Manned NASA Mars Mission May Occur as Early as 2031

In Houston, Texas, NASA revealed that a manned mission to Mars may occur in 2031. Estimates of the cost of such a project range from $20 billion to $450 billion. The round trip of the mission is expected to last around 30 months. The spacecraft is planned to be built in orbit, due to the great size that it will need to be for the mission.

Source:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/29/nasa_mars/

Suspended Animation

Read this wikipedia article about Suspended Animation, and think about traveling to mars.

Here's a taste, "In July 2005 scientists at the University of Pittsburgh's Safar Center for Resuscitation Research announced they had managed to bring dogs back to life, most of them without brain damage, by draining the blood out of the dogs' bodies and putting an ice cold solution into their circulatory systems, which in turn keeps the bodies alive in stasis. After 3 hours of being clinically dead, their blood was put back into their circulatory systems, and the dogs were revived by delivering an electric shock to their hearts. The heart started pumping the blood around the frozen body, and the dogs were brought back to life."

Mars Society on Republican Debates

The Mars Society posed a question on the November 29th Republican CNN/YouTube debate. The question was posed to canidate Huckabee and asked, "What is your vision for human space exploration?" Huckabee answered that space was an important part of our society and cited things like GPS being important (including those people who used GPS to get to the debates that evening). Huckabee also joked that perhaps the first person on a rocket to Mars should be Hillary Clinton.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/11/republican-cnny.html

Discover Magazine Names Its Scientist Of The Year

" DISCOVER magazine has named Dr. David Charbonneau, the Harvard University astronomer renowned for his work with exoplanets, as its 2007 Scientist of the Year, in the December issue that hits newsstands November 13th. DISCOVER's Scientist of the Year award recognizes the researcher who has made the most important contribution to science in the past year.

Charbonneau was co-author of a paper at SPIE Optics + Photonics on the Gemini Exoplanet Discovery Instrument."

Link Here

Blow Up Base??

An inflatable habitat designed for explorers on the moon or Mars is headed for an Antarctic test run, NASA said Wednesday. The habitat is built by ILC Dover and looks like one of those backyard bounce things. It will make it deput on the South Pole early next year. NASA demonstrated the inflatable prototype on Wednesday at ILC Dover's Frederica, Del., facility and deflated and inflated it about ten times. The structure will be deployed in the Antarctic this coming January. The goal: to use just four people and deploy everything in four hours. Working in bulky cold weather gear will also make the deployment more analogous to the challenges facing astronauts clad in cumbersome spacesuits on the moon and eventually on Mars.
The habitat prototype will eventually serve as a multilayered test platform for new technologies such as health monitoring systems, self-healing materials, and protective radiation materials. When not inflated, the habitat can save on space and weight during transportation. This will be very helpful on long trips to the moon and Mars. Lets just hope that this base dosent get hit by an meteor and pop!

First Stage of Mars-500 Preparation Completed

The Mars-500 simulation is underway, with the first stage of preparations concluded, which was announced today. One of the purposes of the first stage was equipment preparation and testing. The main experiment will be an attempt to simulate a manned Mars mission. Mars-500 will be run by the Russian Institute of Biological Problems, and the main stage of the experiment should begin in late 2008.

Source:
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071129/90068605.html

Mars Express Circles Planet 5,000 Times

Mars Express has completed 5,000 orbits of the red planet, just short of four years after it arrived on Christmas day, 2003. The craft has sent back marvellously detailed pictures of Mars' surface, adding to our knowledge of the planet's geological history and evolution.

For more information and to look at this amazing pictures of Mars go to: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/26/mars_express_5000/

Mars Rover "Spirit" Needs Sunny Slope to Survive the Winter

With its solar panels still coated in dust from the terrible martian dust storms last August, Mars Exploration Rover Spirit must search for a hill with a steep 20-25 degree angle to be able to tilt the rover's solar panels towards the sun enough to survive the long martian winter. This is a difficult task due to the fact that one of Spirit's six wheels is no longer working and so the rover must drive backwards dragging the 6th wheel as it moves along. Still the MER team is confident that they can reach the spot by Christmas.

According to the mission status webpage:

The rover's drive on sol 1378 (Nov. 18, 2007) ended early when Spirit's unusable, right front wheel got snagged on a buried rock, causing the rover to turn and drive into a "keep-out zone." Two Martian days later, on sol 1380 (Nov. 20, 2007), the drive faulted out again when the rover experienced more than 90-percent slip after traveling 3.6 meters (11.8 feet). The rover's handlers continue to work on strategies for enabling Spirit to drive away from the outcrop.

