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[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

Magma and Water on Mars

--- Martian meteorites tell us part of the fascinating story about when volcanoes erupted and water flowed.

Written by G. Jeffrey Taylor
Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology
posted December 27, 2005

[Guest_Myran_*]

CosmicRocker said: . It seems it would be dificult to build a robotic device that could be used effectively for a variety of circumstances, without making something that would be too complicated for a space mission.

I think you are right there, such a device would risk being extremely complicated, and so being at risk of a break down, and extremely expensive.

There are one advantage to having one laboratory in place, and thats it would be able to look at a larger number of samples.
But im inclined towards a sample return, more tests can be made in a laboratory here than any we cna envision to send to Mars.
Of course the sample return mission would need to be supported by a rover that got an arm and the tools to both identify and bring interesting samples back.

And in the end a sample return would also give good press to the space agency, read ESA & NASA, that accomplish the task.

Richard Trigau: Yes, a dating service....

A dating service for what? Lost, abandoned and lonely spacecraft?
(Sorry-sorry-sorry, couldnt resist.)