Category Archives: Mars Colony

Elon Musk s girlfriend Grimes has revealed to her Instagram followers that she's "ready to die on Mars".

The singer, 33, took to the social media platform on Tuesday to make the bold claim as her partner continues with his efforts to touch down on Mars.

Grimes, who has been dating the SpaceX CEO since 2018 and has a child with him, posted an image to her 1.7 million Instagram followers posing in front of Elon's Starbase facility in Texas.

She wrote alongside the shot: "Ready to die with the red dirt of Mars beneath my feet Starbase Tx."

The Canadian singer has previously admitted she wants to help bring life to Mars.

The Sun reported that in a Q&A last month she confessed she wanted to relocate to the planet after she turns 50 to help erect a human colony there.

Grimes, whose real name is Claire Elise Boucher, said the move would be a case of "manual labour until death most likely" but admitted that she hoped that could change.

Earlier this month, Elon, 49, made the claim that his company will touch their ships down on Mars "well before 2030".

He plans to send one million people to Mars by 2050 and build a city there.

However, it hasn't all been plain sailing so far in his plans.

SpaceX lost another prototype Mars rocket on Tuesday as the company's latest Starship test flight crashed while trying to land in heavy fog in Texas.

It was the fourth Starship prototype to crash to date with two previous models exploding upon landing and another exploding minutes after a successful landing.

The plans to take human life to Mars have been criticised by some experts.

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Britain's chief astrophysicist Lord Martin Rees said that Elon's plans are a "dangerous delusion".

American astrophysicist and science educator Neil deGrasse Tyson was in agreement and added that transferring human populations to Mars was "unrealistic".

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Elon Musk's partner Grimes announces she is 'ready to die on Mars' - Mirror Online

Boulder County is looking to allocate money from the sustainability tax to fund a series of experiments that could lead to the first furry colonies in space.

"If things go well, we could see prairie dogs relocated to another planet within a matter of years," said Agricultural Specialist G.D. Riddance. "Since prairie dogs already live in colonies, they are the perfect species to colonize Mars."

Mars rover Perseverance will be needed to drill below the surface to see if there is enough frozen water to support plant life. Soil samples will also be gathered and analyzed to determine whether there is a sufficient amount of nitrogen and other nutrients on the red planet to grow perennial grasses. If the soil quality is poor, the county has offered to provide compost (from someplace other than Rainbow Open Space), potentially sequestering carbon on Mars as an added benefit.

If those experiments go well, CU LAPS space program would design a greenhouse-like facility to provide an oxygenated environment for the prairie dogs. It would be similar to the layout of the structure in the movie "The Martian," minus the controversial biosolids deposited by actor Matt Damon.

LAPS would also build a relocation rocket, equipped with a patch of grass and burrows for the prairie dogs who would be fitted with tiny weights on their ankles to keep them from floating around in the capsule. Once they land, a robot, nicknamed the "Rodent Rover," would deliver the prairie dogs to their new digs.

The project would relocate the last, persistent prairie dogs from Boulder County agricultural properties and give them freedom to roam Mars where they would be managed by Boulder County Parks and Outer Space.

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Prairie dogs could be the first mammals to colonize Mars - Left Hand Valley Courier

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Avoid nightly replays of your worst fears with a cooler bedroom, a warm bath and thinking of your favourite person before sleep.

Author of the article:

The pandemic may be slowly slogging toward a merciful end but for some, the anxiety-induced nightmares wont be fading to black anytime soon.

The ongoing existential threat posed by the virus has left large segments of the population struggling to cope with previously unseen levels of stress that combined with ensuing changes to sleeping patterns can produce disturbing quarandreams.

This is something that weve seen in other traumatic events that occur around the world and in our country, Raj Dasgupta, a sleep specialist and assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, told CNN. So the fact that were having more nightmares during this pandemic doesnt surprise me.

The restlessness began just over a year ago as waves of lockdowns freed many from the monotony of their daily commute, leaving them willing and able to stay up later than they otherwise might. The longer one sleeps in, the more likely they are to experience deeper stages of REM sleep, the time the brain uses to process and store memories from the previous day.

