Category Archives: Mars

Theres overwhelming evidence that Mars was once wet and warm. Rivers flowed across its surface and carved intricate channel systems revealed by our orbiters. Expansive oceans even larger than Earths may have covered a third of its surface. Then something happened: Mars lost its atmosphere, cooled down, and surface water disappeared.

But as our observations of Mars become more detailed, its looking like Mars didnt lose its water in one cataclysmic episode. Deepening evidence shows that it lost its water gradually. The planet may have had recurring episodes of surface water that persisted intermittently over a longer period of time. If thats true, it has implications for potential life on Mars.

New research published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters is bolstering the idea that Mars may have taken a long time to lose its water. The research letter is titled New Maximum Constraints on the Era of Martian Valley Network Formation. The author is Alexander Morgan, a research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute who studies geomorphology.

Mars today is a global desert, but its surface preserves extensive evidence of past flowing water, including what appear to be river valleys, Morgan says. The timescale over which these valleys formed has big implications for early Mars habitability, as long eras with stable liquid water would be more conducive to life, he said.

The extensive evidence of ancient rivers on Mars is highlighted by the Perseverance Rover and the area it is exploring. Its called Jezero Crater, and its the site of an ancient impact crater. At some time in the past, the crater was flooded with water, creating a massive sedimentary basin. Orbital images of Jezero show ancient river channels flooding into the gigantic crater.

As Perseverances landing site shows, impact craters and rivers mingle with one another across the Martian surface. That fact is the key to Morgans research. By dating craters near river channels, he placed temporal constraints on when the rivers that created the channels were flowing.

In this study, I used craters that predate and postdate valley systems to place maximum bounds of hundreds of millions of years on the era over which these systems formed, Morgan said. Previous work had only determined minimum timescales, so these new results provide an upper bound on the timescale over which Martian valleys were active. Given what we know about erosion rates on early Mars, longer timescales imply that conditions permitting rivers were highly intermittent, with long arid periods interspersed with brief episodes of fluvial activity.

Mars river valleys formed over three billion years ago. Theyre the strongest evidence that the planet had surface water. Research shows that it takes tens of thousands of years for flowing water to carve a valley into the surface, but nobody has figured out how many different flow events there were and how much total time it took for these valleys to form. Until now.

Our understanding of Mars has grown considerably in recent years and will keep growing. Our understanding of its climate history is undergoing a revolution. Previously, there were two opposing versions of Marss ancient past. One says that it was warm and wet and potentially habitable; the other says it was a frigid planet covered in ice sheets.

But things in Nature are seldom so simple, even if wed like them to be. Growing evidence, including this work, shows that theres more complexity to the story than either warm and wet or cold and dry can encapsulate.

Over the past decade or so, weve come to realize that these descriptors are far too general, and it doesnt really make sense to try to condense hundreds of millions of years of climate history into a two-word description, Morgan said.

As weve studied Earth, weve come to realize that the climate oscillated wildly during its long history. During some periods, the Earth was covered with extensive glaciers several kilometres thick. At other times, the glaciers retreated to their mountain redoubts. Why wouldnt other planets have equally as varied histories?

Like Earth, early Mars was complex, and the conditions permitting surface water likely varied considerably. Earth has undergone massive climatic changes throughout its history for example, 20,000 years ago, the area that is now Chicago was beneath half a mile of ice and surface conditions permitting rivers on early Mars likewise probably waxed and waned.

That waxing and waning means it took a long time for the rivers to erode the landscape and form channels and valleys. One possible explanation is that large boulders in the riverbeds inhibited further erosion. Another is that the rivers flowed infrequently, possibly as little as 0.001 % of the time. If thats the case, it could be because of what we call Milankovitch cycles here on Earth.

