Cognitive Labs

According to the story published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and covered in Space.com, it appears that some of the landforms in dry valleys on Mars are the result of glaciation...advancing and retreating of glaciers, formed from the accumulation of snow into compacted ice over tens or hundreds of thousands of years.

There is no return to the perchlorate discussion yet. However, this implies that the climate was far more earth-like than it is now, since it supported H-2-0 precipitation, which mean atmospheric pressure was much higher than it is now, and temperatures must have been in the narrow band (relatively speaking) when snow falls.

The thicker atmosphere would have deflected ultraviolet radiation.

If it's too hot, there will only be water vapor and maybe liquid water, if it's too cold - it won't snow. On earth, snow does not fall below temperatures of -40 C. Heaviest accumulations of snow occur when there is significant atmospheric mixing of low and high temperatures and surface temperatures may be anywhere from around 0 C (32 F) to -30 C or so. Glaciers form from yearly accumulation of snow that doesn't melt completely. On earth the glacier accumulation range at present is sea level in the arctic to 6000 meters high at the equator.

This has varied in the past. So, possibly Mars would have been habitable by forms of organisms recognizable on the earth today. With all the ice and snow, water - and cloud cover - Mars would have been much brighter in the sky than it's present iron-rich desert appearance and would have looked more like earth, an azure marble, through a small telescope.

Labels: astrobio, dry, mars, perchlorate, valleys

The Wired science blog (via Google news) is reporting right now that a major announcement relating to Mars is imminent.

The content is speculated to range from the ability of soil on Mars to sustain life to the possible announcement of the evidence of present or past life on Mars. The Amerian Association for the Advancement of Science's Science will likely be the journal publishing the findings.

This certainly will be a major story when announced.

Labels: aaas, aviationweek, googlenews, life, mars, science, wired

The Mars rover is getting its aging brain boosted. Scientists successfully transmitted a software upgrade to the rover which should help it stay lucid over the next couple of years, if it retains enough receptivity to energy to make this possible.

The goal is to create greater independence in the rover.

Greater cognitive skills in the area of inspection are a deliverable - scientists had to painstakingly dissect thousands of images just to find the frames they need and decide for the rovers whether to use their arms. The high-tech upgrades should help save time — as much as a day because scientists on Earth don't have to study a rock before sending commands to the robot to use science instruments on it.

Labels: boost, mars, rover