Category Archives: Mars Colony

The death of Twitter has dragged on too long. Please, Elon, put us out of our misery  The Guardian

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The death of Twitter has dragged on too long. Please, Elon, put us out of our misery - The Guardian

Musk trial over Tesla pay package looks considers his attention span and his friendships with board members  Los Angeles Times

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Musk trial over Tesla pay package looks considers his attention span and his friendships with board members - Los Angeles Times

Day 6 of experimental results, with different wells for each soil.

The three Apollo samples were affected to different extents, with the Apollo 11 samples being the slowest to grow. Given that the chemical and mineralogical composition of the three Apollo soils were fairly similar to each other, and to the terrestrial sample, the researchers suspected that nutrients werent the only force at play.

The terrestrial soil, called JSC-1A, was not a regular soil. It was a mixture of minerals prepared specifically to simulate the lunar surface, and contained no organic matter.

The starting material was basalt, just as in lunar regolith. The terrestrial version also contained natural volcanic glass as an analogue for the glassy agglutinates small mineral fragments mixed with melted glass that are abundant in lunar regolith.

The scientists recognised the agglutinates as one of the potential reasons for lack of growth by the seedlings in the Apollo soil compared to the terrestrial soil, and also for the difference in growth patterns between the three lunar samples.

Agglutinates are a common feature of the lunar surface. Ironically, they are formed by a process referred to as lunar gardening. This is the way that the regolith changes, through bombardment of the Moons surface by cosmic radiation, solar wind and minuscule meteorites, also known as space weathering.

Because there is no atmosphere to slow down the tiny meteorites hitting the surface, they impact at high velocity, causing melting and then quenching (rapid cooling) at the impact site.

Gradually, small aggregates of minerals build up, held together by glass. They also contain tiny particles of iron metal (nanophase iron) formed by the space weathering process.

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What happens if you grow plants on the Moon? New study shows how they react - Interesting Engineering

Visualized: The Best Universities in America

The United States is home to many world-class universities like Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, which boast innovative research programs, famous alumni, prestigious awards, and students and faculty from all over the world.

But which schools are actually the best ones in America?

This ranking uses data from U.S. News & World Report to rank Americas 50 best universities from the Ivy League to public institutions. Additionally, this visual shows the average tuition and acceptance rate of each school.

Heres a look at how different categories are scored in the ranking. It is worth noting that U.S. News relies on each universitys independent reporting of data and information and does not standardize or corroborate the reported information themselves.

How categories are weighted:

Ivy League universities are often assumed to be the top schools in America, but in reality, only four of the eight make the top 10.

Heres a closer look:

One of the Ivies, Columbia University, actually dropped 16 spots from last years ranking due to a scandal involving misreported statistics by the university, which was exposed by one of its own professors. There have been critiques of the U.S. News & World Report ranking since, as it doesnt provide a uniform set of standards for the universities, but lets them determine how they score their categories themselves.

Among the top 10 schools admittance is very competitive, and none of the acceptance rates surpass the 7% mark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, and Caltech are among the most difficult universities to get into, with only 4% of applicants receiving that exciting acceptance letter. On the flip side, the universities of Illinois and Wisconsin, for example, accept 60% of all applicants.

A few more things to knowthere are eight private schools in the U.S. that have earned the distinction of Ivy League, due to their history and prestige. A number of schools are also classified as land-grant universitiesbuilt on land which was essentially given to them by the U.S. government. This was in an effort to provide higher education to lacking communities across the country, and there is at least one in every state.

These are the U.S. eight Ivy League Institutions:

Beyond these prestigious academies, there are many high caliber institutions likeThe Ohio State University and theUniversity of Wisconsinboth of which are land-grant universities.

Among the top 50, there are another four land-grant universities:

There is ripe controversy, however, surrounding land-grant universities, as, in many cases, the U.S. government funded these institutions through expropriated indigenous land.

U.S. college tuition is famous for being unaffordable. Combining all the federal and private loans in the country, the total student debt comes out to $1.75 trillion and the average borrower owes $28,950.

Heres a look at how tuition breaks down on average:

The most expensive school in America is Columbia University, with the cost of admission coming out to a whopping$65,524,with some estimates showing even higher rates for the 2022/2023 academic year. The least expensive among the top 50 is the University of Florida at $6,380 for in-state tuitionmore than 10x cheaper than Columbia.

But many Americans may soon see their college loans forgiven. The Biden administrations initiative to cancel student debt will roll out any day now and will be available on federal loans for select qualifying individuals. It has the potential to provide 40 million people with as much as $20,000 in debt forgiveness.

And given that American universities make up eight of the 10 best universities in the world,perhaps the price tag will be worth it.

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Visualized: The Best Universities in America - Visual Capitalist

Is it weird to say I absolutely loved the tutorial for early access colony survival game Stranded: Alien Dawn (opens in new tab)? As in, I enjoyed the tutorial so much I might actually play it again from start to finish before starting a proper game? No joke. It's that good.

In Stranded, you're managing a small group of colonists who have crash-landed on an alien planet. Each has a collection of skills and personality traits, and your job is to guide them from scavenging basic supplies to researching new technology to building a base and defending it from giant alien bugs. And of course, you'll need to make sure they all get along with each other and manage their mental health along with their physical health. Think RimWorld, but in a game that looks more like Rust.

