What Did Curiousity Find On Mars?

Posted:
in AppleOutsider edited January 2014


Well I was reading the news online and ran across this :


 


 


Quote:


Curiosity's Mars discovery called 'one for history books'


But what it is we won't know for a few weeks yet, according to an NPR report


 




They said they are waiting a couple of weeks to confirm and recheck their results before announcing what it is. I think it's probable that they found an a strong indicator of life. I don't know what else would cause this kind of secrecy and retesting. So what do you guys think?


 


Here's the article :


 


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49904984/ns/technology_and_science-space/

«13

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 41
    muppetrymuppetry Posts: 3,331member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jimmac View Post


    Well I was reading the news online and ran across this :


     


     


    Quote:


    Curiosity's Mars discovery called 'one for history books'


    But what it is we won't know for a few weeks yet, according to an NPR report


     




    They said they are waiting a couple of weeks to confirm and recheck their results before announcing what it is. I think it's probable that they found an a strong indicator of life. I don't know what else would cause this kind of secrecy and retesting. So what do you guys think?


     


    Here's the article :


     


    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49904984/ns/technology_and_science-space/



     


    Elvis?

  • Reply 2 of 41


    Pizza?


     


    - - - - -


     


    In all seriousness, this sounds kind of exciting.


     


     


    Money is on: LIFE ON MARS.


     


    http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57553096-1/nasas-not-sharing-a-historic-find-on-mars..-yet/

  • Reply 3 of 41
    sammi josammi jo Posts: 4,634member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by muppetry View Post


     


    Elvis?



     


     ^^^^  It is a sad indictment of society that this kind of news - is so widely greeted with the above, puerile, infantile type of response. 


     


    image

  • Reply 4 of 41
    muppetrymuppetry Posts: 3,331member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sammi jo View Post




    Quote:

    Originally Posted by muppetry View Post


     


    Elvis?



     


     ^^^^  It is a sad indictment of society that this kind of news - is so widely greeted with the above, puerile, infantile type of response. 


     


    image



     


    You deduced the sad state of society from that one post? Outstanding. Or has my hypothesis been confirmed?

  • Reply 5 of 41

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sammi jo View Post


     


     ^^^^  It is a sad indictment of society that this kind of news - is so widely greeted with the above, puerile, infantile type of response. 


     


    image



     


     


     


    I hope you can have a Happy Thanksgiving! 


     


    - - - - -


     


    To prevent the derailment of this thread so early:


     


    It could be something as weird as a bubblegum wrapper that accidentally hitched a ride on one of NASA's craft.  However, I doubt scientists would be excited over that.


     


    Or it could be an organic compound.  Curiosity isn't designed to search for life, so unless the camera caught an image of, say, Elvis playing his guitar on an outcrop, the best result would be a compound that could indicate the possibility that life could exist on Mars.  But it can't tell whether the compound is biological or not, so the results could be tempered.

  • Reply 6 of 41
    omegaomega Posts: 427member


    Wonder who pissed in sammi jo's cornflakes?


     


    Until the news has been made public who cares about the tease.  The science geeks can get excited about the smallest things that disappointment may be looming.


     


    +2 for Elvis

  • Reply 7 of 41


    +1 Coral remains.

    -2 for Elvis.

  • Reply 8 of 41
    sr2012sr2012 Posts: 896member
    Elon Musk. Humans. Mars. 15 Years. 'Nuff said.

    For now, Space X is going to use good ol' regular rockets, they just have to make it reusable and speed things up a little.

    ...

    C'mon people, aliens are out there and other lifeforms have advanced technology to travel to other galaxies etc.

    The planets are deisgned so that idiot humans can't spread their vile hatred to other civilisations. It requires a social evolution of humanity to use technology that can only be enabled without destroying ourselves.

    Nowadays when I look at a photo of Ahmeninejad I say to myself, gawd, because of this bum we're going to have to find a new planet.
  • Reply 8 of 41
    sr2012sr2012 Posts: 896member
    (Duplicate...?)
  • Reply 10 of 41
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    I was going to say the remains of Schrodinger's Cat (which Curiosity killed) but it seems they already figured out what it was:

    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2412567,00.asp

    Just a miscommunication.

