Category Archives: Mars Colony

Krys Marshall and Joel Kinnaman in For All MankindPhoto: Apple TV+

The Men of Earth came to Mars, Ray Bradbury wrote, because they were afraid or unafraid, because they were happy or unhappy, because they felt like Pilgrims or did not feel like Pilgrims. There was a reason for each man. You could say the same of the humans on the moon in the first two seasons of For All Mankind, Apple TV+s meticulously realized, largely satisfying alternate-history space drama. Each has their reason for stepping onto the cold lunar surface. Or, in this season, the equally inhospitable Red Planet.

Over twenty episodes streamed in 2019 and 21, the series excelled when messy human motivations ran up against the life-or-death exigencies of surviving in space. Heartbroken Edward Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) captained the first nuclear-powered space shuttle in a game of chicken with the Soviets in orbit around the moon, even as his marriage was imploding on Earth. Ex-spouses Gordo (Michael Dorman) and Tracy (Sarah Jones), who were awkwardly reunited on the lunar base Jamestown, save the joint (I mean the entire moon) from nuclear meltdown by a suicide mission on the surface, their spacesuits jerry-rigged from duct tape and crazy determination. Ellen Wilson (Jodi Balfour) goes to superhuman lengths to save her mission in season onebut works even harder to hide her sexuality. These arent cardboard cosmic heroes; theyre flawed men and women dying inside (and outside) but doing what has to be done.

In For All Mankind, every astronaut, NASA administrator, family member or lover has their private reason for risking their lives or standing by while a loved one risks theirs. Jimmy (David Chandler), Gordo and Tracys emotionally fragile son, grabs the mike at his brother Dannys wedding in space to deliver a bitter tribute to his romanticized parents: Now theyre lovers on the lunar surface, Jimmy says with a sneer. Thats what NASA does. It twists things into how we want to see them. They died for the country, they died for the space program, they died for each other, but the truth is, they just died. Go ahead and say its for science, or progress, but reality lies, like the title of the season-two finale, in The Grey.

Speaking of gray, everyones a decade older as season three begins with the NASA-reunion-becomes-a-disaster-movie thriller Polaris. Ed falls and fractures an ankle trying to hustle out of a space hotel room during an emergency. Margo (Wrenn Schmidt) has to squeeze extra hard to get into her control pantyhose in the morning. Makeup crew even add lines to Krys Marshall to show how time is wearing on Danielle Poole. The year is circa 1992, Gary Hart is President, and the next destination is Mars.

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For All Mankind has always been a workplace drama that turns on a dime into a horror movie (what you get when you ride giant fuel bombs into a radioactive void). In season one (its Mad Men in Space phase), the Apollo 23 launchpad explosion incinerated Gene Kranz and several others; and the Apollos 24 and 25 malfunction killed Harrison Liu and Deke Slayton. In the 1980s-set season two, there were Soviets and gunplay on the moon, and the body count rose accordingly. And not just in space. NASA Administrator Thomas Paine also got obliterated in the (real-life) KAL 007 airplane disaster.

Now space is being commercialized and civilians are at risk. China and Korea have launched their own rockets. An Elon Musk-like billionaire named Dev Ayesa (Edi Gathegi) is mining Helium-3 on the moon as a source of clean energy. NASA announces plans to put an American on Mars by 1996. The Soviets counter with their own Mars mission. And so were back to season ones audacious premise: the Soviets beating Americans to the moon in 1969. That national humiliation drove the space race faster and longer, while at the same time prevented the USSR from falling apart. Incredibly, Margo is still carrying on an extremely ill-advised affair with her Soviet counterpart, Sergei Nikulov (Piotr Adamczyk). Theyve been passing technical secrets for a decade to help advance each others space programs. Im not sure Im ready to see Margo let her hair down (its actually pretty short now) behind closed doors with the reds.

Speaking of love affairs, its nice to see that Aleida Rosales (Coral Pea) has settled down and started a family with a fellow named Victor. Aleidas kindly father, Octavio (Arturo Del Puerto), lives with them, and in a scene where Margo comes for dinner, we learn that Aleida is the best person suited to fix a NERVA technical issue on the moon, the nuclear-powered engine that will get us to Mars. The moment is a reminder that, for all the innovations like a space hotel and whatever gadgetry the Soviets and private entrepreneurs come up with, NASA remains the idealistic hub where an immigrant like Aleida can let her engineering genius flourish. Such quietly dignified patriotism is one of the shows more refreshing aspects.

And it fits the semi-utopian, technophile alt-history the series promotes: If NASA developed revolutionary new technology at a faster pace (mobile phones, electric cars, nuclear rockets, and of course, lunar colonies), would social progress come faster? (The Equal Rights Amendment was passed in season one.) But this season, were in the thick of 90s go-go neoliberalism and social justice takes a backseat to commercial success: The former astronaut dive bar the Outpost is a Hard Rock-caf like chain (thanks, Sam Cleveland) and the Polaris space hotel spins in orbit above the earth (thanks again, Sam).

Coral Pea in For All Mankind Photo: Apple TV+

And thanks also to Karen Baldwin (Shantel VanSanten). Shes co-proprietor of the wheel-shaped Polaris, which serves as the destination-wedding for shiny new astronaut Danny Stevens (Casey W. Johnson) and Amber (Madeline Bertani). On the guest list are Ed Baldwin, his second wife, Yvonne, Dani Poole, and her second husband and son. The seasoned astronauts are both impressed and dubious about the slick Polaris set-up, which promises a bar, a gym and all kinds of amenities that astronauts could only dream of. The veterans of early Jamestown roll their eyes. We came in peace. For all your cash, Dani jokes. Im just glad Ill be on my way to Mars in a few years, the older but still wiseass Ed drawls, and leave all this bullshit to you lowly Earth dwellers. To which the ever-composed Dani whispers, Come on, old man. You know I got this in the bag.

Ed and Dani are in competition to see who will head the mission to Mars. The tte tte between Molly and Margo a few scenes laterover that very issuebrings up an interesting point that could become more prominent as the season progresses: As technology gets more sophisticated and can be relied upon to perform tasks more precisely than humans, it makes the daredevils of the space programthe Ed Baldwins, specificallyless essential. Being an old-guard space cowboy, Molly wants Ed to be the first American on Mars. Margo prefers the more methodical, level-headed Dani. I fully expect Aleida on the first Mars mission.

But before Mars, we have a disaster to avert on the orbital Four Seasons. In terms of lapel-grabbing brio, the race to save Polaris is one of the most cracking season openers Ive seen since season two of Deadwood, when Al and Seth go at it in the mud. If there was a criticism of For All Mankinds first two seasons, its that they were slow burns until slam-bang action in the last two episodes. Apparently, showrunners Ronald D. Moore and Ben Nedivi would like our attention. And they get it with Space Hotel: Killer Gravity 1992!

It appears that an unmanned Korean test rocket recently exploded, and a chunk of that debris just happens to hit a thruster on Polaris. The thrusters make sure the wheel-shaped Polaris rotates at just the right speed to simulate normal Earth gravity. With the wheel accelerating nonstop, G-forces increase, and members of the wedding party, already a bit tipsy, starts to feel the weight. A nice touch from co-writers Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi and director Sarah Boyd shows the bride-and-groom figurines on the wedding cake sinking ominously into the frosting. Trying to repair the damage, a couple of Polaris crew members are crushed by dislodged cables whipping around like space-octopus tentacles. We are told that at G-Force 4, the hotel will start breaking up, and its up to Dannyin an echo of his parents heroism from last seasonto save the day with a last-minute spacewalk to repair the damage and slow down the rotation.

The whole sequence was a reminder that for all its human drama and tech geekiness, For All Mankind likes a good, old-fashioned cataclysm. The show is essentially a fable about the beautiful, terrible unpredictability of existence. We go about our lives on this little blue planet (or pockmarked satellite) and suddenly a chunk of space junk slams into our lives. Think of Shane Baldwin on his bike. Innocence becomes tragedy. The reason astronauts go into space is probably the same thing that attracts fans to sci-fi: a mix of wonder and terror.

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For All Mankind sets up a mission to Mars - The A.V. Club

June 08, 2022

TRANSCRIPT

Narrator: What would it take to hold a piece of the planet Mars in your hand?