The tutorial is excellent (and honestly I think a great move would be to release it as a free demo so everyone can try it), walking you through the first steps of setting up a shelter, basic gathering and storage, and building the first few workbenches. Once you've completed a few starter tasks it skips ahead in the colonist's lives, teaching you how to manage them in combat and keep them happy and healthy, and gives you a look at overseeing a more technologically advanced base with electronics and automated defenses.

The tutorial took me about 90 minutes to finish, and along the way I got a good look at just how deep the management system is. You can set daily schedules for each colonist, give each of their tasks numbered priorities, or even dictate specifically what they do hour by hour, including breaks for rest and entertainment. It's like Asana: The Videogame. You can also "draft" them, which gives you complete control over what they're doing, especially helpful in combat against alien bugs or if there's a specific task you want done immediately.

And it's not just the human colonists you can micromanage. As they collect or generate resources and food, you can even dictate which items can be placed on which shelves in their storage cabinets. If you don't trust these dummies not to store raw ingredients and cooked meals out in the open, you can specifically tell them what goes in the fridge and what sits on the shelf, and tell them specifically what they can eat and what's forbidden. It's a micromanager's dream come true.

You don't really need to monitor and rule over absolutely everything they docolonists have their own priorities they'll followbut the point is, you can. I don't imagine I'll keep quite as close an eye on them as the game allows, but it's nice to know the option is there. I've played plenty of management games where one of my citizens kept wandering off and doing something stupid, and I like that in Stranded I'll be able to forbid that behavior. Along with skills for activities like farming, construction, and crafting, colonists may also have interest levels for different tasks, meaning a task may be something they enjoy doing rather than something they simply suffer through.

The tutorial also skips ahead from the survivors living in a crude shelter to building a proper home with a foundation, walls, separate rooms, and all the business that goes along with modern living: electricity from turbines and solar panels, lighting and comfort, air conditioning and temperature control, and even a battery level sensor that tells a diesel generator to kick on when batteries run dry to avoid power loss. Naturally base defenses like auto-turrets and motion sensors also run off the power grid, and setting up different circuits for each system on the grid gives you complete control over your base's power.

Stranded: Alien Dawn just launched into Early Access on Steam. It's developed by Haemimont Games, maker of the Tropico series and Surviving Mars, a pretty great pedigree for management. I'm planning to spend my weekend playingonce I've gone through the tutorial again, just for fun.

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Build and defend a base on an alien world in this surprisingly deep survival sim - PC Gamer

THE on-off romance between Elon Musk and Grimes has had some bizarre twists and turns - including a secret surrogate baby and twins born to another woman at the same time.

Now a BBC documentary has revealed the Tesla boss thinks she is a figment of his own imagination - and she agrees.

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In The Elon Musk Show, which continues on BBC2 on Wednesday, Vanity Fair journalist Devin Gordon says the Canadian singer revealed the wacky theory in a recent interview.

She told me repeatedly that Musk has this theory of her that shes not real, that shes a simulation who was created by him and exists in his cerebral cortex as sort of the perfect companion to him, he says.

Which sounds a little crazy and maybe even a little creepy, except, she agrees with it. She said she does feel like this simulation which was perfectly created for him.

The three-part documentary, which began this week, interviews former colleagues and family members, including mum Maye - who spills the beans on his "violent" childhood.

First wife Justine reveals she found out her husband was divorcing her through a message left with their marriage counsellor.

And Brit star Talulah Riley - who wed the billionaire twice - reveals intimate details of their relationship, including how he chatted her up by inviting her to a watch rocket videos, as well as revealing the softer side of the hardworking CEO.

He has a real innocence to him. What I mean by that is he feels with incredible purity the emotion hes feeling at the time, whatever that emotion is, she says.

He feels things incredibly deeply. Ive heard it said that hes cold and emotionless. That could not be further from the truth. Hes the most emotional person I know.

Talulah, then 22, met Musk in Londons Whisky Mist in 2008, just weeks after he split from first wife Justine Wilson.

After a whirlwind romance of just 10 days, he told her: I don't want you to go home. I want to marry you and she moved into his LA apartment, becoming an instant stepmum to his five small children.

At the time, the businessman was on the verge of bankruptcy, having ploughed millions into Tesla - which was struggling to produce a mass-produced electric car - and the rocket company SpaceX.

Court documents revealed he was using emergency loans from friends to pay for divorce costs and living expenses.

He was working 20 hours days and suffering night terrors and, in episode two of the documentary, Talulah reveals her fears for his health.

It was really awfulHe was under incredible stress, she says. I was worried he was going to have a heart attack. I just kept thinking god Ive just got to keep this guy alive.

She also reveals a touching story that reveals the more romantic side of the workaholic tech geek.

It was one of the bad Christmases. Hed forgotten to get me a Christmas present, she says. We were in Boulder, Colorado, so theres loads and loads of snow.

We were in bed and he said, Its not that I dont love you, I really really love you, its just that my brain is exploding.

He got up in the middle of the night and disappeared. He came back two hours later. Hed gone outside in his T-shirt and shorts, barefoot, and hed dug in the snow and picked flowers.

Hed gone all over Boulder, and he came back with this little bouquet of picked flowers and said I just wanted to show you how much I love you.

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Talulah says he was supportive of her career and, when she had to return to the UK, to film St Trinians 2, he sent a truckload of flowers to the set as well as finding the names of every female on the set, and treating them to flowers, chocolates and champagne.

I remember at the premier [of St Trinians] he came along and he was holding my umbrella for me while I was doing signings, and no one knew who Elon was, she recalls.

He was very sweet and lovely and very supportive.

The pair wed in 2010, in Scotlands Dornoch Cathedral, and says Musk was happy to wed in the UK.