Spirit needs to successfully cross "Home Plate" where it is now, reaching the site and then inching down the slope since Spirit cannot climb that steeply anymore. Although Martian winter is not expected to start until around April 2008, the team wants to have Spirit in position by January.

As soon as Martian winter is over however the intention, says MER science principle investigator Steve Squyres, "is to put the pedal down and head for von Braun." Von Braun is the next science site the team is anxious to get to. Opportunity's landing site was much closer to the equator and not as subject to seasonal fluctuation's in solar power and continues to work away studying the "Smith" rock layer that is part of the "bathtub ring" around Victoria Crater that the rover has recently been able to drop down into.

NASA Outlines Manned Mission to Mars

Nasa has released details at a meeting in Houston, Texas, of its strategy for sending a human crew to Mars within the next few decades. The US space agency envisages despatching a "minimal" crew on a 30-month round trip to the Red Planet in a 400,000kg (880,000lb) spacecraft. The "Mars ship" would be assembled in low-Earth orbit using three to four Ares V rockets - the new heavy-lift launch vehicle that Nasa has been developing. Notionally despatched in February 2031, the mission's journey from Earth to Mars would take six to seven months in a spacecraft powered by an advanced cryogenic fuel propulsion system.

The Estimates of the cost of this trip of mounting a manned Mars mission vary enormously, from $20bn to $450bn. The details are highly subject to change, and may not represent the way Nasa eventually chooses to go to the Red Planet.

The cargo lander and surface habitat would be sent to Mars separately, launched before the crew in December 2028 and January 2029. Once there, astronauts could spend up to 16 months on the Martian surface, and would use nuclear energy to power their habitat. Astronauts could grow their own fruit and vegetables on the way. But the document points out that options for aborting the mission or furnishing the crew with new supplies would be extremely limited. The difficulties of re-supply mean the astronauts would have to be remarkably self-sufficient. They would need to be well-versed in the maintenance and repair of equipment and perhaps even able to manufacture new parts.

The spacecraft itself would be equipped with so-called "closed-loop" life support systems, in which air and water would be recycled. Plants would be grown onboard to feed the crew and contribute to the "psychological health" of the astronauts. But the report, authored by Nasa official Bret Drake, who sits on the agency's Robotic and Human Lunar Expeditions Strategic Roadmap Committee, states that many challenges remain for ensuring safe passage for the crew.

Nasa needs to come up with solutions for effectively protecting the astronauts from the high levels of cosmic radiation they will be exposed to in deep space and on the surface of Mars. They will also need medical equipment for the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses or injuries.

Nasa proposes using the Moon as a testing ground for many of these new systems.Details of the plan, which comes under Nasa's new Constellation programme, were presented at a meeting of Nasa's Lunar Exploration and Analysis Group.

Molten Planet

New research suggests that Mars remained a molten, red hot planet for tens of millinos of years longer than previously imagined. This is found from Mars' meteorites that have found there way to earth. Scientists think that to explain this longer length of hotness, a early thick atmosphere is responsible. Basically, something like a rocky crust or a thick atmosphere is needed as an insulatro to kept Mars hot. This is why the atmosphere is suggested. Scientists also believe that a global magma ocean existed in the final stages of formation and slowly solidfied. To read more check out: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/071127-st-molten-mars.html

Amateur Viewing of Mars Improves Over Last Month

Mars' brightness has nearly doubled in the past month, becoming easily viewable by the naked eye in the evening sky. One of the better viewings will be Monday, November 26th at around 10 pm. It will be found in the Gemini constellation, almost touching the moon. The picture to the right was taken by an amateur astronomer this week, with a basic 10 inch telescope. You can see the blue-ish "North Polar Hood" pretty clearly because it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere. This article explains the North Polar Hood as "a giant icy cloud that forms over the Martian north pole during winter." The ice crystals floating around in the cloud scatter the light to make it appear blue, which makes for a great sight on top of the bright red planet. I don't have a telescope, but we have pretty clear skies this weekend in Oregon so I'll be trying to spot Mars with just my eyes.

Mars Rover Team Looks for New Recruits

The Univeristy of Nevada's university Rover Challenge (URC) team, a group of engineering and science students is looking for recruits for next year's competition. The URC is organized by Mars Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to the research and development of a mission to the red planet. The goal of the competition is to design and construct a remotely controlled rover that is capable of performing a series of engineering and science tasks in the Mars-like desert of Utah.
For more information on the competition go to www.marssociety.com

India plans a trip to Mars!

India is apparently likely to carry out scientific activities on Mars. The Indian Mars Mission is likely to focus on studying the Martian atmosphere and the weather. The project will also focus on searching for water. Indian space scientists feel that at this point they cannot affors to stay behind. However, there is still alot of analysis that needs to be done before finalizing the trip to Mars.
This trip has triggered various ideas in the minds of the people in India. Some feel it will be a great expedition while others say that the money could be used to tackle more important issues like poverty.

