Everything about Mars except colonisation and where there specific threads already co

[selvaarchi]

This week's issue of "The Space Review " has an article discouraging manned missions to Mars for the moment.

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3139/1

"As rumor would have it, the incoming Trump Administration signals the imminent demise of NASA’s “Journey to Mars.” If there’s truth to that, it’s a circumstance the space community should welcome. Sending humans to Mars is not the right way to allocate resources at this time, and maybe not at any time, for reasons I’ll elaborate shortly. While Mars as a destination deserves criticism, the very idea of sending humans to space at all will require vigorous defense in the coming period of uncertainty.

It really doesn’t matter that Mars is (by some measures) the most Earth-like planet in the solar system. It’s not Earth-like in any way that makes it meaningfully easier to survive.
A question was recently posed to me: Why should we colonize Mars when we aren’t even trying to live on Antarctica or the bottom of the ocean? I’m a firm believer that we shouldn’t keep all our eggs in one basket, but this simple question undeniably reveals that certain wild-eyed plans about Mars are half-baked. Of the many plausible doomsday scenarios that could befall the Earth, how likely is it to leave nowhere left that’s at least as habitable as the Antarctic? Not very. So why is it that every futurist seems to have Mars at the tip of their tongue, and not Antarctica?"


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[crosscountry]

We have permanently occupied bases in Antarctica already.

[publiusr]

I saw this on TV recently:

http://www.automobilemag.com/news/ne...-articulation/
http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/ca...tional-wheels/


That looks to be a good Mars rover if modified a bit.

More

https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1701/1701.07544.pdf
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1701/1701.07550.pdf
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1701/1701.07799.pdf

[selvaarchi]

The study of the Kelly twins will play an important role in NASA's decision to send astronauts on long duration flights for example to Mars.

http://www.nature.com/news/astronaut...travel-1.21380

"Personalized medicine could play into NASA’s plans for how to keep astronauts healthy during long-duration spaceflight, such as any future trips to Mars. For instance, the agency might want to use genetic tests to screen astronaut candidates for cancer susceptibility, says a 6 January report from the US National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine.

Actually publishing the results of the twin study will take some time, and the full data may never come out. Because of the detailed nature and sheer amount of the genetic information involved in the studies, the Kelly twins will review all information before it is published, to avoid revealing sensitive data they may wish to keep private.

“We’re working with a small number of highly identifiable people here,” John Charles, head of NASA’s Human Research Program, told the meeting."

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[selvaarchi]

An article on the most active planet being explored, Mars, and descriptions of the satellites and rovers doing it.

https://www.rocketstem.org/2017/01/2...ns-red-planet/

"Mars has gained a bad reputation in the past, with fewer than half of the 40-plus missions sent there arriving safely and completing their mission successfully, especially in the early days of planetary exploration. Mars is not an easy target, particularly if you wish to land on its surface. Its thin atmosphere requires more than aero-braking and parachutes to slow a spacecraft down sufficiently for a soft landing. This has necessitated the use of thrusters or inflatable air-bags to ensure that landers arrive intact, making for complex automated procedures which have to function perfectly.

However, despite Schiaparelli’s silence, ESA’s latest orbital emissary joins a growing armada of spacecraft and landers operational at the Red Planet, more than ever before at any solar system body at any one time. These now comprise six orbiters and two rovers. ExoMars’ companions have all enjoyed spectacular success in their missions to help us understand present day conditions on Mars, as well as its past evolution."

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[selvaarchi]

The looming traffic jams at Mars!!!

http://spacenews.com/mars-looming-traffic-jam/

"That list of Mars missions launching in 2020 is long. It includes NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, the European Space Agency’s ExoMars 2020 rover and surface platform, China’s orbiter/lander/rover, the United Arab Emirates’ Hope orbiter and India’s Mars Orbiter Mission-2. In addition, SpaceX is planning its first Red Dragon Mars lander in 2020, having delayed the mission from 2018.

Furthermore, at the time of the new arrivals, a large number of other missions may well be healthy and functioning in Mars orbit, including NASA’s Odyssey orbiter, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) orbiter and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). There’s also ESA’s Mars Express orbiter and Trace Gas Orbiter, and India’s first Mars Orbiter Mission.

Toss in for good measure NASA’s two operating surface machines, the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers, along with its Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) spacecraft. InSight will launch in May 2018 and land on Mars six months later."

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[swampyankee]

We have permanently occupied bases in Antarctica already.

