With the right materials, a future for humanity on the Red Planet isn't just science fiction

Philip K. Dicks 1964 science fiction novel, Martian Time-Slip, imagined a human colony on Mars reliant on waterways, allotments and robots. Today, such quaint sci-fi concepts are actual scientific possibilities now that we better understand the resources that are available on the red planet. Here, Samir Jaber, engineering content writer at materials search engine Matmatch, examines how materials testing could make or break humanitys future on Mars

Elon Musk believes that the first sustainable city on Mars could be a reality in 20 years, with 1,000 starships to handle the logistics of the seven-month journey to the planet. On the other hand, in a recent Pew Research Centre survey carried out in June 2018, only 18% of U.S. adults believed that sending humans to Mars should be a high priority, ahead only of returning to the moon. Given our modern scientific understanding of the red planet, just how feasible is it that humans will live and thrive there during our lifetime?

To begin with, its unlikely that Musks envisioned fleet of spaceships will be overloaded with Earth materials, as it wont be feasible to transport through space all the materials that well need to live, subsist and remain safe on Mars over the long-term. Incidentally, that also includes transporting wildlife.

Instead, the design and civil engineers of the not-too-distant future will turn to Mars Indigenous resources to satisfy our needs. Fortunately, the red planets natural resources, and their possibility to foster human life, are central to why notions of populating Mars have moved from fantasy to scientific plausibility.

For one thing, Mars has carbon that can be extracted from the atmosphere and used to make plastics, rocket fuel or heating fuel. Nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen are all biologically accessible in forms like carbon dioxide gas, nitrogen gas, and water ice and permafrost. In situ resource utilization (ISRU) equipment could be key in exploiting these resources, like subsurface water ice deposits.

In terms of building materials, Mars settlers wont be short of ceramics thanks to the ubiquity of clay-like materials in Martian soil. There are also plentiful mineral resources including iron, titanium, nickel, aluminum, sulfur, chlorine and calcium.

Silicon dioxide is the most common material on Mars, according to measurements taken by the Viking space probes, and is also a basic ingredient of glass. It is likely that glass products, including fiberglass, and structures could be constructed on Mars in much the same way as they are on Earth.

Regolith is another readily available Martian construction material. The pulverized, dusty rock thats mostly silicon dioxide and ferric oxide, with a fair amount of aluminum oxide, calcium oxide and sulfur oxide has been deposited over Mars by asteroid collisions over billions of years. Researchers think that regolith could be a viable alternative for concrete.

Regolith samples have yet to be brought back to Earth. Instead, JSC Mars-1a, a regolith simulant, is a very close replica of Martian soil. It is 43.48 % silicon dioxide and 16.08% iron oxide by weight, compared with actual Martian regolith which, on average, is 45.41% silicon dioxide and 16.73% iron oxide. JSC Mars-1a has been used to explore the possibility of the use of regolith in 3D printing. Could NASA one day send robots to 3D print regolith layer-by-layer, and gradually build the cities imagined by Musk?

But how strong would Martian concrete actually be? Mars has a lot of sulfur in its soil, and molten sulfur is used to bind some concrete on Earth. Tests at Northwestern University near Chicago have mixed melted sulfur with JSC Mars-1a in a ratio of 1:3, the same recipe used for sulfur concrete on Earth. Tests of the simulated Martian concretes strength under compression, bending and splitting found it to be much weaker compared with concrete made using Earth sand. This was attributed to the Martian sands porosity. The Earth compositions compression strength was about 30 megapascals, similar to that of cement-based concrete.

Further experiments with a 1:1 sulfur-to-sand mix compressed the mixture, broke down grains and drove out air bubbles. This resulted in a strength of 60 megapascals, which is twice as strong as concrete. Sulfur-based concrete also has quick-setting advantages, offering more immediate strength that could be advantageous for 3D printing applications.

Aside from the cement used, modular underground living will likely be the surest way to protect Mars settlers from cosmic radiation and intense cold. Such digging could also expose water, ice and other resources under the surface for ISRU.

Its impossible to deny the bare necessities, and NASAs plans to send a crewed three-year mission to Mars in the 2030s can only happen if the astronauts have a continual food supply.

A 2016 scientific and technical information paper by NASA, Frontier In-Situ Resource Utilization for Enabling Sustained Human Presence on Mars, suggests that protected atmospheric environments that harness either sunlight or artificial light sources could be the answer to our food storage needs. Robots will also likely be employed which is no stretch given that robot agriculture is firmly established here on Earth. One thing is for sure: astronauts will have to grow their own food. But how?

Here, typical science fiction concepts would include modifying or terraforming the planets atmosphere. In reality, humanity wont have to go this far thanks to aerogel, the synthetic porous ultralight material. Specifically, silica aerogel the most common type of aerogel, a good insulator and a poor conductor of heat.

The idea is that, if silica aerogel shields were placed over sufficiently icy regions of Mars surface, then photosynthetic life could survive there with minimal subsequent interference. Mars colonists would then have the capability to grow their own food with mushrooms, cyanobacteria and even insects.

Alongside the efforts of NASA and SpaceX, tests of Earth-based simulants of Mars elements will determine whether humanity has a viable future on Mars. JSC Mars-1a, for instance, is made from basalt sourced from a volcano in Hawaii. There are a variety of Mars simulants, all based on basalt and are selected for tests based on their mineralogical properties, particle sizes and distribution, among other qualities. They include BP-1 that is made from a different variant of crushed basalt source from Flagstaff, Arizona.

For now, continued testing here on Earth will assess the viability of these materials and technologies and lead to better replicas. Ongoing tests include those by the University of California San Diego. Its research examines the relatively high concentrations of perchlorate compounds, containing chlorine, in Martian soil that render it toxic.

The studies aim to assess whether the perchlorates change the behavior of the tested materials, focusing on impurities. Perchlorates may offer a potential energy source for microorganisms, for example, and therefore potential to grow life.

Other studies, such as at the UK Centre for Astrobiology at Scotlands University of Edinburgh, are less positive about perchlorates. One test exposed cells of the bacterium Bacillus subtilis, a common spacecraft contaminant, to perchlorates and UV radiation at levels similar to those on or near Mars surface.

The cells lost viability within minutes, and even more quickly in Mars-like conditions; and their life span decreased to 60 seconds when iron oxides and hydrogen peroxide, two other common components of Martian regolith, were added to the mix.

The data concluded that the probable survival of biological contaminants on Mars surface is low. Through the combined effects of at least three components of the Martian surface activated by surface photochemistry, the landscape of the red planet is more uninhabitable than previously thought.

Its clear that Mars resources offer much potential in supporting human colonization. But it will fall to design, civil and space engineers to ensure that the fruits of these opportunities are safe, realistic, ethical and last into the long-term.

Philip K. Dicks colonized Martian landscape of waterways, allotments and robots seems less and less like science fiction. However, rigorous materials testing of JSC Mars-1a and its variants here on Earth will be the crucial factor in determining whether humanity, and its design and civil engineers, can lay the foundations for human life on Mars.

Samir Jaber is the technical content writer at Matmatch. His background includes mechnical engineering and scientific research in nanotechnology, bioengineering and materials science, at institutions including the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Istanbul Technical University.

This article originally appeared in the July 13, 2020 issue of SpaceNews magazine.

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Op-ed | Materials that could bring life to Mars - SpaceNews

The biggest problem we have right now is we dont know how to live and work productively off planet Earth, says Clive Neal, a geologist at the University of Notre Dame and an expert in lunar exploration. We have no clue. Weve never properly tested out the technologies wed need to live and work in space for months or years on end, in harsh environments with much colder temperatures, much higher amounts of radiation, lower levels of gravity, and a lack of oxygen and water.

But weve got our own lab in our backyard with which to try these things, says Neal. He and many colleagues recently authored anew reportreleased by Explore Mars, an advocacy group promoting sustainable space exploration. The report identifies dozens of activities and technologies critical to Mars exploration that can be developed and tested through Artemis and ongoing lunar exploration efforts.

