Water on Mars?

[Andy]

Today NASA are to announce a "major finding" about Mars, with speculation suggesting that liquid water has been found on the surface.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/sep/28/nasa-to-reveal-major-mars-finding-prompting-water-speculation

Other sources are available with a quick Google search.

[Outrider]

Announcement is due at 11:30 EDT, which is GMT -4, or BST -5, so 16:30 UK time. Most exciting thing since... well, second half of yesterday's Scotland vs USA rugby

O.

[Rhiannon]

Cue more stories about seeding it with trees so we can go and bugger it up as well.

[jakswan]

If life is not found on Mars it will prove the Bible is true, if life is found on Mars we'll find a verse and with a little spin on the translation / meaning it will prove the Bible is true.

[jakswan]

Cue more stories about seeding it with trees so we can go and bugger it up as well.

Last time I went to Mars it was shit, the weather was awful and I couldn't breathe, we can't make the place worse!

[BeRational]

Cue more stories about seeding it with trees so we can go and bugger it up as well.

How do we bugger it up exactly.

[Outrider]

Cue more stories about seeding it with trees so we can go and bugger it up as well.

How do we bugger it up exactly.

Last time I saw Mars on the news Elon Musk was positing the idea of nuking it as a form of terraforming... that, it seems to me, is a pretty good start at 'buggering it up'...

O.

[BeRational]

Cue more stories about seeding it with trees so we can go and bugger it up as well.

How do we bugger it up exactly.

Last time I saw Mars on the news Elon Musk was positing the idea of nuking it as a form of terraforming... that, it seems to me, is a pretty good start at 'buggering it up'...

O.

I still do not see that it is buggered up any more than it is now.

It is totally useless to us at the moment, and anything we can do to make it worth something to us the better.

It is ours to bugger up anyway so who cares?

[Outrider]

Cue more stories about seeding it with trees so we can go and bugger it up as well.

How do we bugger it up exactly.

Last time I saw Mars on the news Elon Musk was positing the idea of nuking it as a form of terraforming... that, it seems to me, is a pretty good start at 'buggering it up'...

O.

I still do not see that it is buggered up any more than it is now.

It is totally useless to us at the moment, and anything we can do to make it worth something to us the better.

It is ours to bugger up anyway so who cares?

Why is it 'ours'? How do we take ownership of a planet? I'm not sure how they decided to allot ownership of the one we're currently on, let alone how we decide to allot ownership of another one. Do we all get a slice? Is it reserved for only the people who get there?

O.

[Hope]

If life is not found on Mars it will prove the Bible is true, if life is found on Mars we'll find a verse and with a little spin on the translation / meaning it will prove the Bible is true.

You'll probably be the only person claiming such things.

[Hope]

It is ours to bugger up anyway so who cares?

In what way is it 'ours to bugger up', BR.

[BeRational]

It is ours to bugger up anyway so who cares?

In what way is it 'ours to bugger up', BR.

It's available, and if we can get there, we can do what we like with it.

It has no owner.

[jakswan]

If life is not found on Mars it will prove the Bible is true, if life is found on Mars we'll find a verse and with a little spin on the translation / meaning it will prove the Bible is true.

You'll probably be the only person claiming such things.

Whoosh!

[Outrider]

It is ours to bugger up anyway so who cares?

In what way is it 'ours to bugger up', BR.

It's available, and if we can get there, we can do what we like with it.

It has no owner.

Neither does the moon. Neither do the Arctic or Antarctic, yet neither of those has human owners. Maybe we'll be that forward thinking with regards to Mars?

O.

[BeRational]

It is ours to bugger up anyway so who cares?

In what way is it 'ours to bugger up', BR.

It's available, and if we can get there, we can do what we like with it.

It has no owner.

Neither does the moon. Neither do the Arctic or Antarctic, yet neither of those has human owners. Maybe we'll be that forward thinking with regards to Mars?

O.

The Earth is different as harming any part could affect us.

There is nothing you can do to Mars that is going to hurt us, short of moving it from its orbit!

You nuke 10,000 nuclear weapons on it and not affect it. It is a big piece of rock going round the sun. It has deadly radiation all over it now from the sun. It is very inhospitable, but perhaps we could do something to change that, and in my opinion we can if we want to.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Berational,

We own Mars

Dear God,

All we get is measly Earth, I demand a rewrite, aye!! that bit in Genesis where we have Dominion.


Gonnagle.

[BeRational]

Dear Berational,

We own Mars

Dear God,

All we get is measly Earth, I demand a rewrite, aye!! that bit in Genesis where we have Dominion.


Gonnagle.

We own whatever we can get hold of.

Why would you think differently.

Would you rather the resources just sit there and we do not use them?

[Outrider]

Dear Berational,

We own Mars

Dear God,

All we get is measly Earth, I demand a rewrite, aye!! that bit in Genesis where we have Dominion.


Gonnagle.

We own whatever we can get hold of.

Why would you think differently.

Would you rather the resources just sit there and we do not use them?

I'd rather we used the resources than presume that we own them, and therefore can charge other people for them, continuing the divisive struggle of ownership and purchasing in the face of communal good.

O.

[Nearly Sane]

I find it odd that someone would use the term 'ownership', an essentially legalistic term in an absolutist philosophic position. Particularly given the import of how they use it, 'we own whatever we can get a hold of' means that if I can get a hold of their car I own it.

[BeRational]

Dear Berational,

We own Mars

Dear God,

All we get is measly Earth, I demand a rewrite, aye!! that bit in Genesis where we have Dominion.


Gonnagle.

We own whatever we can get hold of.

Why would you think differently.

Would you rather the resources just sit there and we do not use them?

I'd rather we used the resources than presume that we own them, and therefore can charge other people for them, continuing the divisive struggle of ownership and purchasing in the face of communal good.

O.

I agree, I also would like to see the resources used for the common good.

I am responding to people that think we cannot use Mars.

For me it is a resource we can use if we can get to it. There is no moral question for me about using it as we see fit.
I would like to see it used for all, but I have no qualms about using it.

Why would we not use it?

[Gonnagle]

Dear Berational,

What if ( lots of what ifs ) there is life on other planets, do they have a say, or is it the one who plants the first flag.

Gonnagle.

[BeRational]

Dear Berational,

What if ( lots of what ifs ) there is life on other planets, do they have a say, or is it the one who plants the first flag.

Gonnagle.

Depends if there are intelligent.

If they are not then we just take it.

I would not see a planet not used because is had some lovely creatures on it.

Surely you as a believer should think that your god gave us dominion over all other creatures?

If we find planets like Earth I would think they would have life on them, and then we have a moral question about using it, and upsetting the natives.

[Outrider]

So, the announcement was the confirmed discovery of liquid water, complete with dissolved salts, on the Martian surface... bigger than you expected, less than you expected, about what you expected?

O.

[jeremyp]

Cue more stories about seeding it with trees so we can go and bugger it up as well.

The water would have to be extremely saline not to be ice or to boil off due to the low pressure.

Also, according to the scientist they had on R4, there is a UN treaty that bans contaminating other planets with Earth life.

[Hope]

Hopefully they are planning a probe already.

Bacteria on earth for example, would it have evolved there too?

If the latter isn't the case, could earth bacteria have deletorious consequences on Martian bacteria?