Category Archives: Mars Colony

Why do we explore Mars at all?

To search for life. Mars has long been considered the most hospitable place in the solar system beyond Earth, for both alien life and future human habitation. The second closest planet to ours after Venus, it is visible to the naked eye; its red-tinged terrain has been more closely observed via telescope since Galileos time. Over the centuries weve learnt that it is similar to Earth in many ways: it has clouds, winds, a roughly 24-hour day, seasons, polar ice caps, volcanoes and canyons. In the 19th century, scientists thought there were oceans and vegetation on its surface, even canals. We know now that it is a frozen desert (temperatures range from -140C to +30C in the equatorial summer), but in the past it seems to have had a warmer, denser atmosphere, with rainstorms, rivers and lakes. Even today it has all the ingredients necessary for life: water, organic carbon and energy.

The first successful fly-by mission to Mars, the Mariner 4 probe, was made by Nasa in 1965. For centuries, humans had speculated about life on Mars, but the 21 grainy black and white images beamed back to Earth by Mariner 4 the first photos humans had ever seen of another planet showed a cratered, lifeless surface, much like the Moons. These pictures, along with measurements of Marss thin atmosphere about 100 times thinner than Earths, therefore exposing it to the harshness of space prompted The New York Times to declare it a dead planet. Since then, humans have launched some 50 missions, about half of which failed. There were many disappointments. The first human-built object to reach Mars, the Soviet lander Mars 2 in 1971, failed seconds after landing. In 1976, Nasas Viking 1 and Viking 2 landed safely, but found no evidence of biological activity.

Later missions were more promising. Nasas rovers, starting with Spirit and Opportunity in 2004, have found evidence of ancient oceans and streams, and of ice beneath the surface. In 2018, the Curiosity rover found organic deposits trapped in mudstone formed 3.5 billion years ago. It gathered samples, heated them and analysed the results, proving they contained organic molecules: something like kerogen, the fossilised solid organic matter found in sedimentary rocks on Earth. This suggests that life could have existed in Marss ancient history, but it doesnt prove it: the molecules could have been formed by geological activity or meteorites. In 2004, the European Space Agencys Mars Express orbiter found the first evidence of methane on Mars also perhaps a sign of former life.

Last month, Nasas Perseverance became the fifth rover to land on Mars (all four of the others were built by Nasa; it and Curiosity remain operational). But two other high-profile missions have also reached Mars in recent weeks: Chinas first independent mission, the Tianwen-1 (a spacecraft which is also due to land a rover this year); and the Emirates Mars Mission (the first Arab interplanetary space mission). Each of them set off in July last year, when Mars and Earth were aligned favourably.

Perseverance, an improved version of Curiosity, has landed in the Jezero crater, a former river delta. It will also look for signs of past life: seeking out biosignatures left by microbes. The rover is the first part of a sample return project: it will store rocks and samples which a later mission will return to Earth for further analysis, if all goes to plan, in 2031. Perseverance also aims to prepare for future human missions to Mars. It will attempt to synthesise a small amount of oxygen from the carbon dioxide that makes up 96% of the Martian atmosphere. In a few months it will fly a drone, the Ingenuity helicopter the first time humans will have launched powered flight on another planet. The idea is that it will act as a scout, helping to plan routes for future missions.

Nasa aims to send astronauts to Mars by 2030, an objective it describes as humanitys next giant leap. Elon Musk, founder of the space exploration company SpaceX is even more boosterish: he is highly confident SpaceX will send humans to Mars by 2026, and hopes to have sent a million people there by 2050. The obstacles are formidable. At its closest, Mars is 33.9 million miles from Earth; a journey that takes a spacecraft about seven months. The most difficult part of any mission is landing on its surface a process known as the seven minutes of terror. Slowing a spacecraft down from about 12,000mph to landing speeds in Marss thin atmosphere is vastly complex: Perseverance used a heat shield, then a parachute, then a sky crane an apparatus equipped with retro rockets which separates from the rover, and lowers it onto the planet floor. Landing one-tonne rovers is an amazing feat. Landing astronauts, plus their equipment and supplies, plus a spacecraft and fuel for return, is quite another question.

For Musk and others, the aim is to build colonies on Mars: we need to become a multi-planet species, he says, rather than hanging out on Earth until some eventual calamity claims us. Whether becoming a twoplanet species will do much for humanitys survival is a moot point, when the second planet is as brutally hostile as Mars. But at the very least, many envisage small but viable colonies and a space tourism industry there in the coming decades. For most space scientists, though, the real objective remains the discovery of life. Finding a second genesis of life besides the one on Earth and in our own backyard would have profound scientific and philosophical implications: it would suggest that life exists throughout the universe.

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Exploring the red planet - The Week UK

A recurring mystery cloud on Mars that has long since baffled scientists around the world finally has an explanation. Appearing over the Arsia Mons volcano in the southern hemisphere of Mars, the long plume-like mystery cloud on Mars had been in observations for a long time since as early as the 1970s. Now, after capturing its repeated reappearance in 2018 and 2020, scientists have an explanation for what may be causing this unusual cloud stretch. A lot of this explanation owes itself to a tiny Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) aboard the Mars Express mission that orbits the planet a camera that barely has the resolution of a decades-old webcam, but still offers a wide field of view. The latter, as it so happened, has proved crucial in unlocking this intriguing mystery cloud on Mars.

