Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars

The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer For Mars aka CRISM is being used to select a landing site for the next Mars Rover. NASA is using the CRISM so they can find the perfect landing site with the minerals they want. The CRISM is checking the martian soil for the right soil that would have been cove rd by water long ago. Nasa figures that if they land the next rover (Mars Science Laboratory) in soil that would be easy to sustain life it will increase their chances of finding life. The CRISM took 125 pictures that will be used in selecting a landing site.

http://crism.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/articles/101907.php

Future Mars Craft Inspires High-Tech Spy Plane

U.S. engineers have long wanted to fold up an airplane inside a rocket and send it on a mission to cruise through the atmosphere of Mars. They now have a new potential customer for the concept: the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

DARPA started a program earlier this year called Rapid Eye to demonstrate technology that would lead to development of a rocket-delivered unmanned plane to fly high over the site of a natural disaster or other "hot spot." The idea is to give the U.S. president a first, quick look at the scene, DARPA Director Tony Tether said, following his talk at the Geoint 2007 Symposium in San Antonio.


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

New Data Dispute Theory That Mars Had a Warm Climate

I read a good article in the New York Times today that talked about Mars. Scientists are reporting today that there are no white cliffs on Mars which casts even more doubt on the theory that Mars once had a warm, wet, Earth-like climate favorable for life. The Surveyor spacecraft (currently in orbit around Mars) has been measuring the glow of infrared light from the rocks on mars, looking for patterns of colors that identify different minerals. In particular, scientists have been interested in minerals known as carbonates, which form only in the presence of liquid water. On Earth, the white cliffs of Dover in England are a notable example of carbonates. In today's issue of the journal Science, the researchers who run the infrared instrument report that Global Surveyor has detected small concentrations of carbonates in Martian dust, 2 percent to 5 percent by weight, but none of the large deposits that would probably form at the bottom of a lake or an ocean. Today Many planetary geologists are now moving toward the view that Mars has been cold throughout its 4.5-billion-year history and that the considerable quantities of water known to exist there have been frozen almost all of that time.

Donna Shirley- Mars Exploration Program Manager

Donna Shirley was raised in a small town in Oklahoma where her parents encouraged her academic studies. As a small girl she had an intense interest in flying airplanes and her father and uncle encouraged her. Before she was out of her teens, Donna Shirley was soloing and earned her pilot's license.

She entered college in the 1950s with the purpose of studying aeronautic engineering. However, engineering schools were still an all-male bastion. When she walked into her advisor's office he said "What are you doing here?"

She replied, "I'm enrolling in aeronautical engineering".
"Girls can't be engineers" He said.
She declared, "Yes I can", and did.


She managed the Mars Exploration Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and on July 4, 1997 the entire world watched as the Mars Pathfinder and the Sojourner Rover successfully landed on Mars. Two months later the Mars Global Surveyor successfully went into orbit around the red planet. Not only were these events two of the U.S. space program's greatest successes, but they may well provide the world with some of the most important scientific data of the 20th and 21st centuries. According to Shirley, "My proudest moment was having my daughter, my second moment was when the Pathfinder and Sojourner actually worked. When you consider that it was going 17,000 miles an hour and it wasn't supposed to make just another hole in the ground—well, that was a great achievement." Donna Shirley retired in August 1998 as Manager of the Mars Exploration Program after a 32-year career at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Electrified Dustdevils on Mars

It seems like at this point so many problems have been listed regarding mars that I am not 100% sure why anyone would want to go, but while we're at it, studies have suggested that the common dust devils around Mars are potentially electrified, creating high-voltage electric fields-- further complicating potential human travel to the red planet.

Researchers came to this conclusion after chasing tornadoes across deserts in Arizona and Nevada. They unsuspectingly came across fields carrying 4,000 volts of energy per meter. On Mars dust devils can be much larger than tornadoes seen on Earth, only creating a bigger danger.

"Dust particles in a devil become electrified because they rub against one another. It's like shuffling your feet across the carpet, the researchers explained. But they figured the positive and negative particles would be evenly mixed in a dust devil, keeping the overall electrical charge in balance."

Instead, it turns out smaller and lighter particles picked up negative charges and were lifted higher in the funnel, while the heavier/positive particles were sent down. This seperation created a situation similar to a battery.

While we cannot yet guess what it will actually be like on Mars, but as our knowledge grows it is interesting how many problems (and hopefully solutions) come up.

Atlas of Mars

I found this website called the Atlas of Mars. It is a really interesting site and its purpose is to be an online atlas of Mars. It will let you choose a site by various means and will show the locations (as footprints) of thousands of high-resolution Viking Orbiter images. The images are probably not as clear as you'd like them to be and that is due to the 16 pixels/degree at which the images were taken. It's a real cool site that has a lot to offer.

http://ic-www.arc.nasa.gov/ic/projects/bayes-group/Atlas/Mars/

Skintight, Lightweight Suit Perfect for Mars?

One of the many challenges to sending humans to Mars is compensating for the lack of atmosphere. Typically space suits have been large, bulky, gas-permiated space suits built to handle dead space however a designer at MIT has developed a lightweight version that would make life on Mars much more liveable. "Navigating Mars in a bulky 300-pound setup would be like doing gymnastics in a suit of armor".

Inspired by Giraffes, aeronautics professor Dava Newman saught to encorporate their use of tight skin to the body to maintain healthy blood pressure while protecting the body from the lack of atmosphere.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4220822.html

Mars Caves Forged by Volcanoes and Meteors

If Mars looks like a primordial Earth-on-ice, the similarity ends just below the surface where Martian caves are borne not of slow dripping processes but from brief, intensely violent times, say researchers.

