NASA to hold Phoenix press conference tomorrow, water on the brain?

It's been a while since we've reported about the doings of our robotic friend on Mars, but a press conference tomorrow (Thursday) could uncover Phoenix's first positive report of water on the red planet. NASA's conference will be held at 2 p.m. Eastern Thursday and we're hearing that Phoenix Mission is ready to report that water ice is not only confirmed, but the research robot has dug some ice out of a trench, heated it, and confirmed that it is, in fact water. If this all holds true, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be able to determine whether or not the atmosphere could sustain life and lead to manned missions to Mars. We call shotgun.

[someguy7234 @ Jul 31st 2008 3:35AM]

Is this that picture from the transformers trailer?

[LondonConsultant @ Jul 31st 2008 4:30AM]

Iff Transformers wear Doc Martens.

[Freakin Ijit @ Jul 31st 2008 6:10AM]

Looks like Wall-E's shadow.

Now where are my kid's 3D glasses to see if that color strangeness is indeed (partial) three-D-ness...

[Freakin Ijit @ Jul 31st 2008 10:13AM]

Hmmm...I found my kid's 3D glasses and, when looking at the image, the shadow now appears to be above the ground's surface.

[Muhammed @ Jul 31st 2008 3:37AM]

Yeah, keep dreaming....

[gad get @ Jul 31st 2008 3:37AM]

"...water on the brain?"

Is this a medical condition?

[John @ Jul 31st 2008 7:22AM]

OPERATION!

[DT @ Jul 31st 2008 10:56AM]

It's the lay term for hydrocephalus.

[aldentre @ Jul 31st 2008 3:38AM]

Phoenix, right?

[Mike @ Jul 31st 2008 9:13AM]

OBJECTION!

[loc roger @ Jul 31st 2008 3:38AM]

NO THATS NO FAIR I CALL SHOT GUN!!! I CALL SHOT GUN!!!

[Wiigee @ Jul 31st 2008 3:44AM]

wow, that would be so cool. we mess up earth to the point it cant sustain life, thum move on to mars, good plan! but only let the rich people on, except for their servants of course.

[Grimmir @ Jul 31st 2008 4:07AM]

I would say we'll look more like Tyranids...

[Luke @ Jul 31st 2008 4:34AM]

Exactly what standard donotes the "ideal" earth in your view? I'm guessing your worldview makes no sense from either a scientific materialism nor christian theism based on your rediculous comment... At best, it's some kind of bizzare panantheism.

How bad of a nutt do yu have to be to see a rockheap like Mars as a pristine paradise just waiting for us to "mess it up"?

[retro77 @ Jul 31st 2008 10:17AM]

Earth can't sustain life? When did this happen? Hey I'm on earth now.....

[zom @ Jul 31st 2008 10:23AM]

so Al Gore trolls engadget? this is some news!

[loosely_coupled @ Jul 31st 2008 4:17PM]

@Luke

What the hell are you talking about?

[broli @ Jul 31st 2008 3:45AM]

"Yo Aliens get out of the shot will ya, we're trying to show mankind how advanced we are."

[ill trooper @ Jul 31st 2008 3:50AM]

...Actually, I've heard these are discoveries from the first Mars lander, but they're asking everyone to look at some new data from the exciting 'new' device called "Mojave" and see how they react.

Or maybe not.

[Josh @ Jul 31st 2008 1:05PM]

"... but why is it faster?"

[Gizmo @ Jul 31st 2008 3:58AM]

...digs out Total Recall DVD in readiness...

[sw @ Jul 31st 2008 4:12AM]

two weeks...twooooo weeeeksssssss!

[SG @ Jul 31st 2008 7:54AM]

Need more air!

[Bob @ Jul 31st 2008 8:05AM]

"See you at the party Richter!"

[Nihility @ Jul 31st 2008 10:02AM]

Get your ass to Mars!

[retro77 @ Jul 31st 2008 10:18AM]

Three are better than two

[macserv @ Jul 31st 2008 6:33PM]

Yeah, all they have to do is turn on the reactor. It makes air. Stupid Cohaagen...

[Ramin @ Jul 31st 2008 4:09AM]

So, is that the new way to spell Phoenix?

[Taylor @ Aug 5th 2008 3:40AM]

Engadget, have you just had budget cuts or brain mass cuts?

[Ian @ Jul 31st 2008 4:12AM]

shotgun.. blitz!!

[d i s @ Jul 31st 2008 4:23AM]

" let me say that our mission here at this time is about to come to a close in the next few days ..... we came from distant space and even what some might call another dimension ..... and we're about to return , hence we came"

[Endejas @ Jul 31st 2008 4:26AM]

What's weird is Joshua spelled it wrong, then right, then wrong again.

[Abe Froman @ Jul 31st 2008 4:33AM]

Does anybody else think those impressions in the dirt look a lot like footprints?