Milankovitch cycles are changes in the Earths relative position and orientation to the Sun. Things like axial tilt, orbital eccentricity, and precession create changes in our planets climate. Earths axial tilt varies by about 3.5 degrees every 40,000 years or so. Mars has an even more pronounced axial tilt variation that undergoes substantial changes in hundreds of thousands or millions of years.

Over short timescales, river flow is controlled by rainfall or upstream snow melt. Over longer timescales, Earths rivers are affected by climatic changes, Morgan said. For example, 20,000 years ago, there were large lakes and larger rivers across what is now Nevada. Martian rivers would have operated in a similar way, with short-term variability due to storms or snowmelt, and longer-term variability due to changes in the planets spin and orbit around the Sun.

Or powerful volcanic activity couldve periodically warmed the planet, melting ice sheets and spawning rivers that carved telltale channels into the planets surface. The Tharsis Montes region shows that volcanoes played a role in Mars history. Tharsis Montes is home to three massive shield volcanoes that dwarf Earths volcanoes. Another volcano, Olympus Mons, is just northwest of Tharsis Montes and is the largest volcano in the Solar System.

We dont really know what happened on Mars. Is Mars just a standard example of marginally habitable planets that become uninhabitable? Or is it a striking example of a planet that stubbornly held onto its water through multiple climatic episodes? Did simple life get started on Mars before it was snuffed out, and is that just the way things work? Or is surface water on any planet for any period of time extremely rare?

For now, we dont have any clear answers to those big questions. Planets are big, complicated, long-lived, and dynamic objects. Understanding what happened billions of years ago on a planet is a daunting task.

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Early Mars Climate was Complex, with Streams Flowing Intermittently for Millions of Years - Universe Today

NASA announced on Saturday that it lost communications with Ingenuity, its reconnaissance helicopter that's currently located on the surface of Mars.

The space agency announced Saturday that after Ingenuity executed Flight 72 on January 18, communications between the helicopter and Perseverance, NASA's Mars rover, terminated. The communication severing occurred while Ingenuity was performing its descent, according to the space agency.

Only a day later, NASA posted another update to its NASA JPL X account, writing communications between Perseverance and Ingenuity were re-established after Perseverance was tasked to perform "long-duration listening sessions for Ingenuity's signal". NASA added that teams are currently analyzing data from Flight 72 to determine the cause for the communications dropout and ways to mitigate it from happening again.

Notably, this isn't the first time NASA has lost communication with Ingenuity, as the space agency announced last year it was unable to return to regular flights due to the communications blackout. After analysis, NASA was able to reconnect with Ingenuity and get back to regular flights. At this stage, it's not confirmed if Ingenuity will fly again, but judging by its track record, I would bet NASA will be able to get the small helicopter up and running once again.

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NASA announces its reconnected with helicopter stationed on Mars - TweakTown

The US space agency has regained contact with its tiny helicopter on the planet Mars after an unexpected communication breakdown prompted fears the research craft had been damaged or destroyed.

Nasa's Ingenuity drone arrived on Mars in 2021 aboard the Perseverance rover.

The 0.5-metre tall drone is the first motorised craft to fly autonomously on another planet and has been transmitting data back to Earth via Perseverance.

Contact with Ingenuity cut out suddenly on Thursday during its 72nd flight on Mars.

But Nasa said it had been re-established late on Saturday.

"Good news today," Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

The agency said contact had been made with the helicopter by commanding Perseverance to "perform long-duration listening sessions for Ingenuity's signal".

"The team is reviewing the new data to better understand the unexpected coms dropout during Flight 72," it added.

Ingenuity's Flight 72 was a test mission aimed at checking out the craft's systems after an early unplanned landing during a previous flight.

Nasa said the drone reached an altitude of 12 metres but faced problems on descent.

"Communications between the helicopter and rover terminated early, prior to touchdown," the agency said.

JPL had on Friday noted Perseverance was temporarily "out of line-of-sight with Ingenuity, but the team could consider driving closer for a visual inspection".

