Water on mars = Science

courtesy of www.esa.int

Woo! Yep, you’ve all heard it, you’ve all read about it; they found water on mars. Does this really affect us? Should we believe the hype? An article from the  New York Times discusses the findings, that there are salt crystals on mars, deep channels, evidence of water billions of years ago. These new findings, however, show evidence of flowing water now.  Even salt water could be cured, and made into drinkable water.

What does this mean for us? When ultimately we are able to send people to Mars, You would have to pack less supplies, leaving more room for fuel. Because you would have access to water on mars, you would have be able to stay longer, conduct more experiments. You have the possibility of growing your own food, or even using plants and bacteria to produce oxygen, much like that to the forming of earth. I argue that yes, this discovery does indeed affect us, and yes, we should believe the hype. Have you ever thought about mars as our planet, billions of years later? the water is gone, the air is gone, just barren desert? This should get you excited; an opportunity to “manufacture” earth.

What would this mean to the scientific community? LOADS! The age old question that science has struggled with, part of the creation theory. Here we see mars as a blank slate, the beginnings of our controlled experiment. Scientists believe a certain bacteria in combination with plants; over billions of years, could have created enough oxygen for us to use. Mars is the perfect place to test that theory! Being able to do controlled experiments effectively ruling out third variables specific to earth; being able to factor out pollution, global warming, even something as small as a lunar eclipse. Mars presents us with the blueprint back (or forward) in time, to perform controlled experiments in conditions once thought impossible.