A trip to Mars would be a great one but one can only depend on time to decide when it will be flagged. A well directed effect such as this might add a feather in the cap of India's space ventures and bring it at par with other so-called scientifically advanced countries.

ASU Ignites China's Youth for Mars exploration

Forty Chinese high school Students came from all over China to compete in the final round of the China Youth Space Academy, an academic challenge joint partnership with Arizona State University, the chinese government, the Chinese government-run Web site, China.com.cn, and Beijing's Flying Spirit advertising agency.
The China youth Space Academyaims to excite high school students about space science and engineering-a major focus for ASU-and to create a communication channel for students from the U.S. and China to understand and respect each other's culture.
The 15 students who scored highest amnog the 40 finalists will travel to ASU in January and join a group of high school students from Arizona for a 10-day hands-on space exploration experience. Together the two groups will work on space exploration projects at ASU's Mars Space Flight Facility in the School of Earth and Space Exploration.
During the two-day national competition, held November 17 & 18, in Beijing, student competitors were interviewed about their interests, capabilities, and long term goals.The students competed in a Jeopard-style question-and-answer contest with tough questions drawn from a variety of subject areas. Then came a talent show where each student demonstrated proficiency in some area. The fields ranged from singing, fol dance and musical instruments to artisitic paper cutting and caligraphy. The toughest part of the competition was designing a viable outpost that could support a sux-person crew on Mars for 15 months with no supplies from Earth. The competitors used bagfuls of everyday materials from the dollar store to build these models.
Students, who were divided into eight teams of five members each, were armed with a list of scientific data about the harsh Martian environment and basic human survival necessities, such as daily quantities of food, water, air and power. The teams had to decide where their outpost would be located, what its scientific purpose would be, and what skills the crew would have. Then they had to design an outpost habitat and build a model of it using ordinary materials such as paper cups, Styrofoam balls, CDs and plastic tubing.
The deadline was 8 a.m. on the second day, when each team had 10 minutes to describe their model's details as the judges looked on and assessed how carefully thought-out each plan was. Questions from the judges probed the students' reasons for choosing various aspects of their design.
Among the judges were ASU faculty and staff, and others from prestigious Chinese institutions, including Tsinghua University and the Beijing Planetarium. The entire two days of the final competition was videotaped by China Central Television and is being edited into a show to be broadcast throughout China.

Mars Wars

No, there are really wars on Mars; however, Mars Wars is a new book by Thor Hogan. The book is essentially a history of Space Exploration Initiative (SEI). In his book Hoga discusses what caused the SEI to fail and why it matters. The book is availible on NASA's website for $15, or better yet free online, here (warning, this is quite a large PDF). The book provides insite to NASA's inner workings and its difficulties with dealing with the governmnet.

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1001/1

Mars on the Radio

John Callas, of JPL, is reporting on the status of the Mars Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. The broadcast will cover the history of the rovers during their 4 years on Mars. Callas will be joined by Emily Lakdawalla, Bruce Betts and Mat Kaplan. They will also be looking at the Comet Homles. Check out the broadcast at:

http://www.planetary.org/radio/show/00000263/

Men are from Mars, Woman are from Venus

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus is a book written by John Gray. This book that was written in 1992 offers many suggestions for improving husband-wife, man woman relationships by understanding the different communication style and emotional needs of the opposite gender. The book states that men and women are as different as beings from other planets likening men and women to the classical Roman god Mars and goddess Venus.
In contrast to some psychologists and feminists who emphasize similarities between the sexes, Gray writes almost exclusively about differences. Gray says that his "Martians" and "Venusians" are only stereotypes and cannot be applied blindly to individuals.

India Plans Potential 2015 Mars Mission

India has scheduled a mission to the Moon for 2008. The next step for India, according to some, is a mission to Mars. That development might happen as soon as 2015. The search for water on Mars might be among some of the project's goals. Some feel that India must attempt to keep pace with other countries in the race to Mars.

Source:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/After_Moon_India_eyes_Mars_mission/articleshow/2549169.cms

Technical Difficulties Have Not Yet Stopped Rovers on Mars

The two NASA Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, are still at work on the Martian surface. The lengthy durations of their missions is all the more impressive because of the problems that have occurred that might theoretically have had dramatically negative effects on their functions. Spirit is losing power. Opportunity has lost two encoders. However, in spite of these potential setbacks, the rovers' missions continue.

Source:
http://www.cio.com.au/index.php/id;750137851

Mars is sooooo COOL, Yah Man!!!