Bases which are far from self-sufficient, which don't have to recycle oxygen, don't take months (requiring life support technology that is, at best, nascent) to get to, and can easily get food and spares delivered.

[publiusr]

Some news:
NASA Planetary Science Division Director Jim Green said on Tuesday that SpaceX plans to launch two Red Dragon missions to Mars during the 2020 launch window.
http://www.parabolicarc.com/2017/05/...ons-mars-2020/

[selvaarchi]

I take the latest report from the Planetary Society on NASA's Mars plans as pessimistic.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/casey...s-program.html

"NASA’s robotic Mars Exploration Program is on a troubling path of decline—and decisions must be made now in order to stop it.

This is the conclusion my colleague Jason Callahan and I reached as we prepared a new report for The Planetary Society: Mars in Retrograde: A Pathway to Restoring NASA’s Mars Exploration Program (pdf). I urge you to download it and read it yourself."

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[selvaarchi]

There is no race but strangely both NASA's and China's time line to obtain samples from Mars are the same

http://www.popularmechanics.com/spac...ple-from-mars/

The best way to study Martian rocks and soil would be to do it on Earth. While spacecraft-mounted instruments—such as the Curiosity rover's ChemCam that vaporizes surface material with a laser and then uses a spectrometer to determine the chemical composition—are invaluable to planetary scientists, they are no replacement for a sample in the lab. The amount of compositional and absolute age data that scientists can obtain with a laboratory full of state-of-the-art equipment and chemicals to test sample materials is unparalleled, as evidenced by research conducted on meteorites (including from Mars) and Apollo moon samples.

To continue this work, scientists need a pristine sample of Martian rock and soil, which would help build a Rosetta Stone to unlock the history of the solar system. The potential knowledge to be obtained from such a sample ranges from the formation of Mars to the nature of the planet's ancient surface waters to possible habitability in the Red Planet's past, and in turn, perhaps the secret to the origin of life on Earth.

With so much to gain, both NASA and the Chinese national space agency are designing missions to retrieve a sample from Mars before the end of the 2020s. The missions are ambitious, incomplete, and reliant on yet-to-be developed technologies. They both start, however, with flights to Mars in 2020.

[selvaarchi]

A 1 minute is included in this post of the HI-SEAS Mars sumilation. I got the impression that they did not grow their own food in this one year experiment. Why not?

Take back what I said about not growing food as the latest inhabitants of HI-SEAS certainly did grow their own.

http://www.businessinsider.com/prete...18-1?r=UK&IR=T

NASA runs fake space missions on Earth. These simulations — called analog missions — allow scientists to study what a long space mission would be like for the crew. Some analog missions study the use of specialized technology or the effects of zero gravity on the body, but others focus primarily on psychological effects.

The HI-SEAS mission, or Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, takes place near the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii and is designed to simulate living on Mars. Crew members live in isolation for about 8 months and aren't allowed to stray further than a mile or two from their small, dome-shaped habitat. Scientists study the impact this has on the crew's mental and emotional state. Following is a transcript of the video.

[selvaarchi]

Emily Lakdawalla on "Approaching Mars on Spaceship Earth"

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...spaceship.html

One of the great things about space exploration is how it can shift your perspective. And you don't even need to leave home. Here we all are in our spaceship Earth, approaching planet Mars, the planet slowly looming larger in our forward view.

[selvaarchi]

A sample return by NASA might be possible in the 2029 -2031 time frame.

https://spacenews.com/nasa-unlikely-...-in-the-2020s/

Despite a new emphasis on a streamlined, “lean” sample return architecture, a NASA official says it’s unlikely that suite of missions will be able to return Martian rock and soil samples to the Earth before the end of the 2020s.

Speaking at a virtual meeting of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) Feb. 15, Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, said that planning for the series of missions that will return samples to Earth is still in its early stages.

“Our hopes are that the 2020 budget will increase so that we can actually start serious planning and moving towards doing missions for a sample return,” he said. The White House is expected to release its fiscal year 2020 budget proposal in mid-March.

[Roger E. Moore]

Not sure if it's there now, but there WAS water on Mars.

https://www.sciencealert.com/researc...ndwater-system

We Just Got The First Evidence of a Planet-Wide Groundwater System on Mars
KRISTIN HOUSER, FUTURISM, 28 FEB 2019

Mars may look like a dry, dusty planet today. But scientific models indicate that it was likely once home to massive amounts of water, both above and below its surface - and now, researchers have evidence to back those models up.