Some things essential to Mars will be proven on the moon almost immediately after the launch of Artemis III (the planned 2024 crewed mission to the lunar surface). Life support is at the top of the list. Humans have never built long-term habitats on another world before. While well be applying much of what weve learned from long-duration missions on the International Space Station, well still need to ensure that a moon base and a Mars base can provide essential needs like food, water, and shelter.

Building and testing those systems requires experience. I think the key thing will be getting more people immersed in the lunar environment, says Joe Cassady, the executive director for space operations at Aerojet Rocketdyne and one of the lead editors of the Explore Mars report. From the outset, well need a collection of experiences and data from a huge range of different astronauts, across missions lasting weeks or months. Those experiences will inform how engineers build habitats, space suits, and surface transportation systems suited for humans.

In order to ensure that these habitats can last over time, you need to build something sustainable. Launch windows for Mars missions (when the planet is closest to Earth) come only every 26 months, so any round-trip Mars mission wouldhaveto involve some time waiting for this window to open up again. If the journey takes, say, nine months, youd have to spenda minimum of three to four months on Marsbefore it would be feasible to start heading home. You can either bring enough provisions to last all those months, or you can look to off-world resources. And the first option is pretty much a non-starter. You have to use local resources, says Neal. Trying to take everything with you to keep Martian astronauts safe and well simply wont work.

Water ice will be a vital resource. It could supply water and oxygen to sustain life-support systems, and it could also be split into hydrogen and oxygen to be used asrocket fuel. It could beused as shielding against space radiationandmicrometeorite bombardmentfor any shelters that are built on the moon.

We know theres plenty of water ice on Mars. And were pretty sure theres a lot of water ice on the moon as well, making it a perfect environment to test out the technologies we need to prospect those reserves, mine them, purify them, and turn them into something that can help keep a settlement going.

Those technologies would be very similar for both worlds. The moon is a more extreme environment, which means if it works on the moon, itll work on Mars, says Neal. He hopes engineers will design world-agnostic equipment.

The presence of water ice also somewhat bolsters the argument for running a spacecraft propulsion system based on hydrogen rather than methane (something SpaceX is pursuing with its Raptor engines). The report stipulates that while hydrogen can be produced locally on both worlds, methane can be produced from local resources only on Mars, where an atmosphere heavy in carbon dioxide provides a ready source of carbon. Any methane production on the moon would require the importation of a carbon source, the report states.

The report also recommends using power systems that aren't completely dependent on the sun. On Mars, with its greater distance and dusty atmosphere, solar power arrays would have more trouble turning sunlight into energy.

Nuclear power seems to be the most obvious approach. It wouldnt take too much power to keep a shelter on the moon going, but it would take enormous amounts of energy to run the sort of mining operations required to harvest and process water ice. Mining industry experts have told Neal they will likely be looking at systems that can provide power in megawatt ranges. That was a wake-up call, he says. People in the planetary world hadnt made these connections with the mining industry. Solar, in this case, would be more of a backup source of power on both worlds, rather than a primary one. And there are few safer environments to test out new nuclear systems than the moonan unpopulated, desolate environment.

The moon is also just a better place to simulate a Mars mission, particularly when it comes to Gateway, the planned space station designed for lunar orbit. It will essentially serve as a staging ground for any NASA missions to the lunar surface (crewed and robotic alike), as well as for deep-space missions to Mars later. The first two elements of Gateway (the power and propulsion module, and the habitation module) are slated to launch in 2023.

In their report, Cassady his colleagues suggested that one approach might be to have a crew stay on thelunarGateway space stationfor 60 to 90 days, conduct a simulated Mars mission on the lunar surface for 30-some days, and then complete another stay at Gateway for 90 days before coming home. That would be a compressed version of a Mars mission. It would simulate the changing microgravity conditions faced on such a journey, and give astronauts a taste of what a Mars mission might actually feel like. NASAs newArtemis outlinegoes as far as to say that the Gateway-to-surface operational system is also analogous to how a human Mars mission may workwith the ability for crew to remain in orbit and deploy to the surface.

Lastly, a Mars settlement wont work well unless we develop autonomous systems that dont need close oversight. Ground crews on Earth can still control things on the moon in almost real time, but the lag in communications from Earth to Mars can be up to 22.4 minutes. If a disaster [on Mars] strikes like what happened with Apollo 13, you dont have a team of engineers on the ground to diagnose and solve the problem in real time, says Casey Dreier, a space policy expert with the Planetary Society. The moon is the only good environment we have to really test and improve automated systems that can reliably operate without that type of human control.

There is a concern the US space program could face a sharp pivot in priorities after the November election, as has happened in years past. But so far the Democratic Party seems on board. The wording in its2020 platform reads:We support NASA's work to return Americans to the moon and go beyond to Mars, taking the next step in exploring our solar system. Dreier points out that the development of the Space Launch System and Orion are almost complete. And theres also a lot of international buy-in for Gateway, with Europe, Japan, Canada, and possibly Russia all set to play a role in its development. Reversing course now would be extremely difficult, even if it were desirable.

None of these plans are set in stone, however. NASAs new Artemis outline spells out better than ever how the agency intends to return humans to the moon by 2024 but is remarkably light on detailing how it plans to meet the technology benchmarks for a sustainable moon base that would help us get to Mars.

Even at a time when Ehrickes words are closer than ever to being realized, its going to take a lot of determination to leap from the moon to the Red Planet.

Correction 9/25/20: The original story inaccurately described Clive Neal as an engineer. Neal is a geologist.

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How the Artemis moon mission could help get us to Mars - MIT Technology Review

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Joel Weatherly in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, caught the northern lights and Mars rising in the same view, September 26, 2020. He wrote: This image features some of my favourite autumn sights, including the aurora borealis, Pleiades, and Mars. This weeks geomagnetic unrest has allowed for multiple nights of aurora observations here in Alberta. Mars has also been an incredible sight to observe, with its signature hue showing up plainly to the unaided eye.

In late September and early October 2020, the Northern Hemispheres Harvest Moon will shine in the vicinity of brilliant red Mars! Read more.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Veteran meteor observer Eliot Herman in Tucson used an automatic, all-sky camera to capture this cool image of a bright meteor and Mars over Tucson, Arizona, on September 22, 2020. He wrote: Looks like it was shot from Mars not really, of course but it does look like Mars shot it toward Earth. First time I have caught such a conjunction. View this image full-sized. Thank you, Eliot!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Paulette Haws captured the planet Mars this past Monday evening, September 21, 2020. Mars is very bright now and fiery red, rising in the east not long after sunset. In this photo, Mars is shining above, and reflected in, Little Tupper Lake in New York state. Thanks, Paulette!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Aurelian Neacsu in Visina, Dambovita, Romania, captured this telescopic view of Mars on September 16, 2020. You cant see much of Mars surface when the red planet is at its farthest from Earth. But as Earth catches up to Mars in the race of the planets the distance between our two worlds is shrinking. Thank you, Aurelian!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | David Kakuktinniq at Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, Canada, also captured red Mars gleaming through the aurora borealis on September 12, 2020. He wrote: Northern Lights over the Hudson Bay, with Mars near the center of the image.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Eliot Herman captured this dramatic view of Mars this past weekend, when it was near the moon: Moon and Mars clearing the ridgeline in Tucson, Arizona. The close conjunction of the moon and bright near-opposition Mars was a striking sight. The terminator of the moon shows the terrain picking up light on the craters and mountains leading to the observed discontinuities [the jagged appearance of the upper edge of the moon]. Thank you, Eliot! See more photos of early Septembers moon and Mars.

Bottom line: Photos from the EarthSky community of the bright planet Mars, now nearly at its best. Earth will pass between Mars and the sun bringing the planet to a once-in-two-years opposition on October 13, 2020.

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Photos of fiery Mars, nearly at its best in 2 years - EarthSky

October is when famous flaming foliage peaks for us in New England each year. Just as autumn is now transforming our landscape and cooling our air, the sky above is also changing as fall and winter constellations are rotating into view to set the stage for a new season.

This month brings with it more than the usual share of interesting highlights. The bonus this particular October will be Mars at its most dazzling in 17 years. Then you have Jupiter and Saturn getting a little closer each night, Uranus at opposition in Aries, two full moons including a blue moon on Halloween, an asteroid named Flora at opposition, the usual close conjunctions of the moon with some of the planets, a very close conjunction of Venus and Regulus, and favorable conditions for not one, but two meteor showers the Draconids on the Oct. 8 and the Orionids on Oct. 21.

