[X] My Assistant

[Guest_zoost_*]

I don't know if this is the right forum, but I would like to know what the new general insights obtained by the MER team is? Did this project lead to any insight in the history of Mars that was not known before. For me as an ousider it is hard to see the relation between all the nice pictures send to earth and the science obtained from it. Could somebody point me in the direction of a general overview of the insight obtained from the received data.

Thanks in advance!

[SteveM]

I don't know if this is the right forum, but I would like to know what the new general insights obtained by the MER team is? Did this project lead to any insight in the history of Mars that was not known before. For me as an ousider it is hard to see the relation between all the nice pictures send to earth and the science obtained from it. Could somebody point me in the direction of a general overview of the insight obtained from the received data.

Thanks in advance!

I can't trace the source exactly but in one of his recent talks, Steve Squyres commented that the environment on Mars has been seen (so far) to be so acidic that it is unlikely that life could have developed there. (Since acid and life are not mentioned in the transcriptions of Squyres's talk with Doug, I imagine it's somewhere in his Open University talk).

Since the NASA agenda has been focusing on water as a source of possible life, this discovery drastically changes our understanding of Mars, and may influence decisions regarding future missions.

Steve

[jamescanvin]

(Since acid and life are not mentioned in the transcriptions of Squyres's talk with Doug, I imagine it's somewhere in his Open University talk).

Yes, I think it was in the Q'n'A at the end (one of the first questions I think) - someone asked about the prospects for life.