[selvaarchi]

"Bridenstine says NASA planning for human Mars missions in 2030s"

https://spacenews.com/bridenstine-sa...ions-in-2030s/

[QUOTENASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said July 15 that, as NASA presses ahead with plans to return humans to the moon by 2024, he will not rule out a first human mission to Mars as soon as 2033.

Bridenstine’s comments, near the end of a 45-minute briefing with reporters about the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 and the new Artemis program, are the latest sign of a renewed emphasis on human missions to Mars as a long-term goal for the agency in recent weeks.

“We are working right now, in fact, to put together a comprehensive plan on how we would conduct a Mars mission using the technologies that we will be proving at the moon,” he said when asked when a feasible date for a first human mission to Mars might be under NASA’s current exploration plan. “I am not willing to rule out 2033 at all.”][/QUOTE]

[selvaarchi]

Article in this week's Space Review on efforts to bring samples back from Mars.

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3779/1

In November 2018, NASA Associate Administrator for Science Thomas Zurbuchen announced the selection of Jezero Crater as the landing site of the Mars 2020 rover. Mars 2020—which will most likely be renamed next year to something a bit catchier—will launch in July 2020 and land on Mars on February 18, 2021. It will then rove around Jezero, using a highly sophisticated sampling system to gather pieces of Mars and seal them in tubes each about the size of a pencil. But this isn’t just another Mars mission. Mars 2020 represents the most concrete step in achieving a goal that has been a top priority for American planetary scientists for nearly 50 years: returning samples from Mars. Launching and landing Mars 2020 will not only be an important engineering achievement, but a major psychological one. After decades of false starts and even reversals, the goal of Mars sample return—or MSR as it has long been known in planetary circles—now has real momentum.

[Roger E. Moore]

Mars's climate and atmosphere change over long periods of time, based on its orbit.

https://phys.org/news/2020-01-mystery-mars-pole.html

[Roger E. Moore]

Digging around on Mars could turn up all sorts of valuable minerals and elements, but the planet is quite a mess from being pounded by protoplanets.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0212150138.htm

And here:

https://scitechdaily.com/nilosyrtis-...gether-as-one/

[Superluminal]

Did Curiosity catch a large rock after it fell? Note the large pointed rock upper center at the base of the cliff. It's in one image and not the other. Also, there is a severed Android's leg, lower center.
Social distancing is boring.
https://forum.cosmoquest.org/attachm...1&d=1585012012

[selvaarchi]

"Five reasons to explore Mars"

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techt...-explore-mars/

The recent launch of the Mars rover Perseverance is the latest U.S. space mission seeking to understand our solar system. Its expected arrival at the Red Planet in mid-February 2021 has a number of objectives linked to science and innovation. The rover is equipped with sophisticated instruments designed to search for the remains of ancient microbial life, take pictures and videos of rocks, drill for soil and rock samples, and use a small helicopter to fly around the Jezero Crater landing spot.

Mars is a valuable place for exploration because it can be reached in 6 ½ months, is a major opportunity for scientific exploration, and has been mapped and studied for several decades. The mission represents the first step in a long-term effort to bring Martian samples back to Earth, where they can be analyzed for residues of microbial life. Beyond the study of life itself, there are a number of different benefits of Mars exploration.

[selvaarchi]

"NASA's Mars Missions Continue to Produce New Science While an Armada of New Spacecraft Head For the Red Planet"

https://www.americaspace.com/2020/08...he-red-planet/

Mars has been in the news a lot lately, with the successful launches of NASA’s Perseverance rover, the United Arab Emirates’ Hope orbiter and China’s Tianwen-1 orbiter, lander and rover. All three missions will arrive at Mars in February 2021, so that will be a very busy time for scientists.

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter (part of the Perseverance rover mission) just charged its batteries for the first time, and you can also now follow the progress of the Perseverance rover mission in real time!

Meanwhile the Curiosity rover has been busy baking more rock samples to analyze with its on-board laboratory.

In addition, NASA also just posted some incredible images to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the launch of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

Perseverance was launched on July 30, 2020 and remains in good health on its journey to Mars. It is scheduled to land in Jezero Crater on Feb. 21, 2021, where it will search for evidence of ancient life. The landing site used to be a lake bottom a few billion years ago and the rover will also explore a still-preserved delta from a river than once emptied into the lake.

In the meantime, you can now follow the mission in real time using NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System.