It's meteor impacts and volcanoes which are thought to make Martian caves. Lava tubes, like those found near Earth's volcanoes, have been recently identified from Mars orbiting spacecraft. While melted ice by meteor impacts may create all the ingredients for bursts of cavern formation around the impact zone.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/10/29/mars-caves-geology.html

Damage Discovered on 100 Billion Dollar Space Station

US astronauts completed the second of five spacewalks Sunday, beginning the relocation of a key supporting truss but also detecting a problem with one of the mechanisms supporting an key energy unit of the International Space Station.
Damage was discovered in a joint supporting the station's solar arrays, a problem that NASA engineers will now have to solve.

http://www.space-travel.com/reports/NASA_crew_completes_second_space_walk_discovers_damage_999.html

Mars Ice Shaken Not Stirred

Signs of a latitude-dependent climate on Mars exist now that pictures have revealed a range of ice-made features that show a strong preference to certain latitudes. Implications of a dynamic history of Martian climate change are popping up. Instruments to study the red planet include the Mars Global Surveyor's Laser Altimeter (MOLA) and Camera (MOC), the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Context Camera (CTX) and High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), and the Mars Express's High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC).
The signs of water ice are obvious today at Mars' poles. But as you move towards the equator, there is plenty of evidence of water ice having shaped the surface in different ways not so long ago. Widespread bumpy polygonal patterned ground near the poles suggest the contraction and expansion of icy permafrost ground (similar to Earth's arctic). Also, between 30 and 60 degrees latitude in both hemispheres, the patterned ground gives way to a pervasive pitted texture of once ice-rich dust deposits.
"It's a quest to understand the Martian water cycle"

http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Mars_Ice_Shaken_Not_Stirred_999.html

Get Hands-on with Another Planet: Martian Soil Simulant Now Available

Orbital Technologies Corporation (ORBITEC) has been working with NASA on lunar and Martian soil simulants. This year alone they have delivered over 45,000 pounds of lunar regolith simulant, known as JSC-1A, and Martian soil simulant, known as JSC-Mars-1A, to engineers and scientists studying mining equipment, robotic vehicles, next generation space suits, habitats, plant growth and dust mitigation. These soil simulants have attracted the interest of the public as well, and are now being sold online. ORBITEC has currently produced an extra 5 tons of Martian simulant to sell online to the public.

"These simulants are really a great way to get a feel for another planet," said Marty Gustafson, ORBITEC's project manager for lunar and Martian simulant production. "Kids tend to be fascinated by them, asking question after question about life in space. It really brings science to a new level when they can hold it in their hand."

http://www.marstoday.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=23898

Mars with Ice: Detailed Picture of Frigid Red Planet Emerges

Mars, like Earth, is a climate-fickle water planet. The main difference, of course, is that water on the frigid Red Planet is rarely liquid, preferring to spend almost all of its time traveling the world as a gas or churning up the surface as ice. That's the global picture literally and figuratively coming into much sharper focus as various Mars-orbiting cameras send back tomes of unprecedented super high-resolution imagery of ever vaster tracts of the planet's surface.

What were just a few years ago small hints about Mars' water and climate, as seen in a few "postage-stamp" high-resolution images and topography, have given way to broader theory that explains not only the features seen on the planet today, but imply a dynamic history of Martian climate change.

"When you have postage stamps, it's like studying a hair on an arm instead of the whole arm," said Mars researcher James Head III of Brown University. Head will present the latest integrated global view of Martian surface features and how they fit with Martian climate models on October 28, 2007, at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Denver.

The pictures now reveal a range of ice-made features that show a strong preference to certain latitudes, Head explains. As on Earth, latitude-dependent features can mean only one thing: latitude-dependent climate.

THIS WEBSITE IS THE MOST AWESOME, SUPER-SWEETEST SITE EVER!!!

I probably found the greatest website known to man. It’s all about Mars and the best part is that the majority of the website is fun games. I ended up playing on this site for over and hour and I know you guys will love it. Here are some of the things you can do on it.
-Who wants to be a Martian? It is exactly like who wants to be a millionaire and you can even phone a friend, poll the audience, and get a 50/50.
-Find out how much you would weigh on Mars (I’d be 89 lbs)
-Test your memory skills
-Asteroid commander (test your skills as you shoot down asteroids)
-9 square unscramble (there’s a picture and it is all mixed up and you have to place the
pieces in the right place
-Mars quizzes-how much do you really know about the red planet?
-Tic Tac Toe
-Mar concentration- it test your memory
-Word search- help find lost Martian words
-Mars adventure- You and your crew are about to blast off to Mars! What will you take on your long journey into space? (I failed my mission because all I brought was a band aid).

http://www.tsgc.utexas.edu/everything/mars/games/

Risky Business - manned flight to Mars

The Russian module launch marked a critical milestone toward a permanent human presence on the International Space Station, but many people would rather see expedited plans for more ambitious and distant missions piloted by people. Recent discoveries indicating subterranean water on Mars and oceans below Europa's ice sheets have renewed calls from the Planetary Society and other advocacy groups to reinstate a goal lost after the last Apollo moon landing in 1972: human exploration beyond Earth orbit. But NASA seems devoted to robotic probes, which circumvent the difficulties of supporting human life far from terra firma. Space, flight surgeons emphasize, is not exactly a safe place. Some of this risk assessment comes from learning by doing: We have definitively measured the irreversible bone loss suffered by long-term orbiting astronauts, for example. Other insight comes from reviewing our humbling inability to predict mechanical failures like the abrupt decompression that killed three Soyuz 11 cosmonauts in 1971.

Mars Movies!!!!

Hey guys it's me, Dave. Anyways I found a great website that tells you every movie that has come out (or is about to come out) about Mars. You can search for these movies either by alphabetical order, or chronological order or by type of film (documentary, short films, etc.). There are seriously hundreds on this site. The "Mars Society" started this website and they are located in San Diego. I figured I would tell you guys about this since the weekend is coming up and that is the best time to rent one of these sweet movies. Well I hope you all enjoy!!!

http://marsmovieguide.com

Beating the Curse of Mars

When after an 8-month voyage, NASA's Mariner 4 spacecraft beamed back the first images of Mars in 1965- to score a victory over Russia's Mars 1 in the Cold War space-race-it changed the way scientists thought about the Red Planet. The pictures revealed a battered and barren landscape, similar to that of the moon, which was in direct contrast to the long-held theories that Mars supported vegetation first put forward by French astronomer Emmanuel Liais in 1860.

In August 2007 NASA launched the Phoenix mission which hopes to study the geographical history of water and search for evidence of a habitable zone beneath the surface.

Mars Becomes Political

In a recent article in Wired magazine one devoted voter sought out to learn about each future political candidates stance on Mars exploration. "As President, would you support sending a man to mars?" they ask.