I said is there anything you want at the wedding and he said, yes I want a hovercraft and eels. So we had a hovercraft and eels, she says.

We went to Paris for our honeymoon for a couple of days - he took some meetings while we were there - but it was really nice.

The couple divorced two years later before remarrying, in 2013. A year later, Musk filed for divorce again, before withdrawing the petition. The pair finally split in 2016.

In the documentary, Talulah explains the reason for the marriage split, reunion and final split.

I found LA really tough from the moment I landed there, she says. It was an incredible culture shock. I just wanted to come home and I kept trying to come home but also I do really love Elon as well so it took quite a few years of us figuring that out.

The pair remain close and she says, although she didnt understand his vision, she believes he may one day achieve his ultimate dream - to build a human colony on Mars.

He could kind of see the way the world was going in a way I just did not understand, and I love having that perspective and Im grateful for every part of that.

I hope he gets humanity to Mars because I think that is his reason for being more than any of it.

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After a brief relationship with Amber Heard, Elon Musk first met Grimes in early 2018 through Twitter - and bonded over a hi-tech gag.

They both made a similar nerdy joke about a scary AI theory of the future called Rokos Basilisk, which I dont really even get, says Devin. And her interests are all the same as his and her music is very technologically oriented.

On the rebound from a brief romance with Amber Heard, Musk fell for the Canadian singer, who is 17 years younger.

In May 2020, they welcomed their first son but instantly caused controversy with the choice of name - X A-12 - and were forced to change it to X AE A-XII by Californian authorities because it contained symbols not included in the alphabet.

A year later, Musk said the pair had semi-separated but still love each other, see each other frequently, and are on great terms.

Despite living apart, the couple used a surrogate to give birth to their baby daughter, Exa Dark Siderael - also known as Y - who was born in December.

They kept her birth a secret, only admitting she existed when a journalist heard a baby crying upstairs at their home in March.

When pressed, she admitted she had a daughter and explained that serious complications in her first pregnancy meant they didnt want to risk a second.

Court documents recently unveiled by Insider also revealed he has twins with colleague Shivon Zilis, who were born a month before Y.

Explaining their on-off relationship, Grimes added: Theres no real word for it.

I would probably refer to him as my boyfriend, but were very fluid. We live in separate houses. Were best friends. We see each other all the time. We just have our own thing going on, and I dont expect other people to understand it.

Episode 2 of The Elon Musk Show airs on BBC2 on Wednesday

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Elon Musk and ex-lover Grimes believed she was an IMAGINARY character created to be his perfect g... - The US Sun

Proposed human Mars program by SpaceX

Mars has been a central theme of SpaceX and its Starship rocket, a fully reusable and super heavy-lift launch vehicle. The company was founded by Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs, enabling the colonization of Mars. As an American spacecraft manufacturer, space launch provider, and a satellite communications corporation, the company has achieved numerous important milestones, paving the way for the first human mission to Mars. Therefore, unlike many other proposals, SpaceX's Mars program is generally considered more feasible and taken more seriously by the space industry.

In 2001, Musk was on the Mars Society's board of directors and first presented his goal of enabling Mars colonization. In the 2000s and early 2010s, SpaceX made many vehicle concepts for delivering payloads and crews to Mars, such as space tugs, heavy-lift launch vehicles, Red Dragon capsules. The Mars plan was first formally proposed in 2016 International Astronautical Congress alongside a fully-reusable launch vehicle, the Interplanetary Transport System. Since then, in the late 2010s, the launch vehicle proposal was refined and renamed to Starship, and in 2020s is actively developed. Though many dates for the first human landing on Mars have been stated, as of March2022[update] Musk stated 2029, the timeline is considered tentative and aspirational.

The basic tenet of SpaceX's Mars program is to reduce the cost of going to Mars, leading to the formation of large Martian settlements. By forming such settlements, it is claimed that this will ensure the long-term survival of the human species. Early missions to Mars will probably feature a small fleet of Starship spacecraft and funded by publicprivate partnerships. Once infrastructure was established and launch cost is reduced further, more people are expected to go to Mars to establish the first Martian colonies. The return from Mars to Earth will also be available. The plan has been criticized for not being thorough and impractical, as it solely focuses on the transportation aspect of colonizing Mars.

Before founding SpaceX in 2001, a year earlier, Musk joined the Mars Society's board of director for a short time. There, together with Jim Cantrell, they failed to scout for a low-cost rocket in Russia, leading to the formation of the company.[1]:3031

SpaceX is privately funding the development of orbital launch systems that can be reused many times, in a manner similar to the reusability of aircraft. SpaceX has been developing the technologies over several years to facilitate full and rapid reusability of space launch vehicles. The project's long-term objectives include returning a launch vehicle first stage to the launch site in minutes and to return a second stage to the launch pad following orbital realignment with the launch site and atmospheric reentry in up to 24 hours. SpaceX's long term goal is that both stages of their orbital launch vehicle will be designed to allow reuse a few hours after return.[2]

The program was publicly announced in 2011. SpaceX first achieved a successful landing and recovery of a first stage in December 2015. The first re-flight of a landed first stage occurred in March 2017[3] with the second occurring in June 2017, that one only five months after the maiden flight of the booster.[4] The third attempt occurred in October 2017 with the SES-11/EchoStar-105 mission. Reflights of refurbished first stages then became routine. In May 2021, B1051 became the first booster to power ten missions.[5]

The reusable launch system technology was developed and initially used for the first stage of Falcon 9.[6] After stage separation, the booster flips around, an optional boostback burn is done to reverse its course, a reentry burn, controlling direction to arrive at the landing site and a landing burn to effect the final low-altitude deceleration and touchdown.