As reported by Science Alert, the study of the mystery cloud on Mars found that the origin of this plume began at the onset of Martian spring or summer. During this period, at dawn each day, dense, cold air from the base of the Arsia Mons volcano started rising upward from its western slope. With dropping temperatures, the air starts collecting dust along with its moisture, which then condenses to form what is known as an orographic cloud on Earth. Once this stretch of air reaches an altitude of about 45km, it is then confronted by fast winds of up to 600kmph, and is then detached from the volcano and moves westward.

At its most expansive stretch, this mystery cloud on Mars can reach a length of almost 1,800km longer than the distance between Delhi and Mumbai. At its widest, it grows up to 150km. Subsequent to reaching this elongated cloud state, the plume disappears due to evaporation, when the Sun reaches its peak on the region. The plume, as the study reports, can also form during the winter months on Mars, during which the nature of winds on the planet (owing partially due to the lack of an Earth-like atmosphere) can cause it to form a large spiral as well.

Researchers who observed the cloud found that it is actually a regular occurrence on the planet, and it is only our sporadic cameras and the lack of uniform, regular observations that led us to believe that it is irregular in nature. Given this revelation of the mystery cloud on Mars, it will be interesting to see if more such clouds exist on the planet, which can give mankind further dough to study the constituents of the Martian atmosphere, and understand the behaviour of winds on the planet in closer detail. This can then add to the possibility of mankind setting up a residential colony on the planet at some point of time in future.

Originally posted here:

Mystery Cloud on Mars That's Like Nothing Ever Seen on Earth Finally Has an Explanation - News18

By Isobel Clark

The newest endeavour from NASA to discover more about our solar system hit headlines last month as their new Mars rover, Perseverance, successfully landed on the Red planet. Scientists and space fanatics all over the world have celebrated this historic opportunity to determine whether or not there was ever life on Mars.

While the possibility of one day inhabiting Mars is filling newspapers across the world, it really does beg the question: what about life on Earth? Why are we pouring money, time and resources into searching for signs of life on a different planet when, on our own overheating planet, we are losing millions of people every year to preventable causes?

According to NASA, Perseverance is currently searching for any signs of ancient microbial life and is aiming to test oxygen production on Mars atmosphere. This is in the hope that someday human life can be sustained on Mars. But human life cannot even be sustained on Earth. In the past hour approximately 700 children under the age of 15 have died of preventable causes.

While NASA has gathered some of the worlds best scientists to focus purely on the mission to Mars, their time could have been spent developing new and innovative solutions to current global issues. An invention for water conservation is essential right now and although NASA cant even put an approximate date on when humans might be able to inhabit Mars, the space mission is being prioritised, using up some of the best scientific brains in the world and a huge amount of money and resources.

This mission has received extensive, overwhelmingly positive news coverage while far more newsworthy stories are being ignored

And then we get to the exact figures. Since 1975 $16.1 billion has been spent on exploration on Mars. Two out of three child deaths are avoidable and approximately $2.3 billion dollars can save 2.3 million lives. If the money spent on the Mars missions alone had been redirected, millions of lives could have been saved. Natural disasters are occurring more frequently and more severely due to climate change.

The news generally only acknowledges deaths directly from the disaster and tends to ignore the millions who die of poverty-related issues much later. For example, the deaths caused directly by the 2010 Haiti earthquake were tragically inevitable, but the millions who died in the following years due to poverty were preventable, had funding been directed towards the problem.

To make matters worse, space investigation is becoming more and more privatised, aided by celebrities such as Elon Musk with SpaceX, the company which was founded with the hope of helping to create a human colony in space. By privatising space travel, even more money is pooled into it. Private firms tend to ignore social costs and are commonly self-serving. If space research is meant to be bettering public life through greater public knowledge then should it not be taking into account public interests? This is exactly what privatisation does not do. It favours only those who can pay to receive the benefits.

The environmental costs of space missions are equally immense. Rocket launches have a huge carbon footprint from the amount of fossil fuels needed to propel an object into space. The new phenomenon of space junk is similarly worrying. The new idea of space tourism, insisted on by private companies such as SpaceX, could have devastating a environmental impact purely for the pleasure of the global elite. The Mars mission is urging on those who are demanding space tourism. Furthermore, it already has its own massive carbon footprint to add to the overall environmental impacts.

Dont get me wrong, Im not here to expressly hate on NASA. I wholly recognise that the work they have done over the years has transformed lives for so many. Space travel has given us life-changing innovations such as GPS, accurate weather prediction and a greater understanding of how to prevent the damaging effects of UV light as just a few examples. However, this Mars mission is not aiming to change our lives with inventions such as these. NASA states that Perseverances mission is to search for signs that Mars could ever have been inhabited. It will also gather some samples of rock and soil and store them in Mars. These samples may never make it to Earth. Yet the environmental damage from this one mission alone is immense.