John McCain-- Short stroll
Al Gore-- Was kicked out of an event
Alan Keyes-- Eager
Bill Bradley-- Blank stare
Dick Gephardt-- Vague thumbs-up
etc.

I thought this was pretty interesting since we often talk about the many things we can do, but we sometimes don't think about the practicality of them happening.

Mars Volcanoes Possibly Not Extinct

Recently in class we have been discussing the importance of relief and volcanoes in the formation of present day Mars-- new studies have shown that these hot spots may not be extinct.
Research on Hawaiian volcanoes + satelite imagry have given scienctists new momentum in theorizing about the make up of Mars present landscape. Sparce impact craters near the Tharsis region could be evidence of recent eruptions.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/071017-mars-magma.html

NASA Langley Celebrates 90 Years of Aerospace Innovation

Langley research established many of the basic building blocks of aeronautics, changed the shape of aircraft and helped allow jets to fly at supersonic speeds. Aviation pioneers including Orville Wright, Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh and Howard Hughes came to Langley.

Then came 1958 and the dawn of the space race. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which had established Langley, became NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The newly named Langley Research Center added space exploration to its repertoire.

Asia follows economic trend for growth, as China launches orbiter

I have included an interesting article that details the launch of a lunar orbiter by China. This is one of many economic indicators for the most rapidly growing nation, and a rising economic power.

Asia's space race heated up on Wednesday as China launched its first lunar orbiter, an event hailed by the world's most populous nation as a milestone event in its global rise.

China's year-long expedition, costing 1.4 billion yuan (184 million dollars), kicks off a programme that aims to land an unmanned rover on the moon's surface by 2012 and put a man on the moon by about 2020.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Asias_space_race_heats_up_as_China_heads_for_moon_999.html

Mars today

I found an excellent site called Mars Today that depicts current conditions on Mars and its relationship to Earth in six panels. The panels include: the current positions of Mars and Earth in their orbits around the Sun, two views of the positions of Mars and Earth from vantage points near the ecliptic (the plane of Earth’s orbit), comparison of the apparent size of the Martian disc as viewed from Earth with the size of Earth’s disc as viewed from Mars, a simulated image of mars as it would appear at the present time to a very high resolution Earth-based telescope, and there is also a few more panels. Truly a fascinating site that I recommend you all should see. It makes me feel so close to Mars.

http://humbabe.arc.nasa.gov/MarsToday.html

NASA uses new camera to plan Mars mission

To help NASA managers choose potential landing sites for a 2009 Mars rover mission, a new mineral-mapping camera is being used to narrow their options. To help decide, the group will be using 125 new images from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) camera.
The camera is circling the planet on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and is operated by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. The camera has produced over 2,500 high-resolution images of Mar's surface and nearly 3,000 atmospheric observations.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2007/10/23/nasa_uses_new_camera_to_plan_mars_mission/4538/

Chinese Rockets Blast off to Moon

China launched its first lunar probe today, the first step in an ambitious 10-year plan to send a rover to the moon and return to earth. TV showed pictures of the Chang'e 1 orbiter taking off with a trail of smoke from the Xichang Satelite Launch Center in Sichuan province in southwestern China. This launch comes just weeks after China's regional rival (Japan) put a probe into orbit around the moon in a big leap forward for Asia's undeclared "space race". India is likely to join the regional rivalry soon, with plans to send its own lunar probe into space in April. More then 2,000 tourists were on hand to watch the rocket soar into space after paying 800 yuan ($106).

Life from Mars theory put to test

One theory being tested is whether life could have arrived on Earth from Mars.

University of Aberdeen experts had the rock attached to an unmanned Russian craft and found life would probably only survive in a large meteorite.

Further details about the experiment will be revealed at the Highland Science Festival on 3 November.

A slab quarried from Cruaday, Sandwick, was sent to Vienna to be specially sculpted into the right shape.

Mars Mission's Invisible Enemy: Radiation

New goals for NASA are being determined, however the current barrier to further mars exploration entails radiation. A couple reasons for not wanting to start a new project scientists say, for one is Radiation, in the form of heavy ions from distant stars, zips through everything in their path. Others include price, estimated at $30 billion to $60 billion, and launching enough food, supplies and fuel for a round trip. Any one of these could make the project impractical. In a new $34 million NASA laboratory here, part of Brookhaven National Laboratory, scientists are using subatomic particles accelerated to nearly the speed of light to slam into materials that could be used in a spaceship, and tissue samples and small animals. Using tools like PET and M.R.I. scans and DNA sequencing, they hope to shed light on ways that radiation damages biological tissue, and what can be done about it. On a trip to Mars and back, probably every cell in the body would be hit by an ionized particle or a proton, researchers say, and they have very little idea what that would do. ''If every neuron in your brain gets hit, do you come back being a blithering idiot, or not?'' asked Dr. Derek I. Lowenstein, the chairman of Brookhaven's collider accelerator department.

NASA postpones plans for Mars samples

Recent news in Mars exploration showed that NASA announced late last month that it would delay by nearly a decade plans to bring back samples from the Red Planet. According to the new strategy, the agency may not launch its first sample-return mission until 2014. That means Mars material won't be delivered to Earth until 2016, 8 years later than the agency had originally proposed. NASA said it would use the extra time to send missions that will scope out favorable landing spots for landers retrieving samples and create new relay stations to improve communication with those craft. The agency had earlier announced that it would launch the Mars Odyssey orbiter in 2001 and two craft in 2003 that would travel on the surface. Under the new plan, NASA will also send aloft, in 2005, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This craft will look for signs of water in Mars' past by scanning the planet's surface at a resolution fine enough to image rocks the size of beach balls.

Want to Go to Mars? Crews Wanted for Mock Missions

The Mars Society is currently looking for people from the general public, educators, and students who are interested in learning what it would be like to live on Mars. The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) is planning a mission to try to better understand "the human factors side of crews with young children present along with their educator who will ensure that the students stay on track with their peers back on 'Earth'." The crews of volunteers work in full simulation in Utah in the Canyonlands to be able to conduct field investigations in the physical sciences and engineering.
The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) has hosted numerous research experiments. They were the first all women and all men crews who resided within the Mars hab. The MDRS has also been host to the first children to live, study and play while in full simulation during the Family Living Analysis on Mars Expedition (F.L.A.M.E.) missions conducted in June 2005, March 2006, and March 2007.

http://www.space.com/adastra/071018-adastra-marsvolunteers.html

Long-lived Mars rovers to keep on roving

They've dealt with software glitches, a damaged and useless front wheel, and fierce dust storms that cut their electrical power production. Still, the two NASA Mars rovers continue to explore the Red Planet and beam back scientific data.

