Daily Archives: October 29, 2023

The NASA-funded Subsurface Water Ice Mapping (SWIM) project released its fourth and most recent map of where on Mars we might find, as you might expect, subsurface water ice. NASA officials say this map will help mission planners decide where on Mars to actually send the first humans to traverse the planet.

Since 2017, SWIM led by the Planetary Science Institute and managed by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory has collated data from multiple NASA Mars missions in order to stitch together a map of how likely it is that a given part of Mars overlays water.

For their latest map, the scientists relied on data from the Context Camera (CTX) and High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HIRISE), both of which are aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. These instruments provide high-resolution imagery of the Martian terrain. For instance, they can identify tiny impact craters that are expected to have blown the Martian surface away to reveal "ice," or so-called polygon terrain, where ice melting and refreezing (and melting and freezing again) with the march of the seasons etches cracks in the ground.

Related: Mars ice deposits could pave the way for human exploration

Knowing where Martian ice can be found is crucial for crewed mission planning, which will involve careful balancing act. Astronauts want to find water ice, for one, which will give them a valuable source of water so they wont have to carry much of it from Earth. That might indicate the best landing zone falls near the Martian poles but planners also dont want to land astronauts where its too chilly. If it's too cold, the crew will need to use extra amounts of valuable energy to keep themselves warm.

"If you send humans to Mars, you want to get them as close to the equator as you can," Sydney Do, SWIMs project manager, said in a statement. An ideal spot, then, would be a patch with as low a latitude as possible that still contains accessible ice. That's where these Martian ice maps come in handy.

And even beyond mission planning, scientists believe they can use maps like SWIMs to better understand why, exactly, Mars looks the way it does.

"The amount of water ice found in locations across the Martian mid-latitudes isnt uniform; some regions seem to have more than others, and no one really knows why," Nathaniel Putzig, SWIMs co-lead at the Planetary Science Institute, said in the statement. "The newest SWIM map could lead to new hypotheses for why these variations happen."

Read more here:

New map of ice on Mars could help NASA decide where to send future astronauts - Space.com

A new map of subsurface water on Mars just dropped, and it reveals regions on the Red Planet where ice may be buried beneath the surface for future astronauts to use.

The HP Spectre Fold: One Device, Three Modes, All Meh

This week, the NASA-funded Subsurface Water Ice Mapping project (SWIM) released its fourth set of maps, which the space agency is calling the most detailed since the project first began in 2017.

Using data from several NASA missions, including the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), Mars Odyssey, and the Mars Global Surveyor, SWIM identifies the possible locations of subsurface ice on Mars. For the latest SWIM map, scientists relied on two higher resolution cameras on board MRO, which has been orbiting Mars since 2006 in search of water. As a result, the new map has a much more detailed view of subsurface water than previous iterations which relied on lower-resolution imagers, radar, thermal mappers and spectrometers.

Data from MROs Context Camera data was used to further refine the northern hemisphere maps while data from HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) was incorporated for the first time to provide the most detailed perspective of the ices boundary line as close to the equator as possible, according to NASA. HiRISE even captured a 492-foot-wide (150-meter-wide) impact crater with a motherlode of ice that had been hiding beneath the surface, the space agency wrote.

The spacecraft detected what appears to be subsurface frozen water along Mars mid-latitudes. This region on Mars is ideal for the landing of future missions as it is characterized by a thicker atmosphere that makes it easier for spacecraft to slow down during their descent to the Martian surface. The real sweet spot for astronauts to land on Mars would be at the southernmost edge of the northern mid-latitudes region, where its close enough to the buried ice but also not too far from the equator so that astronauts can enjoy slightly warmer weather.

If you send humans to Mars, you want to get them as close to the equator as you can, Sydney Do, SWIM project manager at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement. The less energy you have to expend on keeping astronauts and their supporting equipment warm, the more you have for other things theyll need.

The Martian poles have plenty of ice, but its way too cold over there for astronauts to survive for a long time.

The reason why NASA is more interested in ice found beneath the surface is that any liquid water found on Mars would be unstable. Mars atmosphere is so thin that water would immediately evaporate. Subsurface ice, on the other hand, is kept in a safe spot where astronauts can drill ice cores to extract it.

The buried ice will be a valuable resource for future astronauts on Mars who can use it for drinking water or to make rocket fuel. That, in turn, will allow them to carry a lot less to the surface of the Red Planet.