    It is a sad state of society that we can't take these things more seriously. It's not as if the space exploration community has left us underwhelmed in the past. Think of all organic life we've discovered with the billions of dollars spent and countless years gazing up at the stars. Think of all the air miles we have. Even if, after 20,000 years they finally tell us 'nope, it's just us out here', it'll be worth it because we will have closure.
  • Reply 11 of 41
    Latest news is nothing of real significance yet, other than water.

    http://mobile.al.com/advhunts/pm_29185/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=c1NzoGYb&rwthr=0
  • Reply 12 of 41
    jimmacjimmac Posts: 11,898member


    Well now unfortunately they seem to be back peddeling a bit and saying the info is interesting rather than earthshaking. The official announcement will be on Monday at the American Geophysical Union. I was hoping for something a little bit more out of the ordinary when they said " One for the history books ".

  • Reply 13 of 41
    omegaomega Posts: 427member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Omega View Post


    The science geeks can get excited about the smallest things that disappointment may be looming.



     


    Boffins in disappointment shocker?

  • Reply 14 of 41
    sr2012sr2012 Posts: 896member
    omega wrote: »
    Boffins in disappointment shocker?

    The thing is that humans are too unevolved to have meaningful contact with higher intelligences. We'll find bacteria and stuff in space, which is good, but first contact will have to wait until we can develop massive new technology without Iran blowing us all up.
  • Reply 15 of 41
    omegaomega Posts: 427member


    I think the problem is we are devolving.  We hit out peak years ago and the downward slide is here.  


     


    I am pretty sure it is not Elvis.  Hendrix I could believe as that man was an alien.


     


    /props to Hicks

  • Reply 16 of 41

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sr2012 View Post





    The thing is that humans are too unevolved to have meaningful contact with higher intelligences. We'll find bacteria and stuff in space, which is good, but first contact will have to wait until we can develop massive new technology without Iran blowing us all up.


    In Earth’s history, most times a technologically (mostly in the war department) advanced group encountered another one less well endowed, the results were catastrophic for the latter. I gather that any intelligent species we could encounter wouldn’t be morally better than us, therefore I hope that when first contact occurs, both sides will be of similar technological level and of roughly equal firepower.


     


    I feel fortunate to have been alive to witness Sputnik, Gagarin, the Moon landing, and the first shuttle launch, I’m aware there’s little likelihood I’ll witness contact with a civilisation from Outer Space. I hope some of you will be there when it happens.

  • Reply 17 of 41
    sr2012sr2012 Posts: 896member
    In Earth’s history, most times a technologically (mostly in the war department) advanced group encountered another one less well endowed, the results were catastrophic for the latter. I gather that any intelligent species we could encounter wouldn’t be morally better than us, therefore I hope that when first contact occurs, both sides will be of similar technological level and of roughly equal firepower.

    I feel fortunate to have been alive to witness Sputnik, Gagarin, the Moon landing, and the first shuttle launch, I’m aware there’s little likelihood I’ll witness contact with a civilisation from Outer Space. I hope some of you will be there when it happens.

    That are some interesting thoughts. But one insight I had was that the nature of the galaxy as we understand it is that to physically travel, say, within 1000 light years in the span of say, a decade, even if only through probes/robots, would require a level of technology that is beyond anything humankind has developed in the past, say, 100,000 years.

    But this might work out well for the galactic community. Because only civilisations that can have this technology and ~NOT~ totally annihilate themselves will be able to make meaningful contact with higher intelligences ~ intelligences in the sense of you know, in the ballpark of our mind, not talking pure energy beings etc.

    So you see in this way the galactic community is "protected" by species that would be highly destructive. I'm sure there's disagreements and perhaps wars, but it will be operating on a plane far beyond our current understanding... For example kids nowadays instead of knifing other tribes physically as a coming-of-age, they play Black Ops 2 and what not on the computer.

    ...But we might be able to understand this next plane of consciousness within the next 100 years. Not sure about the origins of our consciousness but humanity shows insanely good adaptability. Eg. indigenous tribes isolated for 50,000 years, they can integrate in some way with modern society (though not always for the better, for sure, but some do adapt okay).

