09-30-2015, 10:06 AM
I remember reading a short story by Kim Stanley Robinson unrelated to the Mars trilogy (I think the title of the story was Discovering Life or something like that) where, in a near-future Earth of the 20th/21st Century, NASA discovers signs of bacterial life on Mars. The main character despairs over the fact that terraforming Mars will surely not happen in the near future.
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lak...ement.html
Reader-friendly article that details what hydrated minerals might be present in these surface features.
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lak...ement.html
Reader-friendly article that details what hydrated minerals might be present in these surface features.
Quote: - The best mineral matches to the spectral data are magnesium perchlorate, magnesium chlorate, and sodium perchlorate.
- The presence of perchlorate salts could lower the melting temperature of water at Martian conditions by 40 kelvins, making it much easier for water to melt.