Scientists are also interested to know where the subsurface ice is located on Mars to help them figure out the planets climate throughout its history. The amount of water ice found in locations across the Martian mid-latitudes isnt uniform; some regions seem to have more than others, and no one really knows why, Nathaniel Putzig, SWIMs other co-lead at the Planetary Science Institute, said in a statement. The newest SWIM map could lead to new hypotheses for why these variations happen.

For more spaceflight in your life, follow us on X (formerly Twitter) and bookmark Gizmodos dedicated Spaceflight page.

Go here to read the rest:

Detailed Mars Water Map Shows Where to Land Future Explorers - Gizmodo

Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here.

Marss liquid-metal core seems to be smaller than previous studies suggested (artists impression).Credit: Claus Lunau/Science Photo Library

In the interior of Mars, a layer of molten rock envelops the liquid-metal core, which is smaller than previously thought. Scientists discovered the unique layer by analysing the seismic energy that vibrated through the planet after a meteorite impact. The seismic waves speed depends on the types of material that they are travelling through. The molten-rock layer might be left over from a magma ocean that once covered the planet.

Nature | 5 min read

References: Nature paper 1 & paper 2

The prominent open-access science journal eLife has fired its editor-in-chief, Michael Eisen, after he retweeted a satirical article referencing the IsraelHamas war. The board of directors clearly view this as me having done one too many somethings, Eisen says. eLifes board issued a statement indicating that the biologist had been dismissed more broadly because of his approach to leadership, communication and social media. The decision has spurred an exodus of eLife editors, and a protest letter in support of Eisen has so far been signed by more than 2,000 people.

Nature | 6 min read

An artificial intelligence (AI) system mimics the human ability to quickly fold new words into an existing vocabulary and use them in fresh contexts. By being programmed to learn from its mistakes, the neural network outperformed the chatbot ChatGPT at making generalizations about language, scoring as well as and sometimes even better than human volunteers. This suggests that there are ways to reduce the gargantuan amount of necessary training data and make systems more efficient learners, says AI researcher Elia Bruni.

Nature | 5 min read

Reference: Nature paper

Two solar probes launched in 2018 and 2020 are giving scientists the most detailed views ever of the Sun. The two missions sometimes work together to capture events such as one of the largest solar eruptions ever recorded. The amount of details, the amount of complexity and also the violence of the event weve never seen it before and its just impressive, says solar physicist Nour Raouafi. The observations can help space-weather forecasters to better understand solar storms, which can disrupt communications and knock out power grids once they reach Earth.

Nature | 8 min read

Postdocs in some parts of the world are striking to highlight their struggles, such as low pay, job insecurity and worries about career progression. Some funders and employers around the world are taking steps to improve the postdoc experience. Others must follow, argues a Nature editorial, or risk losing the next generation of scientists.

Nature | 5 min read

Gordon Conway (19382023) was passionate about agriculture and sustainability long before they were fashionable topics. By paying close attention to local farming practices, Conway revolutionized rural-development approaches. I remember Gordon and Robert [Chambers, a development scholar] returning from a visit to Wollo in northern Ethiopia in 1988, full of excitement about the lessons they had learnt from farmers, writes researcher Ian Scoones about his former supervisor.

Nature | 5 min read

Philosopher Catarina Dutilh Novaes says that misinformation isnt a new problem and is often entangled with worries about changing information-sharing technologies. (Undark | 6 min read)

Today, Im gazing at 276 feline facial expressions, which cats have probably evolved over the course of their 10,000-year history with us.

Thank you to the eagle-eyed reader who spotted that our link to sign up to Nature Briefing: Anthropocene wasnt working. If youd like to sign up to this new weekly newsletter, please use this link.

Thanks for reading,

Katrina Krmer, associate editor, Nature Briefing

Want more? Sign up to our other free Nature Briefing newsletters:

Nature Briefing our flagship daily e-mail: everything you need to know about science, in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee

Nature Briefing: Cancer a weekly newsletter written with cancer researchers in mind

Nature Briefing: Translational Research covers biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma

Nature Briefing: Anthropocene the footprint of humanity on Earth, including climate change, biodiversity, sustainability and geoengineering

Read the original here:

Daily briefing: A unique layer of molten rock envelops Mars's core - Nature.com

A CITY ON MARS: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?, by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

Face it, folks. Earth is finished. Its overheated, overcrowded, overregulated. Its the ultimate fixer-upper, a dump we inherited from our parents that wed be cruel to pass on to our children. Its time to pull up stakes. Its time for Mars.