(0:04) music

Narrator: Going to Mars is difficult and dangerous, and humans have never made the journey although many dream of being the first to wander the vast deserts of this alien world.

Mars has already come to Earth, in the form of meteorites that traveled the millions of miles of space between Earth and Mars. We can tell these space rocks originally came from Mars because of their mineralogy, and some even contain tiny pockets of gas that match the Martian air. These rocks were excavated through an explosive event, when a large meteorite slammed into Mars and carved out an impact crater.

sound effect: meteorite hits Mars

Narrator: Some of the debris thrown outward by this cosmic bomb escaped the planets gravity, and wandered the solar system for millions of years until eventually, randomly, colliding with our planet, enduring a fiery entry through our atmosphere before falling to Earth.

(1:07) sound effect: meteorite falls to Earth

Narrator: These pummeled pieces of Mars have been much changed by their travels, and only the toughest rocks survive the trip.

Since the 1970s, plans to gather a collection of different rocks on Mars and bring them to Earth in a more careful, deliberate way known as Mars Sample Return have been developed by the U.S. and other space-faring nations, only to be canceled due to the costs and complexity of such an effort.

Over the same time period, NASA used orbiting spacecraft, landers, and eventually rovers to explore Mars, revealing new insights well beyond what can be gleaned from meteorites or by studying the planet from afar with telescopes. But as good as these close-up views have been, instruments sent on space missions are limited in size, weight, and capability compared to laboratories on Earth.

NASAs latest Mars rover the Mars 2020 missions Perseverance is a step toward finally realizing the Mars Sample Return goal of the past fifty years. Heres deputy project scientist of the mission, Katie Stack Morgan.

(2:24) Katie Stack Morgan: Perseverance's job in that effort is to collect the rock and soil samples and to seal them up and keep them safely on the surface of Mars. Perseverance is not responsible for bringing those samples back to Earth; the rover's job is to collect them.

And we're really hoping that the samples that come back to Earth at some point in the future, if that happens, give us the best chance of answering the question, Was there once ancient life on Mars? And so, we are selecting our samples and looking for the kinds of rocks that will give us the best chance of accomplishing that goal and answering that very important question.

Narrator: The Mars 2020 mission is especially targeting often-fragile sedimentary layers, like those laid down in lakes and river deltas, where, on Earth, life is abundant and signs of ancient life tend to be well-preserved.

(3:16) As mission scientists use Perseverance to capture bits of rock that are artifacts of a bygone era, when Mars was more Earth-like billions of years ago, NASA is still working on plans to retrieve all these preserved moments in time, and hopes to bring them to Earth in the next decade. And so, the rovers rock gathering is an exercise in optimism. In a nod to that, the test rover used on Earth to troubleshoot problems Perseverance may encounter on Mars is named OPTIMISM. Thanks to NASAs love of acronyms, in this case optimism also stands for Operational Perseverance Twin for Integration of Mechanisms and Instruments Sent to Mars.

The qualities of perseverance and optimism were much needed in the run-up to the launch of the Mars 2020 mission. When the rover and space capsule were being put together in the cleanroom that keeps it free of Earthly microbes, a virus was about to make a big impact on our world.

(4:20) NBC news reporter Tom Costello: With health officials urging the public to practice social distancing to slow down the outbreak, communities around the country now taking action.

Katie Stack Morgan: We had just a lot of concern once the COVID situation came into being about whether we would make our launch date. And I think we're so fortunate, because if we had been in the situation maybe one or two months earlier, I'm not sure we would have made it to the launch pad. As it was, only a couple of things needed to happen before the rover was ready to go. And so, we were able to have a skeleton crew of team members come in and do that work.

Narrator: One of the members of this Mars 2020 COVID crew was the deputy mechanical chief engineer for the mission, Mohamed Abid. While most people were working from home, he helped put the finishing touches on the spacecraft at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, and then prep it for launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Mo Abid: We have all this hardware that we need to assemble and launch, so everybody's trying to figure it out, and seeing how can we protect the team, while at the same time getting the right people on site. So I had to travel a few times, but because of the travel restriction that we have, we cannot take commercial airlines. So we used the NASA Gulfstream, the G3, to shuttle critical personnel.

(5:41) music

Mo Abid: And so, that was really cool to go into this VIP you know, it only happens in the movies, right? Were going down to the hangar, getting into this small airplane with everybody in their own big chair, and then going for a five-hour flight, and then landing! Landing on the space shuttle runway. I think that was really awesome (laughs). I felt important for a few minutes, you know?

sound effect: jet landing on runway

Mo Abid: So, while it's really sad what's going on with all the COVID deaths and whatnot that's going on throughout the world, and we're all taking our precautions, at the same time, we're trying to get to the finish line, and time is ticking. We absolutely have to launch in this small window or were gonna wait for another couple more years.

Narrator: If the mission missed its one-month launch window in the summer of 2020, it would mean waiting another 26 months to try again, due to the way the planets orbit the Sun. In addition to slowdowns caused by the pandemic, technical glitches at the launch pad created more delays.

(6:43) music

Narrator: As the Atlas V rocket that would blast Perseverance off Earth was being assembled, the crane that hoists the heavy rocket parts into place experienced a fault that took several days to fix. The launch date slipped again because of concerns over potential contamination of a ground support line, and then a misbehaving liquid oxygen sensor line pushed the launch day back even more.

Launch Control: Status Check. Go Atlas. Go Centaur. Go Mars 2020.

Narrator: The missions launch on July 30, 2020 overcame all the forces attempting to hold it back, including gravity. The Perseverance rover, tucked inside its capsule at the top of the rocket, was sporting a small COVID plaque featuring the Greek symbol of healing a snake wrapped around a rod. This plaque added a space-age twist to the ancient symbol, depicting planet Earth atop the rod, and a little spacecraft circling our planet and heading to Mars.

(7:44) Katie Stack Morgan: It was a great tribute. And in some ways, great timing, I think, for the mission's successful launch and landing in a time when people were really looking for something to be excited about, and looking for a success. We had so many people pulling for us, and maybe even more than we normally would have because of the circumstances.

Narrator: Mere weeks before COVID-19 changed the world, Alex Mather, a 13-year-old from Virginia, won NASAs student contest to name the rover. While his words seem to eerily predict the pandemic, they reflect on how many challenges always have to be overcome to make space exploration possible.

(8:27) Alex Mather: We as humans evolved as creatures who could learn to adapt to any situation, no matter how harsh. We are a species of explorers, and we will meet many setbacks on the way to Mars. However, we can persevere. We, not as a nation, but as humans, will not give up. The human race will always persevere into the future.

Intro music

Narrator: Welcome to On a Mission, a podcast of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Im Leslie Mullen, and in this fourth season of the podcast, were following in the tracks of rovers on Mars. This is episode six: The Promise of Perseverance.

(9:36) music

Narrator: The Perseverance rover was modeled after the Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012, and over the past decade has found evidence the planet once had long-standing bodies of water and an environment ripe for life as we know it. Because Curiosity has a different goal than Perseverance, some instruments are different, but youd have a hard time telling the two rovers apart.

Mo Abid: When you look far away, Perseverance and Curiosity look virtually the same, a similar shape, even color, right? But as you get closer and closer, you'll notice a lot of interesting differences. And then once you open the hood, if you will, now youre seeing other hardware going on. Youve got all these tubes, you know, weve got 43 tubes, like, what is that for?

(10:34) Narrator: Although Perseverance is storing Mars samples in tubes, rather than breaking samples down to examine them like Curiosity does, Perseverance still needs to figure out which rocks are worth taking. So Perseverance includes some of Curiositys instruments, like a laser in its head that zaps rocks to figure out what theyre made of, as well as new tools of analysis, like a spectrometer called SHERLOC with a sidekick camera WATSON.

Perseverances power source, a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, or RTG, originally had been built as a backup part for Curiosity. The wheels on Perseverance were reconfigured after Curiositys aluminum wheels developed holes and tears from driving over sharp rocks. Perseverances wheels are thicker and taller, with closely-spaced traction cleats that provide extra defense against the rugged terrain.

