Cognitive Labs

A Thor Intercontinental Ballistic Missile

Perchlorate, the substance present in the recent soil sample analyzed on the surface of Mars, is not obstructive of life. However, it is a common ingredient in explosive arms and is in the same category as RDX and white phosphorous as an environmental hazard.

In fact, NASA's Tuesday press conference to clarify the perchlorate information released on Monday discloses that perchlorate can occur naturally and does on earth-for example, in Chile's atacama desert.

Researching a little further, as recently as 2006, a scientist showed in the lab how perchlorate can be precipitated in playas with chloride rich soils, such as found in California's Death Valley or Nevada's Black Rock Desert, through exposure of the soils to ultraviolet radiation. These salty, chloride-rich soils are usually the remnant of old lakes and oceans. In the case of Death Valley, this was the giant Lake Manly, Nevada was covered by the large Lake Lahontan, and Lake Bonneville covered Utah, which was more of an inland sea than a lake. This would suggest that liquid water on Mars was widespread at one time (which has been theorized for some time).

Perchlorate's main impact on human life is interference in the function of the thyroid gland in the case of overexposure, which is unlikely on Mars.

It is also true that perchlorate is a main ingredient in solid rocket fuels (although not of hydrazine, the type of fuel used by the Martian lander).

Perhaps more significantly, perchlorate is a key ingredient in diverse celebratory combustibles such as roman candles, firecrackers, launched fireworks, and flares, and also has extensive military uses: bullets, artillery shells, missiles, rockets, bombs, and blasting caps.

In fact, perchlorate is classified as a hazardous material in several government publications (here are two references: 1 | 2 ) and component of military munitions, defined as

"confined gaseous, liquid, and solid propellants, explosives,pyrotechnics, chemical and riot control agents, smokes, and incendiaries used by DOD components, including bulk explosives and chemical warfare agents,chemical munitions, rockets, guided and ballistic missiles, bombs, warheads, mortar rounds, artillery ammunition, small arms ammunition, grenades, mines, torpedoes, depth charges, cluster munitions and dispensers, demolition charges, and devices and components thereof"

If it is not naturally occurring, which is the likelier scenario, what else could explain it? if it turns out to be distributed across the surface, this would indicate either vast oceans sometime in the past or perhaps some kind of planetwide cataclysmic event involving the discharge of weaponry.

Either way, the finding is curious.

Labels: nasa, perchlorate, phosphorous, rdx, thor