In a response to a post on X asking if Ingenuity would be able to fly again, JPL on Saturday said "the team needs to assess the new data before that can be determined".

Nasa has lost contact with the helicopter before, including for two months last year.

Mars is known to be a graveyard for spacecraft, because of the planets powerful dust storms and unstable terrain that can damage rovers and other technology.

Despite the harsh conditions, Ingenuity has proved remarkably durable. It has survived glacially cold Martian nights, kept warm by the solar panels that recharge its batteries during daylight hours.

Ingenuity has far exceeded its original goal of making five successful flights over 30 days, with 72 flights since arriving in 2021.

The mini craft, which weighs only 1.8kg, has covered more than 17km and reached altitudes of up to 24m.

The drone serves as an aerial scout to assist the Perseverance as it searches the Red Planet for possible signs of ancient microbial life or other discoveries.

Updated: January 21, 2024, 10:23 AM

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US regains contact with Ingenuity mini-helicopter on Mars - The National

In the cold, silent expanse of space, two robotic pioneers touched down on Mars in January 2004, heralding a new era in interplanetary exploration. NASAs twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, made their grand entrance to the Red Planet, landing on opposite sides.

Their descent was nothing short of dramatic: each encased in airbags, they bounced on the Martian surface around 30 times before coming to a rest.

Sized akin to golf carts, these rovers embarked on a groundbreaking mission: to seek evidence of water on Mars.

The discoveries they made not only altered our understanding of the Red Planet but also rewrote science textbooks.

Shortly after landing, Opportunity stumbled upon what would become an iconic find the blueberries, small spherical pebbles of hematite formed in acidic water. This was concrete evidence of Mars watery past.

Spirit, showcasing resilience despite a damaged wheel, later unveiled signs of ancient hot springs. These could have been sanctuaries for microbial life billions of years ago, hinting at the possibility of past life on Mars.

Before their arrival, Mars was a mystery. Orbital images had suggested water-carved channels, but concrete evidence was missing.

Our twin rovers were the first to prove a wet, early Mars once existed, noted Matt Golombek, a former project scientist at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The legacy of Spirit and Opportunity paved the way for larger rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance. The data they gathered played a crucial role in the development and approval of the Curiosity rover.

Launched in 2012, Curiositys mission was to investigate Mars ancient chemistry and the possibility of it once being a habitat for life.

Building on Curiositys findings, Perseverance, which landed in 2021, took things further. It began collecting rock cores for the Mars Sample Return campaign, a collaborative effort between NASA and ESA, aimed at seeking signs of ancient microbial life.

The journey of Spirit and Opportunity was also a tale of technological and human evolution. The engineering practices developed during their mission laid the groundwork for future Martian surface exploration.

Specialized software and 3D goggles, for instance, became standard tools for navigating the Martian terrain.

These advancements led to safer, longer drives and more complex daily plans required for operating the newer rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance.

Science team members evolved into adept virtual field geologists, using years of experience to guide their decisions in exploring the Martian landscape with their robotic counterparts.

Designed for a 90-day mission, the rovers far exceeded expectations. Spirit landed on January 3 and Opportunity on January 24, 2004.

They persevered for years, with Opportunity enduring nearly 15 years until it was silenced by a massive dust storm in 2018.

This endurance went beyond what scientists and engineers had hoped for. Opportunity, in particular, made history by covering nearly 30 miles (45 kilometers) on Mars, the farthest distance driven on another planet.

John Callas, a former project manager at JPL, reflected on this achievement: This was a paradigm shift no one was expecting. The distance and time scale we covered were a leap in scope that is truly historic.

The extensive journey of the rovers was crucial in revealing Mars varied watery past, from fresh water bodies to hot springs and acidic pools.

Beyond their scientific achievements, Spirit and Opportunity served as beacons of inspiration. Abigail Fraemans story is a testament to this.

As a high school student, she witnessed the excitement of Opportunitys landing at JPL. This experience propelled her toward a career in Mars geology, eventually leading her to become the deputy project scientist for Curiosity.