SpaceX intended (from at least 2014) to develop technology to extend reusable flight hardware to second stages, a more challenging engineering problem because the vehicle is travelling at orbital velocity.[7][6][8]Second stage reuse is considered paramount to Elon Musk's plans to enable the settlement of Mars. Initial concepts to make the second stage of Falcon 9 reusable have been abandoned.[9]

As early as 2007, Elon Musk stated a personal goal of eventually enabling human exploration and settlement of Mars,[11] although his personal public interest in Mars goes back at least to 2001 at the Mars Society.[1]:3031 SpaceX has stated its goal is to colonize Mars to ensure the long-term survival of the human species.[12]

Starship's reusability is expected to reduce launch costs, expanding space access to more payloads and entities.[13] According to Robert Zubrin, aerospace engineer and advocate for human exploration of Mars, Starship's lower launch cost would make space-based economy, colonization, and mining practical.[14]:25,26 Lower cost to space may potentially make space research profitable, allowing major advancements in medicine, computers, material science, and more.[14]:47,48 Musk has stated that a Starship orbital launch will cost less than $2million. Pierre Lionnet, director of research at Eurospace, claimed otherwise, citing the rocket's multi-billion-dollar development cost and its current lack of external demand.[15]

Starship is designed to be a fully reusable and orbital rocket, aiming to drastically reduce launch costs and maintenance between flights.[16]:2 The rocket will consist of a Super Heavy first stage or a booster and a Starship second stage or spacecraft,[17] powered by Raptor and Raptor Vacuum engines.[18] Both the rocket stages' body are made from stainless steel, giving Starship its shine and strength for atmospheric entry.[19]

Methane was chosen for the Raptor engines because it is cheaper, do not build up of soot,[20] and can be produced on Mars via the Sabatier reaction.[21] The engine family uses a new alloy for the main combustion chamber, allowing it to contain 300bar (4,400psi) of pressure, the highest of all current engines.[20] In the future, it may be mass-produced[20] and cost about $230,000 per engine or $100 per kilonewton.[22]

Starship is the launch vehicle's second stage and will serve as a long-duration spacecraft on some missions.[23] The spacecraft is 50m (160ft) tall[24] and has a dry mass of less than 100t (220,000lb).[25] Starship's payload volume is about 1,000m3 (35,000cuft),[26] larger than the International Space Station's pressurized volume by 80m3 (2,800cuft),[27] and can be even bigger with an extended 22m (72ft)-tall volume.[28]:2 By refueling the Starship spacecraft in orbit using tanker spacecraft, Starship will be able to transport larger payloads and more astronauts to other Earth orbits, the Moon, and Mars.[28]:5

SpaceX plans to build a crewed base on Mars for an extended surface presence, which it hopes will grow into a self-sufficient colony.[29][30] A successful colonization would ultimately involve many more economic actors than SpaceX, which to facilitate the growth of the human presence on Mars over many decades.[31][32][33] Musk has made many tentative predictions about Starship's first Mars landing,[34] the most recent one in March 2022 being 2029.[35]

As envisioned in 2016, the first crewed Mars missions might be expected to have approximately 12 people, with the primary goal to "build out and troubleshoot the propellant plant and Mars Base Alpha power system" as well as a "rudimentary base." In the event of an emergency, the spaceship would be able to return to Earth without having to wait a full 26 months for the next synodic period.[36]

On Mars, to fuel return missions, resources on the planet such as subsurface water and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will be used. The Sabatier reaction then may be used to create liquid methane and liquid oxygen, Starship's propellant, in a power-to-gas plant.[37] On Earth, similar technologies can be used to create carbon-neutral propellant for the rocket.[38]

The Mars program's ambition is to eventually be able to send a million people to Mars, using a thousand Starships sent during a Mars launch window.[39] The notional journeys outlined in the November 2016 talk would require 80 to 150 days of transit time,[40] with an average trip time to Mars of approximately 115 days (for the nine synodic periods occurring between 2020 and 2037).[41] In 2012, Musk stated an aspirational price goal for such a trip might be on the order of US$500,000 per person,[42] but in 2016 he mentioned that he believed long-term costs might become as low as US$200,000.[40]

In November 2005,[43] before SpaceX launched the Falcon 1, its first rocket,[44] CEO Elon Musk first referenced a long-term and high-capacity rocket concept named BFR. The BFR would be able to launch 100t (220,000lb) to low Earth orbit and equipped with Merlin 2 engines. The Merlin 2 is in direct lineage to the Merlin engines used in the Falcon 9 and comparable to the F-1 engines used in the Saturn V.[43]

In July 2010,[45] after the final launch of Falcon 1 a year prior,[46] SpaceX presented launch vehicle and Mars space tug concepts at a conference. The launch vehicle concepts were called Falcon X, Falcon X Heavy, and Falcon XX; the largest of all is the Falcon XX with a 140t (310,000lb) capacity to low Earth orbit. To deliver such payload, the rocket was going to be as tall as the Saturn V and use six powerful Merlin 2 engines.[45] Around 2012,[47] the company first mentioned the Mars Colonial Transporter rocket concept in public. It was going to be able to carry 100 people or 100t (220,000lb) of cargo to Mars and powered by methane-fueled Raptor engines.[48]

The SpaceX Red Dragon was a 20112017 concept for using an uncrewed modified SpaceX Dragon 2 for low-cost Mars lander missions to be launched using Falcon Heavy rockets.

