But don't expect any liquid on that barren, frigid rock.
So what was the big deal with this week’s story? It was a first, just not the first “confirmation” of water. It was the first time that a probe (in the words of one of the principal investigators) had “touched it and tasted it.” At least, as much as an inorganic device can “taste” anything at the current state of technology. For decades, we’ve been sending electromechanical emissaries out to our sister worlds in the solar system, extending our eyes and ears, and in some cases, hands, but this is the first time we’ve sent a tongue.
Comments were good, too.
cedarford:
"NASA has foolishly pushed the “water=possibility of life” narrative for years now. ...The real issue is not the “question of water” - 1st seen on Martian polar icecaps 450 years ago through telescopes. As a basis of saying Mars once was liveable, or “sustain life”, if man ever colonized the place. It is “the question of nitrogen”.
Of nitrogen ever existing in sufficient quantity in ancient Martian eras to form the nitrogen-based amino acid precursors of life. ...Rovers have found no sign of nitrogen in rock and soil samples. Nor have satellite assays.
Waller:
As Mr. Simburg points out, the presence of water on Mars (or any other planet) means very little in of itself. The SETI types have been preaching the water=life gospel, without contradiction, for so long now that they can overhype this discovery as “practically finding life”. That’s like finding a kernel of wheat and claiming you almost have a loaf of bread.
The people so convinced that life exists elsewhere have literally no science to back them up. It really is a matter of faith. Generally they say it’s inconceivable for all those stars to have no life. That’s an opinion that has no empirical support at all. So far the empirical evidence for extraterrestrial life is exactly zero.
Been There Done That:
I agree, there has not been any doubt for a century that some water-ice exists on Mars. In my opinion Phoenix was resurrected for only one reason - to give the PI teams something to show for all the work they had expended in designing and building the earlier Mars probes. ...Now the Phoenix PI team can go down in history as having “discovered water” on Mars, & NASA can give out a blizzard of awards and bonuses - mostly to their own bureaucrats.
