Why is it such a big deal that NASA discovered the likelihood of water on Mars. Is there politics involved here?

It’s liquid and flowing…on the surface. That’s novel but we kind of knew it. They just needed to prove it. Titan is liquid methane and Europa presumably has water below miles of ice. It’s a little different. I can’t think of any political agenda except possibly to round up some funding.

They are trying to keep funding and relevance by making Mars exploring by humans appealing.

Because as everyone with even a modicum of scientific education knows, water is the prerequisite of earth-style life. Mars having liquid water increases the chances that it has, or once had, life.

Water is the key to everything. Oxygen and hydrogen, as well as the only essential liquid necessary to sustain any attempt at long term habitation for those deluded into volunteering for the planet’s exploration. The scarcity of water or access to it will pretty much determine whether or not that exploration will be carried out by human beings.

Cuz fuck, people like to know shit.

1) Liquid water is a good precursor for discovering life.
2) With solar cells and sunlight water can be electrolyzed into oxygen and hydrogen. Oxygen is essential for human exploration. Hydrogen can be used as fuel in rovers and other equipment.

Another point to add, it will be far easier for us to colonize another similar sized planet than a moon. If only for the gravitational differences. The weather is also significantly more habitable on Mars. (habitable being a very relative term)

Making certain that Mars has water means you don’t have to take so much with you when you go. It takes a lot of fuel to move X amount of water that far.

Yep, real, flowing water means the potential for past or present life forms. Even a single celled organism would be huge news. It all started on earth, with an archaea way back when right?

The only political angle is that Trump will use it as a water source to end California’s drought.

@zenvelo Hah! Nah, he’d keep the water and build a new Trump Towers.
That’s some hot real estate. lol

Here’s NASA’s original press release.

tl;dr

1. The timing of the announcement coincides with publication of the findings in a scientific journal.

2. The strong evidence of liquid water bolsters the value of future Mars explorations.

3. Identifying the natural phenomena that is giving this evidence creates a focal point for the search for extraterrestrial life.

Because the CA legislature was about to call ‘dibs’ on the water, NASA decided to end that speculation immediately!

Because if there is water on Mars then there simply has to be crabs on your Uranus.

Because it’s the most similar planet to earth as far as we know, and if there is/was water, it’s a huge step closer to the possibility that we can move there or there’s some kind of life there. Either way, it’s big.

Reputable scientists are talking about the possibility of establishing human colonies on Mars when we run out of Earth. This enhances that possibility.

It’s great that scientific research continues even though so many try to hobble it. (Or maybe hubble it?)

Having water on Mars of course makes it very likely there is life of some form there as well. More importantly it will make colonizing Mars infinitely easier to do.

I propose sending all the super whacked earthlings doing life in our prison system to Mars.
‘Life” on Mars. haha

@Coloma It would be cheaper to give them each a billion dollars and turn them loose to stimulate the economy.