Reading up on the Red Planet

Here is an article that offers up a number of books, movies and some music that all relate to Mars. It was published a few years back when Mars was as close to Earth as it well be for a long time.

The Face

Here's a little bit of Mars exploration kitsch...the original 1976 NASA press release announcing the discovery of the Face. Not too exciting, but they do mention the semblance of facial features. Now here's a 3D video of the Face. Hmm, what seemed facelike in 1976 now does not seem so incredibly facelike...

Collecting Moonlight

Here's a little article about a giant array of mirrors made to collect moonlight and direct it into either a large field of concentrated moonlight or a small floodlight the size of the truck. The article claims that moonllight (sunlight reflected from the moon) can't be reproduced by scientists and this is a chance to study the light. Many show up for the purpoted healing possibilites of moonlight.

WOW, check it out!!

From Popular Sciences Photo gallery are some interesting photos of spacestation docking in front of the sun, a unique picture of saturn and it's rings (with the Eath making a speical appearance), a start burst, explosions on the surface of the sun, NASA's new solar sails, a russian sat-suit (an old spacesuit from MIR that was turned into a temporary satellite carying old laundry and a radio transmitter that played children's laughter), lightening hitting a florida spaceshuttle launch site and many other photos not relate to space (like a robo-carp, yes a robot fish!!!) check it out!

A quick blurb about a permanent Lunar Base

Here's a short article about NASA's plans to create a permanent lunar base. This could be important to any planned Mars missions because mining chemical propulsion fuel on the moon could make the moon a refueling station for any planned trips to mars1

Buzz Aldrin Weighs in on New Moon Mission

Here is a short interview with Buzz Aldrin about NASA's new Orion mission to the moon.

Phoenix Lander Nearing Launch Date

The launch date set for August of the Phoenix lander seems far away now but scientists in Colorado, where the Phoenix was built, are scrambling to solve any problems that may surface during the mission. There aren't any known problems but the requisite perfection in measurement and execution of building and launching the lander is taking a toll on Phoenix's makers. I thought this was a great example of American culture realizing it's limits since the Phoenix is so-named because it is a second mission meant to resend technologies destroyed in the Mars Polar Lander crash of 1999. One head scientist is quoted as saying he is "scared to death" of potential problems the may occur with Phoenix, as the cost is over $400 million and $30 million over budget. I thought this was a great analogy for American culture in general because the American way is all about being secretly scared of imperfection and striving to overcome that fear with extravagant spending and spectacle.

Go to Mars Now

Here is an article about sending an archive of people's names to Mars on the next lander mission, Phoenix. The DVD will include about a quarter million names as well as art and literature. The deadline is already past unless you are already a member of Planetary Society but there will surely be more opportunities to send some meaningless information into space. Its a good conversatino started if not anything else.

What to wear on Mars

NASA held a contest for kids to design clothing for people to wear on Mars. Here is the winning design..pretty advanced for little kids, I must say. Mylar and solar panels and everything! Maybe when they grow up they'll actually be wearing something like this.

Postcards

Here is a link to where you can buy the book "Postcards from Mars", photographs from the rovers Spirit and Opportunity. These images have been edited to include only the best, supposedly, or those that reveal Mars as particularly beautiful and/or alien. The book is large, and has some history in it as well. It is books like this that will probably continue to inspire people to go to Mars. Now that we know what it actually looks like, even if it's not how we dreamed it would be, we are finding, I think, that the truth is more interesting and beautiful than the fiction.

Delicious Martian Food

Apparently some French chefs are developing recipes from ingredients that could be cultivated on Mars. They are making these recipes to be enjoyable and suitable to the Martian lifestyle. Mmm, spirulina gnocchi sure sounds delicious! According to the article, the main crops grown on Mars would be "rice, onions, tomatoes, soya, potatoes, lettuce, spinach, wheat and spirulina." Whoever eats some Martian cuisine in the future will definitely be having quite a healthy diet!

Galactic Ghouls

A fun UFO Diaries episode that investigates life on Mars. There are suggestions that the loss of so many Marian probes is due some unknown force that is purposefully sabotaging them. "The face' is mentioned in regards to this phenomenon and back in the 70s some believed that the NASA pictures showed amazing details like teeth and pupils. Could the Sphinx have been created by Martians?