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It has also led to some really strange dreams, said Deidre Barrett, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School who designed a quiz to get a better sense of how the pandemic is pestering people after hours. There are armies of cockroaches racing at the dreamer, she said. There are masses of wriggling worms; there were some grasshoppers with vampire fangs; there are bed bugs, stink bugs.

Metaphors for the pandemic were hard to miss, she said, unleashing massive devastation in the form of tornadoes and tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes and unsurprisingly given the source the arrival of mass shooters. Other nightmares focused on the sensation of being trapped or caught in public without a mask, unable to avoid the constant coughs of other people.

Some were far, far worse. There was a woman who in reality was homeschooling her child, but she dreamed that someone had decided that her childs entire class had to come and live with her, Barret said. People who are sheltering at home alone will dream that theyve been locked up in prison, or one woman was sent to Mars by herself to establish the first one-person Mars colony.

Another common theme was a terrifying inability to help a loved one overcome the crisis. They tend to involve taking care of someone whos dying of COVID-19, and theyre trying to do something like put a patient on a respirator, or get the tube reattached thats come off a respirator, or the respirator machines are not working, Barrett said. So they feel like its their responsibility to save this persons life and yet they dont actually have much control over it and the person is dying anyway. Thats their nightmare. Its the worst moment from their daytime experiences.

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Even as the world inches its way out of the pandemic, front-line workers and patients lucky enough to check out of the hospital will likely be dealing with PTSD-like symptoms for years to come.

Im an ICU doctor, Dasgupta said. Patients are not on the ventilator for days were often talking weeks to months. Theyre on medications, theyre lonely, its scary, so of course, they have post-traumatic stress nightmares.

To avoid a nightly replay of some of your worst fears, Rebecca Robbins, an associate scientist at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston who studies sleep, recommends turning down the temperature before you turn off the lights. Weve done this experimentally with heat blankets, she said. If we administer heat blankets on people during sleep, we find the dreams are scarier, a little bit more in the nightmare category, and sleep is more fragmented.

If the cooler climate doesnt help, Robbins recommends talking to your doctor because depression, anxiety or the drugs used to treat either could be to blame. There are some medications that do cause hallucinations and nightmares, she said.

Its also important to prepare your body for sleep by leaving the screens on the other side of the bedroom door, taking a warm bath before bedtime and paying close attention to your sleep environment. You can even encourage your mind to cue up better content, Barret said. Think of what you would like to dream about. You could pick out a person youd like to see in your dream tonight, or a favourite place. If its a general one, like a person or place, just visualize that person or place, she said.

If you have a particular favourite dream youre focusing on, you might try to replay that in detail before falling asleep, and that would make you likelier to have a similar dream. That makes it likelier that youll dream about that content and it also makes it less likely youll have anxiety dreams.

DaveYasvinskiis a writer withHealthing.ca

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'Quarandreams' with calamities are keeping us up - Edmonton Journal

By Louise Carroll| Special to The Ledger

SpaceX crew astronauts discuss journey to ISS

SpaceX crew astronauts had their first press conference from orbit on Thursday. They described Sunday nights launch and their first impressions of the space station, their home until spring. (Nov. 19)

AP

ELLWOOD CITYMary Kaye Houk Hagenbuch met her first astronaut when she was a student at Grove City College, and she is still meeting them.

"In the late 1980s, I metHarrison Schmitt, from the last manned Apollo 17 mission to the moon," the Ellwood City area native said recently. "I was inspired by his account of being tasked to find moon rocks to bring back to earth."

Schmitt, a geologistturned astronaut, was the first person to speak a Bible verse aloud on the moon. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence comes my help.My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 121.

Schmitt looked up to see to the ghostly hills of the lunar landscape against the black backdrop of space and drove his lunar rover over the next ridge and was delighted to find a nice big pile of moon rocks that everyone back on Earth was so anxiously hoping for.

As a science teacher for 19 years at the Jupiter Christian School in Palm Beach County, Fla., Hagenbuch has been taking her students to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex for field trips and meeting astronauts.