WHY IS MARS COOL?

Mars is cool because...
it is cool! The average Martian temperature is -63°C, with a high record of 20°C and a low record of -140°C. The Martian day is 24 hours and 37 minutes Earth time -- pretty close to ours and really cool! The Martian year, on the other hand, is 687 Earth days -- nearly twice Earth's Holy Cow thats Cool!
Mars's moon Phobos orbits Mars every seven hours (the Moon orbits Earth every 27.3 days WoW Cool. Martian air contains 1/1000 as much water as Earth's, but still can form clouds, fog, and frost how does it do that? I dont know but it is Cool! If you weighed 100 pounds on Earth, you would only weigh 38 on Mars thats cool if you are overweight!
The mass of Mars is 6.4219x10^23 kg, or the mass of 4,700,000,000,000,000,000 blue whales! No Way Cool!

Why is Mars Red??? Funny Version

Q:Why is Mars red?
A:Mars is red because that is where men are from. Men like red, so Mars must be red. Men get red when they are angry or embarrassed or trying to hold back a fart in mixed company.

Q:No, really, why is Mars red?
A:Mars is red because it is made up of thousands or even hundreds of Mars bars. The light traveling through the galaxy gets reflected and refracted and by the time it gets to earth it is red. Mars, when you are close to it, actually looks like spumoni.

Q:Seriously, why is Mars red?
The ancient Roman god, Mars was a great hunter (and resident of Georgia) who was smeared with red blood. Mars had a gun rack on the back of his truck, drank lots of beer and liked to shoot off his guns on New Year's Eve. Mars was originally called the Redneck god, but over time, people just started saying, "Mars is red."


Mars is red because it has such a thin atmosphere, which cannot hold the blue like the earth's atmosphere can. Mars is also red because of all of the rusted iron dust surrounding the planet and all the rusted iron on the planet.

ESA Releases List of Potential Landing Sites for 2013 Mars Mission

The European Space Agency (ESA), continuing with its plans for a near-future Mars mission, has released a list of potential rover landing sites on the Red Planet's surface. The ExoMars mission, scheduled for launch in 2013, will search for signs of past or present Martian life. According to ESA officials, the cost of the ExoMars mission will be approximately one billion euros. The ExoMars mission shows that many European nations are very interested and involved in the ESA's Mars policy.

Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7093172.stm

Are we Martians?

In the past there has been a theory that life on Earth actually came from Mars. This idea was not widely spread however, lately there is more evidence to support it. However, a experiemnt from Europe shows that life could have survided inside rocks. Scientists put fossilized microbes into a fake meteorite strapped to the outside of a probe. In the small amount of rock the recovered, the compounds indeed survived. This could prove that it is possible for Mars rocks to contain life, but on the flip side, for earth rocks to go to Mars and contain life.
Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311317,00.html

Space Race!!

Ok not really, but Russia is beginning a 14 day experiment to prepared for a maneed flight to Mars. The simulation will also include a 105 mission. They will be putting together a volunteer international crew to do the 105 day experiment. This longer experiment will have 6 volunteer live isolated from the world in a 550 cubic meter model spaceship. They crew can only communicate through electronic mail. So it is intereting to see that the Russian Space program is once again a competitor in the race against the U.S. but this time to Mars.
Link: http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=12073587&PageNum=0

Colonizing Mars

This book explores and attempts to predict and/or create a roadmap to the colonization of Mars, with an emphasis on the civil and cultural issues.

Read it online!

Mars is Closer than Ever

It is now reaching the home stretch of the last good apparition of Mars until 2016. Now blazing in the late-evening east-northeast sky like an eye-catching yellowish-orange "star," Mars is less than six weeks away from its closest approach to Earth during this apparition. At the start of the year Mars was 221 million miles from Earth, and this week it will be 63 million miles away. Also, it now shines 10 times brighter than it did on New Year’s Day. Since Jan. 1, Mars has progressed more than halfway around our sky and now is on an easterly course through the background stars of the Zodiac. It currently resides smack in the middle of the constellation of Gemini, the Twins. But on Thursday, Nov. 15, that steady eastward course is going to come to a stop.

Mars Rovers still going strong....

After more than 3 and a half years of operation NASA's twin Mars Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, continue to thrive and show no signs of stopping as they relay a wealth of valuable data back to Earth.
NASA announced on October 15th that it was extending, for a fith time, the activities of the robots through 2009. These rovers that make up the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project, have been on a mechanical and scientific roll since they landed on opposite sides of Mars in January of 2004. They are both functioning well, despite the fact that each one only had an engineering warranty of 90 days of life to carry out their respective missions.