Or maybe not.

Lighting out for the solar system is an appealing fantasy, but A City on Mars, an exceptional new piece of popular science by the Soonish authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, suggests we shouldnt be so quick to give up on Earth. Forceful, engaging and funny, it is an essential reality check for anyone who has ever looked for home in the night sky.

A City on Mars groups the arguments in favor of immediate colonization into two categories. The first is the high-minded idea that mankind must spread to other planets before civilization crumbles, as Elon Musk told Walter Isaacson. The second is the hot tub argument: Going to space is worth it because its cool.

The authors dismantle the first theory with tact. Self-described science geeks, the Weinersmiths embarked on this book expecting to write a sociological road map to building off-world colonies in the near future. But as they dived into their research, they found that the loudest advocates for space settlement are so dazzled by the beauty of their rockets that they wave away the stuff regular lives are made of, like food and birth, democracy and law. The main problem, the Weinersmiths write, is that Space is terrible. All of it. Terrible, adding:

The Moon isnt just a sort of gray Sahara without air. Its surface is made of jagged, electrically charged microscopic glass and stone, which clings to pressure suits and landing vehicles. Nor is Mars just an off-world Death Valley its soil is laden with toxic chemicals, and its thin carbonic atmosphere whips up worldwide dust storms that blot out the sun for weeks at a time. And those are the good places to land.

The terribleness of space might be worth overlooking, they concede, if civilization really were about to crumble. But it isnt. Life on Earth is hard. It always has been. But mankind has no problems that would be solved by relocating to a place without food, water or air. As the Weinersmiths write, An Earth with climate change and nuclear war and, like, zombies and werewolves is still a way better place than Mars.

And what about the hot tub? The Weinersmiths argue that the current state of space law means an unregulated scramble for the vanishingly few resources of the moon and Mars would make war on Earth more likely. The greater our off-world presence, the easier it would be for a terrorist or disgruntled billionaire to hurl an asteroid at Earth and wipe out the species we are theoretically trying to save.

The more capacity we have to do things in space, they write, the more capacity we have for self-annihilation.

Such grim thoughts are tempered by levity: A City on Mars is hilarious. The breezy prose is studded with charming cartoons that illustrate everything from a two-person zero gravity sex suit to the baffling urination device NASA engineers designed for women astronauts, apparently without consulting any women. There are sections on Getting Strange in the Lagrange, or, Can You Do It in Space? and How to Have Space Babies Without Marrying Your Space Cousin, a chapter on funny astronaut names, and a whole paragraph about lunarcrete a theoretical building material made by mixing Martian soil with human blood.

But most of the book is devoted to fascinating, practical questions of colonization. There are histories of rocketry, of space law, of celestial advertising. We learn how to build an orbital colony, why barren lava tubes are the choicest Martian real estate, and that company towns are a bad idea when management controls its workforces food, water, light and air.

Throughout, the Weinersmiths advocate for a colonization approach that they call wait and go big. Fund hundreds of biospherelike experiments on Earth to learn about human survival in a closed habitat. Do systematic studies of animal reproduction in orbit, so we can find out if its even safe for people to get pregnant away from Earth. Modernize space law and establish a regulatory agency to ensure that the cosmos is treasured like Antarctica, not savaged like the Amazon. Once the framework is in place, move hundreds of thousands of settlers all at once enough to establish a real civilization. Enough to thrive.

In the meantime, appreciate what we have. Earth isnt perfect, the Weinersmiths write, but as planets go its a pretty good one. This book will make you happy to live on this planet a good thing, because youre not leaving anytime soon.

A CITY ON MARS: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? | Kelly and Zach Weinersmith | Penguin Press | 430 pp. | $32

Here is the original post:

Book review: A City on Mars, by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith - The New York Times

By: Tribune-Review Saturday, October 28, 2023 | 12:29 AM

Christopher Horner | Tribune-Review

Mars Evan Wright works out on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023, at Mars.

Luke Goodworth hit Aidan Alessio with a 20-yard touchdown pass with 10 seconds left in the game to give Mars a 17-14 victory over North Catholic in a Class 4A Greater Allegheny Conference game Friday night at J.C. Stone Field in North Park.

With the win, Mars claimed the Greater Allegheny Conference title. Goodworth threw for 106 yards while teammate Evan Wright ran for 172 yards for Mars (8-2, 5-0).