"I finally got to touch one of those moon rocks at the Saturn V Rocket exhibit that Schmitt found," she said. "My students and I are surprised to see that the rocks are smooth, dark in color, and wonderfully iridescent."

On March 12, 2020, the last normal day before the lockdown of the schools due to COVID-19, Hagenbuch's class went on itsannual field trip to the Kennedy Space Center.

The tour included an experience of the Apollo 8 firing room that launched the first crewed mission to space, an unveiling of the Atlantis Space Shuttle and a ride on the Space Shuttle Launch simulator.

"We even got to meet Wendy Lawrence, an astronaut who inspired us with stories of her job performing science experiments on the International Space Station," Hagenbuch said.

"I always look forward to meeting another astronaut and hearing of their accomplishments in space exploration. Some of my favorites have been Jim Lovell and Gene Cernan, who both went two times to the moon on Gemini and Apollo missions;JackLousma, who went on Apollo and Shuttle missions to work on Skylab;John McBride;and Nicole Stott," Hagenbuch said."I think my favorite story, by astronaut Mark Lee, involved a science experiment on the International Space Station, testing out the best way to drink a Coke in microgravity by using a nozzle to shoot the soda into your mouth likeReddi-Wip."

Hagenbuch's students have surprised her with their connections to the space program.

"One student had his grandfather join us for the day who pointed out which rockets he had actually built and how many he had blown up before getting it right. Another student invited her father to come tell us about the booster engines that he helped develop that launched the Space Shuttle," Hagenbuch said.

"Another parent spoke to our class about his role in polishing the replacement lens for the Hubble Space Telescope when it was out of focus," she said. "This same parent returned years later to tell us of his part in giving the Mars rover, Perseverance, its ability to 'see'like a self-driving car."

In March 2019, the field trip to Kennedy Space Center just happened to be on the day SpaceX launched a Falcon Heavy Rocket.

"Our students will not soon forget the tremendous vibrations that rattled nearby windows and shook the very ground they stood on," Hagenbuch said. "They watched in awe as the rocket returned minutes later, gently setting down on launchpad via remote control."

In recent months, Hagenbuch's science class has been following the trials and triumphs of SpaceX launching itsSN8,9,10and11 rockets and learning that NASA has partnered with SpaceX and Blue Origins to put a permanent colony, along with the first woman on the moon, by 2024. This is the new Artemis mission.

"The space program is preparing for careers in a world with daily rocket launches, lunar coloniesand satellites that will launch rockets to Mars.What a time to be a science teacher," Hagenbuch said.

The Feb.7, 2010, Space Shuttle Endeavor that was launched at night for a 13-day flight to the International Space Station was a special time for Hagenbuch.

"One of my treasured memories was watching this last Space Shuttle launch at night," she said. "My family and I sat on the beach and watched the glowing, red fireballarcout over the Atlantic Ocean at 17,500 mph."

The family group included Hagenbuch's parents, Jim and Kaye Houk of Ellwood City.

"I had often seen the TV pictures of the launches with people lined up along the roads to watch and never thought I would see one. It was spectacular, awesome," Kaye Houk said.

Jim Houk said that by the time they drove the 1 mile back to Hagenbuch's home, the rocket was already passing over London.

Mary Kaye Hagenbuch and her students can look out their classroom windows and see science and history happening.

"Jupiter is just two hours south of Cape Canaveral, so my students and I have had the amazing privilege of watching the Space Shuttles and now SpaceX rocket launches out of our classroom window," shesaid.

In 1986, Hagenbuch graduated from Lincoln High School and entered the engineering program at Grove City College, but ended with a teaching degree in 1990. Her husband, Robert, teaches geography at Jupiter High School;their older son, Samuel, teaches physics, engineeringand earth science at Jupiter High School;and their younger son, Stephen,is currently enrolled in Metropolitan State University in Denver to earn his teaching degree.

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Space mission: Former Ellwood woman teaches students about trips beyond Earth - Ellwood City Ledger

The closest place in the universe where extraterrestrial life might exist is Mars, and human beings are poised to attempt to colonize this planetary neighbor within the next decade. Before that happens, we need to recognize that a very real possibility exists that the first human steps on the Martian surface will lead to a collision between terrestrial life and biota native to Mars.

