Is There Water on Mars? I don’t know why NASA would be accused of hiding the fact there is water on Mars, but this is just what is happening. A photo has surfaced which seems to show a small stream of water which some think NASA is ignoring. It looks like the stream is running through sand and yet it could just be darker sand on top of lighter sand. The search for water on Mars has long consisted of announcements of the “we found water; we didn’t find water” type. I for one don’t understand why there has been so many conflicting announcements. If we think we found water why can’t we tell and even if we can’t tell right now, why don’t we send a rover there, it is certainly important enough. Water could mean there is life or was life on Mars. In 2015 NASA announced it found water guess where? It was on Mars. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter known as MRO identified the water and we were told it flowed intermittently. Supposedly the water flowed downhill during the warm season. In the cooler weather it was said the water stopped flowing. “Our quest on Mars has been to ‘follow the water,’ in our search for life in the universe, and now we have convincing science that validates what we’ve long suspected,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This is a significant development, as it appears to confirm that water -- albeit briny -- is flowing today on the surface of Mars.” NASA even gave a name to the flowing water, they called it recurring slope lineae or RSL. Does this look like NASA is trying to hide the fact water is flowing on Mars? In 2018 it was said in an article on Space.com that not everyone thinks there is water on Mars. It doesn’t seem to say why some people feel this way. Perhaps it is because water on Mars is extremely hard to find and one can look at thousands of photos without seeing water. There are some indications water in the form of oceans and rivers once existed on Mars but that was many millions or maybe billions of years ago. We tend to think water is very important to life. That is true on earth for our form of life, but would it be important for some other type of life which is not carbon based, or even one which is but somehow gets the moisture it needs without water being in liquid form? Take the example of the simple apparatus being used in Africa to draw water from the air. Perhaps beings could exist which have bodies which could do this, thus eliminating the need to drink liquid water. I am only throwing this out there to show there could be other ways life could exist. Scientists did say they discovered ice under the ground on Mars. I am not talking about a small amount of ice but a piece as big as Alaska or bigger. There could be more of this ice they don’t know about. The reason we are really concerned about water being on Mars, besides the fact it could support Martian life, is the fact it could support human life. After all we are planning on setting up settlements on Mars and people there will need water to drink and wash in. In 2017 an article appeared in the Los Angeles Times and it stated Mars may not have the water we thought it did. It stated the streaks scientists thought were water were actually dark sand. It cited the journal Nature Geoscience to strengthen its case. This would certainly be a big disappointment to the scientific community. It makes one wonder how some scientists can be so sure there is water on Mars and others seem sure there isn’t? There is another theory which states what is being seen an interpreted as water is frozen blocks of carbon dioxide or dry ice. The article even goes on to say Mars may not have had a lot of water in its past and the models could be wrong. BBC announced in 2018 a liquid lake of water was found on Mars. They said it sits under the south polar ice cap and has a diameter of 12 miles. This article claims most of the water on Mars is locked up in ice. It is said this discovery was made by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter. A puzzling statement was made by a professor from the National Institute for Astrophysics who said it is probably not a very large lake. I say this is puzzling because they knew the size. Could it be they are not too sure about that size or the fact it is even water? Two years ago, ScienceAlert put up an article with the headline “Those Signs of Liquid Water on Mars May Not Be Water After All.” Again, this was referring to the dark streaks which were observed. Interestingly many scientists believe there was water on Mars and even though there may not be oceans, rivers or lakes on Mars in the present day, they think the water may still be there but inside the planet. Years ago, there was a movie titled, “Robinson Crusoe on Mars.” I only mention this because it showed vast underground oceans on Mars, echoing what some scientists believe today. This year, 2019, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said evidence of water and other environmental factors on Mars means researchers should leave no stone unturned in their search for life on Mars. There it is again someone who should know mentioning the fact there is water on Mars. No wonder people are confused about this fact. Is there or is there not water on Mars, that is the question? I think at this point we have to say there probably is water there, but we are not sure about how much water exists on the Red Planet. I think we can say one thing for sure, NASA is not trying to hide the fact water is there, I think it is more of a case of some scientists not agreeing. There is no doubt finding water on Mars would not only mean there could be life on Mars, but even not finding water there doesn’t eliminate the chance, even though it might make it harder for life to exist. If we find life in our solar system will it all be based on carbon and even if it doesn’t look exactly the same as life on earth still be subject to the same rules? That question can’t be answered until the life is found.
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