Could We Make A "Solar Still" On Mars?

[exoscientist]

Mars Odyssey hydrogen-content measurements have shown seasonal deposition of water/ice on Mars even at equatorial locations. This has been confirmed by the Opportunity rover in Meridiani by the observation of early morning frost on the rover:<br /><br />More on "Frost on the rover solar panels". <br />http://bautforum.com/showpost.php?p=323577&postcount=6<br /><br />This deposition of frost at Meridiani corresponded to the observation of clouds over the site during the local Winter:<br /><br />Mars Rovers Spot Water-Clue Mineral, Frost, Clouds. <br />13-Dec-2004 <br />http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20041213a.html<br /><br />Since clouds have also been seen over the site during the current Summer season, I argue this should also correspond to water/ice deposition currently at the Meridiani landing site:<br /><br />Space Sciences <br />Summer clouds over Meridiani? <br />Posted by Robert Clark on 12/31/2005 6:56:40 PM <br />http://habitablezone.com/space/messages/409185.html<br /><br />The "Mars Rovers Spot Water-Clue Mineral, Frost, Clouds" press release showed the frost forming in early morning in the Winter season. The image of the frost was taken 11 minutes after sunrise, and a subsequent image showed the frost had burned off 3 hours later due to rising temperatures. <br />Perhaps the clouds in the images in the current season appear at night because of the coldness at night during this current Summer period. Then we might expect the greatest water/ice deposition to also occur at night. <br />Could the mini-TES detect H2O on the rover at night? Could we for example compare the spectra at night to the morning spectra? <br />Another experiment I suggest to try would be to press down with the RAT <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[exoscientist]

True. The only thing new here is that this can be done at the equator. It was previously believed the equator was dessicated. This was a key argument for the belief liquid water would not be found on Mars. <br /> It was known that ice existed at the higher latitudes, but these latitudes were where it was too cold for liquid water. Now that it is confirmed that H2O does exist at near equatorial locations, it is possible that the higher temperatures would allow the melting point for this water to be reached.<br /> But beyond that I'm suggesting these rover missions themselves may be able to confirm the presence of liquid water by providing a covered area for the water to condense.<br /> Note we might already be seeing an example of this. See the MI images here:<br /><br />Erebus Outcrops.<br />http://www.markcarey.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-view.cgi/18/entry/27390/discussion_page?start=376&show=20<br /><br /> The flattened areas have a mushy appearance to them. Another check for this might be to perform a RAT observation early in the morning where there might be residual moisture left and compare this to a RAT observation of a spot nearby later in the afternoon when moisture would be expected to burn off.<br /> Would there be a difference in the appearance in the two RATted areas?<br /><br /><br /> Bob Clark<br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[exoscientist]

There have been some video posted to the Unmannedspaceflight.com site of these night-time clouds: <br /><br /><br />http://media.putfile.com/earthrise-oppy-sol-687 <br /><br /><br />http://www.lyle.org/~markoff/op_movie/opp_687L1.gif <br /><br /><br />Do the fast bright streaks in the second video look like meteorite trails? <br /><br /><br />I suggested the current deposition of the water/ice at Meridiani may become liquid at some point because of the warm maximum temperatures during the current Summer season. This is supported by the detection of <br />carbonate in dust by the rovers, and also from orbit: <br /><br /><br />January 09, 2004 <br />Spirit Lowers Front Wheels, Looks Around in Infrared. <br />"We came looking for carbonates. We have them. We're going to chase them," said Dr. Phil Christensen of Arizona State University, Tempe, leader of the Mini-TES team. Previous infrared readings from Mars orbit have revealed a low concentration of carbonates distributed globally. <br />Christensen has interpreted that as the result of dust interaction with atmospheric water. First indications are that the carbonate concentration near Spirit may be higher than the Mars global average." <br />http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20040109a.html <br /><br /><br />On Earth in nature carbonate is produced by iteraction with *liquid* water. There have been some laboratory experiments that attempt to show it can form with water vapor alone but this hasn't been seen in nature. <br />I suspect in fact in these experiments some small amounts of liquid water are involved undetected by the experimenters. <br />It is quite key then that the HEND instrument on Mars Odyssey shows water/ice deposition occurs on Mars even at near equatorial lo <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[exoscientist]

The following reports to be presented to the 2006 Lunar and Planetary <br />Science Conference discuss seasonal variations in the bound water <br />content even at near equatorial latitudes: <br /><br />SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIATIONS OF BOUND WATER CONTENT IN THE MARTIAN <br />SOIL WITHIN THE GUSEV CRATER: PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF THE TES AND <br />MINI-TES DATA ANALYSIS. <br />R. O. Kuzmin1, P. R. Christensen2, S. W. Ruff2, T. G. Graff2, A. T. <br />Knudson2, M. Yu. Zolotov2, Athena Science Team, 1Vernadsky Institute of <br />Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, 19 <br />Kosygin str., Moscow 119991, Russia, e-mail: *...@geokhi.ru, <br />2Department of Geological Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ <br />85287, USA. <br />http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2006/pdf/1673.pdf <br /><br />MAPPING OF SEASONAL BOUND WATER CONTENT VARIATIONS ON THE MARTIAN <br />SURFACE BASED ON THE TES DATA. <br />R. O. Kuzmin1, P. R. Christensen2, M. Yu. Zolotov2 and S. Anwar2. <br />1Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Russian <br />Academy of Sciences, 19 Kosygin str., Moscow <br />119991, Russia, e-mail: *...@geokhi.ru, 2Department of Geological <br />Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ <br />85287. <br />http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2006/pdf/1846.pdf <br /><br />This confirms observations of the HEND instrument on Mars Odyssey of <br />seasonal variations in the deposited water/ice content of the soil. <br />Note that this strongly implies the varying bound water is due to this <br />seasonal water deposition. <br />One type of mineral found containing the bound water is carbonate. Then <br />this carbonate should arise from this seasonal deposition. Most <br />importantly this implies this carbonate is currently forming. <br />One small discrepancy in the bound wat <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>