The new idea of space tourism could have a devastating environmental impact purely for the pleasure of the global elite

Every Mars mission since 1975 has essentially been looking into whether one day humans can inhabit the planet. Scientists call this having a back-up human colony who, in the event of us irrevocably destroying Earth, will be able to keep humanity going. By focusing so many of our resources on the back-up plan, we are able to conveniently ignore the fact we are rapidly destroying Earth through global warming. In fact, we have already so successfully destroyed this planet that we think it is okay to infect a different one once we have discarded Earth.

Space travel is certainly essential to our lives as we live them today. I do not deny that. Nonetheless, this particular mission has stuck in my throat for all the wrong reasons. Perhaps it is the extensive, overwhelmingly positive news coverage it has received while far more newsworthy stories are being ignored.

Or perhaps it is the billions upon billions of dollars that have been poured into the Mars missions, along with the brilliant scientists whose time has also been taken, all of which could have prevented millions of deaths here on our own planet due to poverty and climate change. The privatisation of space travel is furthering the problem as inevitably even more resources will be poured into further research.

I can see a future in which I will support space travel and explorations on Mars whole-heartedly. But I will only support them when the appropriate amount of money and time is spent on finding solutions to the millions of preventable deaths we face every year and once we have truly invested everything we have into the preservation of our Earth.

Illustration by Nicole Wu.

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Life on Mars? We can't even sustain it on Earth - Palatinate

NASA's newest Mars rover has sent back the first-ever recording of driving on the Red Planet and it features a mysterious "scratching" noise that's left scientists baffled.

The audio clip also includes the eerie sound of grinding, clanking and banging that by Earth standards would be pretty worrisome.

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The noises made by Perseverance's six metal wheels and suspension on the first test drive two weeks ago are part of a 16-minute raw audio feed released Wednesday by Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"If I heard these sounds driving my car, I'd pull over and call for a tow," Dave Gruel, an engineer on the rover team, said in a statement.

"But if you take a minute to consider what you're hearing and where it was recorded, it makes perfect sense."

The driving audio contains an unexpected high-pitched scratching noise, according to Nasa. Engineers are trying to figure out what the sound is.

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Perseverance the biggest, most advanced rover ever sent to Mars landed near an ancient river delta on February 18 to search for signs of past life.

Samples will be taken from the most promising rocks for eventual return to Earth.

The rover carries two microphones.

One already has captured the sounds of wind and rock-zapping lasers, the other was meant to record the descent and landing.

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This second mike didn't pick up any sounds of the rover's arrival at Mars, but managed to record the first test drive March 4.

Before it starts drilling into rocks for core samples, Perseverance will drop off an experimental tag-along helicopter, named Ingenuity.

The helicopter will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet sometime next month.

Perseverance's microphones are stashed on its SuperCam instrument, which sits atop the rover's remote sensing mast.

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Over the course of the two-year mission, scientists hope to use the rover's audio recordings to analyse Martian rock and soil.

The six-wheeled machine is equipped with a laser that can hit targets up to 20ft (7m) away.

Some zaps sound slightly louder than others, providing information on the physical structure of the targets, such as its relative hardness.

SuperCam was developed jointly by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico and a consortium of French research laboratories.

Perseverance - What's on board?

Perseverance boasts a total of 19 cameras and two microphones, and carries seven scientific instruments.

An X-ray ray gun that will help scientists investigate the composition of Martian rock.

2. Radar Imager for Mars' subsurface experiment (RIMFAX)

A ground-penetrating radar that will image buried rocks, meteorites, and even possible underground water sources up to a depth of 10 metres (33ft).

3. Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA)

A bunch of sensors that will take readings of temperature, wind speed and direction, pressure, and other atmospheric conditions.

4. Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE)

An experiment that will convert Martian carbon dioxide into oxygen. A scaled-up version could be used in future to provide Martian colonists with breathable air.

5. SuperCam

A suite of instruments for measuring the makeup of rocks and regolith at a distance

6. Mastcam-Z

A camera system capable of taking 3D images by combining two or more photos into one.

7. Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC)

From Baker Street to Mars: Sherloc contains an ultraviolet laser that will investigate Martian rock for organic compounds.

The instrument delivers data to the French Space Agencys operations centre in Toulouse.

Speaking earlier this month following the recovery of Perseverance's first audio recordings, Naomi Murdoch, a researcher at the ISAE-SUPAERO aerospace engineering school in Toulouse, could barely contain her excitement.

"The sounds acquired are remarkable quality," she said.

"Its incredible to think that were going to do science with the first sounds ever recorded on the surface of Mars."

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In other news, water that once flowed over the surface of Mars is now trapped within its crust, a Nasa-funded study revealed this week.

Nasahas announcedthat it is accepting applications for wannabe space explorers who wish to fire their names to theRed Planet.

And,Perseverance revealed stunningvideo and audio recordingsfrom the surface of the Red Planet last month.

What do you make of the rover video? Let us know in the comments!

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk

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Nasa releases first recording of rover DRIVING on Mars but mystery noise leaves them baffled... - The Sun

Did life ever exist on Mars? Are we alone? Are we special?

Those are the questions a Dartmouth College researcher has been thinking about as she eagerly awaits new data and images from NASAs Perseverance rover, which landed on the red planet last Thursday.