Mars will be the magnificent star on our celestial stage for all of this month. It doubled in brightness last month as the earth was rapidly catching up with the red planet in our respective orbits, and now that we have caught it, it will even outshine Jupiter. Mars will be closest to Earth on the Oct. 6 and it will reach opposition on Oct. 13, when it will rise at sunset and not set until sunrise. This only happens once every 26 months, based on how we both orbit the sun, but some of these oppositions can be much better than others. This will be one of the best. Although not as close as the last one in July of 2018, which was a perihelic opposition, meaning that its perihelion or closest approach to the sun coincided with its closest approach to Earth, this one will be fully 30 degrees higher above our horizon, allowing for much better views of our neighboring and still mysterious planet.

Mars will be 39 million miles away at this opposition. To put that into a good comparison scale to picture it and not just think of a number, that is the equivalent of about 5,000 earth diameters. The earth is 8,000 miles in diameter and 25,000 miles in circumference. The sun is nearly 12,000 earth diameters away on the average. The moon is just 30 earth-diameters away. Mars will even outshine Jupiter for a while this month and its apparent diameter will reach 22 arc seconds of the sky, or nearly half a minute. 30 arc minutes is half a degree, which is the size of the full moon and the sun.

The last good opposition before the July 2018 perihelic opposition was on Aug. 27, 2003. That was the closest approach of Mars in nearly 60,000 years, about the time modern humans started migrating east out of Africa. Mars was only 35 million miles away then, but a long-standing rumor started circulating on the web then that Mars would become as large as the full moon in our sky. Mars, which is half the size of the earth, would have had to get within just 83 earth diameters instead of the actual 5,000 earth diameters. That is about 60 times closer than it actually got. It might have been an honest mistake if they just mixed up arc seconds and arc minutes, which is a factor of 60. In any case, it is a good exercise in understanding relative size and scale of some of our nearby neighbors in our solar system.

You will still need a telescope to enjoy all the features now visible on Mars during this great opposition. Look for dark markings and both the north and south polar icecaps. The south polar cap is mostly frozen carbon dioxide, or dry ice. It is summer at the South Pole now, so it will be smaller than usual. I already saw some of these markings through several telescopes at our clubs last event a few weeks ago. Not many of us showed up, but it was good to see everyone again live outside and with masks on. We also enjoyed great views of Jupiter and Saturn and many popular favorite celestial objects like the Andromeda Galaxy and the great globular cluster in Hercules along with several nice planetary nebulae, which is a look into the distant future of what our own sun will turn into when it finally runs out of fuel in about 5 billion years.

You may even see the faint outline of Olympus Mons, the biggest volcano in the entire solar system, fully three times the height of Mt. Everest at 90,000 feet or 17 miles high. The whole mound covers the size of France. Then you may also see one or both of the small Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos, which means Fear and Terror. Phobos is slightly larger and brighter, but it is very close to the planet at only 3,700 miles, so it is hard to see over the glare of Mars. Phobos is about 14 miles in diameter and Deimos is only 8 miles across. Deimos is much farther away from Mars, so it is easier to see. Based on what we know about gravity and orbital mechanics, Phobos is getting a little closer to Mars each year and in about 50 million years it will either crash into Mars or be torn up by its gravity into a ring of rubble.

While you are enjoying this close opposition of Mars, be aware that three different countries have recently successfully launched a whole armada of scientific exploratory missions. NASA has the Perseverance Rover with a drone that will fly in the very thin Martian atmosphere, the United Arab Emirates have HOPE, which will just orbit Mars and not land, then China has Tianwen 1, which means questions to heaven. That is the heaviest payload ever launched to Mars and contains an orbiter, a lander and a rover. So humans will have invaded Mars remotely by late winter of 2021, instead of the Martians invading us. The result will be a lot of great scientific data and a much deeper understanding of this planet which will better prepare us for sending humans there safely in just 15 more years.

So dust off your telescopes or borrow one from a library or a friend or an astronomy club and enjoy this rare showing of Mars. The next time it will be this close and high in our sky will be in 2035, just about the time NASA has scheduled the first humans to land on Mars.

Both Jupiter and Saturn are now back to their direct or eastward motion. They are both easily visible high in the south as soon as it gets dark enough, before any other stars become visible. Watch how the closer and faster-moving Jupiter is catching up with Saturn. That will culminate on the winter solstice, when they will be just a quarter of a degree apart, their closest conjunction in about 400 years, since the invention of the telescope and modern science began.

The planet Uranus will reach opposition in Aries on Halloween. It will reach a magnitude of 5.7, so it should even be visible without binoculars. It will cover just 3.8 arc seconds of the sky, or 6 times smaller than Mars. It is tilted 97.8 degrees on it axis, so it appears to be rolling along the ecliptic. It exhibits a lovely pale blue color in a telescope.

Venus will pass within half a degree of Regulus in Leo on Oct. 2. That is the width of the full moon. I could see the star Regulus in the daytime very close to the sun along with several planets that instantly popped into view when it was completely covered by the moon during the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017. I drove all the way to eastern Idaho to see that and it was well worth every second of my trip. Everyone should see a total solar eclipse at least once in their lifetimes. You will learn more about the sun, moon, and planets and the inner workings of our solar system during those few brief moments of being immersed in the moons shadow than you ever could by just studying math and physics or watching movies of eclipses.

The Orionid meteor shower will peak on Wednesday, Oct. 21 at around 2 a.m. The conditions are favorable this year with no moonlight to see 15 meteors per hour from a dark sky site. These are tiny, sand grain-sized pieces of Halleys Comet disintegrating high in our atmosphere at 148,000 mph, or twice the speed that the earth is always orbiting the sun.

The radiant of this shower is in the club of Orion. So you could picture Orion the mighty hunter hurling these meteors at the earth or batting them towards us with his club. Halleys Comet also causes the Eta Aquarids on May 5 each year. The entire comet will not return again until 2062.

Oct.1: The full moon is at 5:06 p.m. This is also called the famous Harvest Moon because it is closer to the equinox than last months full moon was. The Yerkes 40 inch refracting telescope was dedicated on this day in 1897. Designed by George Ellery Hale, it was the largest telescope in the world at the time and is still the largest refractor in the world even now.

Oct. 2: Mars will rise with the moon tonight right after sunset. Venus will pass within half a degree of Regulus this morning.

Oct. 4: On this day in 1957, Sputnik 1 was launched by the Russians.

Oct. 8: The Draconid meteor shower peaks tonight.

Oct. 9: The last quarter moon is at 8:41 p.m.

Oct. 13: Mars is at opposition.

Oct. 14: Venus rises close to the waning crescent moon this morning around 4 a.m.

Oct. 16: The new moon is at 3:32 p.m.

Oct. 21: The Orionid meteor shower peaks at 2 a.m.

Oct. 23: The first quarter moon is at 9:24 a.m.

Oct 31: On this date in 2005, the Hubble Space Telescope discovered two more moons of Pluto, Nix and Hydra. The second full moon of this month, also called a Blue Moon, happens at 10:50 a.m.

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What's up in October: Mars will put on a dazzling show - pressherald.com

For Park Tudor School junior Vanessa Xiao, the ability to work well together made the difference for Team BrightLight.

Xiao

Team BrightLight recently was named the winner of the Health & Science Innovations IDEAA Challenge 2020, earning $3,000. Xiao was one of three Carmel residents on the team. The others were Carmel High School senior Zoha Aziz and University High School junior Aisha Kokan. The fourth member was Fishers resident and Hamilton Southeastern senior Nikhil Datar.

The IDEAA Challenge is a prototyping competition for Indiana high school students. Teams work to find a solution to a specific challenge using concepts of design, engineering, automation, mechatronics, coding and research. The 2020 challenge was to design a Mars rover charging station using renewable energy. Team BrightLight presented its design to 30 peers and industry professionals. Team members proposed a way to wirelessly charge rovers using electromagnetic induction and energy captured from wind, as opposed to the current rover charging methods that are clunky and easily rendered unusable.