Mars Habitat Simulation

The Mars Analogue Reaserch Station (MARS) Programme sets up simulations of the Martian atmosphere here on Earth, allowing people to test protocols and procedures that will be required for human operations on Mars, and also to test equipment that may be carried and used by human missions to the Red Planet.

Crews spend between two weeks and a month living in a habitat simulating Martian conditions. They wear spacesuits, theres built-in time delay for communications with "Earth," and they can only use equipment and materials from inside the habitat.

These experiments are done at two locations, Devonn island in the Artic Circle and the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. Two more locations are planned for the future and one is currently under construction in Iceland.

For more pictures go to:http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/space-travel/mars-programme-simulates-living-on-the-red-planet-here-on-earth-321575.php

Mars to move Backward

Since January 1, Mars has progressed more than halfway around our sky and now is on an easterly course through the background stars of the Zodiac. Mars currently reside smack in the middle of the constellation of Gemini. For the past few weeks Mars has appeared to slow in its eastward trajectory as seen from Earth. On November 15th it will pause and come to a halt. Then for the next 11 weejs it will reverse its course and move backwards toward the West. On January 30, 2008 it will pause again, before resuming its normal eastward direction.

Alien Arcade

Here is a link to an online arcade where you can play all sorts of cool Martian alien games. Kill those blasted Martians before they come and kill us! Been Abducted? The website even has a link for all of you alien abtuctees who have been hybridized by the damn Martians. Now you don’t have to feel like the only one anymore because believe me you aren’t! HAAAA! I feel crazy it’s getting pretty late here in the library. BUT I CANT STOP BLASTING THESE DAMN ALIENS. Play away boys and girls.
http://www.aliencentral.com/games/

Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters

Ever heard of a "Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster"? Well here is a link to the hypothetical recipe for the drink from "Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy". The author of this recipe deeply ponders the meanings of the ingredient descriptions given by the writer of Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. He hypothesizes about what four litres of Fallian marsh gas, three cubes of Arcturan Mega-gin, and the tooth of an Algolian Suntiger are and offers a recipe that resembles the original as closely as our earthly ingredients allow. The drink sounds pretty cool and I think I will give it a go. It surely will be strong and will give you a night to remember… or forget. Who knows? Enjoy. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A799419

Mars As Art

I found a cool link to a collection of real photographs taken by spacecraft during there missions to Mars over the past four decades. 5000 of the hundreds of thousands of pictures made available from NASA and ESA mission archives were nominated by scientists but only 45 were selected to be featured in this exhibition. The 45 were selected by professional photographers, artists, and photo editors. Every successful mission to Mars since Viking is featured in the exhibit. The exhibit was unveiled on July 20, 2006, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Viking Landing. I put one of the images as my background it is rad. http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/Mars_as_art/

Doin' It

How would you not have sex if you were in space?? Would you just say "nah i'll just do it next time..." No??? are you kidding me??? I have 5 words for you: 1)Once 2)In 3)A 4)Lifetime 5)Opportunity. Sorry this is inappropriate. But honestly, lets be serious. Your tellin me never in the history of the universe has any living thing nevermind human astronauts with an epic chance to be the first to do it in space, ever done it in space? Get outta here, Im sellin.

Moons of Mars May Be Mission Destinations

The two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, seem to some scientists as candidates to be the destinations of possible space missions. Missions to the Mars moons are projected to be far cheaper than missions to the Mars surface. Phobos is thought to probably have many Mars meteorites on its surface. The gravitational pulls of the two moons of Mars are each a small fraction of that of the Earth, allowing for potentially easy landings.

Source:
http://www.topnews.in/man-all-set-walk-two-moons-mars-phobos-and-deimos-25629

Mars Quiz!

Test your knowledge on Mars! This quiz isn't necessarily a "hard" quiz but it is a good test of your Mars smarts. Maybe you can learn a new thing or two! You can also find some other fun things to do on this website as well if you want to do some other interactive things that deal with Mars!
http://science.discovery.com/convergence/mars-rising/quiz/quiz.html

Mars Rising

A new documentary has come to us from the science channel called Mars Rising. It is a six part documentary series in which they interview over 300 scientists from numerous countries. Mars Rising offers a view into the challenges, obstacles, fears, and successes of a Mars mission. Subjects include spaceship design, possible trajectories, rocket fuel, finding new life forms, new thoughts on astronaut selection and training, space suit engineering, medical training for deep space, blasting through Mars’ atmosphere, life support systems and robotics. This show is obviously a very good show to watch for this class because it directly deals with Mars Exploration. I'd recommend checking it out on Tuesday nights at 9!
http://science.discovery.com/convergence/mars-rising/mars-rising.html

ESA Looking to Finalize Mars Mission Plan

The European Space Agency (ESA) is hoping to send a robot to Mars to search for signs of life on the Red Planet. The "ExoMars" mission, as it is called, is designed to involve parachuting a robot to the surface of Mars, where rock samples will be collected for approximately six months. The planned year of the mission launch is 2013. ESA also has aspirations of orchestrating a manned Mars mission, at some point in the future.