The primary objective of the initial Red Dragon mission was to test techniques and technology to enter the Martian atmosphere with equipment that a human crew could conceivably use.[49][50] The series of Mars missions were to be technology pathfinders for the much larger SpaceX Mars colonization architecture that was announced in September 2016.[51] An additional suggested use for a mission called for a sample return Mars rover to be delivered to the Martian surface.

On 26 September 2016, a day before the 67th International Astronautical Congress, the Raptor engine fired for the first time.[53] At the event, Musk announced SpaceX was developing a new rocket using Raptor engines called the Interplanetary Transport System. It would have two stages, a reusable booster and spacecraft. The stages' tanks were to be made from carbon composite, storing liquid methane and liquid oxygen. Despite the rocket's 300t (660,000lb) launch capacity to low Earth orbit, it was expected to have a low launch price. The spacecraft featured three variants: crew, cargo, and tanker; the tanker variant is used to transfer propellant to spacecraft in orbit.[54] The concept, especially the technological feats required to make such a system possible and the funds needed, garnered a large amount of skepticism.[55]

In September 2017, at the 68th Annual International Astronautical Congress, Musk announced the BFR (Big Falcon Rocket),[56] a revision to the Interplanetary Transport System's design. The rocket was still going to be reusable, but its launch capacity to low Earth orbit was reduced to 150t (330,000lb), and its body was smaller. Unlike its conceptual predecessor, the potential applications for the BFR were more varied. Variants of the BFR would be able to send satellites to orbit, resupply the International Space Station, land on the Moon, travel between spaceports on Earth, and ferry crew to Mars.[57] In April 2018, the Mayor of Los Angeles confirmed plan for a BFR rocket production facility at the Port of Los Angeles,[58] but it was cancelled around May 2020.[59]

A year later in September 2018, Musk updated about the spacecraft's new two forward flaps at the top and three larger aft flaps at the bottom. Both set of flaps help control the spacecraft's descent, and the aft flaps are used as landing legs for the final touchdown.[60] Two months later in November 2018, the rocket booster was first termed Super Heavy and the spacecraft was termed Starship.[61]

Starship's development is iterative and incremental, marked by tests on rocket prototypes.[62][63] The first prototype to fly using a Raptor engine was called Starhopper.[64] The vehicle had three non-retractable legs and was shorter than the final spacecraft design.[65] The craft performed two tethered hops in early April 2019 and three months later, it hopped without a tether to around 25m (80ft).[66] In August 2019, the vehicle hopped to 150m (500ft) and traveled to a landing pad nearby.[67]

Mk1 was destroyed November 2019 during a pressure stress test and Mk2 did not fly because the Florida facility was deconstructed throughout 2020.[68][69] SpaceX began naming its new Starship upper-stage prototypes with the prefix "SN", short for "serial number".[70] No prototypes between SN1 and SN4 flew; SN1 and SN3 collapsed during pressure stress tests and SN4 exploded after its fifth engine firing.[71] Starship SN5 was built with no flaps or nose cone, giving it a cylindrical shape. The test vehicle consisted of one Raptor engine, propellant tanks, and a mass simulator. On 5 August 2020, SN5 performed a 150m (500ft)-high flight, successfully landing on a nearby pad.[72] On 3 September 2020, the similar-looking Starship SN6 successfully repeated the hop.[73]

SN8 was the first complete Starship prototype and underwent four static fire tests between October and November 2020.[74] On 9 December 2020, SN8 flew, slowly turning off its three engines one by one, and reaching to an altitude of 12.5km (7.8mi). The craft then performed the belly-flop maneuver and dove back through the atmosphere. As it tried to land, an issue with fuel tank pressure caused the prototype to lose thrust and impact the pad.[75] On 2 February 2021, Starship SN9 launched to 10km (6.2mi) and crashed on landing, similar to SN8.[76]

A month later, on 3 March 2021, Starship SN10 launched on the same flight path and landed hard, crushing its landing legs[77] and exploded, probably due to a propellant tank rupture.[77] Starship SN11, on 30 March 2021, flew into thick fog along the same flight path. During descent, the vehicle exploded, scattering debris up to 8km (5mi) away.[78] Starship prototypes SN12, SN13, and SN14 were scrapped before completion, and Starship SN15 was selected to fly instead.[79] The prototype features general improvement on its avionics, structure, and engines, incorporating prior prototype's failures.[80] On 5 May 2021, SN15 launched, completed the same maneuvers as older prototypes, and landed softly[79] after six minutes.[81]

In July 2021, Super Heavy BN3 conducted its first full-duration static firing, lighting three engines.[82] A month later, using cranes, Starship SN20 was stacked atop Super Heavy BN4 for the first time. SN20 was the first to include a body-tall heat shield, made of hexagonal heat tiles.[83] In October 2021, the catching mechanical arms were installed onto the integration tower, and the first tank farm's construction was completed.[84]

SpaceX aims to perform the first Starship orbital test flight in 2022.[85] During the test flight, the rocket is planned to launch from Starbase, after which the Super Heavy booster will separate and perform a soft water landing around 30km (20mi) from the Texas shoreline. The spacecraft will continue flying with its ground track passing through the Straits of Florida and then softly land in the Pacific Ocean around 100km (60mi) northwest of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands. The spaceflight will last ninety minutes.[86]:24

SpaceX has not detailed plans for the spacecraft's life-support systems, radiation protection, and in situ resource utilization, technologies which are essential for space colonization.[87]

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SpaceX Mars program - Wikipedia

Proposed concepts

The idea of sending humans to Mars has been the subject of aerospace engineering and scientific studies since the late 1940s as part of the broader exploration of Mars. Some have also considered exploring the Martian moons of Phobos and Deimos.[1] Long-term proposals have included sending settlers and terraforming the planet. Proposals for human missions to Mars came from e.g. NASA, Russia, Boeing, and SpaceX. As of 2022, only robotic landers and rovers have been on Mars. The farthest humans have been beyond Earth is the Moon.