    So given the right guidance (and hopefully not genocide) we might be able to integrate with the galactic community in some way by 2100, definitely 2200 I think.

    Yeah, I might be alive for first contact, but it will start slow, perhaps, like artifacts and stuff, early lifeforms etc, maybe when we can send probes within say 10 light years of Earth. We gotta hit up the nearest stars, Gilese Super-Earth and so on.

    The key to astronomy now is detecting and studying planets, because at the rate we are going, we're going to need a new one rather soon.

    In general it's a tricky one though, because 2015 will be the peak of oil-based-energy civilisation which we have right now. Things could be rough say until 2050+ when we get antimatter/etc. I see two paths ahead of us... Well, three:

    1.
    Nuclear destruction/ Socio-economic decay... Meaning some parts of the world are fine post-peak-oil, others are somewhat 2nd world on average. Africa, Middle East still a mess.

    2.
    Singularity... IT is advancing so rapidly that by 2060 it should be very easy to merge consciousness, etc. Already we have a global, universal library like in sci-fi, in fact, more than one ~ Google, Wikipedia, etc.

    3.
    New Energy... The only way we can take the next step is this. Travel to within 100 light years, journey of the mind without much physical movement, all the sexy sci-fi stuff but of course our sci-fi compared to reality in 2060 is like when people wrote 100 years ago that you'd have to be on a train shot out a huge cannon to get to the moon. That's what Star Trek will look like to those of the 22nd Century.

    1 is possible, 3 is also possible... Depends on global consciousness and how many of us are more in tune with the Age of Aquarius ~ not about left- or right-wing but pre-2012 and post-2012 in thinking.

    2 is very likely, and will probably be the major game changer. That in the palm of your hand in 2012 you have something that only 10 years ago they could dream about stuffing into a large desktop... By 2060...

    Personally I'm hoping for 2. and 3. but some people will be left behind, maybe it is their karma.

    Interesting. I'm 34 now and have recently improved my health from some concerning state so I could make it to 54 if there are no accidents etc.

    I would like my Dad to be alive and cogniscent enough to see a human Mars landing with him. We'll see. SpaceX has successfully gone to the ISS a few times now so if they can do humans to ISS in 5 years than Mars maybe 10 years ~ 20 years max in any case. Nonetheless my Dad has lived a good life and he's enjoying his retirement now... And in his lifetime alone the things that have happened... unbelievable.

    Maglev trains... Finally a reality, for example.
  • Reply 18 of 41
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    sr2012 wrote:
    one insight I had was that the nature of the galaxy as we understand it is that to physically travel, say, within 1000 light years in the span of say, a decade, even if only through probes/robots, would require a level of technology that is beyond anything humankind has developed in the past, say, 100,000 years.

    But this might work out well for the galactic community. Because only civilisations that can have this technology and ~NOT~ totally annihilate themselves will be able to make meaningful contact with higher intelligences ~ intelligences in the sense of you know, in the ballpark of our mind, not talking pure energy beings etc.

    Isn't that enough reason to wait for them to find us? Then we can steal their tech. If we are the ones looking for intelligent life, chances are they aren't advanced enough to do the same so why bother? They'll be primitive barbarians who beat up the space crew and fly back here then take over. We'll all be made slaves. We have to stop NASA before it's too late!
    sr2012 wrote:
    So you see in this way the galactic community is "protected" by species that would be highly destructive.

    We can be a pretty destructive species.

    For example, some teenagers in the Ukraine knocking 21 people chosen at random unconscious with a hammer, gouging out their eyes, breaking their bones, flattening heir faces and then turning up to their funerals:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dnepropetrovsk_maniacs

    A teenage runaway being picked up, abused and then having her forearms cut off with an axe and left for dead:

    http://www.vcstar.com/news/2009/may/01/crime-survivor-speaks/

    A countess murdering hundreds of young girls because she felt like it:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Báthory

    If I was sitting on some far away planet and I was aware of this world, I'd be thinking 'sure Megan Fox is really hot but I seriously hope these people don't find a way to reach me'.
    sr2012 wrote:
    The key to astronomy now is detecting and studying planets, because at the rate we are going, we're going to need a new one rather soon.