Now, for the fifth time since they landed in January 2004 for what were expected to be two separate 90-day missions, NASA has extended the rovers' exploratory tasks again.

There are no guarantees that the two rovers, named Spirit and Opportunity, will keep working as they have, but NASA said their missions will continue "possibly through 2009."

"We are extremely happy to be able to further the exploration of Mars," Alan Stern, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said in a statement. "The rovers are amazing machines, and they continue to produce amazing scientific results, operating far beyond their design life."

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9043220&intsrc=hm_list

Martian Volcanoes May Not be Extinct

By combining new research on Hawaiian volcanoes with recent satellite imagery of Mars from Earopean Space Agency's Mars Express missions, three Martian volcanoes have been discovered to possibly only be dormant (not extinct). Each volcanoe is about 186 miles across (largest on Earth is only 60 miles). The imagery suggests that the volcanoes have been active within the past two million years and might still be.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/071017-mars-magma.html

Suggestion to Dr. Bates: Field Trip to Mars

Sure Mars is millions of miles away, doesn't support life and there is no possible way you could ever get there, but you can still visit it in a way, by visiting place on earth that are very similar. Some of these places include Death Valley, California where Ubehebe crater and "Mars Hill" have geologic features similar to those on Mars. Also Mono Lake, California, which is a 700,000-year-old evaporate lake that is a lot like Gusev Crater, a basin on Mars where water likely once was. If you are more interested in the colder polar regions of Mars you could visit the permafrost regions in Siberia, Alaska, and Antarctica. Also the volcanoes in Hawaii are very similar to the volcanoes on Mars but are just scaled down a bit. Here in the great state of Washington you could visit Channeled Scabland, where catastrophic floods swept through the land much like what happened long ago in the Ares Vallis flood plain where Mars Pathfinder landed. This is the next best thing to going to Mars. Can I suggest a field trip?

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/atlas/

Space Spending gets Boost

The U.S. space agency, for the fifth time, is extending the program for its Mars Exploration Rovers.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said its decision to keep the robots Spirit and Opportunity in operation, possibly through 2009, is dependent upon the rovers' continued productivity and operability.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20071016-10284300-bc-us-rovers.xml

Japan Sets Its Sights on the Moon

Japan is planning to land an unmanned rover on the lunar surface sometime in the middles of the 2010’s. Apparently China and India have already announced plans to place a spacecraft on the mysterious satellite. The rover will examine the moon’s geology trying to find natural resources. Here are some other interesting facts about Japan:

-Japan has already crashed landed a rocket on the moon, and a couple weeks ago they put a satellite into lunar orbit.

-Japan has never attempted a manned spaceflight, but the country hopes to put men on the moon by 2025.

-The capital of Japan is Tokyo

Who knows what could be next for Japan? Look out USA seems to me like we are going to have a race to put man on Mars!!!

NASA Orbiter provides color views of Mars Landing Site Candidates

It has been less than a year since beginning the prime science phase of its mission; NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has so far been a huge success by returning a vast amount of data. The amount of data is equivalent to about 5,000 CD-ROMS full and exceeds the total from all other current and past Mars missions combined. The biggest shares of data come from two (there are 6 total) science instruments. The camera team in charge of the Orbiter is also releasing a color movie covering Mars Science Laboratory landing site in Nili Fossae. It is amazing to me just how much information we are getting from Mars.

NASA Scopes Winter Homes for Mars Rovers

The Mars Exploration Rovers have already weathered 2 tough winters on the Mars surface, and mission managers are looking ahead to yet a third chilly season. All this from a mission that was only suppose to last 90 days! The Spirit Rover is searching for a spot to hide during the upcoming Martian winter, which will last from sometime in March 2008 through Oct. 2008. Even though Mars has a tilt similar to the Earth's, Martian seasons last longer because the planet takes almost twice as long to circle the sun (almost 687 days). Principle scientist of the Mars Exploration Rover team at Cornell University said "When you're talking about the rovers surviving winter on Mars, planning many months in the future is really important, but its too soon to tell where we might situate them."

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/071011-mars-rovers-winter.html

A private view of Phoenix and Mars

On May 25 next year, the Phoenix Mars lander is due to touch down on the Mars surface. If all goes well, over the following 24 to 48 hours the lander's solar panels will extend and the lander will start the science experiments it's there to conduct. As the mission's principal investigator, Smith has everything invested in a safe landing.

Most talk about the Mars mission is about the chances of proving whether there has ever been life on Mars

"What I hope that we can find – and I have no way of knowing – is that the ice preserves the organic material that has at least fallen on Mars over the last four billion years," Smith says. "A lot of it comes from asteroids and comets – you find organics on the Moon, for gosh sake. Why don't you find it on Mars?"

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/14/mars_from_the_ashes/

Funding Mars Missions Has Changed

In an article posted yesterday by Scientific American, Robert Zubrin discusses the change in the allocation of funding by NASA on Mars missions. In 1993, NASA made a big mistake. They spent billions of dollars to fund the Mars Observer Mission. This probe took a decade to develop and was subsequently lost just before it was scheduled to go into orbit around the planet. However, since then NASA has learned its lesson. NASA administrator Daniel Goldin has shifted funding to smaller expeditions. At every launch opportunity, NASA has been sending one or two proves to Mars. These opportunities only come over 2 years, when Earth and Mars are aligned properly. This new strategy spreads the risk and ensures that the experience and scientific data acquired during one mission can be used by the next. It has also been very successful, sending three spacecraft into orbit about Mars and putting three rovers on the surface. The Phoenix Mars Lander is expected to reach the Red Planet next May and NASA is planning on launching the Mars Science Lab in two years.

However, there is also a problem with this new strategy. Subsequent missions are in trouble and at least one future Mars probe has been scrapped to free up funding for a more expensive mission. There are trade-offs when deciding where to focus the money and NASA is currently trying to find the best mix so that they may advance our knowledge of Mars. The most important conversation is one pertaining to the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. This mission is important because it would bring Martian rocks back to Earth for laboratory analysis. Many see this as a crucial step, but it is a costly one. Only time will tell with what is in store for a mission of this magnitude. NASA is doing everything it can with its seemingly dwindling funds.