Aziz

We each took on a role and knew our responsibilities for them, Xiao said. We thoroughly understood our prototype, and if we encountered any problems, we would contact each other and work them out. To even create our prototype, we researched and had team meetings to discuss ideas. Through a lot of hard work and dedication, we created a final product we were all proud of.

Aziz said communication was essential because the team strategically planned out each persons role.

Team members met at the HSI summer camp Young Innovators Quest and then came together to form a team.

Kokan

Kokan said the key to the teams success was focusing on the process rather than the end goal.

We went into the project wanting to learn as much as we could about NASAs approach to tackling the atmosphere and geology of Mars, Kokan said. Because of this mindset, we were able to be very creative and not limit ourselves when brainstorming solutions on how to build an efficient Mars rover charger. Dividing our project into the stages of problem identification, product design and prototype testing allowed for better time management. The team was also very collaborative and was able to effectively combine our ideas together for the best solution.

Datar

Datar, a Hamilton Southeastern senior, said the team was imaginative with its ideas.

When we brainstormed possible solutions to the challenge, we made sure to never rule out one of our ideas until we had done extensive research, Datar said. Reaching out to professors and graduate students at Purdue was very helpful with the research, as we were able to gain expert knowledge about the current systems in place for Mars rover charging and foster ideas for how we could improve them. We also made sure to properly balance the time spent on different parts of the project, including brainstorming, designing, prototyping, etc., in order to get each milestone of the project done on time.

Kokan said the team managed to overcome the difficulties of communicating despite the restrictions put in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before the pandemic, we met at the Carmel Clay Public Library, she said. When this was no longer possible, we began meeting on Zoom, doing research, discussing ideas and brainstorming solutions together. We would then have longer calls devoted to writing our ideas out into paper format.

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Hamilton County team wins Mars rover charging station prototyping competition - Current in Carmel

Mars may have only a thin atmosphere compared to other Solar System planets, but boy does it make the most of it. Water ice can rise high in the sky to form thin clouds. Wild winds can whip up into uncontrolled dust storms that shroud the entire planet, or create dust towers that extend almost into space.

So it should come as no surprise that NASA's Mars Curiosity rover, beavering away in the Gale Crater, sometimes lays its electronic eyes on Martian weather phenomena and now, it's spotted a dust devil spinning across the rocky crater floor.

Seeing weather phenomena on Mars that we also see on Earth isn't just interesting, though - it can also tell us a lot about seasonal atmospheric changes on the Red Planet.

It's coming into Martian summer in the planet's southern hemisphere, where the Gale Crater can be found, and the atmosphere in the region is heating up. Just as uneven heating of the atmosphere on Earth generates atmospheric movement, so too is the Martian atmosphere affected.

"Stronger surface heating tends to produce stronger convection and convective vortices, which consist of fast winds whipping around low pressure cores," writes atmospheric scientist Claire Newman of Aeolis Research on the Mars Exploration blog.

"If those vortices are strong enough, they can raise dust from the surface and become visible as 'dust devils' that we can image with our cameras."

Dust devils are pretty well understood, and they come about the same way on both Earth and Mars. They form best in relatively flat, dry terrain, when the air at the surface level is warmer than the air above it.

This hot surface air rises through the cooler, denser air, creating an updraft. This causes the cooler air to sink. If a horizontal wind then blows through this vertical circulation, a dust devil whips into action.

They're extremely common on Mars, but we only know this because, as they move across the ground, they sweep up the dust in their path, leaving tracks behind them. Actually seeing them in action on the Red Planet is quite rare, since our observational capabilities are limited, and dust devils themselves are relatively short-lived.

The dust devil above, seen in the top centre of the image, was captured by Curiosity's Navcam on Sol 2847, and covers a span of about 5 minutes, Newman says. Even though it seems ghostly, the fact that we can see it means it was pretty powerful.

"We often have to process these images, by enhancing what's changed between them, before dust devils clearly show up," she writes. "But this dust devil was so impressive that - if you look closely! - you can just see it moving to the right, at the border between the darker and lighter slopes, even in the raw images."

Studying these movies can reveal a lot about dust devils on Mars - where they form, for instance, how they evolve, how long they last, the type of dust they pick up, and how they vary from location to location.

They can also reveal wind speed and duration, which, in combination with meteorological readings, can help scientists learn more about Martian weather, and how dust devils fit into it.

Curiosity is the only operational rover on Mars at the moment (InSight is a stationary lander), so whatever surface information can be gleaned on Martial dust devils is very limited. Mars also has operational orbiters, though, which cover a lot more ground.

These have caught the occasional dust devil in action from space, as well as the many, many tracks they have left behind after they fade away.

Original post:

NASA Rover Glimpses a Ghostly Martian Dust Devil Whirling Across The Red Planet - ScienceAlert

The origin of the strange ridged texture of this Mars terrain, as seen by the MRO HiRise camera, is a puzzle.

For as much as we know about Mars, a lot of the planet remains mysterious. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) snapped a picture of "puzzling" ridged terrain located near a wild region called Aureum Chaos.

The MRO's HiRise camera took a closer look at the area. "In this image we can see much detail, but the origin of the surface texture is still intriguing," wrote the University of Arizona HiRise team in a picture-of-the-day feature on Aug. 30.

From the lab to your inbox. Get the latest science stories from CNET every week.

The HiRise team came up with one possible explanation, which starts with a long-ago layering of sediments left by water or volcanic activity.

"A crudely polygonal patterned ground was created by stresses in the sediments, and groundwater followed the fractures and deposited minerals that cemented the sediments. This was followed by perhaps billions of years of erosion by the wind, leaving the cemented fractures as high-standing ridges," the HiRise group suggested.

But take that idea with a grain of martian sand. "Of course, this story is almost certainly incomplete if not totally wrong," the feature concluded.

Rough landscapes aren't good candidates for rover exploration or human landing sites. This is where helicopters like the one traveling with NASA's recently launched Perseverance rover could one day come in handy.

If successful, the Ingenuity Mars chopper could kick off a new trend in the exploration of other worlds, giving us close-up views of locations other robotic explorers can't visit.

The story of Mars geology is an unfinished book, but we're adding chapters all the time, even if some of them end in question marks.

Read the original here:

NASA puzzles over mysterious Mars ridges billions of years in the making - CNET

The full moon rises beside One World Trade Center in New York City on September 5, 2017 as seen from ... [+] Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)

Each Monday I pick out the northern hemispheres celestial highlights (mid-northern latitudes) for the week ahead, but be sure to check my main feed for more in-depth articles on stargazing, astronomy and eclipses.

This week stars with a slight meteor shower, but theres no doubting the star attraction. Rising near-full on Tuesday night and setting near-full on Wednesday morning, the Corn Moonthe final full Moon of the seasonswill dominate the night sky all week. As it wanes, catch it shining beside Mars, the red planet, on Thursday.

Producing a mere six shooting stars per hour on average, the Aurigid meteor shower is nothing to get too excited about, but if youre out stargazing you just might spot one.

Aurigids are created by dust and debris left in Earths orbital path by comet Kiess (C/1911 N1), a long-periodcometdiscovered 75 years ago that orbits the Sun roughly once every 2,000 years.

There was a really big outburst in 2007 when Earth crossed through its densest stream of material, but the next big one isnt predicted until 2077.

Its named after the constellation of Auriga, which is the area of the sky where the shooting stars appear to originate from, but they can appear anywhere in the sky.

A "Strawberry Moon" rises over the Pacific Ocean at Narrawallee Beach, located near Mollymook on the ... [+] South Coast of New South Wales in Australia, June 6, 2020. (Photo by David Gray/Getty Images)

Traditionally the Harvest Moon is Septembers Moon, though technically speaking that refers to the closest full Moon to the September (or fall/autumnal) equinox. That makes Octobers full Moon the Harvest Moon. So what do we call this Moon? In the UK it tends to be called the Fruit Moon, with Corn Moon or Barley Moon offered as a replacement.

Whatever you decide (after all, the names of the Moon are largely fictional anyway), get yourself a view of a clear eastern horizon at dusk today to see the delicate orangey hues of a rising full Moon. For Europe and North America the Moon will rise almost full shortly after sunset tonight.

