Phoenix Mars Lander arrived safely.

[ssrattus]

Phoenix Lands at Martian Arctic Site
NASA's Phoenix spacecraft landed in the northern polar region of Mars today to begin three months of examining a site chosen for its likelihood of having frozen water within reach of the lander's robotic arm.

some of the first photos

[biggeorge]

That is pretty cool.

But what a waste.

Hehehe, but it's cool.

I honestly thought they'd smush it into the ground at 70,000km/h.

[trash]

Yep, that's dirt ! Good to know dirt is dirt everywhere in the universe.

[Uncle Fester]

Phoenix Lands at Martian Arctic Site
NASA's Phoenix spacecraft landed in the northern polar region of Mars today to begin three months of examining a site chosen for its likelihood of having frozen water within reach of the lander's robotic arm.

...and if it doesn't?
After all the expense to send it there, it couldn't have costed that much more to attach 6 little motorised wheels.
The Mars rovers are still wobbling around after 5 years but unfortunately in the wrong area.

[ssrattus]

I think they believe the frozen water is in a form of a permafrost that should be nearly everywhere in the region if it exists at all. The arm is like a chain saw and will cut into the soil for about 0.5m.

The region they are in only has enough sun light for 3 or so months of solar power to power the device and to keep it warm. Once the sun has gone the whole thing will fail due to the cold and will never to work again....

Anyway that is what I think the "expert" on Sky News said this morning.

[Krustyone]

Cmon guys.
All cant be lost. If they find the water, they can ship back to us and our drought will be over...

[mudcrab]

you know sometimes people 'explore' new places just becuase they have not been there before

History is full of incidents where people have found or invented new things only have other's say why ?? what a waste of money etc etc, and then in years, or decades to come the reasons become clear.............

[Uncle Fester]

I wonder what would happen to space exploration if that arm would dig up a bit of gold or a diamond instead.

[trash]

Actually... that's not so silly, especially in the case of Mars.

Mars most likely formed at the same time as Earth and in much the same way.
Mars will have formed out of the same nebula cloud as the Earth so it is likely to have the same ratio of elements and isotopes as Earth, with a few variations on the rule.
It's unlikey that minerals like coal, shale, oil, gas, peat, limestone and marble would be found on mars.
Batholithic Granite is likely since Mars basically doesn't have any plate tectonics. Bassalt and Lava are sure things since there have been active volcanos.
Gold is usually found in association with volcanism, in particular quartz veins. These are certainly possible. Diamonds are also associated with volcanism in a similar way, but with kimberlite pipes under higher temperature and pressure.
These are less likely than Earth because of Mars' smaller mass.
The chances of both quartz veins and kimberlite being exposed to create aluvial gold and diamonds is greatly reduced due to the lack of weathering.
Water is scarce and wind occurs, though the atmosphere is thin.

Other minerals like Iron are common as dirt. Copper, Nickel, Silver, Uranium, Thorium, Platinum, Aluminium, Sodium etc are all likely to occur along with many other minerals that are also found on Earth.

[tytower]

Actually... that's not so silly, especially in the case of Mars.

Mars most likely formed at the same time as Earth and in much the same way.
Mars will have formed out of the same nebula cloud as the Earth so it is likely to have the same ratio of elements and isotopes as Earth, with a few variations on the rule.
It's unlikey that minerals like coal, shale, oil, gas, peat, limestone and marble would be found on mars.
Batholithic Granite is likely since Mars basically doesn't have any plate tectonics. Bassalt and Lava are sure things since there have been active volcanos.
Gold is usually found in association with volcanism, in particular quartz veins. These are certainly possible. Diamonds are also associated with volcanism in a similar way, but with kimberlite pipes under higher temperature and pressure.
These are less likely than Earth because of Mars' smaller mass.
The chances of both quartz veins and kimberlite being exposed to create aluvial gold and diamonds is greatly reduced due to the lack of weathering.
Water is scarce and wind occurs, though the atmosphere is thin.

Other minerals like Iron are common as dirt. Copper, Nickel, Silver, Uranium, Thorium, Platinum, Aluminium, Sodium etc are all likely to occur along with many other minerals that are also found on Earth.

Hmm seem to be overlooking the cooling process from red hot and molten to cold and nearly lifeless.

I would have thought the process would have been the same as earths but probably 1/2 a billion years earlier.