North Catholics Jack Fennell ran for 99 yards and a touchdown and caught a 71-yard scoring pass from Kaden Sarver, who tossed for 126 yards.

Connellsville 35, Laurel Highlands 13 Connellsville (5-5, 2-4) beat Laurel Highlands (2-8, 1-5) for the Big Seven Conference win.

Trinity 61, Ringgold 21 In the Big Seven Conference, Trinity (6-4, 4-2) returned three interceptions for touchdowns in its 47-point first quarter as the Hillers beat Ringgold (0-10, 0-6). Luke Lacock caught two touchdown passes from Jonah Williamson and returned a kickoff 93 yards for another score. Williamson threw for 93 yards and ran for a 44-yard touchdown.

Blackhawk 20, New Castle 14 Blackhawk (1-0, 1-6) beat New Castle (1-9, 1-6) in the Parkway Conference.

Chartiers Valley 41, Ambridge 31 Austin Efthimiades ran for 276 yards and four touchdowns to lead Chartiers Valley (3-7, 3-4) to a playoff spot with the Parkway Conference win against Ambridge (2-8, 1-6).

Plum 49, Indiana 7 Nick Odom rushed for 210 yards and a touchdown as Class 5A Plum (4-6) beat Class 4A Indiana (2-8). Sean Franzi threw for 174 yards and two touchdowns for Plum while Trevor Smith threw for 177 yards for Indiana.

Tags: Ambridge, Blackhawk, Chartiers Valley, Connellsville, Indiana, Laurel Highlands, Mars, New Castle, North Catholic, Plum, Ringgold, Trinity

See more here:

WPIAL Class 4A football roundup: Late TD lifts Mars to Greater Allegheny Conference title - TribLIVE.com

The map could help the agency decide where the first astronauts to the Red Planet should land. The more available water, the less missions will need to bring.

Buried ice will be a vital resource for the first people to set foot on Mars, serving as drinking water and a key ingredient for rocket fuel. But it would also be a major scientific target: Astronauts or robots could one day drill ice cores much as scientists do on Earth, uncovering the climate history of Mars and exploring potential habitats (past or present) for microbial life.

The need to look for subsurface ice arises because liquid water isnt stable on the Martian surface: The atmosphere is so thin that water immediately vaporizes. Theres plenty of ice at the Martian poles mostly made of water, although carbon dioxide, or dry ice, can be found as well but those regions are too cold for astronauts (or robots) to survive for long.

Thats where the NASA-funded Subsurface Water Ice Mapping project comes in. SWIM, as its known, recently released its fourth set of maps the most detailed since the project began in 2017.

Led by the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, and managed by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, SWIM pulls together data from several NASA missions, including the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), 2001 Mars Odyssey, and the now-inactive Mars Global Surveyor. Using a mix of data sets, scientists have identified the likeliest places to find Martian ice that could be accessed from the surface by future missions.

Instruments on these spacecraft have detected what look like masses of subsurface frozen water along Mars mid-latitudes. The northern mid-latitudes are especially attractive because they have a thicker atmosphere than most other regions on the planet, making it easier to slow a descending spacecraft. The ideal astronaut landing sites would be a sweet spot at the southernmost edge of this region far enough north for ice to be present but close enough to the equator to ensure the warmest possible temperatures for astronauts in an icy region.

If you send humans to Mars, you want to get them as close to the equator as you can, said Sydney Do, JPLs SWIM project manager. The less energy you have to expend on keeping astronauts and their supporting equipment warm, the more you have for other things theyll need.

Previous iterations of the map relied on lower-resolution imagers, radar, thermal mappers, and spectrometers, all of which can hint at buried ice but cant outright confirm its presence or quantity. For this latest SWIM map, scientists relied on two higher-resolution cameras aboard MRO. Context Camera data was used to further refine the northern hemisphere maps and, for the first time, HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) data was incorporated to provide the most detailed perspective of the ices boundary line as close to the equator as possible.

Scientists routinely use HiRISE to study fresh impact craters caused by meteoroids that may have excavated chunks of ice. Most of these craters are no more than 33 feet (10 meters) in diameter, although in 2022 HiRISE captured a 492-foot-wide (150-meter-wide) impact crater that revealed a motherlode of ice that had been hiding beneath the surface.