The people who kept our twin rovers running for all those years are an extraordinary group, and its remarkable how many have made exploring Mars their career, Fraeman said.

I feel so lucky I get to work with them every day while we continue to venture into places no human has ever seen in our attempt to answer some of the biggest questions.

In summary, the journey of Spirit and Opportunity on Mars stands as a monumental chapter in space exploration.

Their discoveries and the technological advancements they spurred have opened new horizons in our quest to understand the Red Planet.

The legacies of these robotic pioneers continue to inspire new generations of scientists, engineers, and dreamers, all united in the pursuit of unraveling the mysteries of our universe.

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Mars Spirit and Opportunity rovers celebrate 20 years of exploration - Earth.com

The European Space Agencys (ESA) spacecraft, the Mars Express, has located a Martian water reservoir that is almost two miles deep. The reservoir is made up of water ice, which, if melted, could cover the entire planet in a layer of water 1.5 to 2.7 meters deep, the ESA estimates.

This reservoir is the most ice ever found in the equatorial area of Mars, the ESA says, and future studies of the surface of the Red Planet, as well as the area where these reservoirs are, could help provide more insight into Marss history including how the planet came to be so dusty and sandy despite astronomers theorizing that it was once a paradise.

The particular region where the water reservoir was found is known as the Medusae Fossae Formation or MFF. This location is along the Martian equator and consists of several wind-swept features that can measure up to hundreds of kilometers across, the ESA explains in its report.

These features, in fact, are probably the biggest source of dust on the Martian surface, and as such, they have some of the most extensive deposits that researchers have managed to spot so far while studying the Red Planet.

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While initial observations of these deposits left researchers baffled, by studying things further, the astronomers working with the Mars Express team were able to determine that they are likely made of water ice, thus making this one of the largest water reservoirs that weve ever found on Mars.

Further, the discovery of such water also helps to highlight that it is likely that Mars was once covered in oceans and rivers, which scientists have theorized for decades as rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance continue to explore mineral-rich locations on the Martian surface.

Unfortunately, determining just how dense the Martian water ice reservoirs are will have to wait, as the data gleaned from the Mars Express cannot tell us everything we need to know about it. Perhaps a future manned mission to Mars could help us learn more.

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Martian water reservoir changes our perception of the Red Planet - BGR

The NASA-funded Subsurface Water Ice Mapping (SWIM) project released its fourth and most recent map of where on Mars we might find, as you might expect, subsurface water ice. NASA officials say this map will help mission planners decide where on Mars to actually send the first humans to traverse the planet.

Since 2017, SWIM led by the Planetary Science Institute and managed by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory has collated data from multiple NASA Mars missions in order to stitch together a map of how likely it is that a given part of Mars overlays water.

For their latest map, the scientists relied on data from the Context Camera (CTX) and High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HIRISE), both of which are aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. These instruments provide high-resolution imagery of the Martian terrain. For instance, they can identify tiny impact craters that are expected to have blown the Martian surface away to reveal "ice," or so-called polygon terrain, where ice melting and refreezing (and melting and freezing again) with the march of the seasons etches cracks in the ground.

Related: Mars ice deposits could pave the way for human exploration

Knowing where Martian ice can be found is crucial for crewed mission planning, which will involve careful balancing act. Astronauts want to find water ice, for one, which will give them a valuable source of water so they wont have to carry much of it from Earth. That might indicate the best landing zone falls near the Martian poles but planners also dont want to land astronauts where its too chilly. If it's too cold, the crew will need to use extra amounts of valuable energy to keep themselves warm.

"If you send humans to Mars, you want to get them as close to the equator as you can," Sydney Do, SWIMs project manager, said in a statement. An ideal spot, then, would be a patch with as low a latitude as possible that still contains accessible ice. That's where these Martian ice maps come in handy.