If the red planet is sterile, a human presence there would create no moral or ethical dilemmas on this front. But if life does exist on Mars, human explorers could easily lead to the extinction of Martian life. As an astronomer who explores these questions in my book Life on Mars: What to Know Before We Go, I contend that we Earthlings need to understand this scenario and debate the possible outcomes of colonizing our neighboring planet in advance. Maybe missions that would carry humans to Mars need a timeout.

Where life could be

Life, scientists suggest, has some basic requirements. It could exist anywhere in the universe that has liquid water, a source of heat and energy, and copious amounts of a few essential elements, such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and potassium.

Mars qualifies, as do at least two other places in our solar system. Both Europa, one of Jupiters large moons, and Enceladus, one of Saturns large moons, appear to possess these prerequisites for hosting native biology.

I suggest that how scientists planned the exploratory missions to these two moons provides valuable background when considering how to explore Mars without risk of contamination.

Cassini shot this false-color image of jets erupting from the southern hemisphere of Enceladus on Nov. 27, 2005. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute, CC BYBelow their thick layers of surface ice, both Europa and Enceladus have global oceans in which 4.5 billion years of churning of the primordial soup may have enabled life to develop and take root. NASA spacecraft have even imaged spectacular geysers ejecting plumes of water out into space from these subsurface oceans.

To find out if either moon has life, planetary scientists are actively developing the Europa Clipper mission for a 2020s launch. They also hope to plan future missions that will target Enceladus.

Taking care to not contaminate

Since the start of the space age, scientists have taken the threat of biological contamination of other worlds seriously. As early as 1959, NASA held meetings to debate the necessity of sterilizing spacecraft that might be sent to other worlds. Since then, all planetary exploration missions have adhered to sterilization standards that balance their scientific goals with limitations of not damaging sensitive equipment, which could potentially lead to mission failures. Today, NASA protocols exist for the protection of all solar system bodies, including Mars.

Since avoiding the biological contamination of Europa and Enceladus is an extremely well-understood, high-priority requirement of all missions to the Jovian and Saturnian environments, their moons remain uncontaminated.

NASAs Galileo mission explored Jupiter and its moons from 1995 until 2003. Given Galileos orbit, the possibility existed that the spacecraft, once out of rocket propellant and subject to the whims of gravitational tugs from Jupiter and its many moons, could someday crash into and thereby contaminate Europa.

Cassinis Grand Finale ended with the spacecraft burning up in Saturns atmosphere.Such a collision might not occur until many millions of years from now. Nevertheless, though the risk was small, it was also real. NASA paid close attention to guidance from the National Academies Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration, which noted serious national and international objections to the possible accidental disposal of the Galileo spacecraft on Europa.

To completely eliminate any such risk, on Sept. 21, 2003, NASA used the last bit of fuel on the spacecraft to send it plunging into Jupiters atmosphere. At a speed of 30 miles per second, Galileo vaporized within seconds.

Fourteen years later, NASA repeated this protect-the-moon scenario. The Cassini mission orbited and studied Saturn and its moons from 2004 until 2017. On Sept. 15, 2017, when fuel had run low, on instructions from NASA Cassinis operators deliberately plunged the spacecraft into Saturns atmosphere, where it disintegrated.

But what about Mars?

Mars is the target of seven active missions, including two rovers, Opportunity and Curiosity. In addition, on Nov. 26 NASAs InSight mission is scheduled to land on Mars, where it will make measurements of Mars interior structure. Next, with planned 2020 launches, both ESAs ExoMars rover and NASAs Mars 2020 rover are designed to search for evidence of life on Mars.

The good news is that robotic rovers pose little risk of contamination to Mars, since all spacecraft designed to land on Mars are subject to strict sterilization procedures before launch. This has been the case since NASA imposed rigorous sterilization procedures for the Viking Lander Capsules in the 1970s, since they would directly contact the Martian surface. These rovers likely have an extremely low number of microbial stowaways.