These ice-revealing impacts provide a valuable form of ground truth in that they show us locations where the presence of ground ice is unequivocal, said Gareth Morgan, SWIMs co-lead at the Planetary Science Institute. We can then use these locations to test that our mapping methods are sound.

In addition to ice-exposing impacts, the new map includes sightings by HiRISE of so-called polygon terrain, where the seasonal expansion and contraction of subsurface ice causes the ground to form polygonal cracks. Seeing these polygons extending around fresh, ice-filled impact craters is yet another indication that theres more ice hidden beneath the surface at these locations.

There are other mysteries that scientists can use the map to study, as well.

The amount of water ice found in locations across the Martian mid-latitudes isnt uniform; some regions seem to have more than others, and no one really knows why, said Nathaniel Putzig, SWIMs other co-lead at the Planetary Science Institute. The newest SWIM map could lead to new hypotheses for why these variations happen. He added that it could also help scientists tweak models of how the ancient Martian climate evolved over time, leaving larger amounts of ice deposited in some regions and lesser amounts in others.

SWIMs scientists hope the project will serve as a foundation for a proposed Mars Ice Mapper mission an orbiter that would be equipped with a powerful radar custom-designed to search for near-surface ice beyond where HiRISE has confirmed its presence.

Andrew Good Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-393-2433 andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

Karen Fox / Alana Johnson NASA Headquarters, Washington 301-286-6284 / 202-358-1501 karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov

2023-150

Read the original post:

NASA Is Locating Ice on Mars With This New Map - NASA

Thanks to a combination of images from NASA's Curiosity rover, scans of sedimentary rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico on Earth and computer simulations, geologists have identified the ancient, eroded remnants of rivers in a number of craters on Mars.

A team of researchers examining data collected by NASA's Curiosity rover at Gale crater, a large impact basin on the Martian surface, discovered further evidence that rivers once flowed across the Red Planet, perhaps more widespread than was previously thought. "We're finding evidence that Mars was likely a planet of rivers," said geoscientist Benjamin Cardenas of Penn State University and lead author of the research in a statement.

On Earth, rivers are important for chemical, nutrient and sediment cycles that all have a positive impact on life. The discovery of further evidence for ancient rivers on Mars, therefore, could be an important development in the search for signs of life on the Red Planet.

"Our research indicates that Mars could have had far more rivers than previously believed, which certainly paints a more optimistic view of ancient life on Mars," said Cardenas. "It offers a vision of Mars where most of the planet once had the right condition for life."

Related: Good news for life: Mars rivers flowed for long stretches long ago

The specific landforms identified in Curiosity rover data, called bench-and-nose features, are found within numerous small craters, but until now had not been recognized as being deposits formed by running water.

Evidence for rivers on Mars has been known since the first spacecraft to orbit Mars, Mariner 9, imaged dried-up river channels and floodplains on the red planet's surface. The various Mars rovers have also found mineralogical evidence in the form of sulfur-containing compounds such as jarosite, which form in water. The rovers and orbiters have also identified ridges formed by sediment in river channels billions of years old.

However, the identification of the bench-and-nose landforms suggests that rivers were even more widespread than thought. They are an alternating mix of steep slopes and shallow 'benches', and shortened ridges called 'noses'. They form when sedimentary material laid down in channels by rivers are subsequently eroded in a preferential direction, possibly by prevailing winds.

Suspecting their watery origin, Cardenas and Kaitlyn Stacey, also of Penn State, trained their computer model on Curiosity's images of bench-and-nose landforms inside craters and three-dimensional scans of layers of sedimentary bedrock on the sea floor beneath the Gulf of Mexico taken by oil companies 25 years ago.

The computer model was then able to simulate the erosion of sediment left by rivers to form the bench-and-nose landforms.

Curiosity had previously ascertained that the 154-km-wide (96 miles) Gale crater, which the rover is exploring, was filled with liquid water. The discovery that the bench-and-nose landforms were produced by rivers now gives some indication of the structure of that water-mass inside Gale crater.

The findings are published in Geophysical Research Letters.

Continue reading here:

Curiosity rover discovers new evidence Mars once had 'right ... - Space.com

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter stretched its legs a bit on the Red Planet last week.

The 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) Ingenuity conducted its 63rd Mars flight on Thursday (Oct. 19), covering 1,901 feet (579 meters) of ground in the process.

That was "its longest distance since Flight 25," NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages Ingenuity's mission, said via X (formerly Twitter) on Monday (Oct. 23).

