_dc

"We basically have found what appears to be the requirements, the nutrients, to support life whether past present or future," Sam Kounaves, the lead investigator for the wet chemistry laboratory on Phoenix, told journalists.

"It is the type of soil you would probably have in your back yard, you know, alkaline. You might be able to grow asparagus in it really well. ... It is very exciting for us."

 

[WarPhalange]

Damn, if only it weren't so cold we might be attempting to grow stuff there right now.

 

[binzing]

Ha, so now we'll colonize Mars, create an atmosphere and everything, simply to grow asparagus.

 

[wolram]

I have booked an allotment for my great, great great, great, great, great, great grand kids,
cause i am an optimist.

 

[BryanP]

I have booked an allotment for my great, great great, great, great, great, great grand kids,
cause i am an optimist.

Maybe I should as well.

 

[Moonbear]

There were two similar threads on this, so I've merged them, in case anyone is puzzled.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Don't invest in aspargus futures just yet. Here is an except from the MSNBC article.

However, the MECA instrument is not able to test for organic compounds such as carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, which are also necessary for life as we know it.

I don't necessarily agree, but some people consider asparagus to be life as we know it (are these guys trekkies or something?). I will assume that the author means compounds containing carbon, oxygen and nitrogen.

Here's more

Though the dirt itself seems to be hospitable, Kounaves pointed out that the very top layer at the surface is exposed to high levels of harsh ultraviolet light that is damaging to organic compounds, so that layer of soil may not be able to support life.

"There could be microbes living meters and meters underground," he said. "They would be very happy."

I imagine they would be ecstatic if someone would scoop up some dirt from meters and meters underground and analyze it. But I'm not arguing against there being life there, especially now since we probably infected the entire planet with the stuff.

By the way, here is the good news:

After performing the first wet chemistry experiment ever done on another planet, Phoenix discovered that a sample of Martian dirt contained several soluble minerals, including potassium, magnesium and chloride. Though the data is preliminary, the results are very exciting, scientists said.

I assume they mean chlorine. I'm no fool, you're not going to get me to eat my vegetables based just on preliminary data.

 

[humanino]

Maybe someone knows better than me, but as far as I remember, Mars does not have a magnetic field anymore, or at least only a very weak one. If that is true, it seems to me there is pretty much no protection for the solar wind. There are arguments that Venus' atmosphere achieves such a shielding. Whether the ionosphere is enough, or an atmosphere dense as Venus' one is required, has probably not reached a consensus in the community.

Terraforming of Mars
[thread=237932]Mars Terraforming (PF thread)[/thread]

 

[B. Elliott]

Maybe someone knows better than me, but as far as I remember, Mars does not have a magnetic field anymore, or at least only a very weak one. If that is true, it seems to me there is pretty much no protection for the solar wind. There are arguments that Venus' atmosphere achieves such a shielding. Whether the ionosphere is enough, or an atmosphere dense as Venus' one is required, has probably not reached a consensus in the community.

Terraforming of Mars
[thread=237932]Mars Terraforming (PF thread)[/thread]

Really the only thing left is the imprint of a past magnetic field embedded in the rocks, just as what happens on Earth. The active (at the time) magnetic field made crustal rock align their magnetic-responsive moments with the given field. No dynamo driven field exists whatsoever, only a 'once was' field which is now scattered out over the planets surface.

"Magnetic Stripe" Evidence of (past) Plate Tectonics On Mars

Connerney points out that plate tectonics provides a unifying framework to explain several Martian features. First, there is the magnetic pattern itself. Second, the Tharsis volcanoes lie along a straight line. These formations could have formed from the motion of a crustal plate over a fixed "hotspot" in the mantle below, just as the Hawaiian islands on Earth are thought to have formed. Third, the Valles Marineris, a large canyon six times as long as the Grand Canyon and eight times as deep, looks just like a rift formed on Earth by a plate being pulled apart. Even more, it is oriented just as one would expect from plate motions implied by the magnetic map.

http://geology.com/nasa/mars-plate-tectonics.shtml

Picture of a portion Mars's current magnetic field as detected by Global Surveyor
http://geology.com/nasa/images/mars-global-surveyor-full.jpg

Detailed Map
http://geology.com/nasa/images/mars-magnetisim-map.jpg

What Makes Mars Magnetic?