Once youve seen that majestic sight, ponder the fact that today an asteroid measuring 22 meters by 49 meters will sweep safely by Earth. Already labelled potentially hazardous and entered on the close approaches database of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), asteroid 2011 ES4has been known aboutand its trajectory mappedsince 2011.

If you want another glorious sight of the Corn Moon, get yourself up early to watch it sink due west. Although most of us focus on the more convenient full moonrisewhich always takes place in the east around duskthe moonset, close to sunrise, is just as impressive.

As a bonus, tonights sunset and moonrise times are close enough for a third impressive view of the Corn Moon in a twilight sky.

On September 5, 2020 the Moon will appear to be close to Mars.

Just past full and now 86%-lit, the waning gibbous Moon will make an apparent close approach to the red planet. Look east after dark to see the two in conjunction.

Note: Star charts here are for 40 North latitude. If you need exact information for where you are please consult an online planetarium like The Sky Live.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

Read more:

A Full Corn Moon Rising And A Mars-Moon Match-Up: What To Watch For In The Night Sky This Week - Forbes

ADAMS TWP Mars Area Middle Schools 1:1 Technology Program will provide each seventh- and eighth-grader with a district-issued electronic device, to be used in school and at home for educational purposes.

To receive a device, students must complete and submit the required forms which are available on the district website.

Completed forms and fee payments may be dropped off at Mars Area Middle Schools main office between 8 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. until Friday The school asks all forms and fee payments be submitted no later than Sept. 9.

Device distribution will be during the school day Sept. 10 through 15.

Students who do not present all signed forms and the required payment will not receive a device.

All middle school students are required to have either a district-issued device or an approved personal device. Personal devices must be registered online at http://wiki.marsk12.org/byot prior to the first day of school.

Specific questions regarding distribution may be directed to Todd Kolson, principal, at 724-625-3145.

Read more:

Serving the Cranberry Twp, Mars, Evans City, Zelienople areas - The Cranberry Eagle

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera that captured most of these detailed ... [+] images is one of three cameras aboard MRO.

NASAs Perseverance Rover is on its way to Mars, but 15 years ago, another spacecraft made the same months-long cruise from Earth to Mars, carrying three cameras and a suite of scientific instruments. Data and images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter helped NASA choose the landing sites for rovers and landers like Curiosity, InSight, and Perseverance. Thanks to the MRO, NASA knew where the rovers could land safely, where to do the most interesting science, and where to go next.

Since its arrival in Martian orbit in early 2006, the MRO has given us an unprecedented look at the Martian landscape, gathered a wealth of data on our rocky neighbors geology, and monitored its thin but dynamic atmosphere. Its also helped keep an eye on the landers and rovers on the planets surface, provided photos to help with crash investigations when the ESAs Schiaparelli lander was lost on Mars in 2016, and sent home some truly gorgeous photos that make the dusty red planet feel like a real place.

If theres a particular place or feature on Mars youd like a better look at, you can suggest it to NASA at HiWish. NASA takes these suggestions into consideration when its deciding what to photograph next with MROs High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE.

Exposed Bedrock In An Impact Crater

Craters can offer windows into the structure of the rocks beneath the surface, and their structure ... [+] can also offer clues about the impact that created them.

When an asteroid or comet slammed into Mars in the distant past, the impact blasted this 44 kilometer-wide crater in the planets rocky surface. The large impact also caused the ground at the center of the crater to rebound upward (picture what happens when you throw a pebble into the water; the water at the center of the splash bounces back upward after the pebble hits). The result is called a complex crater, and that rebound lifted the greenish bedrock in this photo from where it was buried several kilometers beneath the surface. Over time, the terraces at the sides of the crater have collapsed to reveal more of the bedrock.

Walls of Ice And Rock

These sheer cliffs of ice face the Martian poles.

These steep icy cliffs can be found near both Martian poles. Their sheer faces are walls of water ice nearly 100 meters high.

A Surprise Dust Devil

A westerly wind pushed the dust devil into a graceful curve partway up the swirling column of air.

One day in 2012, HiRISE was just casually taking some photos of the Amazonis Planitia, a swath of flat land in Marss northern hemisphere, when it caught this dust devil twisting across the deserted landscape. Based on the length of the shadow it casts, the dust devil is probably about 800 meters tall and 30 meters wide. Its hard to compare a Martian dust devil to its Earthly counterparts, because the Martian atmosphere is so much thinner that even a relatively high wind doesnt actually exert much force.

The Devils Tracks

At one time, planetary scientists expected Mars to be a static, unchanging world, but images like ... [+] this one prove that's not the case.

Another dust devil in Mars southern hemisphere left these tracks in early 2019, reminding us that Mars is a planet with active weather and a constantly evolving surface.

The Storm That Killed The Opportunity Rover

Besides blotting out the sunlight, Martian dust storms generate a lot of electrical activity thanks ... [+] to the slight electrostatic charge of the dust particles they carry.

Although the Martian winds dont pack a huge punch, potential travelers should still take weather reports on Mars seriously, because the planets dust storms kick up a lot of electrical activity and then theres the dust itself. Check out these images of Mars taken before and after a dust storm shrouded the planet in dust and dimmed the Martian skies back in the summer of 2018.

Farewell, Little Space Robot

This is the Opportunity Rover's final resting place after 14 years exploring Mars.

MRO captured this image of the Opportunity Rover in September 2018. NASA wasnt able to regain contact with the rover after the storm passed; unfortunately, the rover ran out of power thanks to all the dust covering its solar panels and blotting out the sky.

Sand And Ice At The North Pole

This is the Martian landscape at its coolest.

The polar landscapes of Mars are a sight to behold. Sand dunes march across the frozen ground during the summer months, and in the winter theyre held in place by a thin layer of frost. The streaked texture on the icy ground between the dunes is a fascinating geological trick called frost heave. If you look closely, you can see piles of boulders scattered here and there along the dark streaks on the ground. NASA explains, In the Arctic back on Earth, rocks can be organized by a process called frost heave. With frost heave, repeated freezing and thawing of the ground can bring rocks to the surface and organize them in piles, stripes, or even circles.

The Highest Point On Mars

Olympus Mons is the second-highest peak in the solar system, next to Rheasilvia on Venus. The ... [+] volcano may still be active, but the last evidence of an eruption is about 2 million years old.

In this image, youre looking straight down at the 21 kilometer-high peak of the volcano Olympus Mons. Geological evidence suggests the volcano first formed more than 3 billion years ago during the Hesperian Period, when the surface of Mars was a tumult of volcanic eruptions and massive floods. Over time, lava flows built Olympus Mons into a mountain more than twice the height of Mount Everest; the youngest lava flows on its slopes probably date to just 2 million years ago. The dark sediment piled around the foot of the mountain came from landslides rolling down off the mountains sides.

An Ancient Flood

Megafloods like the one that dropped these massive rocks in Holden Crater were common during the ... [+] Hesperian Period, when geological forces reworked the Martian surface in catastrophic ways.

In the distant past, Mars had oceans, lakes, rivers, and occasional catastrophic megafloods. When the waters of the Uzboi Valles breached the rim of Holden Crater, the flood dropped 100 meter-wide blocks of stone into the crater. The bright layers you can see on the exposed sides of the rock probably record a much warmer, wetter period of Martian history which is why NASA once had Holden Crater on its list of possible lander targets.

Curiosity Climbs A Mountain

Curiosity has been on Mars since 2012, and it's still going strong.

The MRO captured this shot of its sibling Curiosity trekking its way across a clay-bearing area on the slopes of Mount Sharp back in May 2019, which seems like a century ago now.

Read this article:

Stuck At Home? Explore Mars With The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter - Forbes

People visit the M&M store in Times Square on July in New York City.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

A former Mars executive is claiming that a member of the family and the company's board "stamped" on his foot and told him that he would regret his choice to leave for a position with JAB Holdings.

The allegation is part of JAB Holdings' rebuttal against a trade secrets lawsuit filed by Mars in May infederal court in Washington, D.C. The M&M maker claims thatJacek Szarzynski, who formerly served as CFO of Mars' pet-care business and is named as a defendant in the suit, stole upward of 6,000 documents from Mars and passed them over to JAB. The latest salvo, which was first reported by the Financial Times, is a rare look behind the curtain into the two privately held companies.