Conceptual proposals for missions that would involve human explorers started in the early 1950s, with planned missions typically being stated as taking place between 10 and 30 years from the time they are drafted.[2] The list of crewed Mars mission plans shows the various mission proposals that have been put forth by multiple organizations and space agencies in this field of space exploration. The plans for these crews have varied, from scientific expeditions, in which a small group (between two and eight astronauts) would visit Mars for a period of a few weeks or more, to a continuous presence (e.g. through research stations, colonization, or other continuous habitation).[citation needed] By 2020, virtual visits to Mars, using haptic technologies, had also been proposed.[3]

Meanwhile, the unmanned exploration of Mars has been a goal of national space programs for decades, and was first achieved in 1965 with the Mariner 4 flyby. Human missions to Mars have been part of science fiction since the 1880s, and more broadly, in fiction, Mars is a frequent target of exploration and settlement in books, graphic novels, and films. The concept of a Martian as something living on Mars is part of the fiction.

The energy needed for transfer between planetary orbits, or delta-v, is lowest at intervals fixed by the synodic period. For EarthMars trips, the period is every 26 months (2 years, 2 months), so missions are typically planned to coincide with one of these launch periods. Due to the eccentricity of Mars's orbit, the energy needed in the low-energy periods varies on roughly a 15-year cycle[4] with the easiest periods needing only half the energy of the peaks.[5] In the 20th century, a minimum existed in the 1969 and 1971 launch periods and another low in 1986 and 1988, then the cycle repeated.[4] The next low-energy launch period occurs in 2033.[6]

Several types of mission plans have been proposed, including opposition class and conjunction class,[5] or the Crocco flyby.[7] The lowest energy transfer to Mars is a Hohmann transfer orbit, which would involve a roughly 9-month travel time from Earth to Mars, about 500 days (16mo) at Mars to wait for the transfer window to Earth, and a travel time of about 9 months to return to Earth.[8][9] This would be a 34-month trip.

Shorter Mars mission plans have round-trip flight times of 400 to 450 days,[10] or under 15 months, but would require significantly higher energy. A fast Mars mission of 245 days (8.0 months) round trip could be possible with on-orbit staging.[11] In 2014, ballistic capture was proposed, which may reduce fuel cost and provide more flexible launch windows compared to the Hohmann.[12]

In the Crocco grand tour, a crewed spacecraft would get a flyby of Mars and Venus in under a year in space.[13] Some flyby mission architectures can also be extended to include a style of Mars landing with a flyby excursion lander spacecraft.[14] Proposed by R. Titus in 1966, it involved a short-stay lander-ascent vehicle that would separate from a "parent" Earth-Mars transfer craft prior to its flyby of Mars. The Ascent-Descent lander would arrive sooner and either go into orbit around Mars or land, and, depending on the design, offer perhaps 1030 days before it needed to launch itself back to the main transfer vehicle.[14] (See also Mars flyby.)

In the 1980s, it was suggested that aerobraking at Mars could reduce the mass required for a human Mars mission lifting off from Earth by as much as half.[15] As a result, Mars missions have designed interplanetary spacecraft and landers capable of aerobraking.[15]

A number of unmanned spacecraft have landed on the surface of Mars, while some, such as the Schiaparelli EDM (2016), have failed what is considered a difficult landing. The Beagle2 failed in 2003. Among the successes:

When an expedition reaches Mars, braking is required to enter orbit. Two options are available - rockets or aerocapture. Aerocapture at Mars for human missions was studied in the 20th century.[16] In a review of 93 Mars studies, 24 used aerocapture for Mars or Earth return.[16] One of the considerations for using aerocapture on crewed missions is a limit on the maximum force experienced by the astronauts. The current scientific consensus is that 5 g, or five times Earth gravity, is the maximum allowable deceleration.[16]

Conducting a safe landing requires knowledge of the properties of the atmosphere, first observed by Mariner 4, and a survey of the planet to identify suitable landing sites. Major global surveys were conducted by Mariner 9 and Viking 1 and two orbiters, which supported the Viking landers. Later orbiters, such as Mars Global Surveyor, 2001 Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, have mapped Mars in higher resolution with improved instruments. These later surveys have identified the probable locations of water, a critical resource.[17]

The largest limiting factor for sending humans to Mars is funding. In 2010, the estimated cost was roughly US$500 billion, though the actual costs are likely to be more.[18] Starting in the late 1950s, the early phase of space exploration was conducted as much to make a political statement as to make observations of the solar system. However, this proved to be both wasteful and unsustainable, and the current climate is one of international cooperation, with large projects such as the International Space Station and the proposed Lunar Gateway being built and launched by multiple countries.[citation needed]

Critics argue that the immediate benefits of establishing a human presence on Mars are outweighed by the immense cost, and that funds could be better redirected towards other programs, such as robotic exploration. Proponents of human space exploration contend that the symbolism of establishing a presence in space may garner public interest to join the cause and spark global cooperation. There are also claims that a long-term investment in space travel is necessary for humanity's survival.[18]

