Water on Mars Confirmed?

Nasa is having a press conference today 7/31/08 on new Information from the Phoenix Lander!!

In a discovery that could qualify as one of the most important in the history of space exploration, NASA’s Phoenix Mission may have confirmed the presence of water ice on the planet, Popular Mechanics has learned. The scheduling of a press conference for Thursday at 2 p.m. Eastern by NASA and the University of Arizona has raised hopes in the space community that scientists will announce the breakthrough. When pressed for details, a spokesperson for the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory refused to elaborate beyond saying that the Phoenix team would unveil new findings from the ongoing robotic mission to Mars. If the rumor holds true, it would be the first direct confirmation of water ice beyond Earth.

www.popularmechanics.com...

They need a press conference for that?
Just release it to the media.
Now if it was a martian taking a whizz against the probe then by all means , hold a conference, but water on mars?
just tell the papers.

Of course there is water and life on other planets and moons. I wish we could just get this part over with and move forward.

Wow wow wow! just heard this on the news.

Hell yeah it deserved a news converence!!

If water is there is means a whole heap of things,mainly the advantages it would give in establishing a perminent base there!

Dont realy care if microbal life is there,apart it meaning life is not unique to Earth.I see this making future space exporation a whole lot easier,think of it as going to a mates house in a different town but his out of fuel and booze so you goto go back to your to stock up each time.

The moon is the hop now mars maybe the jump.Im just wondering what other goodies the planets and moons of our solar system have waiting for us!

Yes we had a idea water was there but nasa's new probe is the 1st touch it!

Just hope the US dont claim mineral right to it!

Great news!

Now we're one step closer to the rest of society catching up to what we've all known for a long time now.

But maybe this will speed up the funding process and accelerate the Mars program to a manned mission way before 2030. They said it would take about $500 billion to make a manned mission to Mars. Ok, so what's the problem? That's about 9 months spending in Iraq. I wonder which is more important.

[edit on 7/31/2008 by pjslug]

Phoenix has Found Something More Compelling than Water: President Bush Informed

On Thursday, NASA held a press conference to announce that the recent TEGA experiment on board Phoenix had confirmed the presence of water in the Martian soil. Whist exciting, Phoenix scientists were expecting that result. However, behind the scenes, something else was being discussed and it had little to do with melting water…

Having just covered this story on the Universe Today, I can’t help but be intrigued. Apparently, an undisclosed Phoenix scientist has been in communication with Aviation Week concerning a “compelling” discovery on the Red Planet. What could this news be? Obviously it’s something important as NASA and the University of Arizona are going to great lengths to keep the details out of the public domain. Plus, Phoenix scientists have presented their preliminary findings to the Bush Administration’s Presidential Science Advisor. The report suggests that there has been an even more significant discovery from the robotic explorer, not only from the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (or “TEGA,” the instrument used to bake Martian samples) which confirmed the presence of water, but from the Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA) instrument. MECA has apparently found even more evidence for the “potential for life” on Mars. But this “evidence” will be the biggest discovery yet.

However, the Phoenix team need more time to analyse the complex data they’ve received and will wait till mid-August at the earliest to make a press release. Scientists are keen to point out that they have not discovered direct evidence for life on Mars (after all, Phoenix is not equipped to do this), but the indication is this new data will be even more profound than the discovery of water.

As if that wasn’t enough, it looks like they’ve had to take this news to the top. Advising the White House is a pretty big deal, so we’ll just have to wait and see what Phoenix has uncovered…

For more on this exciting development, see The White House is Briefed: Phoenix About to Announce “Potential For Life” on Mars.
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The thing that I'm wondering about is how much water is there?

Assuming a manned mission to mars. Is there enough to make it worthwhile to mine for use as components for fuel for the return trip from mars? Enough to crack for Oxygen for breathing supplementary sources? Drinking water?