Meh 2 outta 4 stars

This is a video I found that is talking about the challenges of having robots do the work on Mars instead of real humans. One of the more humorous arguments (I thought) was that a human would notice a dinosaur bone and a robot would not. But honestly, are they really implying that humans notice everything strange looking? Couldn't you just as easily say that a robot is going to notice many things a human won't?
Geologists are funny people.

Mars in Literature

I googled "culture and mars" and came up with this list of Mars in literature. I think it's pretty neat to see a whole timeline of Mars literature over the ages. I wonder how much the science in the books has changed over the years with new advancements in Mars exploration; although it seems to me that a lot of space literature talks about ideal worlds and space exploration far into the future, not necessarily realistic to today's science.

Something to do this weekend

Go see the new IMAX about Mars! It's called "Roving Mars" and it was done by Disney and funded by Lockheed Martin, the constructors of Mars orbiters and rovers. It was produced by Frank Marshall, who did Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Sixth Sense, and Phillip Glass did the music.

Mars photos

An artist rendition of what Mars and the technology surrounding it looks like in space. I can't tell if he is just a Mars enthusiast or he actually knows stuff. Take a look for yourself,

Mars Exhibit Opens in South Carolina

An exhibit simulating life on Mars opened last week at Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, South Carolina. It may seem like an aquarium is a pretty strange place to open an exhibit on Mars, but Steve File, the GM of Ripley's claims it is because the two share commonality in the field of discovery. The 2500 square foot interactive exhibit will show visitors how Earthlings will be lighter, stronger, and even younger (based on Mars years). Other features will include an overview of the history of Mars and a comparison of fact vs. fiction between Mars and its Hollywood perception. The exhibit, entitled "Mars: Search for Life," will run the whole of 2007 and had a cost of $500,000.

The First Martian Settlement

From space.com I found an article that tries to imagine and show what the first human base on Mars might look like. I thought it was funny that the whole trip back was one sentence and one picture when they took that same amount of time to talk about the astronauts posing for a picture.

Soundtrack for Mars

Here's something. It's about the songs the engineers and scientists working on the Mars Rover missions would listen to while managing the rovers' exploration of Mars. The songs fit whatever is going on with the scientists or the rover, echoing both frustration and triumph. For example, when the rover is stuck, they hear Elvis' "Stuck on You." Listed at the bottom is a full playlist for Opportunity. This gives me some hope, because although I am grossly unqualified to pursue a career in scientific space exploration, I could still get hired as their official maker of playlists (like that one guy that works for Chipotle).

Speak Martian

Or at least be able to correctly identify features on the planet. This website talks about the origins and definitions of words like "albedo" and "patera." Bernie briefly talked about this features last week but I thought this site would be helpful for when we start talking about the planet itself. Now, if you ever happen into a conversation about Mars you can use the right lingo and prove that your $36,000 a year was worth it!

Astronaut Love Triangle Highlights Mars Mission Challenge: Avoiding Crazy on Long Flights

Someone Else may have already posted this but I found it to be particularly pertinent to our discussion in wednesday's class. It's a PopSci article specifically about how this event might affect a possible Mars mission.

Astronaut Love Triangle Highlights Mars Mission Challenge: Avoiding Crazy on Long Flights

Martian wine

Here's an article about using a global warming effect to terraform Mars, creating an earthlike atmosphere. It goes further, however, in speculating what agriculture on Mars would be like. What would a Martian wine be like, for example? Seeing as how a wine's character depends so much on the land where it was cultivated, wines of the future would have a whole different complexity coming from Martian soil. Wine is so culturally-based that this is an interesting point to contemplate. As the article nicely states it, "the next fashionable terroir might, quite literally, be out of this world."

Psych Tests Reevaluated

In today's NY Times there was an article that discussed NASA plan to review their Psych Tests for Astronauts. This is significant because as Bernie pointed out it is destroying the mystique of astronauts. I also thought it was unfortunate that the story is so big because the article had a hard time focusing on whats being reviewed in the psych department with all the drama that surrounded Cpt. Nowak's diaper clad journey to Florida.

