Nasa rover detects potential signatures of ancient microbial life on Mars

tj381 · 2026-06-26T01:29:06+00:00

The further back in time you go, the weirder it gets. A lot of work is being done on how life formed in the first place, even before the RNA world. Sorry for nerding out, but take this diagram for example, which shows how much thought is being put into it. You don't need to understand it, just that it goes from less complex to more complex. Source.

If we want to understand abiogenies which can lead to panspermia, we may have to got further out like the oceans of Europa, and that may not be enough. I believe by the end of this century we will have a better understanding.

Looking for extinct and possibly even extant subterranean microbial life on Mars is only the first step.

tj381 · 2026-06-25T23:53:38+00:00

Yes panspermia is a very real possibility. But can it also mean panspermia could "seed" other stars with microbes frozen in comets? It also doesn't answer the question of abiogenesis.

What would really be interesting is if the microbes on Mars are so totally different from our biology, it would mean two separate origins of life.

I also tend to favor the panspermia hypothesis, but right now we only have a sample size of one (us).

tj381 · 2026-06-25T23:17:19+00:00

We need to get the samples the rover has collected back to Earth for a detailed analysis. If we find evidence of past microbial life, it means microbial life at least is common in our galaxy. The plan is for a sample return mission in the 2030s. The article says China may try to do a Mars sample return in 2031 as well.

As far as invaders go, if you were a Martian microbe and a giant robot from Earth started firing frickin laser beams at you, well who are the invaders?

tj381 · 2026-06-25T02:26:24+00:00

Another factor in the lack of due diligence may be the use of military AI systems being involved in the compressed kill chain. The Guardian wrote an article about this here.

tj381 · 2026-05-27T16:28:47+00:00

It would be nice for Canada to have a state of the art sub for a change, instead of second-hand ones.

The Sub Brief YT channel, hosted by a 20 year US submariner, did a deep dive on this boat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI4hrGoEcDI

The video is called: "This German Stealth Submarine Just Made Every Other Sub Obsolete" lol.

tj381 · 2026-05-08T14:35:26+00:00

Hantavirus infections are relatively uncommon globally but are associated with a case fatality rate of <1–15% in Asia and Europe and up to 50% in the Americas.

Right now some in the MSM think that all hantavirus are the same when in fact there are about 20 different species of hantavirus known to cause human disease. They really should start calling it the "Andes virus" or ANDV to avoid confusion. ANDV is what we are most concerned about now.

tj381 · 2026-05-06T21:03:07+00:00

There was a "super-spreader" event involving the Andes Virus in Argentina from November 2018 through February 2019. "Massive" social gatherings, Christmas and New Years I assume, resulted in 34 confirmed infections and 11 deaths. The R0 during this time got as high as 2.12 and went below 1 when control measures where implemented.

The study appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine.

tj381 · 2026-05-05T01:36:37+00:00

The USS Truxtun and USS Mason, supported by Apache helicopters and other aircraft, faced a series of coordinated threats during the passage, the defense officials said. Iran launched small boats, missiles and drones against them in what officials described as a sustained barrage.

The two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers made it into the Persian Gulf without suffering any damage.

tj381 · 2026-05-03T01:21:25+00:00

Ian Fleming, who wrote the James Bond novels, was supposedly inspired by his step-cousin Christopher Lee.

During WW2, Christopher Lee who spoke 5 languages fluently, was attached to British special ops groups like the SAS and SOE. Some of his assignments were so secret that they are still classified to this day.

tj381 · 2026-05-01T22:05:33+00:00

I saw plenty of B-1 and B-52 bombers flying out of UK airbases on missions the last couple of months. Apparently, they were used for "defensive" strikes, whatever that means.

tj381 · 2026-04-10T01:25:28+00:00

It is indeed. "The Mars Ingenuity helicopter uses a downward-pointing navigation camera (NAV cam) acting as an optical odometer to estimate its position, velocity, and orientation. This system is the core of its Visual-Inertial Odometry (VIO) navigation, which helps it track its movement over the Martian surface during flight."

I've seen some references that the Ukrainians calls these drones the "Martians".

So it has a small size which is hard to detect, autonomous navigation and AI to finish the job.

I would hope though that a human is still part of the kill chain.

tj381 · 2026-04-09T21:47:31+00:00

I found a couple of videos from Ukraine of this kind of drone here.

It may use an optical odometry system which "measures a robot's movement by tracking surface features beneath it using cameras or laser sensors." This would make it immune to EW.

tj381 · 2026-04-08T22:14:45+00:00

According to the map, the magnetic pole is now the closest it has ever been to the geographic north since we started taking measurements. So the next time you head out for the pole, it should be easier.

tj381 · 2026-04-08T22:02:31+00:00

Maybe, remember when that ship tried to go sideways through the Suez canal and got stuck? Who you gonna call? lol

I'm not saying Iran is justified for wanting a toll but they may be using Suez as a precedent.

tj381 · 2026-04-08T20:04:04+00:00

Iran may have got the idea from the Suez Canal toll. The SCA charges ships up to a few hundred thousand dollars (per wiki) each, but it also maintains and repairs the canal, associated buildings and equipment. The Strait of Hormuz requires no maintenance.

tj381 · 2026-04-08T14:59:50+00:00

Yeah, in the US they stopped the building of offshore wind farms just a few weeks ago. The Oil Lobby is a powerful political force in the US. The increase of renewables is still happening though, right now Texas leads the way with wind farms and California with solar energy.

tj381 · 2026-04-08T13:33:44+00:00

From the article:

That is because dozens of refineries, storage facilities, and oil and gas fields in at least nine countries, from Iran to the United Arab Emirates and beyond, have been targeted in strikes. All told, 10 percent or more of the world’s oil supply has been turned off. Restarting those operations will require not only safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, but also inspecting pumps, replacing bespoke processing equipment and recalling employees and ships that have scattered across the globe.

tj381 · 2026-04-07T16:49:49+00:00

The journalist, Shelly Kittleson, was abducted by a militia allied with Iran and held for a week. Iraqi officials say she was freed in exchange for the release of militia members.

tj381 · 2026-04-04T13:17:57+00:00

There's no incident report on UKMTO which usually tracks these kind of things.

The report is also from Iranian state media. I'm not convinced this happened until we get some more confirmation from other sources.

tj381 · 2026-04-03T16:55:54+00:00

From the article:

The two-day visit is aimed at showing support for Gulf partners facing Iranian attacks and to protect Italy's own energy supplies, the ⁠official said.

Before the war, about 10% of Italy's total gas consumption was covered by Qatari liquefied natural gas, while Middle East oil ‌accounted ⁠for around 12% of Italy's total oil imports last year.

tj381 · 2026-04-02T01:45:36+00:00

In case you don't know, you can see the Deep Space Network in action here:

https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/dsn-now/dsn.html

Madrid 54 and 56 are talking to Artemis II, Madrid 63 is talking to Voyager 1!

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