The Curiosity rover was tested under clean conditions on Earth before launch to prevent microbial stowaways. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech, CC BYAny terrestrial biota that do manage to hitch rides on the outside of those rovers would have a very hard time surviving the half-year journey from Earth to Mars. The vacuum of space combined with exposure to harsh X-rays, ultraviolet light and cosmic rays would almost certainly sterilize the outsides of any spacecraft sent to Mars.

Any bacteria that sneaked rides inside one of the rovers might arrive at Mars alive. But if any escaped, the thin Martian atmosphere would offer virtually no protection from high energy, sterilizing radiation from space. Those bacteria would likely be killed immediately. Because of this harsh environment, life on Mars, if it currently exists, almost certainly must be hiding beneath the planets surface. Since no rovers have explored caves or dug deep holes, we have not yet had the opportunity to come face-to-drill-bit with any possible Martian microbes.

Given that the exploration of Mars has so far been limited to unmanned vehicles, the planet likely remains free from terrestrial contamination.

But when Earth sends astronauts to Mars, theyll travel with life support and energy supply systems, habitats, 3-D printers, food and tools. None of these materials can be sterilized in the same ways systems associated with robotic spacecraft can. Human colonists will produce waste, try to grow food and use machines to extract water from the ground and atmosphere. Simply by living on Mars, human colonists will contaminate Mars.

Cant turn back the clock after contamination

Space researchers have developed a careful approach to robotic exploration of Mars and a hands-off attitude toward Europa and Enceladus. Why, then, are we collectively willing to overlook the risk to Martian life of human exploration and colonization of the red planet?

Scientists hypothesize that dark narrow streaks were formed by briny liquid water necessary for life flowing down the walls of a crater on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona, CC BYContaminating Mars isnt an unforeseen consequence. A quarter century ago, a National Research Council report entitled Biological Contamination of Mars: Issues and Recommendations asserted that missions carrying humans to Mars will inevitably contaminate the planet.

I believe its critical that every attempt be made to obtain evidence of any past or present life on Mars well in advance of future missions to Mars that include humans. What we discover could influence our collective decision whether to send colonists there at all.

Even if we ignore or dont care about the risks a human presence would pose to Martian life, the issue of bringing Martian life back to Earth has serious societal, legal and international implications that deserve discussion before its too late. What risks might Martian life pose to our environment or our health? And does any one country or group have the right to risk back contamination if those Martian lifeforms could attack the DNA molecule and thereby put all of life on Earth at risk?

But players both public NASA, United Arab Emirates Mars 2117 project and private SpaceX, Mars One, Blue Origin already plan to transport colonists to build cities on Mars. And these missions will contaminate Mars.

Some scientists believe they have already uncovered strong evidence for life on Mars, both past and present. If life already exists on Mars, then Mars, for now at least, belongs to the Martians. Mars is their planet, and Martian life would be threatened by a human presence there.

Does humanity have an inalienable right to colonize Mars simply because we will soon be able to do so? We have the technology to use robots to determine whether Mars is inhabited. Do ethics demand that we use those tools to answer definitively whether Mars is inhabited or sterile before we put human footprints on the Martian surface?

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Colonizing Mars means contaminating Mars and never knowing for sure if it had its own native life SoccerNurds - SoccerNurds

On 4 March 2021, NASA achieved a remarkable landmark in planetary exploration by soft-landing its rover named Perseverance on the Martian surface, marking the beginning of a new era of understanding the planet that had a lot of similarity with Earth billions of years ago. Mars was closest to Earth in March 2021. Such an opportunity comes once in two years. Making use of this, not only the US but also UAE and China had embarked on their Mars missions The UAE launched a spacecraft named HOPE intended for making remote observation of the Martian atmosphere and weather patterns. Chinas Tianwen 1 mission is a combined orbiter, lander and rover for Mars exploration.