Like Curiosity, Perseverance has a drill at the end of a hefty arm, along with other instruments held in a block-like fist called a turret. Perseverances rotary percussive drill not only burrows into rock to collect a core, it has a bit with teeth that can gnaw away at a rocks surface to do a first check on whether the inside of a rock differs from its outside. Perseverance also blows puffs of nitrogen gas to clear off debris that accumulates from abrading or drilling rocks.

(11:47) sound effects: drill, rock abrasion, puffs of gas

Narrator: These extra abilities make Perseverances arm and turret heavier than Curiositys, and overall, Perseverance weighs 277 pounds, or 126 kilograms more than the nearly-one-ton Curiosity.

(12:25) Mo Abid: Now when you talk about a heavier rover, when you change something, there's always a chain reaction. It's not, add a few pounds here and there, therefore, everything will be the same. No. You want to tune it really to the ounce level. When you build stuff on Earth, two, three, four kilos higher, eh, who cares? You know, what is a couple of kilos between friends, right? To launch stuff to space, every single ounce counts.

Narrator: After every ounce is negotiated and the rover is carefully put together, everything is tested to make sure it works and can take the stress of spaceflight.

Mo Abid: One of my favorite things that happens in a day [is] when someone tells me, Hey, Mo, we have an issue got a problem here that we need to understand or resolve. My general reaction will be, This is really great. Now we are going to learn something new today. So, it's something that I live for.

And fortunately, we find surprises. If there's no surprises in testing, that means we're doing something wrong. The testing is super well, everything is going swimmingly, I get really nervous (laughs). So like, Nothing? Are you guys sure? What are we missing here? Because the minute you leave the launchpad, we're done. You got what you got.

(13:32) Yes, weve got operational work-arounds. We can do a lot of crazy stuff, as youve seen [with] prior rovers, you know, they failed different hardware, there's always a lot of creativity going on with the team on how can we make something work. But at the end of the day, you want to fail on Earth. You don't want to fail on Mars, right? On Earth, we can always recover. We can always figure out how to fix it. So if you fail, that's actually succeeding.

Narrator: One Mars 2020 test succeeded by showing a dangerous weak point in the space capsule that would carry the rover from Earth to Mars.

Mo Abid: There's one phone call that I'll never forget. Its a call I got from my colleague from Lockheed Martin. He said, When we lifted the heat shield from the testing stand, we found a crack along the whole circumference of the heat shield.

(14:20) music

Mo Abid: Now, the heat shield is a big deal. I mean, this is basically what protects Percy (Perseverance) from cooking, frying, as we enter Mars atmosphere. The temperature on the outside can go as high as 1300 degrees Celsius. That's almost the melting point of stainless steel, which is about 14, 1500. But at the same time, Percy inside is enjoying like a normal South California beach temperature day, you know, 20, 30 degrees Celsius. So that's a lot to ask from a heat shield.

When we enter the Mars atmosphere, we come in at really high speed 20,000 kilometers per hour about four times the speed of a bullet.

sound effect: speeding through the atmosphere

Mo Abid: And even though Mars has a really thin atmosphere, it has sufficient density that it will decelerate the vehicle. As it decelerates, it pushes the heat shield against the back shell, and so you get dynamic pressure.

(15:08) sound effect: atmospheric friction

Mo Abid: And that's not for too long, really, for a few seconds, but it's sufficient to generate high loads, about 12, 13 Gs or so. There's really different ways of mimicking those loads on the heat shield. So you can take the heat shield and you put it on a flat table. And then you pull pressure from the inside of the heat shield. So now the atmospheric air acts like your load. Or the other way we can do it is that you constrain it to one side, and the other side you put like an inflatable mattress, if you will. And as you inflate it, it pushes on the heat shield. It mimics entry loads.

sound: heat shield test

Mo Abid: So as we were running the test, we were hearing some noise, you know, cracks. You would expect something like that during this test.

sound: heat shield test

Mo Abid: So, we finished the test campaign, but one thing left was we needed to do visual inspection to make sure that nothing had broken, and we need to remove this air bag that wed inflated to get the loads. So the team [at] Lockheed, they were removing the heat shield from this bag, and then when they lift it, they saw this crack throughout the circumference.

(16:28) sound effect: heat shield crack

Mo Abid: So it was a huge deal. This can delay launches. And it was one of the most puzzling problems we've seen. We could not find one single root cause. So typically, when there are anomalies, you like to find that one thing, you know, it's like, Yes, that's exactly what happened. That's your fault, you little bolt. Or whatever it is, Your fault. But for this one, man, it was all over the place, its like, Oh yeah, maybe this, maybe that. But we couldn't find the one smoking gun, and we're racing against the clock. We need to make it to the launch date.

Narrator: The team built a new heat shield that addressed suspected causes of the crack, tweaking things like how fast theyd cured the composite materials, and adjusting densities throughout the honeycomb structure of the heat shields core. Fortunately, their next-generation heat shield passed all the tests.

The cracked heat shield had been dj vu for Mo, whod been a part of NASAs space shuttle program when damaged heat tiles on the shuttles wing led to the tragic loss of seven astronauts.

(17:35) NBC news reporter: The Space Shuttle Columbia had been scheduled to land in Florida at the Kennedy Space Center at 9:16 a.m. East Coast time, so it has now been almost two hours since they lost contact. Almost immediately, there were reports of explosions

Mo Abid: It was the straight flashback. When we broke the shield, obviously it's load issues, it's the way we tested this, all of that, but still the intent, the use of it is really a thermal protection scheme. But definitely I had that flashback about what happened back then.

NASA Administrator Sean OKeefe: This is indeed a tragic day for the NASA family, for the families of the astronauts who flew on STS-107, and likewise, tragic for the nation.

(18:15) music

Narrator: Mos emotional connection to the space shuttle began when he was young.

Mo Abid: I was always fascinated by the space shuttle program and just by the space shuttle itself. I think the space shuttle, it's one of the most beautiful birds ever created by mankind. The astronaut suiting up and driving down to the launch pad that was always really exciting to watch. And then you've got the countdown. Can you believe counting from ten to zero is so exciting for people?

Launch Control: Go for main engine start, T-minus 10, nine, eight, seven

Mo Abid: I mean, I'm counting from 10 to zero. (laughs) Yeah! So thrilling! And yet, youre always waiting for that, liftoff!

(19:07) Launch Control: two, one, zero, and liftoff!

Mo Abid: The whole liftoff, the solid rocket booster separations, the whole sequence of events of going all the way up to peaceful space. It was something to be really, really thrilled about watching.

I grew up in Tunisia, in Sfax, and back in the 80s, late 70s, a space program, it wasn't really part of the national interest. You need resources. It's not cheap, space, right? And so, like many other countries, Tunisia had different priorities. Space is not one of them. There are other issues to work out for the country. So it was always something exciting to watch, and that was it.

Launch Control: and liftoff, liftoff of the 25th space shuttle mission, and it has cleared the tower.Houston, ground control.Roger roll Challenger.

(20:01) Mo Abid: So, I was watching another space shuttle launch, and I remember this day very, very well. Thats when we had the Space Shuttle Challenger accident.

Launch Control: Challenger, go for throttle up.Eyewitness news ABC7 NY reporter: Less than two minutes after liftoff, the rocket speeding the shuttle at 2,000 miles an hour exploded. On the ground, spectators not certain of what they saw. And the understated explanation from NASA:Launch Control: Obviously, a major malfunction.

Mo Abid: The disaster rocked the whole world, you know, it was a huge tragedy. It's one of those that shows how space is really difficult. But it really got me thinking. I was like, This is something important for us, as humans.

And so, I start brewing and basically became determined to join, in one way or another, I need to find my way to be part of the NASA family. I wanted to be part of this team that make crazy stuff happen, like the shuttle at the time, and others. And then, prepare for issues that basically wouldn't allow the space shuttle incident like happen.

(21:08) So that was really the spark or the trigger. Now, the interaction with friends and teachers was always was like, You're dreaming. You're never going to make it. And some family members are like, Eh, forget about it. No way. Stay where you are. Become a medical doctor. So it was virtually impossible, the way it had been portrayed to me.

And when you say somethings impossible to do, that now becomes my determination. (laughs) No, you can't go there. Well, now I want to go there, just because you told me not to. So that was really huge motivation. One of my best favorite quotes says, It costs nothing to dream, but everything not to.