One factor reducing the funding needed to place a human presence on Mars may be space tourism. As the space tourism market grows and technological developments are made, the cost of sending humans to other planets will likely decrease accordingly. A similar concept can be examined in the history of personal computers; when computers were used only for scientific research, with minor use in big industry, they were big, rare, heavy, and costly. When the potential market increased and they started to become common in many homes (in Western and developed countries) for the purpose of entertainment such as computer games, and booking travel/leisure tickets, the computing power of home devices skyrocketed and prices plummeted.[19]

Several key physical challenges exist for human missions to Mars:[23]

Some of these issues were estimated statistically in the HUMEX study.[36]Ehlmann and others have reviewed political and economic concerns, as well as technological and biological feasibility aspects.[37] While fuel for roundtrip travel could be a challenge, methane and oxygen can be produced using Martian H2O (preferably as water ice instead of liquid water) and atmospheric CO2 with mature technology.[38]

Robotic spacecraft to Mars are currently required to be sterilized. The allowable limit is 300,000 spores on the exterior of general craft, with stricter requirements forspacecraft bound for "special regions" containing water.[39][40] Otherwise there is a risk of contaminating not only the life-detection experiments but possibly the planet itself.[41]

Sterilizing human missions to this level is impossible, as humans are host to typically a hundred trillion (1014) microorganisms of thousands of species of the human microbiota, and these cannot be removed. Containment seems the only option, but it is a major challenge in the event of a hard landing (i.e. crash).[42] There have been several planetary workshops on this issue, but with no final guidelines for a way forward yet.[43] Human explorers would also be vulnerable to back contamination to Earth if they become carriers of microorganisms.[44]

Over the past seven decades, a wide variety of mission architectures have been proposed or studied for human spaceflights to Mars. These have included chemical, nuclear, and electric propulsion, as well as a wide variety of landing, living, and return methodologies.

A number of nations and organizations have long-term intentions to send humans to Mars.

Significant technological hurdles need to be overcome for human spaceflight to Mars.

Entry into the thin and shallow Martian atmosphere will pose significant difficulties with re-entry; compared to Earth with much denser atmosphere, any spacecraft will descend very rapidly to the surface and must be slowed down.[53] A heat shield has to be utilized.[54] NASA is carrying out research on retropropulsive deceleration technologies to develop new approaches to Mars atmospheric entry. A key problem with propulsive techniques is handling the fluid flow problems and attitude control of the descent vehicle during the supersonic retropropulsion phase of the entry and deceleration.[55]

A return mission to Mars will need to land a rocket to carry crew off the surface. Launch requirements mean that this rocket would be significantly smaller than an Earth-to-orbit rocket. Mars-to-orbit launch can also be achieved in single stage. Despite this, landing an ascent rocket on Mars will be difficult. Re-entry for a large rocket will be difficult.[citation needed]

In 2014, NASA proposed the Mars Ecopoiesis Test Bed.[56]

One of the medical supplies that might be needed is a considerable mass of intravenous fluid, which is mainly water, but contains other substances so it can be added directly to the human blood stream. If it could be created on the spot from existing water, this would reduce mass requirements. A prototype for this capability was tested on the International Space Station in 2010.[57]

A person who is inactive for an extended period of time loses strength and muscle and bone mass. Spaceflight conditions are known to cause loss of bone mineral density in astronauts, increasing bone fracture risk. Last mathematical models predict 33% of astronauts will be at risk for osteoporosis during a human mission to Mars.[30] A resistive exercise device similar to ARED would be needed in the spaceship.

While humans can breathe pure oxygen, usually additional gases such as nitrogen are included in the breathing mix. One possibility is to take in situ nitrogen and argon from the atmosphere of Mars, but they are hard to separate from each other.[58] As a result, a Mars habitat may use 40% argon, 40% nitrogen, and 20% oxygen.[58]

An idea for keeping carbon dioxide out of the breathing air is to use reusable amine-bead carbon dioxide scrubbers.[59] While one carbon dioxide scrubber filters the astronaut's air, the other is vented to the Mars atmosphere.[59]

Some missions may be considered a "Mission to Mars" in their own right, or they may only be one step in a more in-depth program. An example of this is missions to Mars's moons, or flyby missions.

Many Mars mission concepts propose precursor missions to the moons of Mars, for example a sample return mission to the Mars moon Phobos[60] not quite Mars, but perhaps a convenient stepping stone to an eventual Martian surface mission. Lockheed Martin, as part of their "Stepping stones to Mars" project, called the "Red Rocks Project", proposed to explore Mars robotically from Deimos.[62][63]

Use of fuel produced from water resources on Phobos or Deimos has also been proposed.

