Will the Mars lander find water on Mars?

Yes.

Oui.

What—are you speaking in some other tongue

Ja. (tongue)

Gee, I tried t post a serious question relevant to current affairs and I get a—Oui – Ja

I have been away from the site for a while but don’t remember you being a tongues speaker—grin

It is very difficult to tell what the research sent back by the Mars Lander will produce, since it requires clairvoyance. The latest images show the strong probability of ice.

“Two hours later, Phoenix beamed back its first images – four dozen black-and-white pictures of the Martian landscape. The images reveal a landscape similar to what can be found in Earth’s permafrost regions – geometric patterns in the soil likely related to the freezing and thawing of ground ice.”

Headlines from all legit. media.

I agree with what is being said by media sources in regard to a kind of perma frost—but will it be H2O based? I doubt they will find liquid H2O (water). Of more interest will be finding of organics.

It will be interesting.

I think ice counts as water.

Can’t ice can be formed by various gasses without water

Yes, among other *gases that can freeze under special circumstances (ion irradiation, if you are curious) are methane, nitrogen, argon .

We’ll need some remedial chemistry and physics to understand these articles.

I believe we will find more traces confirming that there once was water on Mars, but not necessarily water itself.

gailcalled—you forgot hydrogen—which I think is what they already know has formed some of the ice at the pole

Traces of water—did you hear that they think they spotted a large canyon that could have been formed by a massive flood? And it caused them to re-examine box canyon on earth and concluded it too had been formed by a massive flood?

My almost ex-son-in-law, Dr. John Mustard is a well-thought-of expert in planetary geology at Brown U. He has a $17 mil. experiment on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter; the MRO just took a picture of the Phoenix Mars Lander today

I find it all fascinating, and yes, awesome.

(my daughter and Dr. Mustard were together for 20 years in Prov.)

You are blessed.

I saw that picture—first time in history a picture was taken of a desending lander. Teh MRO played a key part in the landing. I was tuned in because I work at ATK and we provided the solar arrays and other parts of the system.

@Be: Is your job interesting? Are you a physicist, engineer, mathematician?

I’ve answered this before but I am a, to use your words a “well regarded” system safety engineer. I have worked at ATK for 43 years – that goes back to when we were part of Honeywell (they made the lander radar). I guess having stuck with it for so long at one company I’d have to confess that my job is interesting and fulfilling.

I’ll bend this once and call you “awesome.” My memory is kicking in. Trying to selliyour house and travelling in an RV? Is that close? The flow of info is too rapid for my aging brain.

I hope that you bought Honeywell stock way back when.

Yup that’s us—no action on house—think I need to delay things a year.

I,m not awesome – it’s a God thing

NASA has landed on mars?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! What!!!! I need details?!!!!

@iCeskate At the risk of appearing rude, what planet have you been on? Check some of the great links above.