Life, Water on Mars Discoveries Linked To Metal Supermarkets


Metal Supermarkets is always focused on finding just the right product for our customers. Our customer service standard is held whether you’re buying for yourself, for business, or, as in this instance, to take humankind forward within our solar system. The places our products end up can be nothing short of exceptional.

In August of 2012, NASA’s Curiosity rover, piloted by a crack team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, touched down on Mars. The Curiosity has since relayed information that helps NASA determine the feasibility of a manned Mars mission before 2050.

The Curiosity has a variety of important tools built-in to research different aspects of the Red Planet, from its surface history (was there once life?) to its atmospheric makeup. Thanks to the Metal Supermarkets-assisted Chemcam, we now have real clues to Mars’ history of harbouring microbial life in what are now ancient, dried-out lakebeds. Curiosity found evidence of this at Yellowstone Bay, Mars. Further substantiating these findings, Curiosity also found that the building blocks for life are present just under the surface after organic carbon was been extracted from the ground and analysed by Curiosity.

Metal Supermarkets contributed components to the Chemcam, built by Vadnais Height’s LOFTech, a high-tech manufacturing company. The Chemcam is a device that is one of the Curiosity’s most vital tools, geared at analysing rock types, formations and to identify various matter extracted from Mars. It is also the most powerful laser sent outside of Earth for exploratory and analytical purposes.

The recent news about liquid salt water on Mars has been reinforced by Curiosity’s Chemcam distinguishing sedimentary rock on an ancient riverbed – this had been suspected but was, until the Curiosity came, unproven. News of liquid water is a potential incentive for terraforming the planet and making it habitable; this suggests astronauts may be able to lead a somewhat sustainable manned exploration of the Red Planet in the not-too distant future.

Metal Supermarkets congratulates NASA and the JPL for its findings so far and we here at Metal Supermarkets would like to wish for continued success in the exploration of Mars. Live long and prosper!

chemcam


Metal Supermarkets

Metal Supermarkets is the world’s largest small-quantity metal supplier with over 100 brick-and-mortar stores across the US, Canada, and United Kingdom. We are metal experts and have been providing quality customer service and products since 1985.

At Metal Supermarkets, we supply a wide range of metals for a variety of applications. Our stock includes: mild steel, stainless steel, aluminum, tool steel, alloy steel, brass, bronze and copper.

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