Last year, NASA’s Curiosity rover made a fascinating discovery after boring into a suspected ancient lake bed on Mars: long-chain organic molecules, called alkanes, that could serve as a potential chemical relic of ancient life on the Red Planet.

The molecules, researchers suggested at the time, could have derived from fatty acids, which are common building blocks of cell membranes on Earth, once again strengthening the case that Mars could’ve been teeming with life billions of years ago.

In a paper published in the journal Astrobiology last week, a team led by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Alexander Pavlov argues that the presence of these molecules — despite the millions of years of destructive radiation that pummeled the Martian surface after it lost much of its atmosphere — “cannot be readily explained” by non-biological processes alone.

One theory is that carbon-rich dust particles and meteorites could have deposited these long-chain organic molecules on the surface, with the ancient Martian atmosphere allowing the organics to accumulate billions of years ago.

biological processes like the ones observed on Earth are still a leading theory, even after researchers’ best efforts to find a non-life explanation.

“We argue that such high concentrations of long-chain alkanes are inconsistent with a few known abiotic sources of organic molecules on ancient Mars,” they wrote.

“We agree with Carl Sagan’s claim that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and understand that any purported detection of life on Mars will necessarily be met with intense scrutiny,”

Perseverance collected the samples. Congress just decided they’re not worth bringing home.

NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission — arguably the most ambitious planetary science project ever planned — is effectively dead. A spending bill approved by U.S. Congress explicitly states it “does not support the existing Mars Sample Return program,” cutting nearly all funding and redirecting just $110 million toward generic future Mars technologies.

This isn’t a pause. It’s a cancellation of a mission decades in the making. The Perseverance rover has already done its part, carefully collecting 33 sample tubes from Jezero Crater — a site chosen precisely because it once held a lake that could have supported microbial life. One rock, called Cheyava Falls, contains iron-rich minerals that on Earth are almost always associated with ancient biological activity. Those tubes are now sitting on Mars with no ride home.

The mission’s cost — originally ballooning to $11 billion before being redesigned down to roughly $6–7 billion — made it a political target. But the scientific loss is enormous. These are the most carefully selected extraterrestrial samples ever gathered, and they may contain the first direct evidence of life beyond Earth.

Meanwhile, China’s Tianwen-3 mission is on track to launch in 2028 and return its own Martian samples by 2031. It will collect fewer samples from a less scientifically promising site, but it will get there. If this is a race, the U.S. just stepped off the track.

Lue tiivistelmä
Tekoäly suunnitteli Mars-mönkijä Perseverancen päiväreitit itsenäisesti joulukuussa yli 300 miljoonan kilometrin päässä Maasta.

Yhdysvaltain avaruushallinto Nasan Jet Propulsion -laboratorio toteutti kokeilun Anthropic-yhtiön tekoälymallilla.

Perseverancen päivittäisiä reittejä ovat tähän asti suunnitelleet ihmiset, mutta tekoäly voi helpottaa työtä.

Tutkijat ovat löytäneet vettä syvältä Marsin kivikuoresta, uutisoi BBC. Löydöstä havainnollistava data on saatu Nasan vuonna 2018 planeetalle laskeutuneelta Insight -laskeutuja-alukselta.

Reservoir of liquid water found deep in Martian rocks
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxl849j77ko

Scientists have discovered a reservoir of liquid water on Mars – deep in the rocky outer crust of the planet.

The findings come from a new analysis of data from Nasa’s Mars Insight Lander, which touched down on the planet back in 2018.

The lander carried a seismometer, which recorded four years’ of vibrations – Mars quakes – from deep inside the Red Planet.

Analysing those quakes – and exactly how the planet moves – revealed “seismic signals” of liquid water.

While there is water frozen at the Martian poles and evidence of vapour in the atmosphere, this is the first time liquid water has been found on the planet.

The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Insight’s scientific mission ended in December 2022, after the lander sat quietly listening to “the pulse of Mars” for four years.

There appear to be huge reservoirs under Mars, scientists have said.

Evidence suggests that there are vast lakes of liquid water under the surface of the red planet, according to a new study.

There could be enough water in the underground reservoirs to create oceans on the surface of Mars, the researchers suggest.

But the experts say the reservoir is unlikely to be of much use to anyone trying to tap into it to supply a future Mars colony.

It is located in tiny cracks and pores in rock in the middle of the Martian crust, between 11.5 and 20 kilometres below the surface. Even on Earth, drilling a hole a kilometre deep is a challenge.

Scientists on Earth have sent many probes and landers to Mars to find out what happened to the water that was on the planet some three billion years ago, as well as when it happened and whether life exists or used to exist on the planet.

CHINA’S MARS ROVER DETECTED POLYGONS UNDER THE PLANET’S SURFACE
https://futurism.com/the-byte/china-mars-polygons

THIS COULD BE MORE EVIDENCE OF WATER (AND LIFE) ON MARS.