“Eyes on the Solar System visualizes the same trajectory data that the navigation team uses to plot Perseverance’s course to Mars,” said Fernando Abilleira, the Mars 2020 mission design and navigation manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “If you want to follow along with us on our journey, that’s the place to be.”

[selvaarchi]

"China releases recommended Chinese names for Mars craters"

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/202..._139322038.htm

The Chinese Astronomical Society (CAS) has recently released the list of recommended Chinese names of 1,136 Mars craters on its website.

The data will be available for public use. Users can find the Chinese names at Glossary of Astronomical Terms operated by the National Astronomical Data Center.

Previously, the CAS had released the first batch of recommended Chinese names of 811 Mars terrain features.

In order to facilitate scientific research and popularize science, the CAS invited experts to translate almost 2,000 Mars terrain terms issued by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) before July 15, 2020, into Chinese.

The translations were reviewed and approved by a special committee for astronomical terms affiliated to the CAS and the China National Committee for Terms in Sciences and Technologies.

[Noclevername]

Why should we colonize Mars when we aren’t even trying to live on Antarctica or the bottom of the ocean?

This argument has never made sense to me. Why climb a mountain when there is a hill somewhere else? It seems silly to compare the two.

We have no real colonization of the Antarctic or the sea bed because no one wants to live there. It's that simple.

If there were enough support for the idea, we could probably do so already. It's technically feasible to have people spend their entire lives there, just as we have people spending long periods there now. There's just not enough folks interested in being in these places, except researchers and a few daredevils. Mars, however, has many people interested in colonizing it. So they have budgets and extensive research dedicated to making it possible. That's how things get done in aerospace; follow the money.

[cjameshuff]

This argument has never made sense to me. Why climb a mountain when there is a hill somewhere else? It seems silly to compare the two.

We have no real colonization of the Antarctic or the sea bed because no one wants to live there. It's that simple.

If there were enough support for the idea, we could probably do so already. It's technically feasible to have people spend their entire lives there, just as we have people spending long periods there now. There's just not enough folks interested in being in these places, except researchers and a few daredevils. Mars, however, has many people interested in colonizing it. So they have budgets and extensive research dedicated to making it possible. That's how things get done in aerospace; follow the money.

I agree with your basic point but there's actually a fair bit of interest in living in Antarctica. The limiting factors there aren't lack of interest or technology, they're matters of international politics and law, drastically limiting the scope of the human settlements there. And the deep ocean is an even more hostile environment than either Antarctica or space, is also subject to legal limitations, and is occupied by sensitive ecosystems that it'd be nice not to obliterate. And both Antarctic and deep sea settlements would be very vulnerable to hostile humans.

[Roger E. Moore]

Mars is weird, says Phil Plait. And he has a point about the south pole of Mars.

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/mars-is-weird

[Roger E. Moore]

Largest canyon in the solar system revealed in stunning new images. Valles Marineris is nearly 10 times as long as the Grand Canyon, and three times as deep. But how did it form on Mars?

https://www.space.com/mars-deepest-c...n-solar-system

[Roger E. Moore]

Mars is wobbling, and scientists have questions. In a new paper published in Geophysical Research Letters, scientists reveal that Mars has a bit of a wobble to it. This means that its poles don’t line up perfectly all the time, shifting on a timeline of roughly 207 days. That makes Mars the second planet with a known wiggle (called a Chandler wobble). The first? Earth.

https://bgr.com/2021/01/07/mars-wobble-study-research/

[Noclevername]

The Mole is dead, long live the Mole.

It's drilled its last hole.

https://apnews.com/article/technolog...e1c8baf084d16e

Scientists in Germany spent two years trying to get their heat probe, dubbed the mole, to drill into the Martian crust. But the 16-inch-long (40-centimeter) device that is part of NASA’s InSight lander couldn’t gain enough friction in the red dirt. It was supposed to bury 16 feet (5 meters) into Mars, but only drilled down a couple of feet (about a half meter).

Following one last unsuccessful attempt to hammer itself down over the weekend with 500 strokes, the team called it quits.

[Roger E. Moore]

Glaciers on Mars reveal the planet's many ice ages. The red planet experienced between six and 20 separate ice ages during the past 300 to 800 million years, a new analysis of glaciers on Mars has revealed.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/20/world...scn/index.html

[Roger E. Moore]

Was early Mars wet and warm, or dry and cold? Yes. (Phil Plait)

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/was-ea...y-and-cold-yes