Szarzynski called the lawsuit "vindictive and unnecessary," saying that while he still had some Mars documents in his possession, he never used or intended to use them for his own benefit or to harm his former employer. He is now a partner at JAB, which is the investment arm of the Reimann family, and serves as chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Pret Panera, one of its business units.

"Mars is a private, family-owned business, and the Mars family reacts with brutality to any perceived slight," he wrote in a court filing Aug. 20. "They were upset that, after 24 years working for Mars, I had the temerity to leave."

Szarzynski claimed that Frank Mars, who shares a name with company's founder and sits on its board, "intentionally" stepped on his foot after one of his final presentations in front of the Mars board in December 2018.

"As Mr. Mars stared at me aggressively, his foot on top of mine, he warned me, 'Tell your new boss we will never forgive him taking people like you from us and will fight him aggressively,'" he alleged.

Mars said in a statement to CNBC that the arguments are "an attempt to divert attention from wrongdoing and paint a misleading picture." The company said it is confident that its lawsuit will be successful.

"Mr. Szarzynski and JAB do not dispute these facts," the company said. "We tried to resolve this issue amicably, but unfortunately we were unable to do so. JAB was unwilling to agree to a comprehensive settlement."

In its original complaint, Mars also accused the former executive of expense fraud.Szarzynski estimated that the expenses could not be worth more than a few hundred dollars and said that he has offered Mars repayment for any errors. He alleged that the company has rebuffed the suggestion.

Szarzynski also claimed that Mars wrongfully withheld incentive compensation awards owed to him with an estimated value of more than $1 million. Moreover, he argued that the dispute should be solved through arbitration with Mars or in Belgian courts, where he resides and formerly worked for Mars.

Continued here:

Mars board member accused of stamping on the foot of ex-employee at the center of JAB Holdings lawsuit - CNBC

If you have a good, low view to the east, catch what looks like a distant campfire soon after the sky grows dark and the stars come out to shine.

This is Mars.

The beloved Red Planet, long cloaked in awe and mystery, only in the past few decades has started to reveal some secrets, even as more questions arise. Its lure somehow draws us as in millennia past, now in this space-age close to our literal grasp.

Pondered as a possible abode of life, the notion has never been ruled out. Whether that is the case or not (little green martian microbes with antennae living underground with tiny ray guns?), the fourth planet from the sun and the one most similar to our own, is nearing one of its fairly rare close approaches this October.

Mars orbits the sun in 687 Earth days, which is nearly two Earth years, and each time reaches a closest point. This point is referred to as perihelion (the farthest point is aphelion). The distance varies considerably due to Mars highly elliptical orbit. On occasion, it gets close enough to stand out like a fiery beacon, catching even the attention of people who dont ordinarily look up to admire a clear, night sky.

Currently, Mars rises in the east less than a half-hour after twilight fades into night. It is glowing at magnitude -1.6, matching the brightest star of the night sky, blue-white Sirius, which is well seen on winter evenings.

The Red Planet makes its closest approach on Oct. 6, appropriately when autumn in the Northern Hemisphere is known for foliage bursting in red, orange and yellow.

Presently, the planet is about 48.3 million miles from Earth. On Oct. 6 it will be 38.6 million miles.

It hasnt been so close since Aug. 27, 2003 (34.65 million miles). It will be another 15 years (2035) until Mars is any closer than this years passage.

Most of the time, Mars glows at around +2 magnitude or so, and catches little attention other than by amateur astronomers. At these times, Mars is much farther and shows little more than a tiny red disc in a small telescope.

During these rare close passages, even a telescope with a 3-inch mirror or lens can start to show dusky markings and the bright polar cap. It can be very challenging even at these opportunities to see much. The atmosphere needs to be steady as possible, and Mars should be viewed when it is well above the horizon. Examining Mars takes a well-aligned telescope and patience, and as experience builds, you may be able to identify major, dark features shown on maps of Mars.

Even without a telescope, however, enjoy seeing this fiery beacon glowing in the sky. Ponder its mysteries!

Be sure to enjoy Jupiter and Saturn, in the southern sky the next clear evening. Jupiter is most brilliant, on the right side (west) as seen from the Northern Hemisphere.

Saturday night, Aug. 29, the gibbous moon will be to the lower left (east) of Saturn.

About an hour before sunrise, look due east again. Mars will have moved far to the southwest, but in its place is planet Venus, shining very bright.

While you are out that early this time of year, you will see the wonderful constellation Orion with its three-star belt, in the south-southeast. Sirius is to the lower left. You are seeing a preview of December evening skies!

The moon is full on Oct. 1 and is known as the Harvest Moon.Keep looking up at the sky!

Peter Becker is managing editor at The News Eagle in Hawley, Pennsylvania. Notes are welcome at news@neagle.com. Please mention in what newspaper or website you read this column.

Here is the original post:

Looking Up column: Fiery Mars arrives on the scene - Online Athens

Destiny 2

Destiny 2 is back with the final week of Solstice of Heroes, and theres really nothing new to report there, other than for you to finish up your armor or grind out the packages you want from the EAZ, though I cant run that course anymore lest my eyes fall out of my head.

Rather, I have morphed from Tree Watch, because the damn tree never changes, to Crate Watch, as I learned this week that we have been packing up all the different destinations and stockpiling their supplies in the Tower Hangar, and also by the NPCs themselves.

This week I predicted we would see crates from Mars, and we have. There are Clovis Bray brand crates in the Tower where previously there were only a few barrels. There were not crates by Ana on Mars, so I wonder if this has been an eight week process. Crates in the Tower on one destination, then crates by the NPC the next week, then they move on. That means next week this is finished which leads me to a few things.

We are approaching when this season was supposed to end. Next reset was going to be the last real week of Arrivals before Beyond Light, and now we have to figure out whats changed.

Destiny 2

It seems like its going to be time for the Evacuation to finish, or at least continue, so we can get Travelers Judgement. Supposedly that quest was already delayed a month from August to September, but if Evacuation is supposed to go directly into Beyond Light, then maybe it has to be delayed even further. But all signs point to the idea that it could end next week, so thats one reset to definitely pay attention to it.

The same goes for the Interference quest, which is scheduled to end (ie. the last lore entry is unlocked) the same week. While we dont think this is taking us to some hidden weapon, we may see a different mission that week, or I suppose, the next, when lore runs out. Possibly a fight against Nokris, our taunter in this mission.

The lore word this week is Falling and Eris has some unsettling news from the Darkness:

Another threat of imminent disaster. You declared a new Golden Age, and our enemy declares a second Collapse. They imply it is already in motion. Alarming.

Free fall is indistinguishable from a stable orbit until you strike the ground. Are we already falling? Is our doom fixed? Have I missed the signs this time?

Destiny 2

This would be one thing if it was like, the Vex or something predicting a Second Collapse. But the Darkness predicting one? Telling its already in motion? I dont understand. If theyre not the threat, ie. the ones causing it, then who is? Savathun?

There is no mention of the potential corruption of Zavala in this lore entry, something hinted at in the past. Hes brought up, but not in that context. I did get a Drifter/Zavala conversation during the public event today where Drifter seems to imply Zavala has a crush on Eris. But I am not sure if thats new or not, or if Ive never heard it before.

Again, not much to do this week, which is why Im back to Avengers. While Festival of the Lost is coming in October we have no idea what will happen in Destiny 2 in September, if anything, but I would keep an eye on reset next week for sure.

Follow meon Twitter,YouTubeandInstagram. Pick up my sci-fi novelsHerokillerandHerokiller 2, and read my first series,The Earthborn Trilogy, which is also onaudiobook.

Continued here:

Destiny 2 Reset Update: Mars Evacuates, A Second Collapse And The Final Week - Forbes

Marsquakes recorded by NASA's InSight mission offer the first direct evidence of key boundaries in the Martian interior, which could help planetary scientists understand how rocky planets are formed, a new study suggests.

The spacecraft landed at Elysium Planitia in November 2018 on a quest to probe the poorly understood interior of Mars. The thickness of the Red Planet crust and the depth of its core, for example, had only been estimated with models before. InSight allows researchers to check their models for the first time.

