NASA Images Suggest Water Still Flows on Mars Options

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Dec. 4, 2006

Dwayne Brown/Erica Hupp
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726/1237

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278

MEDIA ADVISORY: M06-186

NASA SCHEDULES BRIEFING TO ANNOUNCE SIGNIFICANT FIND ON MARS

WASHINGTON - NASA hosts a news briefing at 1 p.m. EST, Wednesday, Dec.
6, to present new science results from the Mars Global Surveyor. The
briefing will take place in the NASA Headquarters auditorium located
at 300 E Street, S.W. in Washington and carried live on NASA
Television and www.nasa.gov.

The agency last week announced the spacecraft's mission may be at its
end. Mars Global Surveyor has served the longest and been the most
productive of any spacecraft ever sent to the red planet. Data
gathered from the mission will continue to be analyzed by scientists.


Panelists include:
- Michael Meyer -- Lead Scientist, Mars Exploration Program, NASA
Headquarters, Washington
- Michael Malin -- President and Chief Scientist, Malin Space Science
Systems, San Diego, Calif.
- Kenneth Edgett -- Scientist, Malin Space Science Systems
- Philip Christensen -- Professor, Arizona State University, Tempe,
Ariz.

[dvandorn]

Do we have accurate modelling of the heat flow of hte martian crust to asses this?

No. One of the datasets that is most wanting about Mars is its crustal heat flow, both average and regional. Thermal emissions instruments (TES, infrared imagers, etc.) give a rough idea, but what I wouldn't give for a set of 20 or 30 heat flow probes scattered across Mars. I'd *almost* like that more than I'd like a seismic network.

-the other Doug

[marsbug]

Well I couldn't find much on either the behavoir of hydrogen peroxide at ten mbar or less, or a copy of the paper on hydrogen peroxide snow theorized to form during dust storms that I could access. I suspect that these are moot points, as the martian soil is 20% iron sulfate, which a friend in the chemistry department assures me would cause H2O2 to decompose far to quickly for it to build up in significant amounts! So to answer my own question, no its not likely the gullies on mars flow with concentrated bleach!