Out of these three missions, Perseverance is the most advanced. The fairly large rover will look for fossilised microscopic life. The landing site, namely Jezero crater, was a lake 3.5 billion years ago with its own river delta. It is hypothesised that water may have spread over 45 km wide with 600 m depth here. There could have been living organisms; one hopes to find biosignatures in this dry land. A unique feature of this mission is a small helicopter carrying a set of instruments for atmospheric studies.

Sending a spacecraft to Mars is hard and landing on the planet is even harder. The thin Martian atmosphere makes descent tricky and more than 60% of landing attempts in the past have failed. This time, NASA used all its past experience to arrive at the landing sequence using sophisticated sensors and rocket systems.

The orbiter is equipped to make remote observations using a set of cameras and radars, and will also act as a data relay centre. These sets of instruments will not only provide stereoscopic images but also assess the atmospheric constituents. The lander with the robotic arm will enable close observation and multispectral imaging of nearby regions. The main objective of the lander is to assess the surface conditions, analyse various samples of soil and rocks, and make observations of the climate. The aim is to determine whether Mars was inhabited once and whether it can provide opportunity for supporting life in the future.

Mars has always attracted the attention of humans due to its reddish hue that is different from other planets and stars. Its unique trajectory has been computed in India and Mesopotamia thousands of years ago. Later, towards the end of the 18th century, the invention of the telescope has enabled humans to have a closer look at this red planet. Science fiction has tried to imagine the existence of a Martian civilisation and speculated about the presence of extraterrestrial intelligent creatures. Though there is no physical evidence of any living objects on Mars as of now, there is a hypothesis that about two to three billion years ago, there could have been life there as on Earth.

Quite often questions are raised as to why we should explore Mars. Today, the existence of humans is solely dependent on Earth, which alone provides the right prerequisites for life support such as water, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen, and the right temperature among the planets of the solar system. There is always the fear of extinction of the human species either due to natural calamities or man-made disasters on Earth.

Prof Stephen Hawking, the famous theoretical physicist and cosmologist, once declared that mankind faces two options: Either we colonise space within the next 200 years and build residential units on other planets or we will face the prospect of long-term extinction. Almost all space-faring nations have long-term ambitions to make the space colonies a reality.

The nearest is the Moon, about 400,000 km away. But there is no atmosphere around itno oxygen, hydrogen or carbon, essential to support life. The recent discovery by our Chandrayaan mission, confirming the presence of water in the polar regions, gives some hope. But the temperatures are extreme, ranging from 160C in the permanently shadowed region to 200C in the equatorial regions. Gravity is about one-sixth of Earths surface. Establishing a human habitat in these extreme conditions is a Herculean task but it may still be possible by establishing huge tents with artificial atmosphere and appropriate temperature. Almost everything has to be carried from Earth except power, which could be derived from the Sun. Such tents can accommodate people for short periods to conduct experiments or excavate some exotic material like Helium-3 that is not available on Earth. Beyond that, such a base can also act as a platform for launching spaceships to other planets or to interstellar space.

Right from the beginning of the space era, nearly 60 attempts have been made to explore Mars at close quarters. So far, four space agenciesNASA, Russias Roscosmos, the European Space Agency (ESA), and our ISROhave put spacecraft in Martian orbit. With eight successful landings, the US is the only country that has operated a craft on the planets surface. Several spacecraft such as NASAs MAVEN orbiter, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey; ESAs Mars Express and Trace Gas Orbiter; and Indias Mars Orbiter Mission are transmitting data now from Mars.

These exploration missions have confirmed the presence of water on the surface and ice sheets beneath. The images show there would have been flowing liquidsmaybe water or methaneriver valleys, basins and lakes. This indicates there may have been large oceans in the early days. All these explorations have given rise to the hope that there could have been a thick atmosphere in Mars, which could have contained water vapour and supported life sometime back in history. But what brought the catastrophic phenomena that resulted in a hostile dry and dusty planet of today is intriguing and worth studying. It may throw some light on the large-scale destruction caused by climate change.