Martian Calendar

In the 21st century it is expected that people will be settling Mars. Trucking on out their in their spaceship minivans and starting a life with 2.5 kids in tow. Well.....how are these people to know when the best time for moving would be? God only knows no one likes to move when it's raining. And what about vacationing on Mars? I wouldn't want to arrive with my summer clothes only to find that it's freezing on Mars. This site describes the Darian Calendar and gives the time of Martian seasons in respect to that of Earth. Kind cool.

Mars Colonization? Elementary!

www.seibertnet.com/olgc_5th_gr_imagines_mars_project.ppt
Here is a power point presentation done by a fifth grade class on a Mars colonization project. Their project is very similar to one I worked on in fifth grade called Marsville or something. The idea is that the fifth graders think about techniques and problems associated with colonizing Mars: food, acclimatization, mental health, etc. are all considered carefully.
I immediately thought, "Wow,they're already training the first generation of colonists." Anyway, I wonder if anyone else in the class worked on a Mars project in elementary school and if the money doesn't come from the Mars Society. If there's any place to start grooming culture toward accepting Mars colonization as a real and legitimate venture, the elementary school is it.

Lisa

It is always enlightening and fascinating to read what other people are moved to write on an open forum. It will tell you something about how the rest of society thinks and feels, often to one's bewilderment or despair. To quote two comments from the New York Times' article "The Proper Care, Feeding and Discipline of Astronauts":

"Nowak was merely an astronut who went moonie loonie. Now she can go on a true long voyage into the void. A prison cell and a space station have a lot in common. Anyone who thinks space travel is more glorious has swallowed too much Tang.

There is no valid reason to send people into space. The Sci Fi writers never tallied the huge cost of sending people “out there” or the exponential difficulty of creating self-supporting colonies in places that make the Sahara look like paradise. Unmanned craft work better and do not risk lives. In fact, better to get our scientists and engineers to think up ways to rely less on fossil fuels and make our “spaceship earth” more sustainable. Folks longing to see Mars can go to Natural Arches in Utah and see a version that is more beautiful, less lethal, and does not cost billions or a 4-year trip to see."

"Space travel is one of humanity’s greatest endeavors and greatest trials. It may be expensive, unbelievably difficult, and dangerous. However, in the pursuit of knowledge of the universe, such challenges must be met and overcome. Though it may not always line up with being “in the black” and budgetary “bottom lines,” the implications of space travel insofar as its power to unite humanity are truly staggering.

When all of this is considered, it becomes clear that those who would look to take society to the stars must also hold themselves to a standard that is, for lack of a better word, higher. This includes ethics and a commitment to the very best of one’s nature. To have feelings for another is expected, to act on them in terms of adultery is questionable, but to strive to end another’s life as a result is inexcusable for any person. I do not find mitigation for this person’s actions by those who would use the oft-quoted phrase “a woman scorned.” Humanity can and must do better, otherwise we have no right to impose ourselves on anything other than our own already burdened planet. Please note that this also applies to the man who decided to cheat on his wife with his colleague."

Now, as for the second quote, the poster has clearly missed the fact that the man in question was in fact divorced, and thus not cheating.

I see, from these and other responses to the situation, that there are two ways to look at this. One way is to see astronauts as real people, who, like all of us, are subject to stress and capable of actions and reactions which cannot be predicted or explained. We ought to cut astronauts a bit of slack especially, because despite the fact that they are good a stress, they lead exceptionally stressful lives.

From this viewpoint, no amount of psychological screening will be of help in the end; the best that can be done is to provide support and counseling, and perhaps monitoring. Problems with this are clearly that 1) astronauts will not always allow themselves to be counseled or admit to problems, for fear of not getting to fly. 2) Any sort of monitoring of astronaut behavior seems a bit of a disturbing notion. Astronauts in situations such as a human mission to Mars would need to be governed and restricted and watched more closely than any other human beings in other situations, if you're taking this view. Does NASA need to become a military organization? I hope not...

The other view to take is that of the second quote; that human beings are flawed but capable of self-improvement and discipline. This view assumes that astronauts need to hold themselves to incredibly lofty standards under pressure, and simply "do better" than other people do. This, indeed, is what has always been done. As it is, this is just one of the risks of spaceflight, but it cannot be helped and spaceflight is worth it in spite of the risk. Even if now it comes to light that it is a system held together by spit.

