Mysteries of Mars

China has developed an "ecological life support system" to grow food during off world space missions.The 300 cubic metre cabin has been tested in Beijing and will allow astronauts to grow their own stocks of food, water and oxygen. The technology is expected to be deployed for use in future bases on the moon and Mars. "Chinese astronauts may get fresh vegetables and oxygen supplies by gardening inextra-terrestrial bases in the future," read a report from the Xinhua news agency.China has been ramping up its efforts to launch manned missions in to space over the last few years with plans to become the first nation to land humans on the moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972.

There are even plans to start a branch of the country"s ruling Communist party in space. Chinese astronauts are preparing to grow fresh vegetables on Mars and themoon after researchers successfully completed a preliminary test in Beijing, state media reported.  

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A growing dust storm on the Red Planet could pose a risk to NASA"s two active Mars rovers.Unlike storms on Earth, dust storms on Mars can grow so large that they encompass the whole planet. Scientists are keen to examine the data returned from the rovers and orbiter as there are many things about Martian dust storms that are not yet understood, including why some of them tend to die back down whileothers continue to grow.

It is believed that both of NASA"s rovers could be hit by the storm if it continues to increase in size and it isn"t clear what affect this will have."This is now a regional dust storm," said chief Mars scientist Rich Zurek. "It has covered a fairly extensive region with its dust haze and it is in a part of the planet were some regional storms have grown into global dust hazes." NASA says a massive martian dust storm mayhit its Curiosity rover, raising questions about how the one-ton rover will fare.  

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Curiosity"s chief scientist John Grotzinger has described the find as "one for the history books".So far very little has been revealed about whatever it is that Curiosity has found on Mars that has scientists so excited. The discovery was made using the rover"s on board SAM ( Sample Analysis at Mars ) instrument which is capable of identifying organic compounds in the Martian soil. According to Grotzinger, the team has discovered something interesting in one of the soil samples.Unfortunately we may have to wait a few weeks for the official announcement, the team want to check and double-check the results to make absolutely sure that they are real. As Curiosity"s primary goal on Mars isto determine if the planet has ever been capable of supporting microbial life, a "historic" announcement from the team is likely to prove very interesting indeed.

NASA"s Mars rover Curiosity has apparently made a discovery "for the history books," but we"ll have to wait a few weeks to find out what the new Red Planet find may be, media reports suggest.  

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Meteor impacts may have once heated up the water on Mars sufficiently for life to have developed.The hunt for water on Mars has always been considered to be the key to finding life. We know that Mars was once rich in rivers and bodies of liquid water but was that enough for life to have developed ? In a new paper, John Bridges has claimed that impacts on the Martian surface may have heated up the water enough for this to happen. The analysis ofcertain meteorites believed to have come from Mars has revealed minerals that form due to the action of water near the surface including iron carbonate which only forms at higher temperatures."Our results show that environments associated with this type of fluid were habitable," wrote Bridges and physical science research associate Susanne Schwenzer.

"The Martian subsurface fluid forming phyllosilicates provided habitable temperatures and many of the nutrients required for life." Water warmenough to support life once flowed on Mars, according to a paper published by a team of planetary scientists who probed Martian meteorites to make the discovery.  

View: Full article |  Source: Wired