Let the conspiracy theories begin.

[JohnDoe @ Jul 31st 2008 11:01AM]

Nasa has no doubt about it! I have access to this secret photo that show a unknown life form that could have made this footstep
http://img32.picoodle.com/img/img32/4/5/25/f_marvinm_6c4fc63.jpg

[Ethan @ Jul 31st 2008 4:41AM]

If there is other life, what's to say it wouldn't run off a completely different chemical set. Don't we just breathe oxygen and burn carbon because of it's abundance? (I don't mean that we can choose, I mean that the bacteria that survived billions of years to eventually evolve into a fish must've had competition from something other than the carbon cycle).

[Nick8708 @ Jul 31st 2008 5:26AM]

It's a bit more complicated than that. It's not so much the abundance of carbon and oxygen, but that on Earth they are far more conducive to life than other elements. For example, Silicon behaves very similarly in chemical reactions to Carbon, however at the average temperature of Earth, when it reacts with oxygen, it doesn't form a gas which is easily removed from a body, like carbon dioxide, but instead a solid. A planet with a much higher temperature could have life based off of Silicon, but again it's more complicated than that. I'm sure somebody with a better knowledge of biochemistry can explain it better.

Here's a good bit of information on the subject though:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon#Silicon-based_life

[Ethan @ Jul 31st 2008 9:03AM]

You know lots more than me, so thanks. That carbon, water, nitrogen and so on are 'conductive to life' makes a lot of sense. So as I understand it, there could potentially be other life, but not as diverse, perhaps? Anyway, I'm certainly not criticising NASA, we can only go with what we know.

[tortilla riot @ Jul 31st 2008 5:43AM]

t...ttt...two weeks

(explodes)

Is that a footstep on the martian soil (or should I say, sandy floor of a studio in Hollywood dun dun durrr)?

[Charbax @ Jul 31st 2008 5:47AM]

OK, time to send humans to Mars now!

NASA can do it for 2.5 billion dollars per astronaut, they could send 4 teams of 4 astronauts up there at the same time to increase chances some of them actually land on Mars and do some serious work on there.

Findings from such a project could also solve our polution and energy problems.

Let's do a petition on the Engadget to have Google sponsor a Human mission to Mars within the next 5 years.

[Glenn @ Jul 31st 2008 9:19AM]

Na NASA is to pussified to do things that quick. Human exploration is out, safety exploration is in.
Good thing that wasnt true about the past (Columbus, Lewis and Clark, the MANNED moon missions etc)

[Toropop @ Jul 31st 2008 9:33AM]

Awesome! Could you speed up these tests for sustaining life? We're running out of patience and need to ruin another planet soon.

kthxbai

[MaHe @ Jul 31st 2008 10:19AM]

I'm sorry, but what is your definition of 'ruining' the planet? As I understand it, ruining Earth means gradually destroying the natural habitat of organisms living on it. So, by 'ruining' Mars we'll be killing all the life on it? Oh, wait ...

[Skeezle @ Jul 31st 2008 9:40AM]

Hmmm, blue skies on Mars? That's a new one...

[FoxHoundADAM @ Jul 31st 2008 9:43AM]

I call middle, back seat, feet on the hump!!!

By the way, if this is true then that is awesome!

[EricR @ Jul 31st 2008 9:44AM]

Just as long as there is no egg filled cavern...

Do you think "the company" is NASA?

[Rick @ Jul 31st 2008 9:54AM]

Who cares about water? Beer and weed are all you need and I bet these aren't on Mars, yet.

[gk @ Jul 31st 2008 11:22AM]

YES!!! we found WATER!! Thank GOD!!! I mean, we surely don't have enough of it here on earth, and that global warming is not helping as well, rising sea levels you know.. thats not good.. I hope Vitamin Water will start selling some MARS water soon, cant wait to put some of my money into that company who first decides to sell MARS WATER!! lol

[Dan @ Jul 31st 2008 5:11PM]

Yeah - no kidding! I don't get why this is so important or news worthy - haven't we known for decades that there's water on Mars? What, with the polar ice caps and all? Ice is frozen water right? Am I missing something?

[Harley3k @ Jul 31st 2008 3:20PM]

The polar ice caps on Mars are thought to be comprised of only dry ice (frozen C2O, not H2O).

But yah, We've had tons of headlines over the last decade about water on Mars. How many times are we going to discover it exactly? I guess technically all of those other times it was only "evidence of water", and not actual water. So this is the real deal. Still the long build-up has kind of made this anticlimactic.

Still the main thing is to find Liquid Water for life. Mars' atmospheric conditions are such that even water ice is 'dry', it passes almost immediately from solid to gas; which is why those white lumps in the scooper disappeared recently.

[richard @ Jul 31st 2008 11:39AM]

guys inform yourselves on the true subject of mars please visit
www.marsanomalyresearch.com and see what is the real truth on the subject of mars