InSight probes the Martian interior with its seismometer, which rests directly on the ground, overcoming a problem a similar instrument encountered on Viking 2 in the 1970s; that seismometer was high on the spacecraft and swayed in the wind. (Viking 1's seismometer failed before it could take measurements, according to NASA.)

Related: InSight Mars lander snaps dusty selfie on Red Planet (photo)

InSight has measured more than 170 trembles between February and September 2019, marking the first definitive seismic measurements taken on Mars. InSight remains active today and more measurements will be integrated in future studies.

The InSight seismometer measures vibrations from seismic waves, which emanate from the source of disturbances such as marsquakes or meteor strikes. The shape and strength of the waves also allow scientists to estimate the composition of the Red Planet's interior, especially because these waves change slightly as they move through different rock types.

There are some unique challenges, however, associated with having only the single seismometer active on Mars, compared to the networks of such instruments on Earth. "Mars is much less tectonically active, which means it will have far fewer marsquake events compared with Earth," lead author Sizhuang Deng, a geophysics Ph.D. candidate at Rice University in Houston, said in a statement. "Moreover, with only one seismic station on Mars, we cannot employ methods that rely on seismic networks."

The research team examined InSight's seismology data using a technique called ambient noise autocorrelation, which is meant to extract the reflections produced at the boundaries of Martian zones beneath the crust.

The data indicated three main boundaries: between the Martian crust and mantle (at 22 miles or 35 kilometers under the lander), a transition zone between the minerals olivine and wadsleyite (at 690 to 727 miles or 1,110 to 1,170 km down), and the boundary between the mantle and the core (at 945 to 994 miles, or 1,520 km to 1,600 km down).

"The temperature at the olivine-wadsleyite transition is an important key to building thermal models of Mars. From the depth of the transition, we can easily calculate the pressure, and with that, we can derive the temperature," Deng said. The mantle-core boundary, he added, "can provide information about the planet's development from both a chemical and thermal point of view."

A study based on the research was published Aug. 4 in Geophysical Research Letters.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Scientists peer inside Mars to measure layers of Red Planet - Space.com

Mars today is a cold, dry wastelandbut things were likely much different billions of years ago. Since we started launching robotic missions to Mars in the 1970s, scientists have collected evidence that points to a warmer, wetter past for the Red Planet, where the surface was teeming with lakes and oceans that could have been home to life of some kind. Its part of the reason NASA built and launched a new rover thatlaunched last week to look for signs of ancient aliens.

But theres no complete consensus on what Mars really looked like in the past. The argument over the climate of early Mars is an old one going back 40 years, says Anna Grau Galofre of Arizona State University. Shes the lead author of a new studypublished in Nature Geosciencethat upends those dreams of a watery Mars, presenting new findings that suggest the planets ancient landscape looked closer to Antarctica than the tropics. Many of the geological features thought to have been carved out by flowing rivers and waterways replenished by frequent rainfall, the research suggests, may have actually resulted from massive glaciers and ice sheets that melted over time.

The new study focuses on the history of valleys located in the southern highlands of Mars. Past work has pointed at rivers as the origin of the Martian valley networks, says Grau Galofre, but her study identifies for the first time a fraction of systems with characteristics typical of subglacial channels. That is, it was melting ice, not flowing water, that dug out these valleys nearly 3.8 billion years ago.

The research team examined 10,276 individual valleys found in 66 valley networks on Mars, using custom-built algorithms to group them and infer what kind of erosion processes formed them. This was then compared to terrestrial valleys that were shaped by subglacial channels in the Canadian Arctic.

The major difference between networks formed from rivers and ones formed by melted ice is a result of how water flows. Rivers can only carve out valleys if the water is running downhill. But subglacial channels are pressurized, so the melted water is able to flow uphill too. The researchers' models can spot and identify tell-tale signs of water direction and assess what the likely cause was.

The researchers found that 22 of the valley networks seemed to have been carved out by subglacial meltwater, 14 by river water, and the rest formed through other erosion processes. If the authors are correct, it would suggest that Mars was primarily cold early in its history, says Jay Dickson, a planetary scientist at Caltech who was not involved with the study.Some climate modelshave come to the same conclusion, he says, counter to the prevailing image of ancient Mars as a planet covered in oceans and lakes.

The new findings dont mean Mars was one giant ball of ice in the past, however. Joe Levy, a geologist at Colgate University who wasnt involved with the study, thinks the glacier research is thought provoking, but does point out it struggles to pin down a single process that is responsible for forming each valley.

That smeariness in the data could be because there isnt a single process that resulted in the carving of each Martian valley, he says. When youve got a few billion years to work with, its very possible that each valley experienced everything from glacial erosion to lava flows to surging floods under silver skies. Each of those processes changes the shape of the valley network, and leaves a series of overprinted features behind.

Thankfully, a cool Mars doesnt spell bad news for the possibility of ancient Martian life. The subglacial environment could have provided a stable settingwith readily available water, a temperature without large oscillations, and protection from solar energetic particles and radiation without need for a magnetic field, says Grau Galofre.

We already know life can survive cold environments like this, as evidenced by the organisms that live under Antarcticas ice sheet in a place like Lake Vostok. The same may have been possible on Mars, even in these subglacial channels.

Dickson thinks the new findings will prompt researchers to look at other parts of Mars to compare. Mars has hundreds of very large dried-up lakes that date from this era and hosted large volumes of meltwater from these valley networks, he says.

This includes the landing site for the NASA Perseverance rover arriving next February at the Jezero Crater, and that mission could possibly make some room to look for this sort of evidence.

It's an exciting challenge for the entire Mars science community, says Dickson.

More:

Mars may not have been the warm, wet planet we thought it was - MIT Technology Review

Yesterday I woke up at 3 a.m. with a terrifying thought: What if COVID-19 is a sign that H.G. Wells got it backwards?

What if its not true that viruseswill save us (spoiler alert!)by killing the Martian invaders, as Wells wrote in War of the Worlds? What if viruses are being used by the Martians to weaken us in preparation for an invasion? How would we know?

By going to look, thats how. And fortunately, Earthlings are sending two new probes and a new orbiter to the Red Planet right now, including a NASA rover that, with any luck, will be partly controlled by some New Hampshire folks.

Weve all been very anxious, waiting to hear. Its very competitive should happen any time now, said Dr. Frances Rivera-Hernandez, a planetary geologist post-doc at Dartmouth College who has submitted an application to be part of the science team that will decide where the Perseverance rover will go and what it will do after it lands on Mars next February.

Dr. Marisa Palucis, an assistant professor at Dartmouth, is also on the waiting list. She has experience with the feeling: she been part of the science team for the Curiosity rover on Mars. She was at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory when NASAs Curiosity rover landed and recalls it with the wistfulness that accompanies many pre-pandemic memories: That was one of the top 10 days of my life.

Controlling a car-sized piece of mobile scientific equipment from at least 34 million miles away is a non-trivial task, whether youre looking for signs of imminent interplanetary assault or water levels a million years ago. Palucis described the process.

Every morning you get up and the rover has sent images from day before. You look at it and decide, Oh,this outcrop is really really interesting! Then the science team gets together and decides. It makes a science plan drive to this rock, sample chemistry, take pictures then they work the engineering team to put together the plan, which is beamed back to the rover, Palucis said.

COVID-19 will complicate the process for Perseverance because the science team cant get together in one room and work together on Mars time, in which each day is 24 hours long. Theyll brainstorm via video-conference, which as weve all learned is not the same thing as doing it over a shared box of Dunkin Munchkins, but even so, hopes are high for what will be discovered when Perseverance starts racing across Mars at its top speed of one-tenth of a mile per hour.

For scientists, the rovers biggest advantage is location. It will land at an alluvial fan, a delta of sediment deposited millennia ago by large amount of moving liquid of some kind.

Curiosity also landed near such a deposit but drove away from the alluvial fan, said Palucis. Perseverance is going to be driving up it.

Were going to be able to see from the sediment, layering of the sediment, how much water deposited and when ground-truthing satellite images, she said.