Marisa Palucis, an assistant professor in the department of earth sciences, is a geomorphologist. I look at landscapes and think about how they evolved over time as a function of climate or tectonics, she explained.

For her, what makes Mars fascinating is its similarity to early Earth. Before Earth was teeming with life, before Earth had trees and dinosaurs were roaming around, it would have looked a lot like Mars, she said.

Mars today is very cold and dry, she said, but scientists believe that billions of years ago, the planet had rivers, lakes, volcanoes, perhaps even an ocean. But whereas Earth developed life and is what we know it as today, Mars didnt go that route, she said. So I think thats really fun to study the planet that was potentially very much like our own, at least early on.

In 2012, when she was a graduate student, Palucis was among the scientists gathered at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California to watch the Curiosity rover land safely on Mars. I just remember watching grown men around me crying, she said.

Last Thursday, Palucis felt a similar rush of pride and excitement watching alone in her Dartmouth office as Perseverance stuck the landing on Mars.

She was part of a worldwide scientific community that weighed in on 60 potential locations for the rover to land. NASA selected the Jezero Crater, which scientists believe was once home to an ancient river delta.

That was Palucis first choice for Perseverance to explore.

Crater lakes are her specialty. Thats why Im so excited about this particular landing site, she said. It was clearly an ancient lake.

Her field research has taken her to such extreme environments as the Arctic and Death Valley. We go to really cold places or really dry places, basically places that have some aspects of Mars associated with them, she said.

Palucis investigates features such as water flow and sedimentary deposits. By studying them in the field, I use that to try to understand how they evolve over time, and that understanding helps me understand how they would have worked on Mars.

Until now, Mars rover missions have focused on the presence of water. We know that water is so important to life on Earth so we wanted to see: was there liquid water on the surface of Mars, she said.

The Curiosity rover, which continues to explore Mars, proved there were indeed large lakes that lasted for potentially millions of years, she said. Now Perseverance will be looking for evidence of life.

The Jezero crater that Perseverance will explore is an ancient lake with preserved deposits similar to the Mississippi Delta, she said. If youre looking for evidence of life, Palucis said, A great place to look would be a delta, where you have basically water meeting land, so you have the fresh inputs of nutrients.

Scientists hope to find evidence of fossilized microbes. But even if life didnt evolve on Mars, scientists want to learn whether there were precursors to life, Palucis said.

These are not just theoretical questions for scientists such as Palucis. Understanding the past is the key to the future, she said. Being able to really understand what it takes for life to emerge, or how does a planet deal with climate as its changing?

Mars is a whole other laboratory, a whole other set of parameters we have at our disposal, she said. The more we understand about that, the more we understand about our planet and how it works.

The Perseverance mission has four objectives: identifying past environments that would have been capable of supporting microbial life; seeking signs of that life; collecting core rock and soil samples that will eventually be returned to Earth; and testing oxygen production from the Martian atmosphere.

Perseverance carries an instrument called MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment), which is tasked with producing oxygen from the carbon dioxide-rich Martian atmosphere. According to NASA.gov, MOXIE makes oxygen like a tree does. It inhales carbon dioxide and exhales oxygen.

If liquid oxygen propellant could be manufactured on Mars, that fuel could be used to return Martian samples to Earth, and even to generate fuel to maintain a colony there someday.

Palucis doesnt have to wait for the samples to be returned to Earth. For her, the images that Perseverance is already sending home reveal important data about sediments and water transport on the planet that will advance her research.

But those Martian rock cores will help other scientists understand how long the planet remained wet and why it dried up, she said. We care about climate change on Earth, and Mars had this epic climate change, she said.

I do think its a worthwhile thing to study so we can make hard decisions about our own planet and how we treat it.

Its easy for a lay person to anthropomorphize these rovers that have been exploring Mars on their own for decades now. Palucis admits she does the same.

I definitely think of them as little robotic geologists, she said.

So when two previous Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, stopped transmitting, Palucis felt the sadness of loss. They died on Mars, she said. It does feel like they went there to learn and do all of these things for us. And I know theyre just robots but at the same time, its hard not to think of them as more.

After the past year of pandemic and economic hardship, Perseverances successful landing on Mars is something to celebrate, Palucis said. It gives us something as a society and as Americans to be really proud of, she said. And to remind ourselves that were explorers, and were curious.

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Mars rover could answer questions here on Earth - The Union Leader

NASA will today reveal footage of its Perseverance Mars rover touching down on the Red Planet.

The $2.4billion robot landed last week after enduring "seven minutes of terror" as it plunged through the Martian atmosphere.

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The six-wheeled rover is Nasa's most complex mission to the planet's dusty surface yet, sporting 19 cameras and seven scientific instruments.

Over the next two years, it will scan Martian rock for signs of alien life and carry out tests that are key to future manned missions to the planet.

At 7pm GMT (2pm ET) on Monday, Nasa will reveal what is the first rover landing footage ever captured on another world.

The video was recorded from the rover itself as it was lowered to the surface of Mars by a spacecraft that assisted with the landing.

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You can watch the unveiling for free on Nasa's YouTube channel.