Source:
http://www.javno.com/en/world/clanak.php?id=96507

China to Send a Mars Probe in 2009

The China National Space Administration has announced its intention to send a probe to Mars in 2009. Russia will work with China on the project. The Chinese probe is to be sent to Mars with the use of a Russian rocket. China also hopes to land an astronaut on the Moon within the next fifteen years. These plans seem to reflect China's hopes of becoming a significant presence in space.

Source:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22728987-23109,00.html

The States That Have Contributed to the Study of Mars

20 states in the union have helped contribute to the study of Mars. These states have people living there that are Mars team members. Sorry to say folks that Washington is not one of the states, man how embarrassing. If you think that you have given a significant contribution to the study of Mars you can fill out an application and become a Mars team member at this site. Along with a list of the states that have contributed is a list of countries that have helped study Mars.

Here is the site if you want to fill out the application to be on the Mars team and get your state on the list.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/people/

Sex in Space

Sex in the workplace is looked down upon, but what if you cannot leave your workplace and are forced to be there for years at a time? This is a problem astronauts will face as they are travelling to Mars in the future. Humans are creatures that have hormones and want to have sex. On a long mission to Mars it will defiantly show up. NASA currently does not ban sex between crew members and has commented by saying "We depend and rely on the professionalism and good judgment of our astronauts," said NASA spokesman Ed Campion. "There is nothing specifically or formally written down about sex in space." NASA has not gone into any more depth about the topic of sex in space. A recent book written by a French astronomer, however, alleges NASA studied the feasibility of 10 sex positions in space during a space shuttle mission in 1996, though this claim has been discredited, and has been vigorously denied by NASA. We will have to see in the future if NASA will choose to deal with this topic or keep avoiding it until it just happens.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/generalscience/sex_space_000313.html

The Legacy Left Behind by Percival Lowell, Part II

In 1895, Lowell published his book Mars, where he theorized that Mars was once like the Earth but since had lost its oceans; so in order to preserve life on their dying planet, the Martians built a vast irrigation system. It was met with some skepticism. For example, some skeptics had questioned whether the small polar caps can even support an irrigation system that large. However, “the public ate it up….His books were best-sellers, and his sensational lectures were standing-room-only affairs, with frenzied throngs spilling onto the street. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Lowell’s advanced canal-building Martians were all the rage on Earth” (Grinspoon, 2004). This frenzy affected how science fiction writers portrayed Mars and the life on it. The topics for these fictional works ranged from the invasions of Earth by Martians to the depiction of mankind’s voyages to a habitable Mars.

Source:
David Grinspoon's Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life

The Legacy Left Behind by Percival Lowell, Part I

Upon hearing about Schiaparelli’s telescopic observations of Mars, Lowell financed his own observatory at Flagstaff, Arizona in 1894. In less than a year of observations, Lowell began to make wild speculations about what he had observed. Lowell claimed that the dark areas on the surface of Mars are deserts, and the canals are built by extremely intelligent beings to irrigate the desert planet with water from the polar caps. He theorized that Mars was once like the Earth but since had lost its oceans; so in order to preserve life on their dying planet, the Martians built this vast irrigation system.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050926_mars_lore.html

The Legacy of Giovanni Schiaparelli

During a close opposition of Earth and Mars in 1877, Giovanni Schiaparelli, an Italian astronomer, was able to observe the Mars clearly and distinctly through an 8.75-inch telescope. In this observation, he saw a network of long straight lines on the surface of Mars. He drew these markings and described them as canali, which in Italian means channels. However, the word was mistranslated into English as “canals”. The mistake led many people to speculate that these canals are actually irrigation canals built by intelligent beings on Mars. This theory was fueled by the excitement of the public over the construction of the Suez Canal, which was an engineering marvel of the era. His observations would eventually persuaded Percival Lowell to began his infamous observations and work on the planet Mars, which for decades, before the first flyby of Mars by the Mariner 4 spacecraft, has greatly influenced people’s knowledge of life on Mars.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050926_mars_lore.html

Surgery on Mars

This past September SRI Internation and the University of Cincinnati held a series of tests that put a robotic surgeon against a human doctor in zero degree atmosphere. The purpose: To measure how good the robotic surgeon would be. The goal of this robotic surgeon is to be able to treat astronauts on Mars. This robot would be made to be small enough to fly on a space craft to Mars and would be able to perform life saving efforts. By having these robots on Mars, people on earth would be able to help save lives on a planet than is thousands of miles away. This would be a very interesting tool to have both in Space and on Earth and SRI is hoping for Pentagon approve to start field testing by 2009.
Link: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/robotics/4230099.html