Then, of course, there is the debate about the worth of spaceflight at all. On the one hand, it is the only frontier left to us, and it does have the power to inspire and unite. But, with the cost and the risk, I feel that this incident has caused many to question whether human beings are worthy to go into space. Problems will arise and people will occasionally "snap". If so, why spend millions and billions on a program where just one occurrence like this during a mission would mean the waste of all that money in one fell swoop, and probably other valuable lives? Do we really want to go out and do this, knowing that we are creatures subject to the illogic of our emotions, and that we risk everything on the mental and emotional integrity of our astronauts, when they are in an environment most suited to breaking that integrity down? Why not spend that money on renewable energy, or any other of the myriad of problems we can't seem to solve in our Earth-bound society?

Well, there is a valid point in that, I feel. We do have a responsibility to the planet we are on. Spaceflight is important, however, if only for the perspective it can give us. In any facet of human society, people are going to act in illogical ways, and cause problems. And I'd say that spaceflight is not the only situation in which the actions of one person could have dire repercussions.

Review of websites

I looked first at the Enterprise Mission site, and I have to admit that it reminds me just a touch of the Flat Earth Society. This is something that smacks of fake science, yet it takes itself so seriously you have to wonder. How many people believe this? Why? How do they respond to the countless arguments against it? To begin with, the "face" has been clearly shown to be just another rock formation. I don't really blame them for noticing its resemblence to the human head; I sometimes see unicorns in clouds myself. But what gets me is that people latch onto that image, and that idea, and go so far as to believe that there were civilizations, intelligence, that built these things on Mars (and the moon, apparently). Of course, if it really was a face sculpture it follows that intelligent creatures made it, but here is a website that is all about the study of the monuments of ancient civilization, and the only evidence, the only suggestion of this theory they have is a rock that is vaguely face-shaped if you squint. When people want to believe something, they believe it, by heaven.
Mars Society was more interesting. Since they are so firm in the belief that a mission to Mars is the most important thing mankind can do right now (personally, I think we might want to pay more attention to the planet we're on) they do seem a bit over-zealous. I was interested to learn, though, that there is an annual International Mars Society convention held at respectable universities. Such a thing would be fascinating to participate in. Mars Society might not be as all-important as they think they are, but I do think that it will help us get there someday. Anyone who devotes their time, effort and passion to such an endeavor can and probably will have an impact.

P.S. I will mention, too, that if Enterprise is going to try to convince us of the merits of Hyperdimensional Physics, it ought to finish construction of its "Ship's Library," where all the information is supposed to be.

Review on Mars Society and The Enterprise Mission

Since I had never heard of the Mars Society prior to class I had no idea what to expect when going to its website. One of the first things I noticed was a box on the left side of the page asking for donations. I am always a bit weary about any organization asking for money; especially if I have no idea exactly what these people do. Why do they need my money? What are they going to use it for? Is this a legitimate organization? Could this be a scam? Since we were asked to visit this site for class I was pretty sure that they weren't trying to swindle me. However, I still had no idea what exactly this site was and who was running it. It turns out that the goal of this society is pretty much the same as any other non-government funded organization: to educate and promote the ideas of the organization to the general public so as to one day see an overall goal realized. The overall last goal of the Mars Society is to see human exploration and eventual colonization of Mars. The Founding Declaration of the Mars Society was able to shed even more light onto the subject for me. It includes all of the reasons why they think we should invest in Mars exploration. Some, such as We Must Go For Our Future, are more convincing than others such as We Must Go For The Challenge. I don't think doing something because it will be a challenge is a good enough reason to justify doing it. However, Mars could very well be the key to our future since it has already been proven that it can sustain life.
What is most helpful about the Mars Society website is all of the news feeds that are featured on the main page. It looks as though the website is updated very often with any and all news that is relevant to Mars or Mars exploration. It will definitely be a great resource for assignments and papers for this class. Good to know.
The Enterprise Mission website is a little hard to take seriously on first glance. It seems more of a science fiction show fan site than a credible source for information on Mars. Everything in one way or another makes reference to Star Trek. Maybe if I were a fan of the show I would think this were kind of cool. However, since I in no way am it just comes off as a little silly. What's more is that the first half of the page seems to be made up of advertisements of some kind which further contribute to its unprofessional and amateur nature. However, after scrolling past all of this the site turns into a resource for many interesting articles and papers about Mars. Many include actual photographs taken on Mars. So it turns out that this website is actually a lot more scholarly than it first appeared.