"Now that @NASAPersevere landed, we'll release first-of-its-kind footage from the rover's descent and landing after entering Mars' atmosphere," Nasa officials wrote in a Twitter update on Saturday.

The footage will show the robot dangling on nylon cables as it was delicately lowered into the Jezero crater last week.

Nasa shared a sneak peak of the clip last week when they released a photo Perseverance suspended above Mars from its rocket-powered skycrane.

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It was filmed at the end of Perseverance's seven-minute landing, during which it hit speeds of 12,000mph.

"The moment that my team dreamed of for years, now a reality. Dare mighty things," Nasa wrote in a post to the Perseverance Twitter account.

"This shot from a camera on my 'jetpack' captures me in midair, just before my wheels touched down."

Perseverance is now sending data back to Earth via the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

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It takes photos, videos and other information roughly 11 minutes to travel through space to Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

The nuclear battery-powered rover has landed at the edge of an ancient, long-vanished river delta and lake bed called the Jezero crater.

Its thought that the basin was once filled with water and may have been home to alien microbes billions of years ago.

If thats the case, traces of those microbes should still be present deep within the soil at Jezero a bit like how dinosaur bones remain in Earths soil today.

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The primary objective of Perseverances two-year mission - dubbed Mars 2020 - is to dig up soil samples that could contain all the proof we need that life grows on other planets.

In an interview ahead of the landing last week, Nasa Chief Scientist James Green laid out his hopes for the project.

"We want to search the past from the rock record to see if Mars could have supported life," he said on Neil DeGrasse Tyson's podcast, StarTalk.

"My secret wish is that we find it. We dont anticipate getting fossils, but there are potential cells or microbial indications that life could have survived on Mars in its early history."

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Perseverance - What's on board?

Perseverance boasts a total of 19 cameras and two microphones, and carries seven scientific instruments.

An X-ray ray gun that will help scientists investigate the composition of Martian rock.

2. Radar Imager for Mars' subsurface experiment (RIMFAX)

A ground-penetrating radar that will image buried rocks, meteorites, and even possible underground water sources up to a depth of 10 metres (33ft).

3. Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA)

A bunch of sensors that will take readings of temperature, wind speed and direction, pressure, and other atmospheric conditions.

4. Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE)

An experiment that will convert Martian carbon dioxide into oxygen. A scaled-up version could be used in future to provide Martian colonists with breathable air.

5. SuperCam

A suite of instruments for measuring the makeup of rocks and regolith at a distance

6. Mastcam-Z

A camera system capable of taking 3D images by combining two or more photos into one.

7. Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC)

From Baker Street to Mars: Sherloc contains an ultraviolet laser that will investigate Martian rock for organic compounds.

Advanced power tools will drill samples from Martian rock and seal them into dozens of cigar-sized tubes for eventual return to Earth for further analysis.

Provided all goes to plan, they will be the first such specimens ever collected by humankind from the surface of another planet.

Two future missions to retrieve those samples and fly them back to Earth are in the planning stages by Nasa, in collaboration with the European Space Agency.

Another of the Mars missions headline experiments involves a small, drone helicopter named Ingenuity.

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Strapped to the bottom of Perseverance, the lightweight craft will attempt the first ever powered flight on Mars in the coming months.

If successful, the four-pound (1.8-kg) whirlybird could pave the way for low-altitude aerial surveillance of Mars during later missions.

Other key equipment on board the $2.2billion rover include two microphones that will capture the first audio recordings from the Martian surface, as well as a potentially groundbreaking experiment called Moxie.

Moxie (Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment) is a small contraption housed in the belly of the rover that will convert a small amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide into oxygen.

Its a 1/200 scale test model of a design that may be used on Mars to provide future colonists with breathable air.

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In other news, you can catch up with all the latest on the Mars 2020 mission on ourPerseverance liveblog.

Space geekshave revealedstunning 4K footage of Mars captured by Nasas Curiosity rover.

And, Elon Musk has warned that humanitymay "self-extinguish"before we can colonise Mars.

What do you make of Nasa's Mars mission? Let us know in the comments!

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk

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Nasa to reveal stunning first footage of Mars Perseverance rover touching down on the Red Planet - The Sun

Tamara Davis is a cosmologist who is is wildly excited by the NASA rover landing on Mars.

She says its only a matter of time until astronauts visit Mars and that before long there will also be a colony on the Red Planet.

Tamara also studies black holes, dark energy, dark matter and is helping manage the Dark Energy Survey, involving over 400 researchers on four continents.

And is leading a multi-million-dollar Laureate Fellowship to explore why the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

Over two episodes, Catalyst explores what it will take to get to and live on Mars and why scientists think life could once have existed there and may still do.

Mars: Our Second Home? Tuesday February 23 - 8:30pm

Mars: The Hunt for Life Tuesday March 2 - 8:30pm

Tamara is a presenter on ABC TV's Catalyst

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The race to live on Mars - Conversations - ABC News

February 12, 2021

PEMBROKE Art and music have ways of transcending lifes challenges, even during a pandemic.

Following that belief in part led the Givens Performing Arts Center and International Artists Foundation to win a highly regarded award for their recent collaborative project.