Mars Rovers keep going and going and going

Both of NASA's Mars rover continue to stay in great working operation after more than three and a half years of exploring the martian surface. NASA is extending for the fifth time the activities of these two robots. This is incredible due to the engineering warranty life expectancy of 90 days! This is very good news for NASA because the longer the life of these robots, the more NASA can find out about Mars. For example Spirit didn't actually make its biggest discovery until 1200 Martian days into the mission.
Link: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/071106-st-mars-rovers.html

Build A Mars Rover!

The MARS SOCIETY is holding a mars rover competition for university engineers . You and your team needs to come up with a rover for the mars society to use when they make it to mars. Here's the article.

"The Mars Society's Second Annual University Rover Challenge (URC) is seeking the best and brightest college teams to design and build the next generation of Mars rovers for a competition at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in southern Utah. The international competition will be held June 5-7, 2008; thousands in prize money, and a year's worth of bragging rights, are up for grabs."

Don't know what to do after you graduate?

Are you about to graduate back into your parents house, tens of thousands of dollars in debt? Are you worried that you won't be able to get that awesome job you thought you'd be able to get right out of school?

Don't worry, I've got a plan for you. It's called the Mars Society.

"The Purpose of the Mars Society

To further the goal of the exploration and settlement of the Red Planet. This will be done by:

1. Broad public outreach to instill the vision of pioneering Mars.
2. Support of ever more aggressive government funded Mars exploration programs around the world.
3. Conducting Mars exploration on a private basis.

Starting small, with hitchhiker payloads on government funded missions, we intend to use the credibility that such activity will engender to mobilize larger resources that will enable stand-alone private robotic missions and ultimately human exploration."

Basically, you get to go live in UTAH or CANADA and act as if you were to live on mars. I'll post more informaton and news on this webpage as I come up on it.

The War of the Worlds (Radio Broadcast), Aftermath

A day after the broadcast, the newspapers reported about the ensuing panic, and of people fleeing the areas that were mentioned in the broadcast. At the time, many listeners were accustomed to accepting newsflashes as reliable, so many of them believed the fictional broadcast to be true. This incident created many urban legends of people rushing to “the scene of the events in New Jersey to see if they could catch a glimpse of the unfolding events, including a few astronomers from Princeton University who went looking for the meteorite that had supposedly fallen near their school. Some people, who had brought firearms, reportedly mistook a farmer's water tower for an alien spaceship and shot at it.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio)

The War of the Worlds (Radio Broadcast)

The radio broadcast adaptation of H.G. Wells’ science fiction novel The War of the Worlds was directed by Orson Welles, and was performed as a Halloween special on October 30, 1938. It was presented as a series of news bulletins which described to listeners about a current invasion of Earth by the Martians. The broadcast started with the news of strange explosions sighted on Mars. Then, there were reports of Martian ships landing in the United States and wreaking havoc throughout it. During this broadcast, many listeners contact their family, friends, or neighbors about the news, which led to wild spread rumors and confusion, because many people missed or ignored the opening credits of the program.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio)

Documentary on Mars Mission Debuts Tuesday....

The University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Lab, led by Peter Smnith, is in charge of the Phoenix Mars Mission, which launched in August from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Television viewers who are curious to learn more about UA's role with the Mars mission can watch a new KUAT-produced documentary called, "Phoenix Mars Mission: Ashes to Ice." This one-hour, high definition production will premiere at 9 p.m. Tuesday on KUAT, Channel 6 and in HDTV on KUAS, Channel 27-1. If you miss it the first time it will air again on KUAT at 2 a.m. Wednesday, 11 p.m. Thursday and 4 a.m. Friday.
More times include: Nov.11 at 3 p.m. and at noon Nov.22 on KUAT. The documentary features interviews with the mission's scientific team, whose members ral about the spacecraft's instruments and the preparations that preceded the pre-dawn launch from Cape Canaveral. The spacecraft is scheduled to land in the northern polar region of Mars in June of 2008. If successful, the Phoenix's ultra-sensitive instruments will have around 90 days to learn about the history of the water on Mars and search for oraganic compunds in the ice-rich soil of the plante's northern polar region.
A second installment about this mission is being planned by KUAT, the installment is to trace the space vehicle's journey, landing and early experiments on MArs. It sets to air in 2009. This $420 million mission is head-quarter at theUA, marking the first time NASA has allowed a publicuniversity to have an off-site control of a Mars Program.