    I don't think we'll run out of resources soon. Nuclear energy is fine. Even if the climate becomes unbearable, it's not as if we're ever going to feasibly reach a planet more conducive to supporting human life.

    If we did find such a planet, it would be really far away so we should spend all our effort trying to figure out how to create a bridge through space rather than how to propel people fast enough across long distances. But more importantly trying to maintain this planet so we don't have to look elsewhere - Elon Musk should focus more on Tesla and less on SpaceX.
  • Reply 19 of 41

    Quote:


    Originally Posted by sr2012


    But this might work out well for the galactic community. Because only civilisations that can have this technology and ~NOT~ totally annihilate themselves will be able to make meaningful contact with higher intelligences ~ intelligences in the sense of you know, in the ballpark of our mind, not talking pure energy beings etc.



    So you see in this way the galactic community is "protected" by species that would be highly destructive. I'm sure there's disagreements and perhaps wars, but it will be operating on a plane far beyond our current understanding... For example kids nowadays instead of knifing other tribes physically as a coming-of-age, they play Black Ops 2 and what not on the computer.


    While technologically we have developed tremendously, when it comes to mentalities we’re not that far removed from the hunters-gatherers, still preoccupied by power, violence, love, hate, greed, generosity, cruelty… I guess that when we cross the space between stellar system we’ll still be grappling with those.


     


    If we could survey comparatively several planets with intelligent life we could measure the likelihood of a civilisation to self-destruct before reaching interstellar capability, alas we only have this one. My uninformed opinion is that human ingenuity will keep ahead of humanity’s propensity to annihilate itself.


     


    I’d certainly be beyond happy if humanity reaches a whole new level of consciousness, becoming mature so to speak: with peace between the various groups (while keeping a reasonable level of fighting skills, just in case…) and justice within them.


     


     


    Quote:


    The key to astronomy now is detecting and studying planets, because at the rate we are going, we're going to need a new one rather soon.



    I have been thinking about this in recent years. We not only need other worlds to keep up with our expansion, our survival as a species depends on us spreading to as many worlds as possible so if humans are extinct on Earth there’ll always be humans on other worlds.


     


     


    Quote:


    SpaceX has successfully gone to the ISS a few times now so if they can do humans to ISS in 5 years than Mars maybe 10 years ~ 20 years max in any case.



    Great, I’ll be glad to watch that. The success of SpaceX could spur other such ventures.


     


     


    Quote:


    Maglev trains... Finally a reality, for example.



    Indeed.

  • Reply 20 of 41
    jimmacjimmac Posts: 11,898member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sr2012 View Post




    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Immanuel Goldstein View Post



    In Earth’s history, most times a technologically (mostly in the war department) advanced group encountered another one less well endowed, the results were catastrophic for the latter. I gather that any intelligent species we could encounter wouldn’t be morally better than us, therefore I hope that when first contact occurs, both sides will be of similar technological level and of roughly equal firepower.



    I feel fortunate to have been alive to witness Sputnik, Gagarin, the Moon landing, and the first shuttle launch, I’m aware there’s little likelihood I’ll witness contact with a civilisation from Outer Space. I hope some of you will be there when it happens.




    That are some interesting thoughts. But one insight I had was that the nature of the galaxy as we understand it is that to physically travel, say, within 1000 light years in the span of say, a decade, even if only through probes/robots, would require a level of technology that is beyond anything humankind has developed in the past, say, 100,000 years.



    But this might work out well for the galactic community. Because only civilisations that can have this technology and ~NOT~ totally annihilate themselves will be able to make meaningful contact with higher intelligences ~ intelligences in the sense of you know, in the ballpark of our mind, not talking pure energy beings etc.



    So you see in this way the galactic community is "protected" by species that would be highly destructive. I'm sure there's disagreements and perhaps wars, but it will be operating on a plane far beyond our current understanding... For example kids nowadays instead of knifing other tribes physically as a coming-of-age, they play Black Ops 2 and what not on the computer.