Related: Mars helicopter Ingenuity phones home, breaking 63-day silence

Ingenuity flew for 2,310 feet (704 m) on Flight 25, which occurred on April 8, 2022. That's the rotorcraft's single-flight distance record, followed by 2,051 feet (625 m) on Flight 9 in July 2021. Flight 63 is in third place.

This latest sortie lasted 143 seconds, according to the mission's flight log. Ingenuity got a maximum of 39 feet (12 m) above the ground and reached a top speed of about 14.1 mph (22.7 kph).

Those numbers aren't records, either; the superlatives in those categories are 169.5 seconds, 66 feet (20 m) in altitude and 22.4 mph (36 kph), according to the flight log.

Ingenuity landed inside Mars' 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater in February 2021 with NASA's Perseverance rover.

The helicopter's original task was to demonstrate that powered flight is possible on Mars, despite the planet's thin atmosphere. Ingenuity did so over the course of five flights in the spring of 2021. NASA then granted a mission extension, during which the chopper is serving as a scout for the life-hunting, sample-collecting Perseverance.

The rest is here:

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter aces longest Mars flight in 18 months - Space.com

Is there any way to speed up the search for life on Mars? It has been nearly half a century since the Viking landers gave an ambiguous answer to that ancient scientific question, and it often seems at least to the general public that we have made little progress since. Sophisticated rovers have found the conditions for Martian life, as well as the building blocks of life, but never life itself.

Now a new paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offers a possible tool for picking up the pace. A research team headed by James Cleaves of Howard University applied artificial intelligence (AI) to the challenging science of life detection to see whether a machine learning program could tell the difference between non-biological samples containing carbon and samples from living organisms. They tested 134 carbon-containing samples, including coal, rice grains, human hair, and amino acids (both synthesized and from meteorites) and had the AI vote yay or nay on the presence of life. The AI got it right in about 90% of cases.

The paper raises hopes that AI might revolutionize life detection, but several challenges need to be overcome first. The AI algorithm works by recognizing functional groups in chemical compounds known to be associated with biology. Alien life might use vastly different functional groups, however. And the more alien, the less certain will be the detection because AI is only trained on life as we know it on Earth.

The miss rate in the Cleaves study was about 10%. Although that is expected to improve with more sampling data to train the AI, in science we often require at least three standard deviations for proof meaning 99.7%. So, as impressive as the AI is, it is still not accurate enough to unambiguously identify life. And of course, none of the samples in its training set would be alien lifeforms, until we have such samples in hand.

Dont get me wrong. AI can and will play an important role in life detection. My own research group uses it for detecting specific movement patterns (the motility) of microbial life and comparing it to non-biotic sediment particles. Another great application of Cleaves approach will be to identify ancient life on Earth. One major question is when life first originated on our planet, and Cleaves AI could be used to screen samples suspected of being fossilized life. The more samples, the better it will get.This alone represents a major breakthrough.

As for Mars, the Cleaves paper suggests that AI could be used to analyze molecules detected by a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer on a planetary lander. Both the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers carry such instruments, so some of the data analysis could be done right there on Mars, albeit not with the same accuracy you could achieve in a lab on Earth. Personally, I would love to see an AI analysis of samples of thiophenes (sulfur-rich organic compounds) already detected by Curiosity. Or we could have it investigate the Martian meteorite ALH 84001, which was claimed in the 1990s to contain fossilized Martian life. While that claim remains controversial, with most scientists in the non-believer camp, I would still be curious what Cleaves algorithm would say. Life on Mars could be related to life on Earth due to an exchange of meteoritic material, so the AI might have a better chance of succeeding.

How does all this affect the long-standing question of whether we need a sample return mission to identify life on Mars, or whether that identification could be done on the planet itself? Each approach has its unique selling points. If the samples are returned to Earth, you can apply the full power and range of high-tech analysis in cutting-edge labs, now and in the future. On the other hand, in situ life detection has the advantage that you might be able to detect active life. If you put your sample in a box for the long return to Earth as is planned for Mars Sample Return you are probably limited to studying dead and possibly decayed remnants. Considering astrobiology only, in situ life detection would be preferable. But a sample return mission is meant to fulfill other planetary science goals, too, including the study of Martian geology, geophysics, climate science, and atmospheric science.

