Life On Mars — One Small
Step For Mankind
YOWUSA.COM, 01-January-02
Steve Russell
…Continued
Water Worries
The second new development is the conclusion that the South Pole consists primarily of frozen carbon dioxide as opposed to water.
Malin Space Science Systems, December 6, 2001
Evidence for Recent Climate Change on Mars
We initially wanted to know if such rapid changes (these changes are larger than anything we've previously seen on Mars using the MOC) were consistent with water ice or
carbon dioxide ice. Using a very simplified version of the approach used by Leighton and Murray, we were able to easily eliminate water ice as a candidate — only CO2 is
sufficiently volatile to have changed so much in so short a time. The energy we calculated would be needed to sublime CO2 was very close to (but importantly less than) the energy available from sunlight.
They said it themselves; they used a "very simplified" scientific model to conclude that the South Pole is practically all carbon dioxide ice. If water was
such a close contender as they admit, perhaps their over simplification of the problem failed to take into account that the majority of Mars had already been
heated to temperatures close to those found on Earth.
The possibility of the poles having significant volumes of near surface water should not be ruled out based on a small set of data that was obtained from a
time when unstudied variables from a global super storm could have affected results.
However, when it comes to water on Mars, NASA has played with public interest before.
In a previous article titled "Is the Water on Mars Just A Cover Story?"
Wehighlighted the peculiar ways that NASA and their associates had handled discoveries of water on Mars in the past. What is happening now, is just the
same old NASA spin used to hype up the media and take attention away from the real discoveries until they get a chance to study them further.
These real discoveries are the important signs of life that we have speculated about in previous articles like "A Geo-Biological Mars" and "Thriving Life on Mars". By having everyone believe that the polar caps are all carbon dioxide
ice, makes it hard to justify such claims for life.
NASA's Odyssey spacecraft has been sent to Mars in search of water deposits for future Mars missions. Since NASA's public models of Mars do not predict an abundance of water at the surface of the poles, nobody was
expecting to see much at first.
Building up to the release of NASA's discovery of so called climate change of carbon dioxide at the poles, Space.com reported on the dim hopes of finding near-surface water at the poles.
Space.Com, November 27, 2001
Mysterious Mars: Water or No Water? Odyssey May Find Out
"Mars has been a very cold, dry planet for a long time," says Philip Christensen, an Arizona State University geologist who is in charge of the cameras on Odyssey.
"The chance of finding near-surface liquid water is, I think, very remote."
After the publication of these statements and the hyped carbon dioxide climate change proposed by NASA, the attention deficit media shoved the dim Mars water stories into the back seat, only to be quickly surprised.
Reuters, December 12, 2001
NASA's Mars Orbiter Gets Whiff of Possible Water
SAN FRANSISCO — NASA's Odyssey spacecraft, tightening its orbit around Mars for a mapping mission, has sniffed out big hydrogen deposits, possibly indicating extensive water ice, scientists said on Wednesday.
"It is big," Bill Feldman of Los Alamos National Laboratory said, referring to the magnitude of the instrument's first, preliminary reading.
This new unexpected discovery now appears to contradict their conclusions from only days before that carbon dioxide is the primary substance at the poles.
Space.Com, December 14, 2001
New Signs of Water on Mars Create Hope of Great Discovery
The detection of hydrogen points to the possibility that there is water ice within 3 feet (1 meter) of the surface, said James Garvin, lead scientist for the Mars
Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. "Is this a real science result?" Maybe," Garvin told Space.com. "But whatever it is, it bodes very well to
finding hydrogen in the upper few feet of Mars, and the most likely culprit is water ice." Such ice might melt in summer months and would be
reachable by robotic or human explorers. It might even support microbial life, as researchers have found on Earth that wherever there is water, there is life.
The Bottom Line
- The South Pole could have significant volumes of water frozen in time. If they were wrong about the North Pole, they could be wrong about the South Pole.
- Where there is water, there is life. No exceptions.
Atmospheric Vortex
The third new discovery is a massive polar vortex over the North Pole.