Often people ask this question: When is India going to the Moon or Mars?. We are in the process of developing Gaganyaan, which can carry three crew members to orbit around Earth and return. Taking off from that, planning a Moon mission may be feasible whereas going to Mars involves nearly eight months travel time one way, staying there for a few months and returning. It poses several technical and logistical problems. It may need nearly a hundred tonnes of material and supplies to be taken to an orbit around the Earth, assembled and sent to Mars, and brought back safely. Even with the largest rocket system in the world today, it may require nearly 10 launches for one trip to Mars.

In this context, Elon Musk the SpaceX founder, has come up with the unique solution of developing a huge rocket system that can take a nearly 100 ton recoverable and reusable module, which can not only survive the launch and reentry into Earth but also carry nearly 10 passengers to Mars and back. This a fantastic concept and development of the various systems are halfway through. Maybe in five years, a cargo mission to Mars may be feasible and in about 10 years, human flight to Mars and back. Musk has predicted that by 2100 about 100,000 people may travel to work or pleasure to Mars and return. This is fantastic foresight and a dream that is not impossible to realise.

For the moment, India has to be satisfied with robotic exploration of this nearest neighbour of the Earth that could be adopted to support life. India had made a small beginning by sending its Mars orbiter mission in 2017. Though it was an abridged configuration, it demonstrated our capability to travel nearly 40 million km and reach Martian orbit. It has also taken some close pictures of the red planet and provided some data on trace gases. We demonstrated our capability to have an orbiter, lander and rover mission through our Chandrayaan-2 mission. Though there was a small slip between the cup and lip, we demonstrated most of the technologies required for exploration of Mars. What is needed is to conceive unique experimental objectives and plan a mission to Mars, an opportunity for which may come about two years from now.

MADHAVANNAIR

Former ISRO chairman

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Why should we explore the red planet? - The New Indian Express

The laws on Mars could be a little spacey.

Elon Musks planned colony on the Red Planet will not be ruled by any Earth-based government and will instead adhere to its own self-governing principles, according to a report Friday.

The billionaire tech moguls SpaceX Mars mission which will use constellations of satellites to provide an internet connection for the creation of a self-sustaining city on the planet wont be forced to recognize international law, according to terms of service of SpaceXs Starlink internet project, cited by the Independent.

For services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship or other colonization spacecraft, the parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities, the governing law section states.

Instead, disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith, at the time of Martian settlement, it notes.

The service terms, however, note that earthlings using the internet on the Earths Moon must follow the laws of California.

Earlier this week, SpaceX announced plans to charge $99 a month for a test version of the Starlink internet project on Earth but admitted that it will likely be spotty at first.

A date for when this out-of-this-world settlement will launch has yet to be set but Musk revealed some details about it at a conference last week.

This really might come down to: Are we going to create a self-sustaining city on Mars before or after World War 3, he said at the annual Mars Society meeting.

The probability of after is low, so we should try and make the city self-sustaining before any possible World War 3.

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Elon Musk's SpaceX colony on Mars won't follow Earth-based ...

As a commander of a space colony on Earth, Tarvin is one of the few people to have any experience of overseeing a Mars base. Its certainly not a Star Trek-style military environment, he says. Its a small group of highly motivated people and it really doesnt take much effort to manage them.

A government also needs all the structures that go with it. Any new society needs an economy as well as systems to maintain the habitat, provide employment, health, childcare, social care and education. In short: Mars needs bureaucrats.

4. Expand

The first Mars settlers will be living in the capsules they arrive in, perhaps augmented by a few extra capsules sent ahead and maybe some inflatable domes. But just as settlers will be utilising local resources for water, food and energy, they will also hope to use local materials to build a larger colony or even spin-off colonies.

At the very least, it would make sense to use Martian rock to bury the habitats to help shield occupants from radiation. Later, the surface could be drilled to form caves or rock could be excavated for building materials just as we build houses from stone on Earth. It might also be possible to extract useful minerals for metals or glass.

Robert Zubin, the president of the Mars Society, is one of the leading exponents of terraforming Mars transforming the planet from an airless, barren world to an oxygen-rich green and pleasant realm with a fully functioning ecosystem.

See more here:

Five steps to colonising Mars - BBC Future

This means that Mars has been dry for quite a long time, said Eva Scheller, a Caltech graduate student who was the lead author of the Science paper.