Best of all would be a combination of both methods in situ and sample return. But this isnt the greatest time for such a discussion. Despite decades of planning, there is a real danger that neither mission will happen soon. An independent review board examining NASAs Mars sample return plans recently found that the mission faces major challenges. In fact, its basically impossible given the currently projected schedule and costs. NASA set up its own review team in response, which is expected to report back next spring. While the outside committee emphasized the great importance of sample return, the U.S. Senate could still decide to scrap the program.

Either way, a 2028 launch (to collect and return samples gathered by Perseverance) now seems more than unlikely. The negative review has rattled the Mars science community, and even though my own preference as an astrobiologist would be for a life detection mission, cancelling the sample return mission would be a colossal loss for science. It could even derail, or at least damage, NASAs entire planetary exploration program. Hopefully, there will only be a delay instead of an outright cancellation.

Read more here:

How AI could help the hunt for life on Mars - Big Think

In a heavyweight fight, it was Mars Hill that landed the final punch.

The Class 3A No. 4-ranked Panthers scored a late touchdown and took the lead on a 2-point conversion with 2:42 remaining, then came up with a defensive stand to down host Scottsboro Friday night at Trammell Stadium.

The loss dealt a big blow to Scottsboros chances of being the No. 1 playoff seed from Class 5A Region 7. The Wildcats, who will share the region title with Guntersville and Arab after they all finished 4-1 in region play, will likely be the No. 2 seed when the playoffs begin in two weeks.

Its a tough loss, said Scottsboro head coach Cris Bell. I hate if for our kids. I thought our kids played hard, played their guys out. They made a couple of plays at the end and we didnt. We just came up short.

Scottsboro (7-2) scored on all three of its first-half possessions on drives that covered 59, 74 ans 65 yards. Jake Jones scored the Wildcats first touchdown on a 4-yard touchdown run, and Cole Raeuchle kicked the first of his five PATs for a 7-0 Scottsboro lead.

Mars Hill (9-1) responded with a 12-play, 80-yard drive capped by Skyler Sterlings 18-yard touchdown run, to tie the score at 7-all midway through the first quarter, but Scottsboro moved back in front 14-7 on Jones 7-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Wright. Mars Hill tied the game three plays later on Griffin Hensons 55-yard touchdown pass to Jackson Tingle, but Scottsboro used a 13-play, 64-yard drive that took 7:45 off the clock to regain the lead at 21-14 on Jones 7-yard touchdown run on a fourth-and-2 play.

Mars Hill missed a 37-yard field goal on the final play of the first half, but the Panthers tied the game at 21-all midway through the third quarter on JB Owens 2-yard touchdown run. Scottsboro answered with Jayden Gilberts 3-yard touchdown to that put Wildcats in front 28-21 with 3:31 left in the third quarter.

The Wildcats defense then forced a Mars Hill punt and were driving midway through the fourth quarter when a Panthers forced a fumble on an option play and Caden Chandler scooped it up and returned it 56 yards to tie the game with 6:06 remaining.

But Scottsboro followed with a big play of its own, as JC Heikinen field an onside kick and broke through the Mars Hill return team to go 50 yards for a touchdown, and Raeuchles PAT gave the Wildcats a 35-28 lead.

Mars Hill then drove 80 yards on seven plays, pulling within 35-34 on Jay Dobbs 3-yard touchdown run with 2:42 left. The Panthers then grabbed a 36-35 lead when Owens powered his way in for the 2-point conversion.

Scottsboros next possession started at its own 31 and produced a first down on the first play, but a loss of 1 on a run play and two straight incompletions set up fourth-and 11th, and Jones was sacked on the play to turn the ball over on downs to the Panthers, who were able to kneel out the clock.

Jacobi Edmondson let the Wildcats with 116 yards rushing on 17 carries while Keelan Alvarez had 53 yards on 10 carries and Antonio Brocks added 43 on five carries. Jones ran for 23 yards and completed 4 of 8 passes for 35 yards.

Owens rushed for 156 yards on 14 carries for Mars Hill while Dobbs added 59 yards on 13 carries, and Hanson was 3-of-6 passing for 86 yards.

The loss snapped Scottsboros eight-game home winning streak.

Let it hurt for a minute, Bell said, but weve still got a lot to play for. Got to bounce back Well get back to the drawing back and work on Decatur and the playoffs.

Find more Scottsboro-Mars Hill game photos athttps://zenfolio.page.link/AsJ8c

Read more:

Mars Hill's rally deals blow to Scottsboro's chances of being 5A ... - Jackson County Sentinel