A team of researchers at NASA discovered what appears to be “the strongest evidence yet” that liquid water flows on present-day Mars.

According to a paper published in earth sciences journal “Nature Geoscience” on Sept. 28, spectrometer images from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) showed the presence of hydrated minerals during warm season on streaks called recurring slope lineae, believing to be closely associated with contemporary water activity on the Red Planet.

The Daily Orange spoke to Gianfranco Vidali and Carl Rosenzweig, professors of physics at the College of Arts and Sciences, and William Lambright, professor of public administration and international affairs and political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs about the discovery and the future of Mars research.

The Daily Orange: What was your reaction when you learned about the NASA study?

Gianfranco Vidali: I was surprised and not surprised. The claim of the presence or past presence of water on Mars has been there for many, many years … In this specific case they found that these salts were hydrated, meaning they have water, and they were concurrent and morphologically located along these streaks and these streaks actually appear with seasons. So that means that (in) warm weather you have appearance of these streaks and disappearance during cold weather.

Carl Rosenzweig: This is different because this says it’s not that we know water was on Mars (one) billion years ago. Water was on Mars a few weeks ago.

The D.O.: Does this finding mean that some kind of life form exists on the planet and that humans could settle there?

G.V.: So, obviously the discovery of current presence of water is promising. However, some experts at NASA pointed out that there is some caution to be exercised in this case. The reason being that is Mars is a rather cold planet — although it has large thermometric excursion between winter and summer because of the atmosphere.

C.R.: That is now how it goes … Liquid water seems to be a necessary ingredient for the formation of life. It’s not sufficient — just because you have liquid water does not mean life is going to get started.

The D.O.: According to a press release from NASA, MRO has been examining Mars since 2006. Why does it take so long to come to this finding? How does the process work?

G.V.: The reason is this: MRO had been built 10 years ago, and also you have to appreciate when they send something out in space they don’t use the latest technology because you don’t want to take a risk, so you use something (from) several years back. So what they have there, I mean, is not something that can be used for this research, but apparently this group managed to combine information from different instruments to make this inference.

C.R.: The MRO was not designed (to look) for the salt as far as I know. It’s designed to check temperature … It also is not a very hard resolution instrument so when it does map out where various elements are it’s not very good resolution.

The D.O.: Where does this discovery lead to future of research on Mars?

G.V.: Mars goes up and down depending on whether budgetary reason or depending on whether you have exciting or disappointing discovery … So this will bring a new excitement and hopefully newer location of funds.

C.R.: I would expect that people who are designing Mars experiments will make sure that the next orbiters will have better precision in doing this and possibly more accurately mapping these and other chemicals that indicate there is water there.

William Lambright: In the United States, there is a mission plan for 2020 and that mission is pretty much set. It will be a mission to repeat, in some respect, the Curiosity Rover that is presently on Mars. But there will be — in addition to (those) tasks — the 2020 rover will (pick up) some samples of soil or rock that will be acquired by later missions to Mars. So the strategy of Mars research is pretty much set by the scientific community.

Published on October 5, 2015 at 10:34 pm

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