Narrator: In pursuit of his dream, Mo went to college in France, and then on to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles to earn his PhD. When he came to the U.S. for his studies in aerospace and mechanical engineering, he also worked on his English, with a little help from American television.

(22:05) Mo Abid: In Tunisia, English is kind of a third language, eventually, if you want to take it. I mean, French is our second language because of the French colony. So I took a class or two of English. It was more, you know, What's this? What's that? Nothing really spectacular. And I was really, really, really bad at it.

So coming to the U.S., I've got a very basic notion of English. But in any language, I found that there are a few key words you need to learn. I'm not going to talk about the bad words, the swear words, which everybody seems to learn those. Let's ignore those for a second. When you talk about English, the word stuff and the word cool and the word thing, are really, really important words. Give me that stuff. Now, I was watching Beavis and Butthead and (laughs)

Butthead: Whoa! That was cool!

Mo Abid: So at the time when I came in, it was popular, and I mean, you can have a whole conversation with cool and stuff, you know? Especially in L.A., right? Oh, that's cool. Yeah, cool stuff.

(23:01) Butthead: Hey Beavis, were the last people on Earth.Beavis: Whoa, really?Butthead: We can go anywhere and do anything.Beavis: Yeah! Yeah, anything!Butthead: Theres no one to tell us what not to do.Beavis: Yeah, theres nobody to say, Dont burn that, no, no, no. Dont set that on fire, no.

Narrator: Mo set fires in his PhD studies to study combustion, and that led him to the once-seemingly impossible dream of working with NASAs space shuttle program.

sound effect: fire ignition and crackle

Mo Abid: At USC, my thesis advisor Paul Ronney was very interested about weak flames, how they burn in microgravity, how fire takes place in the space station. So in order to understand that in space, we needed a ride. And so, a lot of testing in microgravity, working on the Vomit Comet for many, many flights to simulate a weightless environment.

Narrator: The affectionately nicknamed Vomit Comet was a NASA plane that would rise and fall in steep, roller-coaster like maneuvers called parabolas to create about 25 seconds of weightlessness. Each flight would perform 40 to 60 parabolas.

(24:04) sound effect: parabolic flight

Mo Abid: And this is leading to the first space shuttle mission, the STS-83 that launched back in 97. But there was an issue with that shuttle, with the fuel cell. And so, they had to turn around after four days of the mission, land it, change the fuel cells, and then launch again with the follow-up one, STS-94.

You know, that was really an exciting time, unfortunately ended up with a tragedy, the Space Shuttle Columbia, the STS-107, that I was working on as well. And unfortunately lost dear colleagues that I worked with and sacrificed their life to space. I think what it was is a continuous reminder that we're taking a risk all the time. Space is not easy.

Narrator: Soon after the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia, Mo came to JPL and worked on Earth satellite missions. He eventually became manager of JPLs Mechatronics group, which helps design, test and build all kinds of spacecraft, including his first Mars rover, Perseverance.

(25:12) Perseverance not only had to be strong enough to survive one of the riskiest parts of every space mission the rocket launch off Earth but also make it through the fast-paced peril of landing on Mars, and then live in a hostile alien environment where already-frigid temperatures plummet once the Sun goes down.

Mo Abid: The temperature on Mars changes drastically between night and day, so it can go from, five, 10, 20 degrees Celsius, to minus 90 degrees, minus 100 degrees. Those are huge temperature swings. And so, hardware behaves very differently at low temperature. When you have something that deploys, if you don't have the right things, you actually might freeze. You might not be even able to deploy because it's locked.

Originally posted here:

The Promise of Perseverance NASA Mars Exploration - NASA Mars Exploration

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FOOD SECURITY IS NATIONAL SECURITY We need to ensure that Americas food cant be held hostage by anyone. Continue reading

WEST-WINGING IT Letting Biden be Biden will be a gift to 'The Ingraham Angle' and hideous for Democrats. Watch now

THE FINAL FRONTIER Mars colony would be new beginning. Continue reading

SEN. MIKE LEE Roe v. Wade decision will push liberal partisans to expand court. Continue reading

G-MEN GO ROGUE Biden and Democrats need to rein in federal law enforcement. Continue reading

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Democrat Privilege 06.06.22

This article was written by Fox News staff.

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The social media trial of the century, American energy's biggest threat, and more from Fox News Opinion - Fox News

On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress passed a resolution adopting a flag for our new Nation the UnitedStates of America. The resolution specified 13 alternating red and white stripes with 13 stars on a blue field. The stars represented the colonies that declared independence, and in the years since, they have grown into 50 United States which comprise our great country today. For centuries, mariners looked to the stars to guide them across the seas, just as Americans and people across the globe look to our flag as a guiding symbol of freedom, opportunity, and hope. On Flag Day and during National Flag Week, we celebrate the journey of progress represented in our banner and pay tribute to the inspiration it gives Americans at home and abroad.

Our flag belongs to all Americans, and its red, white, and blue colors are woven into a rich tapestry of different cultures, backgrounds, and beliefs which connects us and honors our shared history. Old Glory has flown around the world in times of war and in times of peace. It has traveled to the Moon and to Mars. It has sailed on ships and flown on planes. It waves high above the White House, courthouses, post offices, schools, and homes across the Nation, and also above our embassies and military bases overseas an enduring beacon of democracy.

From the Revolutionary War to the modern age, American Service members have fought bravely under the symbol of our flag, and those who give the last full measure of devotion are wrapped in its broad stripes and bright stars as they are laid to rest. We honor those who serve our country in uniform and pay homage to those who have made that ultimate sacrifice.

Every day, the American Flag instills pride reminding us of the ideals upon which our Nation was founded and the values for which we stand. As we pledge our allegiance to the Star-Spangled Banner, and the legacy it holds in our history, let us continue the work of perfecting our Union so that, together, we can deliver the promise of America for all Americans.

To commemorate the adoption of our flag, the Congress, by joint resolution approved August 3, 1949, as amended (63 Stat. 492), designated June 14 of each year as Flag Day and requested the President issue an annual proclamation calling for its observance and for the display of the flag of the United States on all Federal Government buildings. The Congress also requested, by joint resolution approved June 9, 1966, as amended (80 Stat. 194), that the President issue annually a proclamation designating the week in which June 14 occurs as National Flag Week and calling upon all citizens of the United States to display the flag during that week.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim June 14, 2022, as Flag Day, and the week starting June 12, 2022, as National Flag Week. I direct the appropriate officials to display the flag on all Federal Government buildings during this week, and I urge all Americans to observe Flag Day and National Flag Week by displaying the flag and honoring all of our brave service members and revering those who gave their last full measure of devotion defending our freedoms. I encourage the people of the United States to observe with pride and all due ceremony those days from Flag Day through Independence Day, set aside by the Congress (89 Stat. 211), as a time to honor the American spirit, to celebrate our history and the foundational values we strive to uphold, and to publicly recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this tenth day of June, in the year of our Lord twothousandtwenty-two, and of the Independence of the UnitedStates ofAmerica the twohundred and forty-sixth.

JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

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A Proclamation on Flag Day And National Flag Week, 2022 - The White House

Tribeca is back and looking almost like it did before COVID hit the scene and upended film festivals around the world.

The 2022 edition will have indoor screenings, something that last years all-outdoor version eschewed. It will also offer up a steady stream of splashy premieres, performances, concerts and talks featuring A-listers such as Jennifer Lopez (on hand for the stroll down memory lane, Halftime, which will be the festivals opening night feature), as well as new offerings from the likes of Jon Hamm, Jessica Chastain, Ray Romano, Bryan Cranston and more. Thats the kind of sizzle that New York City could use as it tries to regain its stride after coronavirus knocked it for a loop.

But some pandemic-era innovations remain. Film lovers who still prefer to avoid crowds during COVID can access many of the movies and events digitally with the Tribeca At Home platform, a sign that going forward festivals are going to continue embracing a hybrid model.

As Tribeca kicks off its 12-day run on Wednesday, heres a look at the must-see movies that need to fill festival-goers dance cards. Its a compelling mixture of politically charged documentaries, tenderly observed dramas and off-beat comedies that are sure to move, inspire and, yes, even divide audiences in the best possible ways.