Space.Com, November 26, 2001
Mars Odyssey Encounters Polar Vortex
HAMPTON, VIRGINIA — NASA's Mars Odyssey has encountered a strange, unexpected phenomenon as it slips over the red planet's north polar region. An intense polar vortex has
been detected, causing Mars's atmosphere to be less dense than predicted for that area. "The polar vortex is kind of a different animal,"
contrasted to conditions at Mars' southern regions, said Gerald Keating, a Langley-based senior research staff scientist from George Washtington University in Washington, D.C. "It's an intense jet stream for the
north polar region," he said. Data gleaned by Odyssey shows a colder region over Mars' north pole, said Michelle Munk, flight mechanics engineer for the Langley Odyssey team.
The vortex causes a severe decrease in atmospheric density, which is not good for life trying to develop near the surface. The increase in radiation from
the Sun would likely kill any organisms without this protection.
The Bottom Line
- NASA finds a polar vortex over the North Pole instead of the predicted increase in atmospheric density.
- Vortex could kill life near the surface.
So if NASA really is wrong about the causes of eroding carbon dioxide, wrong about the amount of water at the poles, wrong about the atmospheric density, what if they are wrong about life on Mars?
NASA now seems to have a lot of reconfiguration to do on their models before they make any more hasty conclusions. In the meantime, there is life to be discovered by those who choose to accept it.
Protecting Martian Life
In Jack Farmer's testimony, he highlighted the difficulties for life to survive on Mars in terms of solar radiation.
SpaceRef.Com, July 12, 2001
Testimony of Jack D. Farmer: "Life in the Universe" — hearings before the House Subcommittee on Space and
Aeronautics Many microorganisms on Earth are known to survive in high radiation environments by living within rocks, or by producing pigments that act as sunscreens. But UV
radiation reaching the martian surface is several times that considered lethal to most terrestrial organisms.
However, a recent image posted on CNN's web site highlighted a very important condition that is unique to the South Pole of Mars and may negate the damaging effects on life that Jack Farmer mentioned.
 CNN, December 19, 2001
Bumpy Mars This three-dimensional depiction of Mars reveals magnetized areas of the crust, or
mini-magnetospheres that stretch hundreds of miles from the surface.
These bubbles are the remnants of Mars's original magnetic field and are no doubt weaker than their historical form. However, the particle density of the solar wind at Mars is less than we
experience on Earth by a factor 3.53745 due to the further distance from the Sun. This means that Mars can have a weaker magnetosphere than Earth, and still provide the same level of protection.
The Bottom Line
The magnetosphere over the South Pole could provide enough protection for life to grow on the surface.
Life At The South Pole
This extra protection over the South Pole could explain why all the images that we claim to depict life have only been found at the South Pole.
In an unexpected move by NASA, they released an image of the South Pole region that they decided to colorize, to show what they call dirt on the edges of the ice.
 Malin Space Science Systems, December 6, 2001
MOC View of the Martian South Polar Residual Cap In summer, as carbon dioxide is subliming away, the scarps
bounding the pits and mesas darken. The darkened slopes may indicate that small amounts of dust are present, mixed-in with the ice. To create the color picture seen here, we have taken much
lower resolution red and blue images acquired by the MOC's wide angle cameras, synthesized a green image by averaging red and blue, and created a palette of colors that represent the range of colors on Mars.
The question on everybody's lips is whether this is microbial life being revived as temperatures increase, or just dirt?
As a lot of people already know, NASA's color images of Mars from missions like Viking and Pathfinder, have been known to raise a lot of eyebrows. Many
images appear to have additional red coloring that hides the very blue earthly atmosphere of Mars and green patches on rocks at the surface.
Since there is no green filter on the camera, this synthesized coloring does not necessarily mean the ice looks anything like this image. The "dirt" could in fact look a lot greener.
The image NASA chose to colorize depicts a similar phenomenon that they have tried to dismiss as dirt before. In our previous articles mentioned above,
we have discussed the cellular appearance and biological behavior of these things that indicate what we believe to be life, not dirt.
If we are correct, and this is indeed life, then surely other more knowledgeable people out there must agree. It now seems that those who control and fund the
world's space organizations may possibly be thinking along the same lines. They have suddenly become extremely interested in Mars for no apparent
reason. There is now a worldwide space race to get to Mars in search of something spectacular. We are betting they know fully well about this life on
Mars, and everyone wants to be the first to prove it conclusively.
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