If you could pick up a rock from the surface of Mars, then the chances are it would be magnetic. And yet, Mars doesn’t have a magnetic field coming from its core. These rocks are clinging to the signal of an ancient magnetic field, dating back billions of years, to the times when Mars had a magnetic field like Earth’s

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070810194928.htm

 

[sanman]

Maybe we could take all this iron from the Martian surface, turn it into magnetized aerosol nanoparticles, and spew it high into the upper reaches of the atmosphere, where their magnetism might help to deflect incoming solar wind. Furthermore, while we're at it, maybe we could also extract some carbon and turn it into Carbon Black aerosol nanoparticles, and spew those into the upper atmosphere, where they could absorb solar radiation (I read that carbon black is capable of absorbing 99.6% of incident solar radiation)

How would we spew all that aerosol so high up?

http://www.livescience.com/environment/080625-pf-vortex-engine.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,372487,00.html
http://vortexengine.ca/index.shtml

If we are creative enough, it could be done.

 

[Chronos]

I'm partial to asparagus so take that into account. It is unfortunate the probe cannot perform more detailed tests [funding issues]. Nonetheless, the mission is a spectacular sucess. Well done, NASA!

 

[LowlyPion]

That article is highly misleading

While there may be some necessary basic nutrients, they apparently haven't tested for there being sufficient nutrients to support asparagus.

Even assuming there was a benign atmosphere, asparagus plantations are a ways in the future.

"... Kounaves pointed out that the very top layer at the surface is exposed to high levels of harsh ultraviolet light that is damaging to organic compounds, so that layer of soil may not be able to support life."

 

[sanman]

Martian Soil Could Sustain a Manned Outpost:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9104319&intsrc=hm_list

 

[B. Elliott]

I'm still down with the Genesis Probe idea.

 

[sanman]

I was also musing that Aerosol nanoparticles offer us the chance to engineer a variety of designer properties into them which would not be possible with your run-of-the-mill gases.

I was thinking that we could perhaps engineer designer nanoparticles whose properties were sensitive to temperature and pressure thresholds, such that they could then act as shuttles between the upper and lower Martian atmosphere.

For instance, since N2 is lighter and tends to float higher in the Martian atmosphere, perhaps we could have aerosol particles specialized for nitrogen capture/adsorption/fixation at higher altitudes, and after getting heavier from that they'd descend back towards the ground, where they'd release the nitrogen for more productive use by living things on the ground.

For those things that life might be too fragile to achieve on its own in the hostile Martian environment, nano-particles such as aerosols might be able to give enough of a helping hand with, so as to help life survive.

 

[B. Elliott]

I was also musing that Aerosol nanoparticles offer us the chance to engineer a variety of designer properties into them which would not be possible with your run-of-the-mill gases.

I was thinking that we could perhaps engineer designer nanoparticles whose properties were sensitive to temperature and pressure thresholds, such that they could then act as shuttles between the upper and lower Martian atmosphere.

For instance, since N2 is lighter and tends to float higher in the Martian atmosphere, perhaps we could have aerosol particles specialized for nitrogen capture/adsorption/fixation at higher altitudes, and after getting heavier from that they'd descend back towards the ground, where they'd release the nitrogen for more productive use by living things on the ground.

For those things that life might be too fragile to achieve on its own in the hostile Martian environment, nano-particles such as aerosols might be able to give enough of a helping hand with, so as to help life survive.

Carl Sagan thought of this almost 20 years ago.

 

[OSalcido]

why all the farfetched talk about terraforming?

Is there some problem with building a floorless greenhouse to live in?