Movie about Martian Child....

A film titled "Martian Child" that came out Friday November 3rd to theaters stars John Cusak, who plays David, a prominent sci-fi writer who adopts Dennis, a wispy 6-year-old who hides in a box. Dennis professes to be Martian and fears the sun. Dennis rarely speaks, but when he does its often gibbersih. He has a penchant for stealing things and wears a weighted belt to keep himself from floatingaway due to Earth's weak gravity.
You can check it out at your local theater.

Fuzzy Comet

A comet has become an object of intense study and debate by area astronomers because of its its dramatic prescence in the night sky. The Comet named "Holmes" appears in the northern sky as a yellowish, fuzzy ball and can be seen with the naked eye even in cities, such as Ottawa, that pollute the sky with light.
The comet follows anunusual orbit between Mars and Jupiter and is a million times brighter than normal. This comet has undergone a dramatic and unexplained increase in size. Astronomers aren't sure what caused this outburst, but oe theory holds that the comet formed a hard and dirty frozen crust that trapped heat inside its shell. When that heat vapourized ice inside the shell, pressure built until being released in dramatic fasion, astronomres speculate.
The comet can be found in the northeast by locating Cassiopeia, the w-shaped constellation that is a prominent feature of the fall sky. Then, track to the lower right into the triangle-shaped constellation of Perseus. Comet Holmes will be the yellow dot in the bottom left of that triangle

Final Words on Depiction of Mars in Fiction Series

As the years passed by, the public’s knowledge and perception of Mars has been constantly changing. However, their imagination has not change. Most of them still fantasize that life once existed on Mars, that humans will one day live on it, and that Mars is related to Earth in some way (i.e., panspermia). As technology improves, some of these fantasies will come true. Humans will one day set foot on Mars. No matter what happens from here on out, Mars will still be an interesting and favorite subject for novels, films, and other various fictional works.

Depiction of Mars in Fictional Works, Part IX

This is the final part of a nine part series. In this series, I will discuss how Mars is depicted in various fictional works such as movies, books, and games.

In Part IX, I will discuss about the movie Mission to Mars. The movie reveals that humans are the descendants of an ancient Martian experiment when the Martian ecosystem was destroyed by a large asteroid and the Martians were forced to flee their home planet. “During their evacuation, they dispatched elementary life forms of their own to the nearby planet Earth, which at the time of the Martian evacuation, contained no life forms. Over the billions of years following this ‘seed-scattering,’ these life forms eventually became the humans.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_to_Mars

Mars Plane Idea Has Potential for Earth Purposes

NASA's operations in designing an unmanned airplane to survey the surface of Mars has some in the United States government interested in how such a machine could be used to assist in Earth situations, such as emergencies involving natural disasters. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the Pentagon has expressed serious interest in the unmanned craft idea. The idea of an unmanned Mars craft has been known at NASA since the 1970s. A variety of issues kept the craft from becoming a realistic concept until recently. If the craft is constructed, it could revolutionize how humans understand the surface of Mars.

Source:
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/071031-tw-darpa-spyplane.html

Interactive Space Exploration Exhibit

A traveling space exhibit is entering in nevada. The space exhibit will reveal what the future of space travel consists of. Exhibits include Earth's moon and travels to Mars. NASA officials will be present at the exhibits to explain plans for the future and different equipment used for future space travel.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=23919

Ice Possibly Found at Equator of Mars

Using high-resolution radar, some scientists believe that they may have found ice located at the equator of Mars. Similar materials have only been found previously at Mars' poles. The scientists are unsure of how such a significant amount of ice could appear at the Martian equator. However, the deposits found could still be dry materials.

Source:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071101-mars-ice.html

See Mars With Your Own Two Eyes!!!

Mars is the only planet in our solar system that you can clearly see from space with a small telescope or even with your naked eyes. You can view Mars fairly easily when it is in the night sky and see a verity of different things depending on how good your telescope or eyesight is, or where Mars is located compared to the earth and what the planet surface is doing. Most likely you will be able to see the contrast in dark and light colors on the planet that represent the darker cratered terrain in the south and the lighter smooth plains in the north. If you own a small telescope or even if you do not and are interested in viewing the red planet to see if it is really red then June 2007 through April 2008 are the prime Mars observing months. Mars is still a morning planet for most of 2007 until it reaches opposition on December 24. The best time to view Mars will be in the hours after it rises, when it is the highest in the sky. Once December rolls around you should wait to view Mars until the middle of the evening or early morning to experience the best views the planet has to offer. Merry Christmas! Here is a site with the months of the year and the best time to view Mars during these months.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/allabout/nightsky/viewing-tips-2007.html