Director: Robert MachoianCast: Clayne Crawford, Jordana Brewster, Jeffrey Dean MorganBuzz Factor:Crawford and Machoian have a good thing going. The pair recently collaborated on The Killing of Two Lovers, a criminally under-seen drama about a man who becomes increasingly erratic when as his marriage crumbles. Now, they reunite on The Integrity of Joseph Chambers, the story of husband and father who decides to prove his survivalist bona fides by going deer hunting by himself in the woods. In Machoians deft hands, the results should be nothing short of gripping.

Director: Jennifer Tiexiera, Camilla HallBuzz Factor:What happens to the men and women at the heart of some of the most acclaimed documentaries of recent times after their lives are dissected and their secrets are revealed and offered up for mass consumption? A new film will examine the aftershocks felt by the people who participated in non-fiction films such as The Staircase, Hoop Dreams, The Wolfpack, The Square and Capturing the Friedmans, while asking penetrating questions about the ethics of placing their stories under the microscope. File this one under most likely to inspire debate.

Director: Ray RomanoCast: Ray Romano, Laurie Metcalf, Tony Lo Bianco, Sebastian Maniscalco, Jennifer Esposito, Jacob Ward, Sadie Stanley, Dierdre Friel, Jon ManfrellottiBuzz Factor:Since bidding farewell to sitcoms and Everybody Loves Raymond, Romano has forged a very interesting second act for himself, popping up as a character actor in the likes of The Big Sick and The Irishman and revealing a wounded heart beneath the wisecracks. Now, audiences will get to see yet another side of Romano with Somewhere in Queens, which he not only stars in, but also produced, co-wrote and directed. Its a big-hearted look at a father whose obsession with securing a basketball scholarship for his son goes off the rails in surprising ways.

Director: Joachim BackCast: Jon Hamm, Danny Pudi, Christopher Heyerdahl, Sarah GadonBuzz Factor:Office life has been good to Hamm. But this film, the new offering from the Oscar-winning Back, features the former Mad Men star in a very different light from that of the effortlessly suave Don Draper, who navigated the world of 9-to-5 like a panther. Here, Hamm plays a no-nonsense bureaucrat in this satire of corporate mores. Its always fun to see the actor mix it up. Plus, the70s porn star-style mustache Hamm sports in Corner Office is worth the price of admission.

Director: Alexandre O. PhilippeBuzz Factor:When it comes to Lynchs enigmatic canon, one film rules them all, providing connective tissue between the filmmakers idiosyncratic oeuvre. That would be Victor Flemings The Wizard of Oz, the family classic that was a true product of the studio era, an age of mogul absolutism that did its damndest to commodify cinema in a way that seems antithetical to what Lynch stands for. And yet, theres something about the story of plucky Dorthy Gale and her journey down the Yellow Brick Road that inspires the director, who references it constantly in films such as Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, as well as the television show Twin Peaks. This documentary interviews great directors such as Karyn Kusama and John Waters, as well as critics such as Amy Nicholson, as it unpacks the impact that the film had on all things Lynch.

Director: Kyra SedgwickCast: Kyle Allen, Alexandra Shipp, Madeline Brewer, Carrie Preston, Simon Helberg, Kevin Bacon, Andrew PolkBuzz Factor:Sedgwick, best known for her Emmy-winning role on The Closer, directs this story of a young man who is tapped to participate in a Mars colonization effort. Complicating his trip into space is a blossoming romance with a young woman who moves to his town. That makes him reconsider his decision to explore brave new worlds. Its the kind of dilemma that gets extra points for narrative originality.

Director: Sean MullinCast: Joe Torre, Derek Jeter, Don Mattingly, Bob Costas, Vin Scully, Billy CrystalBuzz Factor:In which various Yankees players, managers and fans reflect on the ineffable greatness of one, Lawrence Peter Yogi Berra. The baseball legend nabbed 10 World Series rings and three MVP awards over the course of his career, and also developed a reputation for malapropisms and paradoxical statements that somehow managed to be both hilarious and occasionally profound (Example: When you come to a fork in the road, take it). Joe Torre, Don Mattingly, Derek Jeter and Billy Crystal are just a few of the big names offering up their thoughts on the wit, wisdom and athleticism of one of the greatest catchers in history.

Director: John Michael McDonaghCast: Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain, Matt Smith, Sad Taghmaoui, Caleb Landry Jones, Christopher AbbottBuzz Factor:Fresh off her Oscar win for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Chastain co-stars with Fiennes as a battling couple whose vacation to Morocco takes a turn for the grim after they hit and kill a young boy with their rental car. The A-list cast means that the film demands to be seen, even if the premise could not sound darker.

Director: David FrankelCast: Bryan Cranston, Annette Bening, Rainn Wilson, Larry WilmoreBuzz Factor:Though the antics of Jerry Selbee may differ dramatically than those of Walter White, Cranston certainly has a gift for humanizing off-beat characters. In the feel-good comedy, Cranston and Bening play real-life married couple Jerry and Marge Selbee, who cant afford to retire that is until they find a legal loophole in the Massachusetts Lottery. Under the direction of Frankel, best known for The Devil Wears Prada, Jerry & Marge Go Large plays like an homage to the kinds of movies that Hollywood rarely makes anymorebut still should.

Director: Jed RothsteinBuzz Factor:Remember Americas Mayor? The guy whose steady leadership during 9/11 helped bolster the spirits of a shattered city and inspire the world? Well, that Rudolph Giuliani is a distant memory to many, obscured by his conspiracy mongering and slavish devotion to Donald Trump. This satirical documentary examines Giulianis rise to the top of New York City politics and his ignominious fall, most recently on display with his hair-dye melting attempts to prove bogus election fraud claims. But it does it in an unusual way, interspersing talking head interviews and archival footage with musical performances from Broadway actors. In doing so, it reflects the ways that show business has warped politics.

Katie Holmes and Derek Luke in Alone Together.

Director: Katie HolmesCast: Katie Holmes, Jim Sturgess, Derek Luke, Becky Ann Baker, Zosia Mamet, Melissa LeoBuzz Factor:A pandemic-era romance that follows a food critic (Holmes) whose attempt to flee New York City for an upstate retreat goes awry when her Airbnb gets double-booked by a hunky, recently single young man (Sturgess). Its a meet-cute for the lockdown age, one characterized by too much alcohol, too many video calls and a desperate, halting attempt to make sense of our strange new reality.

Director: Josh AlexanderCast: Reverend Al SharptonBuzz Factor:An intimate look at an activist who has given a voice to the voiceless. Loudmouth paints a portrait of Sharptons journey the good and the bad from an 8-year-old preacher to a civil rights figure, presidential candidate advisor and racial justice defender. Love him or hate him (and there are people on both sides of that divide), Sharpton has never shied away from entering the arena.

Director: Andrew DosunmuCast: Niecy Nash, Aleyse Shannon, Giancarlo Esposito, Gracie Marie Bradley, Kyle Bary, Michael Ward, Sharon StoneBuzz Factor: Paying homage to Black powerhouse vocalists like Patti LaBelle and Whitney Houston, Bradley portrays a young singer on the brink of superstardom. But as a queer woman of color in the 1980s, her path to worldwide fame faces many obstacles. With parents (played by Nash and Esposito) who disapprove of her relationship and a manager (Stone) with a motive, Beauty asks audiences to consider what it means to remain true to ones voice.

Director: Amanda MicheliBuzz Factor: Jenny from the block is returning to her neighborhood to premiere Halftime, a peek behind the curtain as the international pop star gets ready for the Super Bowl Halftime show and the recent Presidential inauguration. And the 52-year-old triple threat says shes only just getting started with her contributions to the culture. Thats saying something, considering Jennifer Lopez has already gifted the world Selena, J to tha LO! and Hustlers. As she masterfully interjected into This Land Is Your Land and America the Beautiful at the 2021 presidential inauguration, lets get loud!

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14 Movies Were Excited to See at This Years Tribeca Festival - Variety

SEATTLEEthan Edelstein, a third-year mechanical engineering student at Northeastern, has had a fascination with outer space ever since he was young. Naturally, he took that curiosity with him to college.

I always wanted to go into aerospace even before college, Edelstein says.

Edelstein is one of several dozen engineering students who signed up for a new Northeastern summer residency program cooked up on the universitys Seattle campus. The eight-week residency is a core part of a novel aerospace minor in the College of Engineering that launched in the fall of 2021.