Today, there is still water equivalent to a global ocean 65 to 130 feet deep, but that is mostly frozen in the polar ice caps.

Planetary scientists have long marveled at ancient evidence of flowing water carved in the Martian surface gigantic canyons, tendrils of winding river channels and deltas where the rivers disgorged sediments into lakes. NASAs latest robotic Mars explorer, Perseverance, which landed last month in the Jezero crater, will be headed to a river delta at its edge in hopes of finding signs of past life.

Without a time machine, there is no way to observe directly how much water was on a younger Mars more than three billion years ago. But the hydrogen atoms floating today in the atmosphere of Mars preserve a ghostly hint of the ancient ocean.

On Earth, about one in 5,000 hydrogen atoms is a version known as deuterium that is twice as heavy because its nucleus contains both a neutron and a proton. (The nucleus of a common-variety hydrogen atom has only a proton, no neutrons.)

But on Mars, the concentration of deuterium is markedly higher, about one in 700. Scientists at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center who reported this finding in 2015 said this could be used to calculate the amount of water Mars once had. Mars probably started with a similar ratio of deuterium to hydrogen as Earth, but the fraction of deuterium increased over time as the water evaporated and hydrogen was lost to space, because the heavier deuterium is less likely to escape the atmosphere.

The problem with that story, said Renyu Hu, a scientist at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory and another author of the current Science paper, is that Mars has not been losing hydrogen fast enough. Measurements by NASAs Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution orbiter, or MAVEN, have showed that the current rate, extrapolated over four billion years, can only account for a small fraction of the water loss, Dr. Hu said. This is not enough to explain the great drying of Mars.

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The Water on Mars Vanished. This Might Be Where It Went. - The New York Times

An oceans worth of water may be lurking in minerals below Mars surface, which could help explain why the Red Planet dried up.

Once home to lakes and rivers, Mars is now a frigid desert (SN: 12/8/14). Scientists have typically blamed that on Mars water wafting out of the planets atmosphere into space (SN: 11/12/20). But measurements of atmospheric water loss made by spacecraft like NASAs MAVEN orbiter are not enough to account for all of Mars missing water which was once so abundant it could have covered the whole planet in a sea up to 1,500 meters deep. Thats more than half the volume of the Atlantic Ocean.

Computer simulations of water moving through Mars interior, surface and atmosphere now suggest that most of the Red Planets water molecules may have gotten lodged inside the crystal structures of minerals in the planets crust, researchers report online March 16 in Science.

The finding helps bring focus to a really important mechanism for water loss on Mars, says Kirsten Siebach, a planetary geologist at Rice University in Houston who was not involved in the work. Water getting locked up in crustal minerals may be equally important as water loss to space and could potentially be more important.

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Planetary scientist Eva Scheller of Caltech and colleagues simulated possible scenarios for water loss on Mars, based on observations of the Red Planet made by rovers and orbiting spacecraft, and lab analyses of Martian meteorites. These simulations accounted for possible water loss to space and into the planets crust through bodies of water or groundwater interacting with rock.

In order for the simulations to match how much water was on Mars 4 billion years ago, how much is left in polar ice caps today and the observed abundance of hydrogen in Mars atmosphere, 30 to 99 percent of Mars ancient water must be stashed away inside its crust. The rest was lost to space.

Water gets locked inside minerals on Earth, too, says Scheller, who presented the results March 16 in a news conference at the virtual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. But unlike on Mars, that underground water is eventually belched back out into the atmosphere by volcanoes. That difference is important for understanding why one rocky planet may be lush and wet and habitable, while another is an arid wasteland.

Mars underground water could be mined by future explorers, says Jack Mustard, a planetary geologist at Brown University in Providence, R.I., not involved in the work. The most easily accessible water on Mars may be at its polar ice caps (SN: 9/28/20). But to get the ice, youve got to go up to [high latitudes] kind of cold, harder to live there, Mustard says. If water can be extracted from minerals, it could support human colonies at warmer climes closer to the equator.

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Most of Mars missing water may lurk in its crust - Science News Magazine