NASA Mars Rover Status: Hardy Spirit Rover Continues to Celebrate Milestones

The Mars rover Spirit has currently been exploring Mars for two Martian years (longer than three years on Earth). Spirit arrived at a field of boulders and used solar power to transmit data to Earth when the Odyssey orbiter passed overhead. Spirit also conducted a communications test with the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter. "Mars Express will provide backup communications during the entry, descent, and landing of the Phoenix mission, due to arrive near the north pole of Mars on the United States' Memorial Day weekend of 2008."
Communication with Mars Express demonstrates the value of having multiple spacecrafts at Mars.
http://www.marstoday.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=25691

I Love Mars, and I Vote

Chris Carberry, political director of the Mars Society, is a motivated man determined to see through his mission: to find out where each of the presidential candidates stands on Mars.
The Mars Society is a nonprofit group that pushes for human exploration and settlement of Mars. Mars Society members like Carberry attend presidential campaigns in order to ask the question: "As president, would you send a man to Mars?"
In the last two presidential election cycles, Carberry met every major candidate. "He took a short stroll with John McCain, and got kicked out of an event by Al Gore's secret service contingent. He got a surprisingly eager response from Alan Keyes, a blank stare from Bill Bradley, and a vague thumbs-up from Dick Gephardt. Now, with the 2008 primary campaign well under way, he's on the trail again."

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/10/mars_voter

NASA`s Mars Rovers back in business

Recent reports indicate that NASA's Mars Rovers are back in business and will continue to explore Mars after enduring the dust storm that might have doomed the rovers by decreasing the light energy needed for the rovers to operate. With skies gradually brightening, the solar-powered Rovers Spirit and Opportunity recently resumed driving and other operations that had been suspended during the dust storm. "The rovers are in good health and in good shape," said John Callas, the Rover project manager at NASA's jet propulsion laboratory in Pasadena. "Things have improved since the dust storm. During the storm, the rovers would be active for a short while, and in order to save power, they would be in hibernation for the rest of the time. "At the darkest part of the storm, Opportunity had only 128 watt-hours of energy. Today, it has about 350 watt-hours of energy, so almost three times as much now," Callas said. "The most energy that the Rovers have ever seen in their 3 1/2 years on Mars is about 900 watt-hours of energy." It is a positive sight to see the rovers active again and wanting to do some more exploring.

Nasa discovering prime landing spots on Red Planet

"NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter this week sent back high-resolution images of about 30 proposed landing sites for the Mars Science Laboratory, a mission launching in 2009 to deploy a long-distance rover carrying sophisticated science instruments on Mars. The orbiter's high-resolution camera has taken more than 3,500 huge, sharp images released in black-and-white since it began science operations in November 2006. The images show features as small as a desk. The orbiter has sent back some 26 terabytes of data, equivalent to about 5,000 CD-ROMs."

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/20531

Mars Science Laboratory needs a financial advisor

The Nuclear-powered Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) has gone over in cost. It has now spent about $1.7 billion. NASA senior Mars management has directed that no additional funds be spent on a remote-sensing laser instrument called ChemCam, a descent imaging camera, and has also cut off a couple other instruments that can’t fit into their budget. The MSL project team is trying to figure out a way to cover the $75 million cost overrun so they can “clean up the mess.” After reading this article it sounds like MSL needs a financial advisor.

http://livescience.com

Synthetic Emeralds to be used in 2009 Mars Mission

The Los Alamos National Laboratories has decided that it is going to use synthetic Chatham emeralds instead of real emeralds because they are chemically cleaner. These emeralds are going to be use on Mars to calibrate systems used to find trace elements on the planet. The emeralds are going to be moved around the planet on a buggy now under construction at the Houston Space Center. Chatham Created Emerald, based in San Francisco, plan to have these synthetic gemstomes ready for the 2009 mission to Mars.

http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullNews.asp?id=28435

US+Russian Collaboration

On two points recently the NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency agreed to work together. Firstly, Russia announced their plans to carry out a goal of 20 space projects by 2015 and the second was to focus on the moon and mars. A Russian biological satellite, Foton-M, recently landed and conducted over 70 experiments while in space, demonstrating the Russian conviction to continue research.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Russia_To_Carry_Out_Up_To_20_Space_Projects_By_2015_999.html

HiRISE

"High Resolution Imaging Science Expirament"





Photos taken by the HiRISE aparatus will add a whole new dimension to photos taken of Mars. Incorporating infrared, blue-green and red filters into its picture taking will help scientists see exactly what kind of elements they are looking at. Substances like dust, ice, etc. will all appear different in photos taken by the HiRISE camera. Extremely large photos (multigigabite images) will also reveal a lot of information to researchers.




The mesas seens in this false-color HiRISE image are part of another clay-rich region of Mars of great interest to scientists searching for evidence of ancient Martian life.

NASA Scopes Winter Homes for Mars Rovers

The Mars Exploration Rovers have weathered two drab winters on the Martian surface, and mission managers are already looking ahead to yet a third chilly season. All this from a mission that was only designed to last 90 days.

The Spirit rover is searching for a spot to stick it out during the upcoming Martian winter, which will last from March 2008 through October 2008, according to a statement from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Although Mars has a tilt similar to Earth's, Martian seasons last longer because the planet takes almost twice as long to circle the Sun—almost 687 Earth days.

"When you're talking about the rovers surviving winter on Mars, planning many months in the future is really important," said Steve Squyres, principal scientist of the Mars Exploration Rover team at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. "But it's too soon to tell where we might situate them."