Edelstein says the aerospace program is rigorous with a lot of high-level course work. The Seattle-based residency, designed in collaboration by the College of Engineering, the Global Experience Office, and the Seattle campus, offers a mix of introductory classes and co-curricular, aerospace-themed trips to various industry sites, such as the Museum of Flight and Jeff Bezos Blue Origin, among others.

These site visits are a selling point for students interested in exploring some of Seattles engineering and tech destinations, making contact with industry while they decide on whether to take on the minor, Rochelle Rapaszky, assistant director of mobility programs based in Seattle, says. The Pacific Northwestern city is a major tech hub, where giants such as Amazon and Microsoft have set up home bases and attracted countless aspiring entrepreneurs and graduates eager to work for some of the worlds most innovative companies.

Its also the city where Boeing was founded, essentially launching the aerospace industry. For the last decade or so, Seattle has been one of the fastest-growing cities in the countryand Northeastern has positioned itself in the region to help fill an ever-expanding workforce pipeline of tech jobs.

Thats why a cadre of Northeastern students from the Boston campus flew across the country to go hands-on with industry professionals during the summer residency. True to Northeasterns experiential learning model, the site visits give students the ability to directly connect what they learn in the classroom with ongoing, real-world advancements.

And, Rapaszky says, the effort to establish relationships with the Seattle-based aerospace sector has helped to expand Northeasterns profile of regional partners at a time when it continues to look to grow its presence on the West Coast.

In five years, if this turned into a year-long program, that would be great, Rapaszky says of the aerospace residency.

Jaidah Morales, a third-year mechanical engineering student, says the residency has been a great way to explore different engineering topicsand to hear from numerous practitioners in the field.

Knowing that I dont have to be on that required path, that I dont have to necessarily take engineering the way its given to meits just really interesting to find out from all these different speakers, she says.

Bruce Mamont, a lecturer in the College of Engineering, who teaches Introduction to Flight, says his students are a diverse group. Most are mechanical engineering majors who, he says, will be vying for private sector work. Others are there because theyre intellectually curious.

That makes it a little more interesting for me, because that was my ambition as an undergraduate, says Mamont, who teachesas part of the coursetopics on aerodynamics, aircraft performance, structures, propulsion and control theory.

So far, only several students partaking in the residency have declared the aerospace minor. One of those students is Shaked Lotem, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student, who jumped at the opportunity to enroll.

I switched my schedule around to make sure I could fit this in, he says. Being able both to see the different guest lectures that they bring in and also all of the excursions that weve been going on is a big part of the experience.

Living in Cornish Commons, a five-minute walk from Northeasterns growing campus, Lotem says he also enjoys just being in Seattlea very young, modern city.

Its great to just go and wander and see everything, he says.

But Lotem is not only content to explore Seattle. It would be a dream, Lotem says, to work for NASA or SpaceX, ultimately so that he can contribute to humanitys exploration and colonization of the moon, Mars and beyond.

For media inquiries, please contact media@northeastern.edu.

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Northeastern's aerospace program on the Seattle campus takes off - Northeastern University

The fourth planet from the Sun, Mars, is one of our solar system's most enigmatic celestial bodies. We've known about its existence for thousands of years, but it took until the "Space Age" for humans to figure out just how strange the "Red Planet" is.

It is a dusty, cold, desert world, and it also has its own seasons, polar ice caps, enormous canyons, and gigantic volcanoes.Mars is one of the most studied bodies in our solar system, and it's the only planet where we've sent rovers to roam the alien landscape.

But, even after all this attention, Mars still leaves us with more questions than we've managed to answer.

Mars is a very alien world compared to what we are used to here on Earth. The reasons for this are varied, but needless to say, it is not exactly the most inviting place for potential future human Martian colonists.

Roughly the same age as planet Earth, it has had a very different history over its 4.5 billion or so years of existence. We can't definitively say for sure who the first person to "discover" Mars was, as it is one of the few celestial bodies that can be seen in the night sky with the naked eye.

Mars is very bright and has a reddish color, so it stands out and is easily noticed - especially if you live somewhere with little light pollution.The planet Mars has been known since ancient times and was observed for thousands of years by the people of many different cultures.

Let's find out what we know, or we think we know, aboutour planet's little red sibling.

Believe it or not, Mars and Earth have similar amounts of landmass. This, despite the former being only about 15 percent as large as Earth in terms of volume and roughly only 10 percent of Earth's mass.

According to NASA, Earth has a volume of roughly108.321 1010km3, and Mars 16.318 1010km3. Mar's equatorial radius is 3,396.2 km (or approximately half that of Earth) and masses (very roughly) 0.64169 1024 kg. On the other hand, Earth is about ten times more massive, with a mass of5.97221024 kg.

So, you might ask, how do they have the same amount of land if Mars is so much smaller? Put simply, the vast majority of Earth's surface is covered with water.

Simple when you think about it.

Another amazing fact about Mars is that it has the tallest mountain yet discovered on another planet. Called Olympus Mons ("Mount Olympus" in Latin), this enormous mountain is roughly 16 miles (25 km) tall and 373 miles (600 km) in diameter.

That is astonishingly huge and dwarves any comparable mountain here on Earth. Our tallest (above sea level), Mount Everest, is a paltry29,032 feet (8,849 meters) by comparison.

Since Mars has no oceans like Earth, however, it might be fairer to compare it to another enormous mountain, such asMauna Kea in Hawaii, with a height of 32,696 feet (9,966 meters, or 6.2 miles) from the seafloor (but just 13,728 feet of that is above sea level). But Olympus Mons still dwarf Mauna Kea.

Olympus Mons is a presumed long-dead (extinct) shield volcano, which is thought to have been active over a billion years ago. That is so long ago that it predates most, if not all, complex life forms on Earth.

It is important to note that some Mars experts believe it may actually be partially active today, with some evidence of more recent lava flows. However, this is hotly debated.

If you ever wondered why our red neighbor is called Mars, it is because this was the name for the Roman god of war. This is thought to be, quite reasonably, related to Mars' striking blood-red color when seen from Earth.

In fact, the ancient Greeks named the planet "Ares" after their own god of war for the very same reason.

Even more interestingly, this practice is not unique to ancient Europe.Other ancient cultures were also inspired by Mars' color, such asChinas astronomers calling it "The Fire Star". The ancient Egyptians associated the planet with the god Horus and called it "Her Desher" (or "The Red One"). There is currently an ancient river valley on Mars named Her Desher Vallis.

The planet's color is due to the large amounts of iron-rich dust and rock that blankets the planet. This is derived from the large amounts of iron oxide minerals on the planet's surface, from minerals like hematite (Blood Stone), a common iron ore here on Earth.

However, much of the iron sank into the core when the planet was still molten on Earth, while Mars' smaller size and weaker gravity may have allowed more iron to remain near the surface. Scientists are still unsure exactly how the iron oxidized (which turns it red and requires the presence of some form of oxygen).

Saturn and Uranus are two of the more unique planets in our Solar System because of their characteristic orbiting rings. But, it turns out, Mars, not to be outdone, could get its own ring in a few tens of millions of years.

According to astronomers, Mars' largest and most enigmatic moon, Phobos, will eventually be torn apart by gravitational forces. This will lead to the formation of a debris field that will, eventually, settle down into a stable orbit and form a rocky ring around Mars.

Phobos' orbit puts it a mere 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) above the surface of Mars, and it is closer to its planet than any other moon in the solar system. Mars gravity is slowly but surely, drawing in Phobosby about 6.6 feet (2 meters) every hundred years. According to NASA,the moon will be pulled apart in 30 to 50 million years.

The ring won't last forever, however. It has been estimated that it should last roughly 100 million years or so before disintegrating and falling to Mar's surface.

You can see the early telltale signs of this moon's impending doom today in a series of large cracks on its surface.

Mars is also home to an enormous canyon called Valles Marineris ("Mariner Valley" in Latin), apart from having the Solar System's tallest mountain. The canyon, or rather canyon system, runs along the planet's equator and is an awe-inspiring feature to behold.