An uncrewed Mars sample return mission (MSR) has sometimes been considered as a precursor to crewed missions to Mars's surface.[64] In 2008, the ESA called a sample return "essential" and said it could bridge the gap between robotic and human missions to Mars.[64] An example of a Mars sample return mission is Sample Collection for Investigation of Mars.[65] Mars sample return was the highest priority Flagship Mission proposed for NASA by the Planetary Decadal Survey 20132022: The Future of Planetary Science.[66] However, such missions have been hampered by complexity and expense, with one ESA proposal involving no less than five different uncrewed spacecraft.[67]

Sample return plans raise the concern, however remote, that an infectious agent could be brought to Earth.[67] Regardless, a basic set of guidelines for extraterrestrial sample return has been laid out depending on the source of sample (e.g. asteroid, Moon, Mars surface, etc.)[68]

At the dawn of the 21st century, NASA crafted four potential pathways to Mars human missions,[69] of which three included a Mars sample return as a prerequisite to human landing.[69]

Currently, the rover Perseverance is equipped with a device that will allow it to pick up and seal samples of rock from Mars, to be returned at a later date by another mission. Perseverance as part of the Mars 2020 mission was launched on top of an Atlas V rocket on 30 July 2020 at (11:50 UTC).[70] Confirmation that the rover had landed on Mars was received on 18 February 2021 at 20:55 UTC.[71]

Starting in 2004, NASA scientists have proposed to explore Mars via telepresence from human astronauts in orbit.[72][73]

A similar idea was the proposed "Human Exploration using Real-time Robotic Operations" mission.[74][75]

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Human mission to Mars - Wikipedia

Underground microbes could have thrived and flourished in ancient Mars, according to a new study led by France.

There is still no evidence of any intelligent life on Mars and across the Universe. However, French scientists said the Red Planet may once had an environment where it harbored an underground world filled with microscopic organisms.

Regardless, this shows simple life forms could also exist there.

The study implies that there is an irony in existence of the Martian microbes since they could also be responsible for the total alteration of the planet's atmosphere, which triggered a Martian Ice Age and also prevented the formation of life.

The researchers made this notion as a conclusion, yet it also highlights the complexity of life, where the necessary conditions are needed in order for abiogenesis to take place.

Mars has long been fascination of astronomers and space enthusiasts.

Amongst all the planets in our solar system except for Earth, the Martian landscape has the highest amount of attention in the form of astronomical inquiries and potential space missions in the future.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has also expressed Mars to be the next human frontier in space colonization.

(Photo : Photo by NASA/Newsmakers)

In the new paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the research team, which includes Boris Sauterey from Sorbonne University, concluded Mars' crust may have been a conducive environment for microbial life.

The underground world potentially protected the microbes by providing them space and prevented the threats posed by ultraviolet and cosmic radiation.

In addition, the team asserts the environment could have supported the simple microbial organisms which consumed hydrogen and carbon dioxide as energy, as well as produced methane as a waste.

On Earth, the new research said this process is called hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis, which was one of the earliest metabolisms.

Also Read:Finding Life on Mars: Scientists to Remodel Plans to Use Helicopters Instead of Rovers

However, the same process in Mars likely triggered a global cooling event, ending potential early warm conditions and preventing surface habitability.

The planetary and atmospheric relationship in the Red Planet also pushed the biosphere, which was supposedly on the surface, further downward deep into the Martian crust.

Predictions on spatial projections at lowland sites from low to medium latitudes or near the surface as good candidates to unravel traces of the early life on Mars, even if they come in the form of the simple life form.

Ancient Mars with its potentially moist and warm climate would have been damaged by an excessive amount hydrogen amid the carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere.

This is theoretically possible as temperatures possibly by almost minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 200 degrees Celsius), according to Sauterey, as cited by Phys.org.

NASA researchers are more knowledgeable than ever regarding the debate about life on Earth to Mars. This is due to the continuous search for life on Mars by rovers and probes.

If all plan goes well, a new generation of rovers will arrive on Marrs within the next decade.

These future space missions will carry cutting-edge biotechnology with the objective of detecting individual molecules made by Martian organisms, either they are still alive or not, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

Related Article:Life on Mars: A Tiny Lizard Allegedly Photographed

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Underground Microbes May Have Existed in Ancient Mars [Study] - Nature World News

Before SpaceXs Starship has even completed its first orbital flight successfully, Elon Musk is already dreaming of joining its maiden voyage to Mars.

Once his youngest children are more grown up, the visionary CEO can imagine participating in a colonizing mission to the red planet, he told theFinancial Times.

Especially if Im getting old, Ill do it, he said in an interview published on Friday.

Musk cited his young son with the Canadian artist known as Grimes, X A-12, as one reason hes not yet ready to board a spaceship destined for Earths neighbor.

I think theres some nontrivial chance of dying, so Id prefer to take that chance when Im a bit older, and see my kids grow up, he said. Rather than right now, where little X is only 2 and a half. I think hed miss me.

Musk has for years envisioned his life ending on Marsjust not on impact as he put it nearly a decade ago.

Because of difficulties with its next-generation Raptor 2 engine, Starship has yet to complete an orbital flight, although it may only be weeks away after Musk suggested last month November might be a realistic target.

Starship is designed to carry in excess of 100 metric tonnes (220,462 pounds), making it the most powerful launch vehicle yet developed. Only this kind of payload would be sufficient for such long-distance voyages through space.

If his engineering team does meet its aspirational goal of landing the first crewed mission to Marsby 2029, with a likely departure from Earth possibly a year earlier, that could suggest Musk may not be on it.

By that point he would only be 57 years old and his son X not even 10.

Fortunately, even if the Tesla and SpaceX CEO is not on the pioneering mission to Mars, there will be plenty of opportunities to still go.

Musk believes life on a Mars base cannot sustain itself if ships from Earth packed full of vital goods and resources for whatever reason stop coming. This would be tantamount to adeath sentence for the colonists, so more would likely need to arrive at semi-regular intervals.

The window for a launch comes around onlyonce every 26 months, however, when the orbits of the two planets allow for the most favorable flight path.

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Elon Musk dreams of dying on Marsnow he might be one of the pioneering colonists - Fortune