Comments on: Ice is nice, even on Mars

By: quasidog

quasidog — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:49:35 +0000

@Phil , well I wasn’t suggesting anything as It was a question I was asking. But thanks for your info.

By: Vagueofgodalming

Vagueofgodalming — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:30:33 +0000

Dunno if anyone’s reading this any more, but Emily has a good description of some of what Phoenix is doing - more the wet chemistry than the TEGA, but it’s claimed to be something never done before.

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001526/

As Tom’s link implies, AI has been slow on delivering on its early promise. You’d think anyone who comments on a blog would be capable of noticing that computers are stupid. Expert systems are a million miles from HAL.

By: me

me — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:53:44 +0000

Yes, we knew Mars has water ice.
Yes, it’s exciting for phoenix to have scraped some up.
What’s more exciting is the prospect of those little ovens showing us there’s more than just water ice and regolith under phoenix.

By: Tom Marking

Tom Marking — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:22:41 +0000

Name any industrial or commercial application currently using artificial intelligence.

http://www.cleverace.com/AI_and_expert_systems.htm

The first expert systems appeared in the late sixties. Today, they exist in many forms, from medical diagnosis to investment analysis and from counseling to production control. Due to the advances of the last decade, today’s expert systems users can choose from dozens of commercial software packages. At present, we accept as routine such expert systems as weather forecasting, online mapping and driving directions, diagnostic systems for automotive repair shops, and so on.

Many large corporations use expert systems in their business. The list of the companies using expert systems technology is long and varied: NASA, HP, Lockheed, Boing, DaimlerChrysler AG, various power, gas and oil stations, etc.

By: Randy A.

Randy A. — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:04:27 +0000

The bad astronomer said “…regolith (what most people call soil).”
Well, soil is not a synonym for regolith (”dirt” would work better in this context).
Soil has different definitions based on who’s talking:
A civil engineer would say “soil is anything I can cut with a D-9.” (Regolith plus soft rock).
A farmer would say “soil is the black stuff my crops grow in.”
A soil scientist would point out the the farmer’s “soil” was just the A horizon. Soil is characterized by horizons and “pedogenisis” (the physical and chemical processes that turn dirt or rock into soil).
Here on Earth, soil also has lots of living things — which is probably why IRONMANAustraliaon asked “Hey, if they do discover evidence of bacterial life, wouldn’t that mean it’s soil and not regolith?”
But without liquid water, pedogenisis wouldn’t occur, and soil wouldn’t form.
But it’s still REALLY cool to find water ice in the regolith!

By: LaCreption

LaCreption — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:02:13 +0000

We don’t know ‘for centuries’. 200 years ago an icecap was an icecap although it could have been salt.

By: Irishman

Irishman — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:59:08 +0000

Tom Marking said:
> Also, I can’t help but notice the almost total lack of AI (artificial intelligence) on the Phoenix lander.

Name any industrial or commercial application currently using artificial intelligence.

> It is now 40 years since the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” was released and NASA still has nothing remotely resembling the HAL 9000 computer.

Nobody anywhere has anything like HAL 9000.