It runs for around 2,610 miles (4,200 km) and is, in places, roughly 4.4 miles (7 km) deep. That is so big that it would almost span the entire continental United States from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

To put that into perspective,the Grand Canyon in Arizona is about 446 km (277 mi) long and 1.8 km (1.1 mi) deep.

Valles Marineris is actually an enormous plate boundary that moves so slowly that little happens over millions of years. Mars has a very primitive form of plate tectonics, and the action of the two plates sliding past each other began splitting the surface some 3.5 billion years ago.

Another interesting fact about Mars is its uncanny ability to defeat the best engineering humans have to offer. Since around 1960, more than 50 missions have been launched by various nations to the Red Planet, but only about half have successfully landed.

The first mission designed to reach Mars was the Soviet Union's 1M, dubbedMarsnik 1by the western press, which suffered a launch failure in 1960.

The first successful flyby of Mars was NASA's Mariner 4, which flew by the planet on July 14-15, 1965, sending back photos. Since then, around 55 probes have been sent to Mars or attempted to be sent. Of these, many of the early attempts by the Soviet Union suffered from launch failures, while several other attempts had some kind of technical failure en route, in orbit, or on the surface of the planet. This may have been partly down to the nature of the missions and the push to get there with equipment that wasn't ready.

The more recent attempts have been more successful. NASAhad a series of successes with thePhoenix Lander in 2008, theMAVEN orbiter, launched in 2013, the plucky and long-livedOpportunity roverfrom 2014 to 2018, and theCuriosity rover (launched in 2011). A number of missions had also arrived on Mars more recently NASA'sPerseverance roverandIngenuity helicopter, the United Arab Emirates'Hope orbiter(a first interplanetary mission for that country), and the China National Space Administration'sTianwen-1orbiter and lander-rover mission, which was China's first successful mission to the Red Planet.

It seems that any "curse" hanging over the planet was more likely an artifact of the immensely difficult task of getting to another world. Nevertheless,Elon Musk and SpaceXmay find some competition in the plans to get a colony up and running by 2050.

Believe it or not, scientists believe they have found proof that little bits of Mars have actually landed on Earth in the past. Called "Martian Meteorites", these are little pieces of rock that have miraculously managed to make it to Earth.

This might sound impossible, but bits of planets are blasted off their surfaces over time as things like large asteroids hit them. These impacts release a massive amount of ejecta that actually throw stuff off into space if the impact is significant enough.

This ejecta can have enough energy to escape the planet's gravity well and travel around the Solar System before being influenced by another planet's center of gravity.

What's more, these kinds of events appear to be quite common. As of 2020, something like 277 meteorites found on Earth is thought to have been derived from Mars. That might sound like a lot, but that is a fraction of 1 percent of all confirmed meteorites found on Earth.

Of the ones thought to be Martian in origin, the largest complete and uncut example is Taoudenni 002. Discovered inMali in early 2021, it weighs 32 pounds (14.5 kg) and is currently on display at the Maine Mineral & Gem Museum.

Scientists use the study of rocks like this to determine the composition of Mars' surface and perhaps even its old atmosphere.

If Mars' barren landscape isn't enough reason not to visit it anytime soon, another hazard on the planet is its power.

The cause for these enormous storms is due to Mars' elliptical orbit around the Sun. This can lead to variations in temperaturebetween the hemispheres that dramatically increase atmospheric circulation the air currents pick up dust and circulate it around the planet.

These fierce dust storms can cover the whole planet and last up to six months.

One of the latest ones caught on camera occurred in February of 2022. It was so huge that it covered twice the size of the United States and effectively blanketed the entire Southern Hemisphere of Mars. The storm also causedNASAs Insight landerput itself in a "safe mode" to conserve battery power after dust prevented sunlight from reaching the solar panels.NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopteralso had to postpone flights until conditions improved.

One of the essential prerequisites for life is thought to be the presence ofwater on a planet. While it is best for life as we know it for the water to be in liquid form, the fact that water exists at all is a good sign that life may be present on a planet(or has been present in the past).

In the case of Mars, we know for a fact that the planet has large quantities of ice at its poles. As far as we know, there is little to no possibility that liquid water exists on the planet, as its very thin atmosphere prevents this from physically occurring.

Any water that is present outside of the polar regions of Mars is probably also frozen. Still, NASA probes like the Curiosity Rover are searching the planet for potential locations on the planet that might be suitable for life to exist.

If there is no life on Mars, the large quantities of frozen water will be an excellent resource for any future human colonies and expeditions to the planet in any case.

But, could this frozen ice have been liquid in the past? Scientific opinion is divided and discussions have been raging about this for over a century on this very topic.From early misinterpretations of structures that resemble intelligently-made water canals, several spacecraft have spotted signs of what appear to be ancient river channels, fluvial plains, and other hydrological features that may be evidence of liquid water in the past.

Another interesting fact about Mars is the presence of gaseous methane in its atmosphere. Like water, the presence of methane has also been used as an indicator of the potential presence that there was once, or still is, life on a planet.

First detected in the atmosphere by the Mariner 9 probe in 1971, further telescopic observations have since recorded wildly different methane levels over the years. To date, few spacecraft have also been designed to probe for the element in detail.

That being said, the Curiosity Rover has detectedspikes in methane in its area, and the source is still very much a mystery.

On Earth, methane tends to be produced primarily as a byproduct of microbial activity and human agriculture.

However, methane can also be produced by geological processes like volcanism. Given the large quantities of volcanoes on the surface of Mars (including the enormous Olympus Mons), this is thought to be a more likely source for the gas.

If we discover that methane is not biologically generated, it is still good news for humans, as methane will be a useful resource for future Mars colonies. In fact, the likes of SpaceX, plan to use it and Mar's abundant water supply to help make resources like fuel.

One of the most memorable scenes from the film "Total Recall" is when Arnold Schwarzenegger's character briefly suffers from a severe case of "popping eyes" while exposed to a partial vacuum on the Martian surface. While this scenario is obviously heavily dramatized, the reality is even worse.

The main reason for this is the fact that Mars' atmosphere is pretty thin. So thin, in fact, that if you were ever to find yourself standing on the planet without a spacesuit, your trip would be a concise one.

But, having your insides forcing their way out of your body is only part of the problem. One of the following significant issues is the planet's icy surface. For reference, the planet has an average temperature of-50 degrees Fahrenheit (-45 degrees Celsius)in the mid-latitudes.

This would be a severe problem in and of itself, but things get worse. Mars' atmosphere is famously very thin, with an air pressure of roughly 1 percent of that on Earth.

This would mean it would be next to impossible to breathe. Presume you're not already dead"Total Recall" style.

But, even if you could breathe, you'd likely quickly be asphyxiated, as the composition of Mar's practically non-existent atmosphere would be toxic to you.Mars' atmosphere, for the most part, comprises about 95 percent carbon dioxide, 3 percent nitrogen, 1.6 percent argon, and other trace elements like the aforementioned methane.

The planet Mars has fascinated our species for thousands of years and might just be the first extraterrestrial planet that humans may colonize in the future. But, as you can see, there are quite a few differences from our home planet that will need to be overcome before we could ever call Mars a second home.

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Interesting facts about Mars that will blow your mind - Interesting Engineering

The plans to build a civilisation or at least a colony on the Mars or Moon has been a long-time idea for both scientists and entrepreneurs. While the idea has always existed, the logistics have been the main problem, but it seems that we may have a major solution. A new set of experiences have revealed that a combination of dust from moon or Mars and saltwater can be create the perfect material to create buildings in space. In order to produce the desired product, the mixture needs to be heated at a high temperature so that they create a solid structure mimicking a brick.

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The observation was made by Ranajay Ghosh and his team at the University of Central Florida. They conducted an experiment to see if regolith dust from moon rocks can be used to create a sturdy structure. However, the problem will be finding the heat source in order to bake them properly.

This is the not the first paper to suggest this phenomenon as research published in Materials Today Bio said that blood can actually be used as a binding agent to create structures with space dust.

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"Scientists have been trying to develop viable technologies to produce concrete-like materials on the surface of Mars, but we never stopped to think that the answer might be inside us all along," said materials engineer Aled Roberts of the University of Manchester in the UK according to NewScience.

In the future, if there is a possibility of creating structures in the space, it will be near impossible to carry the bricks and these new findings can hold the key to building the new civilisation in space.