    ...But we might be able to understand this next plane of consciousness within the next 100 years. Not sure about the origins of our consciousness but humanity shows insanely good adaptability. Eg. indigenous tribes isolated for 50,000 years, they can integrate in some way with modern society (though not always for the better, for sure, but some do adapt okay).



    So given the right guidance (and hopefully not genocide) we might be able to integrate with the galactic community in some way by 2100, definitely 2200 I think.



    Yeah, I might be alive for first contact, but it will start slow, perhaps, like artifacts and stuff, early lifeforms etc, maybe when we can send probes within say 10 light years of Earth. We gotta hit up the nearest stars, Gilese Super-Earth and so on.



    The key to astronomy now is detecting and studying planets, because at the rate we are going, we're going to need a new one rather soon.



    In general it's a tricky one though, because 2015 will be the peak of oil-based-energy civilisation which we have right now. Things could be rough say until 2050+ when we get antimatter/etc. I see two paths ahead of us... Well, three:



    1.

    Nuclear destruction/ Socio-economic decay... Meaning some parts of the world are fine post-peak-oil, others are somewhat 2nd world on average. Africa, Middle East still a mess.



    2.

    Singularity... IT is advancing so rapidly that by 2060 it should be very easy to merge consciousness, etc. Already we have a global, universal library like in sci-fi, in fact, more than one ~ Google, Wikipedia, etc.



    3.

    New Energy... The only way we can take the next step is this. Travel to within 100 light years, journey of the mind without much physical movement, all the sexy sci-fi stuff but of course our sci-fi compared to reality in 2060 is like when people wrote 100 years ago that you'd have to be on a train shot out a huge cannon to get to the moon. That's what Star Trek will look like to those of the 22nd Century.



    1 is possible, 3 is also possible... Depends on global consciousness and how many of us are more in tune with the Age of Aquarius ~ not about left- or right-wing but pre-2012 and post-2012 in thinking.



    2 is very likely, and will probably be the major game changer. That in the palm of your hand in 2012 you have something that only 10 years ago they could dream about stuffing into a large desktop... By 2060...



    Personally I'm hoping for 2. and 3. but some people will be left behind, maybe it is their karma.



    Interesting. I'm 34 now and have recently improved my health from some concerning state so I could make it to 54 if there are no accidents etc.



    I would like my Dad to be alive and cogniscent enough to see a human Mars landing with him. We'll see. SpaceX has successfully gone to the ISS a few times now so if they can do humans to ISS in 5 years than Mars maybe 10 years ~ 20 years max in any case. Nonetheless my Dad has lived a good life and he's enjoying his retirement now... And in his lifetime alone the things that have happened... unbelievable.



    Maglev trains... Finally a reality, for example.


     


    Quote:


    That are some interesting thoughts. But one insight I had was that the nature of the galaxy as we understand it is that to physically travel, say, within 1000 light years in the span of say, a decade, even if only through probes/robots, would require a level of technology that is beyond anything humankind has developed in the past, say, 100,000 years.

     




    I've got something for you and this is for real.


     


    http://io9.com/5963263/how-nasa-will-build-its-very-first-warp-drive?utm_source=io9+Newsletter&utm_campaign=0993d0ea41-UA-142218-29&utm_medium=email


     


     


    Quote:


    How NASA might build its very first warp drive




     


     


     


    Quote:


     few months ago, physicist Harold White stunned the aeronautics world when he announced that he and his team at NASA had begun work on the development of a faster-than-light warp drive. His proposed design, an ingenious re-imagining of an Alcubierre Drive, may eventually result in an engine that can transport a spacecraft to the nearest star in a matter of weeks — and all without violating Einstein's law of relativity. We contacted White at NASA and asked him to explain how this real life warp drive could actually work.



     


    Now there are some things to still work out as far as the other aspects of a warp drive craft but this is a good start and a lot closer than any of us had thought!


     


    Anyway I've been following up on research about the Alcubierre drive and they seem to be working out the kinks in this idea. One of the biggest was the amount of power it would take. Anyway this isn't just some crack pot. This is for real.


     


    About Curiosity however the scientists should be more careful when commenting to reporters. That was disappointing..

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