Website Reviews

The Mars Society:
This site was fun to navigate in that it allows us college students to see what other students are doing. The University Rover Challenge is asking students to compete for a $5000 prize and a seat at the 10th Annual Mars Society Conference. I like that this does site does college outreach since it will be the next generation (pardon the pun) who leads to voyage to Mars.
What I didn't like about this site is its insistence that members, even on a tertiary level, pay to view articles. I joined the Mars Society so that I could have access to articles but my membership only extends so far, actually I am not sure it got me anywhere. They want me to make a financial donation before they will allow to see more extensive records. I understand that this society relies heavily on donations but it also needs to think of those who do support the cause, who are interested, just broke.

The Enterprise Mission:
Firstly, this site loses credibility by aligning itself with a fictional TV show. While I enjoy science fiction and the interesting stories that have come out of this genre it is still fiction! This site wants to convince people that there was a Martian civilization at one point yet it pars up with one of the most unrealistic sci-fi shows out there? Not Buying it. I think The Enterprise Mission should have gone with a more stream-lined, independent campaign that separates itself from fiction. There "mission" of uncovering ancient Marian civilizations is already hard to swallow, it sounds fictional, therefore they should have distanced themselves from any and every form of preexisting fiction. Plus, half of their site is under construction, not very user friendly.

Mars Society / Enterprise Mission

The Mars Society strikes me as an organization that is taking somewhat of a more practical approach to Mars exploration: they have discussions, news, a library, expeditions, etc... What I like about them is that they appear to be making a concerted and effort at organizing Mars exploration to see what we can find out and how we could eventually establish human settlements on Mars. What I also like is that they seem to be somewhat practical. They address various issue areas pertaining to Mars exploration (political, social, budgetary, etc), but it's also because a lot of the website is a compilation of various articles and news about Mars (aside from the political action section).

What I don't like about the Mars Society website is that their library, while it contains many credible articles, has a disclaimer that the Mars Society is not responsible for inaccuracies because the library isn't peer-reviewed. It seems to me that if the Mars Society wanted to be taken more seriously, they could start by having a research-worthy library. Another thing that bugs me is that their website is pretty sparse. It's mostly just a compilation of news and articles, with not very much information for the average internaute who wants to know more about the Mars Society but doesn't know what they're all about. After reading the mission statement, there's just nowhere to go. It would help if they had a section describing the specific goals they're trying to achieve.

That said, the Mars Society is like the Library of Congress compared to Richard Hoagland's website, Enterprise Mission. I think Hoagland is just a little to eager to interpret blurry photographs as signs of alien civilizations, or else he's been watching way too much X-Files. The references to 2012 alone are enough to make me roll my eyes; the fact that they're featured on the same website as all of this Martian conspiracy junk makes the whole thing downright laughable. I'm not sure how this whole thing plays into culture, but whereas the Mars Society contributes to a culture of curiosity and research, it seems to me that the Enterprise Mission contributes only to a culture of hasty judgments and alarmist conspiracy, something of which we have no shortage of in the world today. Maybe Hoagland really DID know too much, and NASA turned him into a raving lunatic so nobody would find out the "truth."

Enterprise Mission Review-"To boldly go where someone has gone before....."?

