Although satellite data clearly suggests otherwise, scientists have determined that it is possible that the “Red Planet” could have a hidden
water table beneath its rocky crust. What does this mean for
future research? Read on and explore.
According to news sources, a small amount of water detected on Mars is locked in the polar ice caps, but despite this, newly-discovered geological features suggest that it is more than likely that water once flowed across the planet’s surface. Earlier this year, strange globs seen on the Phoenix Mars Lander offered the first tantalizing suggestions that the planet Mars among its other secrets, holds water. Although the images are not of a high enough resolution to carefully scrutinize details, they do reflect what appear to be liquid droplets growing, merging and then dripping on the lander’s leg over the course of a Martian month.
Scientists claim that this discovery sustains the theory that Mars may be inhabited although that remains a theory. The European Space Agency’s Mars Express satellite has utilized ground-breaking radar in their quest to discover a water table, which research indicated should be found within 9 kilometers (more than 5 miles) of the planet’s surface, an area well within the scope of the probe’s instruments. No evidence has yet been found.
In the words of scientist, Bill Farrell, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland:
“We shouldn’t give up the search just yet, however. The satellite’s radar signal should bounce back from shiny surfaces like water…If the layer of rock and icy soil above the water table is particularly conductive, it could be absorbing enough energy from the radar to obscure a telltale signal. We don’t want future geologists to look at their radar data and say no reflectance means no aquifer.”
So, is there a water table on Mars or isn’t there?
At this point, no one can say for sure but who knows?
Maybe one day ET can swim home instead of phoning home!
Can you imagine, what would a trip to the check-out line in a grocery store be like if cashiers had to manually enter each purchase?
Would packages in the mail ever reach your home if there was no bar code and scanner to trace its whereabouts?
The first bar code scanned was on a pack of chewing gum at 8:06 a.m. on June 26, 1974 at a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
The package of gum is in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.
Manufacturers recognized its importance and requested a product to decode the bar code and in 1980, LS100, the first hand held portable scanner was introduced by Symbol - a company that was acquired by Motorola in 2007. From the introduction by Symbol Technologies of the LS100, the first handheld scanner in 1980, to the sale of the three-millionth LS2208 scanner in 2008, Motorola’s barcode scanning experts have led the World in innovation, usability and sales.
The use of the bar code has resulted in significant economic and productivity gains for shoppers, retailers and manufacturers – with estimated cost savings of $17 billion in the grocery sector alone (according to GS1 US). Currently, bar code scanners are being used by 25 industries including consumer packaged goods, apparel, hardware, food services, healthcare, logistics, government, high-tech electronics, sales, inventory tracking, shipping, airline check-in, lottery & gaming. Bar code scanners have much reduced error rate of one in 36 trillion characters in comparison to rate for human data entry which is one error per 300 characters whereas; the cost to implement a bar code is only US$0.005.
Motorola has created a symbiotic relationship between bar codes and scanners, driving innovation with industry milestones from introducing the first handheld mobile computer with an embedded laser scanner to the development of PDF417, the most widely used 2D barcode in the world. In 2000, Symbol Technologies was the only company (that year) to receive the prestigious National Medal of Technology.
The award was a tribute to Symbol’s breakthroughs in miniaturized bar code scanning, mobile computing and wireless data and voice network communications, which have enabled new levels of accuracy, speed and efficiency. Motorola continues to innovate in Advanced Data Capture Technologies and produce the highest quality scanners on the market.
(Source : Motorola)