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/071011-mars-rovers-winter.html

Self-sufficient Space Habitat Designed

Australian-led scientists have designed a new space habitat that might one day allow astronauts on the Moon or Mars to be 90 to 95% self-sufficient. The system is know as the "Luna Gaia", and it would reduce the need for costly supply missions to ferry food, air, and water back and forth between colonies on the moon and mars. Some basic water and air recyling systems are already developed, but the proposed new habitat would take this technology to the next level. Very interesting article! go check it out:

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1646

Space Makes Bacteria More Dangerous

Experiments show that a germ causing food poisoning and other illnesses can be three times more dangerous in space than on the ground. This only adds to the endless list of risks that astronauts need to be aware with when possibly going on a manned mission to mars or even the moon. The study also shows that the immune system weakens during longs trips in space. That means your bodies immune system would definitely be susceptible on a mission to Mars. So the lesson to be learned here: our future astronauts to Mars better have strong immune systems otherwise who knows how ill they could become

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070924_space_germs.html

New Images Used to Pick Mars Lander Site

The combination of images, taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, through different color filters (10 red filter detectors, two in blue-green, and 10 for infrared wavelengths) is providing a new view of Mars. The images are taken on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and will ideally help scientists determine the landing site for a future Martian explorer that is set to land in 2010. The images were created in false colors to maximize color differences, so the landscapes they depict would look different to a human standing on Mars.
Color also helps geologists match layers in the Martian terrain. "Color data are proving very useful in interpreting geologic processes and history on Mars," McEwen said. "The images we're releasing today include views of some of the most exciting and compositionally diverse areas on the planet. They are really interesting."

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/071010-msl-landing-sites.html

Cost of Sending 11 Missions to Mars = 1 Mission in Iraq

This little blog post made it big with lots of links and Diggs. I found it really insightful and it puts things in perspective.

Basically, if we didn't go into Iraq, then we could have funded somewhere between 5 and 11 independent human missions to Mars! Independent means "Mars mission programs that start from the ground up, and do not leverage each other's technology, research, or manufacturing."

3SL beats software gaints for NASA contract

The tiny company 3SL has won a contract with NASA. The contract has them providing software that will be designing the Constellation program. This program aims at building a lunar base in 2020 and also providing the space habitat for a mission to Mars. 3SL is based in North West of England and beat out companies like IBM and Siemens for this contract.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article2617602.ece

New TV series “Race to Mars”

The Discovery Channel Canada is starting a miniseries that involves six spaceflyers on a 600-day mission to Mars. Their mission is to get to Mars and search for life before China’s unmanned probes do. The writers of this miniseries are trying to reignite excitement in the Space Age and want to inspire a new generation to look outward towards the planets. I’m not sure if the U.S. is getting this miniseries, but it sure sounds interesting!

http://www.space.com/entertainment/070923_racetomars_debut.html

Google Mars Provides Google "Earth Service"

Enter Google Mars. Using this service, you can browse the martian landscape the same way as using Google Maps. View by elevation. View by visible images - a mosaic of images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. Or view as infrared images taken by on NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft. Zoom-zoom-zoom.

http://www.boston.com/business/blog/filter/2006/03/google_mars.html

Agilent software development tools test Mars Exploration Rover mission's communications equipment

The goal for the Mars exploration Rover mission is to assist scientists in learning and understanding the history of water on the red planet. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute if Technology in Pasadena, is hoping to provide more detailed data than previous missions through the use of the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Key to their success is the integrity of the systems that enable two-way communications and data transmission between mission control on Earth and the rovers on Mars. Agilent Technologies provided the critical testing tools needed to validate the communications equipment for this mission. VEE Pro helps engineers in a broad range of industries, including aerospace and satellite communications, develop accurate test systems using a standards-based, easy-to-use graphical programming environment that intuitively simplifies and speeds test-system development. Many third party companies are very willing to cooperate and work with NASA in hopes of making history one day.

NASA aims to put man on Mars by 2037

NASA aims to put a man on Mars by 2037 (according to the administrator of the US space agency). This year is the mark for the half-century of the space age (October 1957 was the launch of Sputnik-1). NASA administrator Michael Griffin said that by 2057 (the centenary of the space era), “we should be celebrating 20 years of man on Mars.” There is an international space station being built where humanity can travel first to the moon and then to Mars. It looks like NASA is headed in the right direction to landing man on Mars. President Bush in 04’ talked about his plan for the US to return to the moon by 2020 and that will be used as a stepping stone for a manned mission to Mars.

http://www.marsnews.com/

NASA Selects Space Radiation Projects

NASA has selected 17 space radiation projects for development. The projects will be designed to reduce the health risks crews of missions to the moon and Mars might face from exposure to radiation. Scientists in eight different states from separate universities, research institutions, and private companies will conduct the studies.
The 17 projects were selected from 98 proposals received from academia and government laboratories. The potential value of the selected proposals is about 15 million dollars! It will be interesting to see which final proposal is selected...

Manned missions a thing of the past

Expensive missions to Mars may be a thing of the past. In todays technology rich world it is becoming ridiculous to think that sending humans there is pertinent. The expert robots could easily do the work of many people without the fear of being stranded. Previous missions to the Moon cannot compare with space travel of this magnitude.

http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Are_manned_missions_needed_to_explore_Mars_and_beyond_999.html

Radiation Levels Manageable

Preliminary measurements of space radiation at Mars suggest that astronauts who travel there could face exposure to doses that over the course of a three-year mission would approach the lifetime safety limits set by NASA.

While the radiation appears to be manageable, an official said a network of radiation sensors in the inner solar system will be needed to warn Mars astronauts of impending space storms so that they can take cover.

Radiation levels were monitored over the past year by NASA's Odyssey spacecraft and projected to a three-year period, roughly how long a crewed mission to the Red Planet might last.

Do to the orbital cycles of both Earth and Mars a three-year mission would be the only possibility. Learning to deal with consequences of radiation is one important step in making Mars travel safe.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/odyssey_radiation_030313.html

Mars rover Spirit Arrives at "Stratigraphic Wonderland"

The Rover Spirit completes its longest 5-wheel drive to a rock surface called “Texas Chili.” Scientists call this area a “stratigraphic wonderland.” This area is the focus for an in-depth scientific investigation. Scientist are getting a lot of useful information out of Spirit and it could give us information we did not know about Mars. Spirit begins each Martian day by measuring atmospheric dust with its panoramic camera, checking for drift (changes with time) in the miniature thermal emission spectrometer, and surveys the sky and ground with a miniature thermal emission spectrometer. This is a good article and if you want to find out more about spirit than I recommend that you go to this site:

http://www.marstoday.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=25610\

Dawn Begins a 1.7 billion-mile trip

On Sept. 27th a Delta 2 rocket lifted off from a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla. at approximately 7:30am. this rocket was fitted with nine extra fuel boosters to get Dawn on its way to the asteroid belt to investigate a giant rocky asteroid by the name of "Vesta" in 2011 and then to the dwarf planet Ceres in 2015.

