How Science Works: Mars Edition

Mars Scientists Keep Finding Evidence for Water: This is Good!

While I was on travel this past week, the Mars water announcement occurred. It set off a lot of interest among people interested in Mars science, plus a bunch of commentary about “what, again?” somehow implying that we only need one announcement of Mars water and that’s that. There were worse reactions, including an incredibly stupid one from a so-called “entertainment” radio talk show host who claimed the announcement was a leftist hoax.

So, I just thought I’d tell you that science doesn’t work the way some people think it does. It’s not a leftist or rightist hoax. Although, I can certainly understand how an undereducated oaf who probably flunked his “Rocks for Jocks” class in college might think so. Particularly one who has made a career of hoaxing radio audiences for years.

Let’s take the Mars water discovery. It’s not just one discovery. It’s many small steps that add up to a final confirmation of water on the Red Planet. Mars is not a place where you can just look at it and see shimmering lakes of water. The place makes you work for your discoveries. Since nobody has walked on the planet and seen it “up close and personal”, we don’t have the same first-person evidence that you get here on Earth. Here, you can simply walk up to the lake or river or ocean, put your hand into it and get it wet. You know it’s water. You can take samples, measure it, figure out what minerals are dissolved in it, and so on.

You can also see what water DOES on our planet first-hand.  Just go visit some geological formations near your home and learn about how they came to be. I just drove through several canyonland areas in the U.S. Southwest, with many landforms carved, deposited, and cemented by water. There are rocks and minerals that need water to exist the way they are. Geologists have figured this out, and you can learn from their work.

Studying Water on Mars

On Mars, we don’t have the luxury—yet—of being able to touch the land or feel for the water. So, we use our robotic probes to test the surface rocks, image the landforms, and do chemistry tests on the rocks that are on the surface. Imaging shows us forms that look like they were formed by water. The chemistry tests give more data pointing toward the existence of water on Mars.

So, each time that an experiment on Mars has proven the existence of water in the samples and images, the finding is announced. And, it should be. Each test is a step toward proving that water is part of Mars (and has been). And, each step has been announced, also as it should be. This is the way science works — and taxpayers who whine about how “scientists are always finding water on Mars” — are showing their ignorance of the process they’re paying for. They should be happy that scientists ARE telling us about each step of the process that it takes to determine the existence and amounts of water on Mars. This is also how science works.

The next steps will be to figure out more about the water, which may (I stress MAY) give us some clue about whether or not life ever existed on the planet. There’s no proof that it did, or didn’t. That will take more investigative science. Which is also how science works.

Want to read more about the science of Mars exploration?  Here are some links, from people who are doing the science.

Journey to Mars

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

NASA and Mars

The more you know, the better you’ll understand the scientific process of Mars exploration.

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