The Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity will make its first drilling on the Martian soil within this month. Curiosity will drill on what looks like a dry riverbed with lots of veins.
The site is called John Klien after congressman Klien. It is now called a candy store on Mars due to the diverse types of minerals found on the site. These minerals, like gypsum, can only form with the presence of water.
John Klien is full of fractures and rock veins that it looks like a dry riverbed on Earth. The Curiosity team is elated by the site’s richness that might prove that there is still a large amount of water below the Martian soil.
There’s More Water on Mars
There’s more juice on Mars. This is what Curiosity is trying to establish. Scientists already know that Mars once has Oceans on its surface but they are not sure how large these oceans were.
There are also large amount of water on the north and south pole of the red planet. These water turn to ice caps when Mars is on winter.
The mars rover Spirit also discovered later in 2010 that there is frozen water beneath the martian soil. The extent of this Martian Permafrost is also not yet established.
What does water on Mars mean to you?
We cannot mine the water that we find on Mars and bring it to Earth to quench the thirst of the people in the dry parts of Africa.
The purpose of trying to find out if there is water on Mars is not to get it. It is to learn.
We will learn the effects of the presence of the different chemicals on the Martian atmosphere to its water and soil. We will also learn how to prevent Earth from becoming Mars-like in the future.
If Curiosity finds enough evidence that water has been on Mars for a very long time and produced life forms even as single celled minute organisms, we will know that life is not exclusive to planet Earth.