Givens Performing Arts Center, on the campus of The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and International Artists Foundation in Lumberton are the recipients of a 2020 Gold NYX Award for its collaborative video presentation of music by Lumberton composer Mark Andersen. The NYX Video Awards is an international competition open to marketing, communications and videography professionals whose creative expertise and proficiency are both celebrated and recognized.

This is an exciting honor, said James Bass, GPAC executive director. Im so proud, not only of the award, but for the story that led us to this humbling recognition.

The project began when Bass, who is credited with producing the project, reached out to Mark Andersen about performing a concert for GPACs Front Row Arts Series, which presents virtual performances by local and regional artists.

In August 2020, Andersen recorded Rhapsody for Piano in three movements for the series. The music was written by Andersen during the COVID-19 pandemic and debuted on the GPAC stage.

The concert was special not only because it was the first time the music was performed on stage, but Andersen feared it may be his last performance.

Mark is truly a gift to our community. He is an absolutely amazing musician, and I wanted his music to be a part of this series, Bass said. I had no idea at the time that Mark was facing a very daunting health challenge.

The health challenge was renal cancer, diagnosed about a year ago.

It was stage 3 and I did not know how that would turn out, Andersen said. There was a very strong possibility that that might have been my last performance.

Because Anderson was previously diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, his condition was inoperable at the time.

They needed to get me in some better shape before they could do the operation, Andersen said. It was kind of a waiting game to see if I could get in good enough shape to have the operation before the cancer began to spread and it was too late.

After witnessing the positive feedback from and the large viewership of the concert, International Artists Executive Producer Lynn Andersen felt compelled to submit the project for the prestigious NYX award. On Dec. 18, Andersen learned that the submission was selected after an intense judging period featuring 1,616 entries from 33 countries.

We were extremely pleased to have worked with GPAC Producer James Bass, and his staff, during the production of this important concert of original music, Lynn Andersen said.

Having a nice stage and a professional staff to work with made the process that much easier, he said.

We were able to have a very nice venue that was easy to work in and people that are easy to work with, Lynn Andersen said. They were all prepared for us. We filmed and came home and started editing.

Although based in Lumberton, Mark Andersen is an internationally known composer and concert artist. His education includes East Carolina University, The American Conservatory of Music, and the Paris Conservatory of music, where he studied organ with Marcel Dupr and composition with Nadia Boulanger. He has performed internationally at many venues, including Royal Albert Hall, London; Carnegie Hall, New York; Lincoln Center, New York; and The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

He has composed more than 200 pieces for organ, choir, symphony, and solo instruments in his career, including classical works and music for Broadway and opera stages.

Mark Andersen said he was grateful for the invitation to perform what he thought may be his final performance at GPAC.

I certainly would not have had the opportunity at that point to go back and perform at Carnegie Hall or any of the other major places, like the Kennedy Center or somewhere I had performed many times before in my life, but GPAC is here, Andersen said. Its my favorite performance space in Robeson County so I was very, very happy to have the opportunity to do it.

Shortly after Andersens concert debuted, he learned his prayers had been answered.

I relied on my faith, and the Lord was good to me and got me into good enough shape to where I got the kidney removed, Andersen said. It didnt spread and was contained in the kidney that was removed.

When Mark told me about his upcoming surgery and shared his fear that this might be his last performance and in the midst of a global pandemic in which live performances werent even an option I really knew what we were doing was something special, Bass said.

Andersens video, which has received more than 1,000 views, is a 30-minute performance of original music composed during the quarantine months of the pandemic, is titled Rhapsody for Piano.

Bass said that not only has it been shown on the GPAC webpage but through Carnegie Hall as well.

Im simply astounded by how popular it became in such a short time, Bass said.

We are proud of all the amazing individuals, agencies and companies who joined the NYX Awards this year, said Kenjo Ong, CEO of the International Awards Associate. This win by International Artists Foundation and Givens Performing Arts Center is not just a testament to their unbridled talent, but one that will inspire many for years to come.

The winning entries were judged impartially by a group of esteemed marketing, communications and videography professionals. The IAA selected a panel of international judges in the adjudication process and adhered to a strict code of excellence. The NYX Awards embraces diversity and ingenuity that comes from all corners of the world. The 2020 panel was comprised of judges from 16 countries.

Among the submissions, some familiar global brands were represented, including World Vision Canada, Heineken USA, PETA, Ferrari, BMW, Audi, Player One Trailers, Ubisoft, Morris Animal Foundation, TikTok Canada, Canon Singapore, Ericson Group Inc, FabFitFun, Adidas, Paradox Interactive, King Art Games, Miami Ad School, American Migraine Foundation, BBC Studioworks/Shoot You Ltd, Dell EMC, Unilever, CGTN, Lexus, Western Digital and AARP, to list a few.

A NYX Award has never just been about the title. Its an affirmation for the hard work these individuals have given for their work, Ong said. Their phenomenal ideas and concepts are two big reasons why the NYX Awards will continue to honor proficiency and expertise that transcends beyond normalcy.

Andersen learned recently that his scans were clear, and he still remains cancer free.

It turned out that the operation that they did in Duke was a complete success, so I will be playing again, Andersen said.