Rivera-Hernandez, who also studies such deposits on Earth, know what that means. Mud is really good at preserving biosignatures, evidence of past life. This is one of the best places to be hunting for past signs of life on Mars, she said. The instruments on the rover were picked specifically to look for past signs of life. That includes chemical analysis for organic molecules and cameras for very close-up pictures looking for texture that we commonly attribute to microbial life on earth.

But even if Perseverance doesnt find multi-cellular fossils, analysis of the dirt and silt and rocks left by flowing water can tell us how likely it was that past life existed.

If there was a river for 10,000 years, thats not enough time to evolve life. If you had an ocean for a billion years thats a different matter, said Palucis.

The Chinese are also sending a rover to Mars in their Tianwen-1 mission, which just launched. Theyre being a little tight-lipped about what exactly its going to do, but both Dartmouth researchers didnt sound too worried. More data is always a good thing to scientists.

Its quite possible that next spring there will be three different rovers doing science on the surface of the planet, if Curiosity continues to set endurance records. There will also be more Mars orbiters than I can count, including one just launched by the United Arab Emirates of all places, taking pictures and recording data.

This is amazing, considering that a century ago we still thought the planet had canals from a failed civilization. On the other hand, its also just a drop in a very large bucket.

If when we first startedto study the geology of Earth wed only had four geologists wed have only known so little, pointed out Palucis.

If you want more geek in your week, subscribe to David Brooks free weekly newsletterat GraniteGeek.org.You can also listen to him talk about his stories on the GraniteGeek podcast, granitegeek.concordmonitor.com/podcast, or talk with Chris Ryan on WKXLradio at soundcloud.com/wkxl/

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Even a story about going to Mars can't avoid COVID-19 - Concord Monitor

China's Tianwen-1 spacecraft captured a stunning view of the Earth and moon before making its first trajectory correction maneuver on the long journey to Mars.

The mission consists of an orbiter, entry vehicle and rover. The spacecraft will begin orbiting the Red Planet in February 2021, and then prepare for the rover's landing attempt, which is expected in April or May.

Tianwen-1 launched on July 23 on a Long March 5 rocket and completed the final burn to send it on a trajectory to Mars 36 minutes later. On July 27, while the spacecraft was about 750,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) away from Earth, an optical navigation sensor imaged the crescent-shaped Earth and the smaller, more distant moon.

Related: NASA asteroid camera spots China's Tianwen-1 Mars spacecraft speeding away from Earth

The black-and-white image reveals a few apparent features of Earth, against the stark background of an otherwise vast, black ocean.

At 7:00 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) on August 1, Tianwen-1 fired its engine for 20 seconds to optimize the spacecraft's trajectory. When the maneuver occured, Tianwen-1 was roughly 1,860,000 miles (3 million km) away from Earth after 230 hours of flight.

The burn was a vital test of the vehicle's propulsion system, which it will rely on to correct its trajectory and slow the spacecraft to allow it to enter Mars orbit.

The spacecraft will make four or five such adjustments before reaching Mars, Geng Yan, an official with the China National Space Administration, told Chinese media. The second such correction will be made before October.

Tianwen-1 is in good condition, communicating well with the ground, according to the update from the China Lunar Exploration Project.

The orbiter carries high- and medium-resolution cameras designed for studying and mapping Mars. The image of the Earth and moon, however, was taken by an optical navigation sensor that is normally pointing toward Mars.

In the days following launch, a NASA asteroid camera picked up the spacecraft moving against the star field.

Other Chinese spacecraft have imaged the Earth and moon together previously. Chang'e-5 T1, an experimental mission launched in 2014 to test lunar sample-return technologies, took a stunning image of the far side of the moon and a distant Earth.

The Queqiao relay satellite for the Chang'e-4 lunar far-side mission has also imaged the pair from the second Earth-moon Lagrange point beyond the moon, as did the Longjiang-2 microsatellite that launched with Queqiao. Fengyun-4A, a weather satellite in geostationary orbit, has also captured the pair in a single shot.

Tianwen-1, as well as the United Arab Emirates' Hope mission and NASA's Perseverance rover, are now all en route to Mars and will arrive in February.

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On its way to Mars, Chinese spacecraft spots Earth and moon, aces steering maneuver - Space.com

NASA's Perseverance Mars roverlaunchedfrom Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 30 July, carrying a host of cutting-edge technology including high-definition video equipment and thefirst interplanetary helicopter.

Many of the tools are designed as experimental steps toward human exploration of the red planet. Crucially, Perseverance is equipped with a device called theMars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE: an attempt to produce oxygen on a planet where it makes up less than 0.2 percent of the atmosphere.

Oxygen is a cumbersome payload on space missions. It takes up a lot of room, and it's very unlikely that astronauts could bring enough of it to Mars for humans to breathe there, let alone to fuel spaceships for the long journey home.

That's the problem MOXIE is looking to solve. The car-battery-sized robot is a roughly 1 percent scale model of the device scientists hope to one day send to Mars, perhaps in the 2030s.

Like a tree, MOXIE works by taking in carbon dioxide, though it's designed specifically for the thin Martian atmosphere. It then electrochemically splits the molecules into oxygen and carbon monoxide, and combines the oxygen molecules into O2.

It analyses the O2 for purity, shooting for about 99.6 percent O2. Then it releases both the breathable oxygen and the carbon monoxide back into the planet's atmosphere. Future scaled-up devices, however, would store the oxygen produced in tanks for eventual use by humans and rockets.

A breakdown of the components inside the MOXIE oxygen generator. (NASA/Wikimedia Commons)

The toxicity of the carbon monoxide produced isn't a worry, according to Michael Hecht, a principal investigator for MOXIE. The gas reenters the Martian atmosphere but won't alter it very much.

"If you release the carbon monoxide into the Mars atmosphere, eventually it will combine with a very small amount of residual oxygen that's there and turn back into carbon dioxide," Hechtpreviously told Business Insider.

For that reason, the carbon monoxide also wouldn't hinder a potential biosphere on Mars a closed, engineered environment where Earthly life could thrive.

Because MOXIE is a small proof-of-concept experiment, it won't produce much oxygen if all goes well, it should be producing about10 grams per hour, which is roughly the amount of oxygen in 1.2 cubic feet of Earth air. For context, humans need about 19 cubic feet of air per day.

MOXIE will test its capabilities by producing oxygen in one-hour increments intermittently throughout the duration of Perseverance's mission, according to NASA. The device should start working soon after the rover lands on 18 February 2021.

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

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NASA's Rover Is Taking a Tree-Like Device That Converts CO2 Into Oxygen to Mars - ScienceAlert

Its been awhile since I posted a video, I will start working on a new one soon, in the meantime, heres a look at what we can see in our night sky during August.

Heres a photo of the Mars and the Moon Saturday night.

That little speck at the top of the picture is Mars. With the clear skies we are having for the first half of the week ahead, it should be east to go out and stargaze.

After sunset, Saturn and Jupiter will be in the southeast sky. By midnight, Mars will rise in the sky, if you want to see 4 planets at once, then you will want to look at around 3 AM when Venus rises in the eastern sky.

Remember, later this year in December, Saturn and Jupiter will meet in our night sky. From our vantage point orbiting the sun, it will appear that these planets will collide! So over the next couple of months take note on where they are in relation to each other.

Happy Viewing!Meteorologist Jeff Edmondson

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Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and the Moon in our August Sky - WAVY.com

As deep space missions and Mars colonies continue to shift from science fiction to potential near-future reality, its not surprising to see Hollywood think about different types of stories to tell about space exploration. Away, a new series from Netflix premiering on September 4, looks like that kind of story.

The show stars Oscar-winner Hilary Swank, and is created by the people behind Parenthood and Friday Night Lights. Its a show about an astronaut mission to Mars but its clearly also about the family drama and tensions that arise, both for those in space on a multi-year mission and for the families they left back home on Earth.

The show also looks to feature The Good Wifes Josh Charles in a key supporting role, which is awesome because hes fantastic. Given the level of talent, the pedigree of the showrunners and the space setting, this looks like a fantastic recipe for a great new show. The first season will be available to stream on September 4 on Netflix.

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Watch the trailer for Netflixs new family space drama about a mission to Mars - TechCrunch