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How to make buildings in space? Dust from the Moon and Mars can help - WION

The speed of nearly every vehicle in our atmosphere is limited first and foremost by the resistance of the air into which it plows. Reduce the air pressure and boom it can now travel at a greater speed. Put a bullet train in a vacuum tube and it can travel at nearly the speed of sound.

The idea isnt new; indeed, something similar was proposed centuries ago. Physicists will tell you that the idea works, but pesky engineers will point out the many tough problems that exist in actually building it. But thankfully, we can solve hard engineering problems. (Example: The Seattle area is putting the finishing touches on the worlds first light rail on a floating bridge.) Lets look at the major challenges facing Elon Musks Hyperloop.

Human beings have limited tolerance for acceleration, so-called g-forces. Acceleration isnt just pushing the gas pedal; it also involves staying at the same speed but turning. Can this be achieved without making people vomit or pass out?

Absolutely. Commercial jets travel at more than 500 mph. They climb and descend. They turn and are jostled by air turbulence. They decelerate from flying speed to taxiing in a matter of seconds. Yet, most of the time, people arent nauseated or terrified. And the entire system is incredibly efficient planes are constantly landing and taking off, one after another. The Hyperloop could be modeled after this.

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But theres one big difference: Airplanes are in the sky, while the Hyperloop would be on the ground. Clearing a smooth, straight, easy path for the tube would require a significant amount of work. But weve done this before: the Eisenhower interstate system. If a mountain gets in the way, we tunnel through. If a rock wall cuts across, we blast it. If a bay exists, we bridge or tunnel under it. If the terrain is rough, we smooth it. This engineering challenge is doable.

The Hyperloop essentially is a long, vacuum-sealed tube. There is very little air inside to cause resistance, which is why the train can travel so fast (perhaps 760 mph). Maintaining this vacuum, about one-thousandth the pressure of Earths atmosphere, through millions of cubic feet of volume will be a big challenge.

Whenever passengers enter or exit the system, the Hyperloop has to be temporarily unsealed. Thus, stations would require interlocks. Once passengers are on board, the train moves into the interlock, and the surrounding air is pumped out. When a vacuum is achieved in the interlock, it opens on the other side to allow the train to join the main track.

For structural integrity, the giant tube likely would be steel rather than the beautiful clear fantasy material seen in promotional materials. If the steel is welded together, it will be extremely resistant to air leaks, but it will thermally expand and contract as one giant mass, which would require a lot of engineering to allow the structure to move freely. If the system instead is made of a great number of small steel tubes connected by joints, those joints must be able to maintain the integrity of the vacuum. And the engineering must be perfect: If one joint fails, the result is catastrophic.

There are at least two ways in which a trip on the Hyperloop could end in catastrophe. In one scenario, the train stops moving, for whatever reason. Passengers would be marooned, possibly in the middle of nowhere, with a dwindling air supply. Perhaps the Hyperloop could include a mechanism to break the vacuum in certain sections, allowing passengers to disembark and escape. But, this isnt easy because of the second possible disaster scenario.

If a seal breaks, the opening instantly sucks in air at an incredible rate, filling the vacuum inside. (Remember, nature hates a vacuum.) This would create an air shock blast wave traveling down the tube at roughly the speed of sound. If the tube bursts behind a train, the passengers will be subjected to a giant, likely lethal, acceleration, and then propelled forward at 700 mph with no brakes. If the tube fails in front of the train, passengers will be blasted with an air shock that would instantly annihilate the train and everyone inside. Worse, any accident doesnt just affect one train. A shock wave would obliterate anyone unlucky enough to be anywhere inside the Hyperloop.

Engineering might be able to solve the problem, but the question involves cost and practicality. Could the tube contain many special sections that are capable of rapidly deploying a giant valve to maintain the vacuum? Could these special sections hold against the oncoming shock wave? Or would these special sections act as sacrifices to ward off an even greater catastrophe?

Finally, consider that a vehicle crashing into the tube could be enough to blow it open. Even a single 50-caliber bullet could potentially destroy an entire Hyperloop and kill everyone aboard. The Hyperloop, therefore, will require a lot of monitoring and security both inside and outside the tube.

There are several things in favor of the Hyperloop. It will be a much faster way to travel, will greatly reduce the emissions associated with transportation, and undeniably has an intangible coolness factor. But the cons are considerable, with safety and cost being the most pressing.

Engineering the Hyperloop is possible. But, like building a colony on Mars, the biggest question might be one of willpower: How badly do we want it?

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Elon Musk's Hyperloop is possible. How badly do we want it? - Big Think

Today in 1637,the first battle of Pequot at Mystic, Connecticut took place with Colonial forceskilling 500 Indian men, women and children.

Today in 1647, Alse Youngbecame the first recorded person to be executedfor being a witch in the colonies.

Today in 1647,a new lawbanned Catholic priests from the colony of Massachusetts. The penalty was banishment or death for a second offense. The English Puritans, who settled the colony, feared the Jesuits for a number of reasons. First, simply because they were Catholic. To Puritans, Catholicism was nothing less than idolatrous blasphemy, and Catholics were destined for eternal damnation. Secondly, because the Jesuits were French, and France and England were engaged in a bitter struggle for control of North America.

Today in 1836,the U.S. House of Representativesadopted what has been called the Gag Rule.

Today in 1896,the Dow Jones Industrial Averageappeared for the first time in the "Wall Street Journal."

Today in 1908,the first oil strike was made in the Middle East in Persia (what is now known as Iran).

Today in 1927,Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Companyproduced the last Model T Ford (aka Tin Lizzie).

Today in 1938,the House Committee on Un-American Activitiesbegan its work of searching for subversives in the United States.

Today in 1940,theevacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk, France, beganduring World War II.

Today in 1948,Congresspassed Public Law 557, which permanently established the Civil Air Patrol as the Auxiliary of the new U.S. Air Force.

Today in 1956,aseries of explosions on board the aircraft carrier USS Benningtonkilled 103 crewmembers off Narragansett Bay, in Rhode Island.

Today in 1961,the civil rights activist groupFreedom Ride Coordinating Committeewas established in Atlanta, Georgia.

Today in 1961,a U.S. Air Force bomber flewacross the Atlantic from New York to Paris in a record time of just over three hours.

Today in 1969,the Apollo 10 astronautsreturned to Earth after a successful rehearsalfor the first manned moon landing.

Today in 1994,President Clintonrenewed trade privileges for China, and announced that his administration would no longer link China's trade status with its human rights record.

Today in 1998,SCOTUSruled that police officers in high-speed chases are liable for bystander injuries onlyif their "actions shock the conscience." The case - County of Sacramento v. Lewis - concerned a high-speed chase between Sacramento County sheriffs deputies and two men on a motorcycle. The chase reached speeds up to 100-miles per hour and ended when the driver lost control and the bike spilled. The passenger was killed when one of the deputies couldnt stop in time and hit him.

Today in 1998,the United States Supreme Courtruled that Ellis Island, the historic gateway for millions of immigrants, is mainly in the state of New Jersey, not New York.

Today in 2002,theMars Odyssey found signsof large ice deposits on the planet Mars.

Today in 2004,the New York Timespublished an admission of journalistic failings, claiming that its flawed reporting and lack of skepticism towards sources during the buildup to the 2003 war in Iraq helped promote the belief that Iraq possessed large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.

Today in 2004,United States Army veteran Terry Nicholswas found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing. The jury spent just five hours deliberating before announcing the verdict. He remains incarcerated at ADX Florence, a SuperMax security prison near Florence, Colorado. He shares a cellblock that is commonly referred to as "Bombers Row" with Ramzi Yousef (one of the main perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing) and Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber).

Today in 2012,Pope Benedict XVI's butlerPaolo Gabriele was charged with allegedly leaking confidential Church documents. He wastried and convicted later that year sentenced to 18 months, to be served inside the Vatican (as opposed to an Italian Prison). Why the arrangement? Concerns about him leaking more information. Still, it didnt last long - Gabriele was pardoned by Benedict XVI that December.

Today in 2014,the World Health Organization (WHO)confirmed that Ebola had reached Sierra Leone. By the following month, the disease was considered out of control and by July had been declared an international emergency.

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Ford Rolls Out Last 'Model T' This Date in 1927 - iHeart