He plays frequently for Trinity Episcopal Church in Lumberton. Videos of the performances can be viewed on the churchs YouTube channel.

Rhapsody for Piano can be viewed at the Givens Performing Arts Centers website.

Read more from the original source:

Perseverance goes to Mars with equipment needed to gather new information - The Robesonian

A successful space program could be a game changer both in terms of technological advancement and how the region imagines itself.

Turkey recently grabbed headlines as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed a 10-year space program that would see the country send a Turkish citizen to the moon by 2023.

This landing, part of Turkeys larger Vision 2023 program to mark the republics centennial, is however only the first phase.

The second phase would aim for Turkey to have a soft landing (when a spacecraft lands intact on the surface rather than intentionally crashing or hard landing) on the moon in 2028, and would also include a scientific research component.

The announcement comes after years of Turkey building up its space capabilities. President Erdogan mentioned that over the past 18 years, Turkey has invested 2.1 billion Turkish liras (around $300 million) for 56 projects related to satellites, launching systems, and space equipment.

Just last month Turkey, in cooperation with Elon Musks Space-X, launched the Turksat 5A satellite with significant communications and defense implications for the region. The satellite is expected to come into operation in the latter half of this year.

These huge expenses might seem hard to justify at first. Why invest all that money to go to space when theres so much suffering down here? This would seem even more pertinent in a region as conflict-ridden as the Middle East.

However, Turkeys drive to space is worth it, and could have profound implications not just for itself, but perhaps the entire region.

Technological advancement

One of the first reasons a country should aspire to go to space is the effect it has on spearheading technological advancement.

Firefighting equipment, water filtration, the computer mouse, as well as healthcare advances such as artificial limbs, insulin pumps and LASIK eye surgery are all technologies that were originally innovated or further advanced to meet the challenge of life in space.

This point is an especially relevant one for Turkey due to its focus on not just going to space, but to do so by building up its own indigenous capabilities.

Turkey is not the only Muslim country aiming to go to space. The UAE recently joined the US and China as recent countries with probes sent to Mars with its Amal (Hope) probe. The county even aims to establish a colony on Mars by 2117.

However, Turkeys space program looks more promising over the long term due not just to its longer past, but also its emphasis on domestic engineering and building up domestic capacity in phases.

Imagining a better future

An even more important reason for a country to go to space is the effect it can have on peoples imaginations.

Theres a reason so many children want to be astronauts when they grow up. There is something intrinsically frontier-breaking about going to space, it opens up children's minds.

Due to its recent history, much of the Muslim world, especially the Middle East, is struck with despondency and defeatism. Many, quite understandably, cant imagine a better future. Compare this with Americans, who have long been known even among other Western countries for having an annoying degree of optimism.

The example of a Middle Eastern and Muslim country using its own technological and engineering capabilities to go to space should be a sign that the region can hope that with time and effort, things may look very different in the future.

The ability to imagine a better future is crucial to creating a better present.

Todays geopolitics, tomorrows astropolitics?

Turkeys 10-year space program also includes a regional positioning system, controlled by a combination of satellites and ground systems. President Erdogan noted that by doing so, Turkey will end its foreign dependency.

That brings us to the third reason why going to space is important for a country: its potential security implications.

While both the Cold War space race and the current equally-cold US-China space race have mostly been about prestige, industries currently being developed could have massive effects on our future societies.

The first is if commercial space flights become a reality soon, with Morgan Stanley predicting that the space industry could generate more than a trillion dollars of revenue for the US in 2040.

Even more crucial though is space mining.

If the cost of going to space can continue to be reduced, it could one day be feasible to mine the moon or asteroids, which are rich not only in water (which can be used for hydrogen fuel) but also metals, including gold and rare-earth metals. Some asteroids are worth not just millions or billions, but quintillions, a number so large, it is nearly unfathomable.

Whichever countries or corporations arrive there first could utilise that abundance of resources to create industries we cant even presently imagine.

How does the money and politics work?

Two potential obstacles for the Turkish space program rest in money and politics.

One component of Turkeys 10-step program is the building of a Turkish spaceport. However, Turkey is too far from the equator to be cost-competitive for launching rockets, meaning it will have to turn to an ally.

It is much cheaper to launch from the equator, due to the Earths greater rotational speed there reducing the amount of rocket fuel needed. This effect can be compounded if you launch from an eastern coast, as you gain extra velocity from the Earths west-to-east spin. (Hence, why NASA mostly launches from Florida).

The nearest Turkish ally located on an eastern coast near to the equator? Somalia.

Somalia as a close Turkish ally already hosts Turkeys largest military base outside of the country and the two countries cooperate on a wide range of issues.

Another potential roadblock could be the costs.

A Middle East Eyereport quoted the governments draft calculations for building and maintaining the spaceport in Somalia at more than $350 million, with another $150 million for increasing qualified personnel, including sending doctoral students abroad and increasing funding for Turkish universities.

However, while the politics and money may not be easy, the impacts it could have on Turkeys technological capabilities, the imagination of its population and the region's, as well as long-term security implications, means that Turkeys race to space is a potentially game-changing move for Turkey and the wider region.

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of TRT World.