The Enterprise Mission is founded on the belief that certain Martian landforms, specifically, the "face on Mars" are artifacts of an ancient Martian civilization. There is much further speculation on the Enterprise Mission website about other possible alien artifacts on the Moon and Venus, but the evidence for them is less than compelling. From an unbiased perspective, one should clearly remain skeptical that extra terrestrial landforms are truly "intelligently designed," but the rhetoric used in the site is very interesting because it lends insight into the minds of those who really believe in the Enterprise Mission, namely Richard Hoaglund.
The argument is based on a few crucial assumptions and facts. First, Hoaglund openly assumes the "face on Mars" is humanoid (Hoaglund, 1989, "The Message of Cydonia). This assumption warrants further investigation into the landforms of the Cydonian desert. Some of the landforms there that do not resemble any part of the human body are supposedly Martian "pyramids." After extensive research and analysis of the landforms in the Cydonian desert, Hoaglund and his colleagues conclude that not only are the anomalous and evidence for ancient civilization, but also that they hold within them a secret code to deciphering an advanced "hyperdimensional physics." This is done using extensive measurements of the landforms and their relationships to one another and the star locations at the time they were supposedly created.
These images are food for thought, but the Enterprise Mission is more interesting to me as a conspiracy theory. The rhetoric of the mission relies heavily on a circa 1960 report by NASA known as the "Brookings Report." This is a report on the implications for humankind of contacting alien civilization. The report clearly states that making contact with extraterrestrial intelligence could be detrimental to the human race, and Enterprise Mission proponents use it as evidence for a NASA coverup of the truth about Cydonia. Reading the report makes it clear that NASA has worries about the results of "contact" but supporters of the Enterprise Mission find within it more than doubt. They use it to argue a conspiracy theory aimed at hiding any evidence of ETI, and the contents of the report are supposed to be more disturbing than the landforms themselves. Within the report, however, I found no clear evidence of coverup nor even a lack of objectivity. The Brookings report, like most reasonable minded approaches to SETI, expressed skepticism and a fair amount of moral support.
I thought, if the Brookings report were actually a coverup document aimed at an "extra-ordinary" conspiracy to hinder SETI, would I really be able to link straight to it from the Enterprise Mission site?

The Planetary Society

Here I have discovered a site that claims to be putting together a disk of multimedia, which they will then send to Mars. This will be a kind of time capsule, the intention being for a future Martian, decedent of the first colonizers from Earth, to pick up this disk and figure out how to play it. Thereby, the members of the Planetary Society can say 1) that they existed, and 2) give the Martians a glimpse of the place of their planet in the course of human history.
Now, this sounds rather slick, and is a good stab at a piece of immortality for anyone who wants to include their name on the multimedia disk (which anyone is welcome to do). Should it actually work as planned, it would certainly be interesting, since views of history do change a good deal according to politics and the state of the world. No matter what young Martians will eventually learn about their planet and the blue-green star their ancestors came from, a time capsule from the Planetary Society would give them a very different perspective on that star, and themselves. Imagine if we uncovered such a thing, a message from people who considered us aliens, wishing us well.
A few of the problems with this scheme that I foresee:
1) Can we really expect that such a time capsule survives for as long as they think it will?
2) Especially if, as the website suggests is possible, Mars is Terra-formed and given a new atmosphere which contains oxygen? (They paint this idyllic picture of their disk just sitting out on a green Martian field, and a young Martian just strolling up and thinking, "By Jove. A relic." And picking it up.)
3) Most importantly: even if they get this disk to work for them, how likely is it that Martians of many generations in the future could understand our language?
If I had to bet, I would put all my money on English being the common Martian language once Mars does begin to be settled by permanent residents. English is truly the international language of today. More importantly, at this point the US is the most likely nation to go to Mars first, though it is more than conceivable that this could change. Martian colonists might start out by speaking Chinese. Yet no matter what they start with, after a few generations the language will have changed a bit. Perhaps more than a bit. Eventually, it is possible that interpreters will be required to translate between Martian and English.
If we reach a point where Mars is colonized, or further still, if it is an independent planet, I imagine that technology will be such that Earth will be very "small" and interconnected, in terms of communication and distance: even more so than today. It might even essentially be one entity, rather than a multitude of nations (not sure if I like the idea). In any case, the easier it is to talk and travel around the globe, the more languages we tend to lose. I hope many, many Earth languages other than English survive such an interconnected future age.
I think, though, that on Mars there will probably be only one language. Maybe not if two or more nations establish colonies and do not communicate (ie, US colony and Chinies colony). But it is a much smaller planet, and it will posses from the beginning the technology to speak across its globe. If there becomes a need for residents of Mars to work together and talk to each other, people will become bilingual, and/or one language will develop.
I also think, however, that there will be strong dialects in Martian. It might be rather like Japan: a somewhat compartmentalized society. There will be enough communication between colonies at first so that the language will remain common, but travel from one point on Mars to another will be difficult, given the harsh conditions. So until the planet is Terra-formed or transport becomes easy, colonies will be allowed to develop somewhat independently, and that will make for different Martian dialects.

Or I could be dead wrong.