These two bodies located on the asteroid belt are in orbit between Mars and Jupiter. The idea behind using the same set of instruments at both destinations is so that NASA can more accurately formulate comparisons and contrasts. The instruments will measure shape, surface topography, tectonic history, elemental and mineral composition, as well as seek information on water-bearing minerals.

Russia To Carry Out Up To 20 Space Projects By 2015

Under the Federal space program for 2006-2015 Russia plans to conduct over 20 scientific projects. Russia plans to build a special-purpose spacecraft fitted with scientific equipment and focus research on fields like astrophysics, and planetary science. Current travel plans include flights to Phobos, the Mars satellite, and to the Moon.
"We are very proud that our country was the first (talking about sattelite launch in 1957). Our current space potential is sufficient for all areas of space research and exploration activity, from spacecraft development to the result, leading into orbit," Anatoly Perminov said. "The fundamental research performed within the short period [50 years] has changed our view of the world."

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Russia_To_Carry_Out_Up_To_20_Space_Projects_By_2015_999.html

"Mars Rising" Airs Tonight

A six-part documentary "Mars Rising," narrated by veteran space actor William Shatner, aired its first episode tonight, October 7th, 2007. This documentary is an in-depth look at the inherent hurdles facing a human expedition to Mars. Paul Lewis, president and general manager for Discovery Channel Canada, said, "With this unprecedented multi-platform event, our mission is to reignite excitement in the Space Age and inspire a whole new generation to look outward towards the planets." The documentary is also companioned by a book and a multimedia web site that further investigate the issues raised on the T.V. show. "Mars Rising" is a follow-up documentary to a Discovery Channel mini-series called "Race to Mars," which first aired on September 23rd, but has since ended.

http://www.space.com/entertainment/070923_racetomars_debut.html

Google Explores the Final Frontier with Google Mars

Two down; seven to go (planets, that is). Google recently released Google Mars, an online collection of maps similar to Google Earth, though less likely to inspire reactions like, "I can see my house from here." Google Mars allows users to view any of three different map sets: a topographical map color-coded by elevation, an infrared map color-coded by temperature, or the original black-and-white photos.

Bring Mars to life.

Bringing Mars to life.

Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Futurist, published by World Future Society on January 1, 1989. Mars could one day be biogenetically transformed into a living planet, according to genetic scientists.

Citation Details
Title: Bringing Mars to life. (biogenetically transforming Mars into a living planet)
Publication: The Futurist (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 1989
Publisher: World Future Society
Volume: v23 Issue: n1 Page: p42(1)

Canada heading for Mars exploration

Recently, former astronaut Marc Garneau expressed Canada's interest in Mars exploration. He made this announcement as executive vice President of the Candian Space Agency at the 3rd Canadian Space exploration Workshop. The agency has been wanting to expand its space exploration for quite some time now and believes it needs to focus on Mars. He implies that an increase in funding is on the way for this mission, even though the full total cost is still unknown. "We have the expertise, it's highly visible, and there is momentum," Garneau said. They have not yet decided whether to send an orbiter or lander. Ultimately, Canada looks to increase its reputation and status in space exploration, hoping to catchup with Russia, China, and the United States someday.

Russia to help NASA explore Moon and Mars

Russia has decided to provide the US space agency NASA with instruments for scanning both the Moon and Mars under agreements signed in Moscow on Wednesday.
Under agreements signed by NASA administrator Michael Griffin and the head of Russia's space agendy Anatoly Perminov, Russia will provide equipment for scanning for water on the Moon that could eventually help lead to its human habitation, said Gordon Chin, a NASA scientist leading the project.
Chin followed up by saying that the Russia equipment, basedon nuclear technology currently used by geologists in the oil industry, would be part of a Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter that will orbit the Moon about 50 Kilometres from its surface and is to be launched in 2008.
Similar equipment is also being provided by Russia for a NASA rover that will land on the surface of Mars known as the Mars science Laboratory. It will be launched in 2009.
Russia is spending a total of four million dollars or 2.8 million euros on the two projects.
Igor Mitrofanov, a scientist at the Russian Space Research Institute, said, "Russia sees cooperation with NASA as one of the most promising fields of cooperation and is ready in every way to contribute to the development and completion of new projects."
Such projects "demonstrate the commitment by our countries to continue to search for new projects when it is useful to cooperate," Griffin said.

News on Mars Science Laboratory Rover

In June the Mars Science Laboratory project announced that its design phase was over, and it was time to start building. The $1.7 billion dollar project is on schedule to exceed its initial production costs by $75 million dollars. The Mars Science Laboratory is scheduled to launch in 2009 and is supposed to be the next big step in Mars exploration. The recent increase in production costs have caused the Mars Science Laboratory to drop some of the projects that were initially intended to be on board the rover when it lands on Mars.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/Rover_Update.html#20070917

Former astronaut's son buys space ticket

Richard Garriott, who made his fortune in computer games, will soon follow in his retired father's footsteps and into orbit. For a mear 30 million dollars, Garriott will be taken aboard a russian soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan later this month. He will stay at the ISS for one-week.

His father, Owen Garriott, now 76, spent 59 days aboard skylab, American's first space station in 1973 and also flew aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 1983.

"My dad was an astronaut so I grew up believing that space was going to be available for everyone at some point in the future," Richard Garriott said on a phone interview Friday. "But I realized that the NASA method was a statistical improbability. If I was going to get a chance to go myself, it would have to be through private space travel."

NASA Mars Rover Status: Spirit Arrives at "Stratigraphic Wonderland"

Spirit, a rover on Mars, drove 19.21 meters to record the longest 5-wheel drive to date. Spirit has been averaging 350 watt-hours per Martian day. Spirit is currently located 15 meters from a field of boulders that are under scientific investigation.
"Spirit began each Martian day by measuring atmospheric dust with the panoramic camera, checking for drift (changes with time) in the miniature thermal emission spectrometer, and surveying the sky and ground with the miniature thermal emission spectrometer."

http://www.marstoday.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=25610

Wanna Buy A Star?