We welcome all pitches and submissions to TRT World Opinion please send them via email, to opinion.editorial@trtworld.com

The rest is here:

Why Turkey's race to space is a good thing - TRT World

NASA successfully landed its most complex Mars rover yet on Thursday, sparking cheers of joy at the space agency's HQ in California.

The Perseverance robot will scan Martian rock for signs of alien life and carry out tests that are key to future manned missions to the Red Planet.

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In an interview ahead of the landing this week, Nasa Chief Scientist James Green laid out the primary goal of the interplanetary mission.

"We want to search the past from the rock record to see if Mars could have supported life," he said on Neil DeGrasse Tyson's podcast, StarTalk.

"My secret wish is that we find it. We dont anticipate getting fossils, but there are potential cells or microbial indications that life could have survived on Mars in its early history."

The nuclear battery-powered rover has landed at the edge of an ancient, long-vanished river delta and lake bed called the Jezero crater.

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Its thought that the basin was once filled with water and may have been home to alien microbes billions of years ago.

If thats the case, traces of those microbes should still be present deep within the soil at Jezero a bit like how dinosaur bones remain in Earths soil today.

The primary objective of Perseverances two-year mission - dubbed Mars 2020 - is to dig up soil samples that could contain all the proof we need that life grows on other planets.

Advanced power tools will drill samples from Martian rock and seal them into dozens of cigar-sized tubes for eventual return to Earth for further analysis.

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Provided all goes to plan, they will be the first such specimens ever collected by humankind from the surface of another planet.

Two future missions to retrieve those samples and fly them back to Earth are in the planning stages by Nasa, in collaboration with the European Space Agency.

Another of the Mars missions headline experiments involves a small, drone helicopter named Ingenuity.

Strapped to the bottom of Perseverance, the lightweight craft will attempt the first ever powered flight on Mars in the coming months.

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Ingenuitys body is barely larger than a shoebox but it sports two rotary blades measuring a metre long.

Those bonkers proportions are necessary to generate lift in the thin Martian atmosphere.

Ingenuity will test surface-to-surface powered flight on another world for the first time.

Each flight is planned to be at altitudes ranging from 35 metres (1016 ft) above the ground.

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If successful, the four-pound (1.8-kg) whirlybird could pave the way for low-altitude aerial surveillance of Mars during later missions.

Other key equipment on board the $2.2billion rover include two microphones that will capture the first audio recordings from the Martian surface, as well as a potentially groundbreaking experiment called Moxie.

Moxie (Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment) is a small contraption housed in the belly of the rover that will convert a small amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide into oxygen.

Its a 1/200 scale test model of a design that may be used on Mars to provide future colonists with breathable air.

Perseverance - What's on board?

Perseverance boasts a total of 19 cameras and two microphones, and carries seven scientific instruments.

An X-ray ray gun that will help scientists investigate the composition of Martian rock.

2. Radar Imager for Mars' subsurface experiment (RIMFAX)

A ground-penetrating radar that will image buried rocks, meteorites, and even possible underground water sources up to a depth of 10 metres (33ft).

3. Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA)

A bunch of sensors that will take readings of temperature, wind speed and direction, pressure, and other atmospheric conditions.

4. Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE)

An experiment that will convert Martian carbon dioxide into oxygen. A scaled-up version could be used in future to provide Martian colonists with breathable air.

5. SuperCam

A suite of instruments for measuring the makeup of rocks and regolith at a distance

6. Mastcam-Z

A camera system capable of taking 3D images by combining two or more photos into one.

7. Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC)

From Baker Street to Mars: Sherloc contains an ultraviolet laser that will investigate Martian rock for organic compounds.

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The Martian atmosphere is 95 per cent carbon dioxide, which is toxic to humans, and future colonists will need a way to produce oxygen to survive on the planet for long periods.

Other tools onboardinvolve characterising weather and other environmental conditions that could affect future astronauts living and working on Mars.

Following Thursday's landing, Steve Jurczyk, Nasa's acting administrator, said: "It's amazing to have Perseverance join Curiosity on Mars and what a credit to the team.

"Just what an amazing team to work through all the adversity and all the challenges that go with landing a rover on Mars, plus the challenges of Covid. "And just an amazing accomplishment."

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WISH YOU WERE HERENasa to reveal 1st footage of Mars rover touching down on Red Planet

SPACED OUTRare conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury won't happen again for five YEARS

Live Blog

LIFE ON MARS?Nasa awestruck by Perseverance mission as Rover sends first colour pics

MAGNETIC MADNESSMagnetic disaster 'killed Neanderthals' and will happen AGAIN, say experts

WORLDS APARTEverything you need to know about Mars after historic Nasa rover landing

RED PLANETStunning 4K footage of MARS captured by Nasa's Curiosity rover revealed

In other news, you can catch up with all the latest on the Mars 2020 mission on ourPerseverance liveblog.

Space geekshave revealedstunning 4K footage of Mars captured by Nasas Curiosity rover.

And, Elon Musk has warned that humanitymay "self-extinguish"before we can colonise Mars.

What do you make of Nasa's Mars mission? Let us know in the comments!

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk

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How will Nasa rover look for aliens on Mars? Cameras, helicopter and more revealed - The Sun