More signs of life on Mars!
While exploring the red planet, Curiosity found a rock containing sulfur, something scientists never imagined would be found on Mars.
Sulfur is one of the key building blocks for life to thrive on Earth, and its discovery on Mars is giving scientists new leads in the search for life on another world.
Amy Williams, a member of the rovers’ science teams and astrobiologist at the University of Florida, said the discovery was a complete surprise.
"It's really cool to see something that you've never seen before on another world," Williams said. "This is elemental sulfur. So, this is something that we've never been able to we just never run across on Mars before. And curiosity happened to roll over a rock busted open."
Williams said this sulfur could be explained if it was near volcanic rock, so the environment doesn't match the original theories of where this sulfur came from.
"This is yet again, another really lovely example of Mars throwing curveball at us," Williams said "So now what we get to do is try to figure out what other reactions, geo- chemical reactions, could generate sulfur in this environment where we're actually in basically a big channel that's been cut by water, billions of years ago. So, we're still trying to understand why, why this deposit is where it is on Mars."
Spacesuits from the pages of Dune
When astronauts go for a spacewalk, where do they...go?
For now, they use a high-tech diaper. But one group of researchers wants to change that.
The idea came from the book Dune by Frank Herbert, and it aims to recycle that wastewater in potable drinking water and other things, allowing spacewalkers to ditch the diaper.
Sofia Etlin and Christopher Mason are researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and designed this out-of-this world spacesuit.
"What's really exciting about the suit is it is a piece of hardware Sophia and I've been developing and with others in the lab to improve how we actually recycle water and improve in future missions to the Moon and Mars," Mason said. "But also, it can enable new safety new technology to be deployed in the suit."
Etlin said with these private missions aerospace companies are launching, it isn't practical to have suits that use these outdated methods.
"Someone might have a comorbidity and getting a UTI from the diaper you were wearing during your spacewalk isn't really acceptable," Etlin said. "Or you you're a space tourist, and you're pushing the industry forward, he first thing you want to put on after all that money is to go to space in the diaper."