Some business are walking a fine line between scam and satire these days with regards to the heavens above us. Products include Location Earth dog tags, which are engraved with simple graphical methods of locating the Earth while in space (in case you get lost). Or, if you are longing to be abducted by aliens, "Alien Abductions" promised to hook you up with a set of fake abduction memories.

These sort of fabrications go right into the category of buying a star to be named after a friend or family member, but these companies are all succeeding because people want to believe, which shows a lot of interest in the great beyond, which will increase the chances of future exploration..

Could Cheese Be Sold on Mars

Amazing new photos released of mars and other planets. Specifically showing a detailed photo of what looks like to be swiss cheese...
Pictures taken from the mars reconnaisance rover by a high resolution camera.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3033063/

Russia, US to Cooperate on Space Trips to Moon and Mars

Agreements to cooperate on unmanned missions to search for potential water deposits beneath the surface of the moon and Mars were signed by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and Russian Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov. The agreement involves placing Russian instruments on board NASA probes that would be sent to the moon and Mars.
"These two projects demonstrate the commitment by our countries to continue to look for opportunities where it's mutually beneficial to cooperate," Griffin said. "When these opportunities happen it's our intent to work together to bring them to fruition."
In October of 2008, LEND (a Russian instrument) will be mounted on LRO (a NASA probe) and launched in hopes of discovering sources of water under the moon's poles. A year later, another Russian instrument will be placed on a NASA rover to be sent to Mars.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1088649/russia_us_to_cooperate_on_space_trips_to_moon_and/index.html

ARE WE THERE YET?

Pop a bottle Sputnik you are now 50 years old! Space travel is still young and we must not get content with what we have found out. We have only stepped foot on our moon and sent robots to a few places. We still have a ways to go, by 2057, space astronomy will also have cracked other unsolved problems about our universe, like gravitational waves. Predicted by Einstein, Joseph Taylor and Russell Hulse convinced us they exist when they observed their effects on a system of two neutron stars (for which they shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics). But no one has yet observed them directly. There is no doubt that instruments floating in space will give the final answer.

This article encourages entrepreneurs to keep digging deep for the answers that lie out there because there are profits to be had out in space.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/03/news/edsputnik.php

What would you eat on Mars?

According to NASA, astronauts will be able to grow crops and cook their own vegetarian meals on future missions to Mars. To find out what future Martian astronauts might eat, Earth & Sky spoke to Kim Binstead, chief scientist and lead chef on the 2007 Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station mission – or FMARS mission – which simulated the experience of living on Mars for 100 days.
Dr. Binstead said the crew – stationed in the Arctic for the summer of 2007 – had the same ingredients you’d have on Mars – food with a long shelf life – plus a small indoor garden.

http://www.earthsky.org/radioshows/51825/mars-food

Cheers! Cognac in Outer Space

Space tourism provides an excellent vacation opportunity and many different industries make look to capitalize on it. It is no secret that many people enjoy alcohol on their vacations, and Remy Martin the French spirits maker has introduced a product to do so on space vacations. The product called Remy Space has properties which they believe make it possible for patrons to enjoy a shot in outer space. It was introduced at an air show in Paris, and was an early success. Tim Martin a spokesperson for Remy Martin explains the introduction of Remy Space on Earth looking forward to the future when he said, “We'll flood the market on Earth so that when they get into space it'll be all they want to drink.”
Remy Space goes through an interesting production process, that enables it to be consumed in space. The alcohol is frozen to negative twelve degrees centigrade (ten degrees Fahrenheit), then ran through the same filters used to recycle used water on the space station. The benefit of this production method is the removal of fatty substances in the cognac, and concentrating the cognacs aroma, making it smooth and fluid at sub-zero temperatures. The alcohol comes in a specialized container that includes a flexible plastic flask with a drinking straw and an anti-leak valve which prevents the alcohol from escaping in zero gravity. To complete the packaging there is a metallized thermal wrapper to block external radiation.
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/space_cognac_010619.html

Asia Could Win Next 'Space Race', US scientists fear

US scientists fear history may be repeating itself. Fifty years after the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union, The US is again scrambling to catch up, but this time to an area a little farther south. The space programs of China, Japan, and India are modest, but rapidly growing. Both China and India are planning manned lunar missions within the next decade, whereas the US said they do not plan on returning until 2020.

One contributing factor to this is the amount of young scientists in Asian countries. In 2004, around 500,000 engineers graduated in China, 200,000 in India, and ony 70,000 in America. "Although many people assume that the US will always be a world leader in science and technology, this may not continue to be the case, we fear the abruptness with which a lead in science and techology can be lost-and the difficulty of recovering a lead once lost, if indeed it can be regained at all."-Author of the report "Rising Abover the Gathering Storm".

Are manned missions needed to explore Mars and beyond?

The United States has pledged to colonize the Moon by 2020 and send astronauts to Mars, but many scientists say dangerous and costly manned space missions should be a thing of the past, not the future. Intelligent robots and satellites such as those already exploring the Red Planet, they say, do a good job and are a lot less fragile than human organisms too easily stranded millions of miles from home. "We are many decades from robots that can match humans, even in the lab, and laboratory robotics is about 20 years ahead of space robotics," Steve Squyres, an astronomy professor at Cornell University and principal investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission, recently told a science forum.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iIMO0oszMf3Z0t3juEblbTno12bQ

Mars in the Morning: Red Planet Grows Brighter

Mars is coming! The planet is currently moving toward the best viewing position it will provide to us until the year 2014. Mars is currently midway between the zodiacal constellations of Taurus, the Bull and Gemini, the Twins. It is "shining like a pumpkin-hued, zero magnitude star, Mars is currently tied for fifth place (with Vega) among the 21 brightest stars."
But as it continues to approach our Earth in the coming weeks and months, Mars will only be getting brighter: it will surpass Sirius, the brightest star in the sky by Dec. 9 and during the latter half of December it will even almost match Jupiter in brilliance. Mars will come closest to Earth on the evening of December 18th (at around 6:46 p.m. Eastern Standard Time). The planet will then lie 54.8 million miles (88.2 million kilometers) from Earth as measured from center to center. When closest to Earth, Mars' apparent disk diameter will be equal to 15.9 arc seconds.

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/070928_ns_mars_watch.html