And even beyond mission planning, scientists believe they can use maps like SWIMs to better understand why, exactly, Mars looks the way it does.

"The amount of water ice found in locations across the Martian mid-latitudes isnt uniform; some regions seem to have more than others, and no one really knows why," Nathaniel Putzig, SWIMs co-lead at the Planetary Science Institute, said in the statement. "The newest SWIM map could lead to new hypotheses for why these variations happen."

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New map of ice on Mars could help NASA decide where to send future astronauts - Space.com

A new map of subsurface water on Mars just dropped, and it reveals regions on the Red Planet where ice may be buried beneath the surface for future astronauts to use.

The HP Spectre Fold: One Device, Three Modes, All Meh

This week, the NASA-funded Subsurface Water Ice Mapping project (SWIM) released its fourth set of maps, which the space agency is calling the most detailed since the project first began in 2017.

Using data from several NASA missions, including the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), Mars Odyssey, and the Mars Global Surveyor, SWIM identifies the possible locations of subsurface ice on Mars. For the latest SWIM map, scientists relied on two higher resolution cameras on board MRO, which has been orbiting Mars since 2006 in search of water. As a result, the new map has a much more detailed view of subsurface water than previous iterations which relied on lower-resolution imagers, radar, thermal mappers and spectrometers.

Data from MROs Context Camera data was used to further refine the northern hemisphere maps while data from HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) was incorporated for the first time to provide the most detailed perspective of the ices boundary line as close to the equator as possible, according to NASA. HiRISE even captured a 492-foot-wide (150-meter-wide) impact crater with a motherlode of ice that had been hiding beneath the surface, the space agency wrote.

The spacecraft detected what appears to be subsurface frozen water along Mars mid-latitudes. This region on Mars is ideal for the landing of future missions as it is characterized by a thicker atmosphere that makes it easier for spacecraft to slow down during their descent to the Martian surface. The real sweet spot for astronauts to land on Mars would be at the southernmost edge of the northern mid-latitudes region, where its close enough to the buried ice but also not too far from the equator so that astronauts can enjoy slightly warmer weather.

If you send humans to Mars, you want to get them as close to the equator as you can, Sydney Do, SWIM project manager at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement. The less energy you have to expend on keeping astronauts and their supporting equipment warm, the more you have for other things theyll need.

The Martian poles have plenty of ice, but its way too cold over there for astronauts to survive for a long time.

The reason why NASA is more interested in ice found beneath the surface is that any liquid water found on Mars would be unstable. Mars atmosphere is so thin that water would immediately evaporate. Subsurface ice, on the other hand, is kept in a safe spot where astronauts can drill ice cores to extract it.

The buried ice will be a valuable resource for future astronauts on Mars who can use it for drinking water or to make rocket fuel. That, in turn, will allow them to carry a lot less to the surface of the Red Planet.

Scientists are also interested to know where the subsurface ice is located on Mars to help them figure out the planets climate throughout its history. The amount of water ice found in locations across the Martian mid-latitudes isnt uniform; some regions seem to have more than others, and no one really knows why, Nathaniel Putzig, SWIMs other co-lead at the Planetary Science Institute, said in a statement. The newest SWIM map could lead to new hypotheses for why these variations happen.

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Detailed Mars Water Map Shows Where to Land Future Explorers - Gizmodo

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Marss liquid-metal core seems to be smaller than previous studies suggested (artists impression).Credit: Claus Lunau/Science Photo Library

In the interior of Mars, a layer of molten rock envelops the liquid-metal core, which is smaller than previously thought. Scientists discovered the unique layer by analysing the seismic energy that vibrated through the planet after a meteorite impact. The seismic waves speed depends on the types of material that they are travelling through. The molten-rock layer might be left over from a magma ocean that once covered the planet.

Nature | 5 min read

References: Nature paper 1 & paper 2

The prominent open-access science journal eLife has fired its editor-in-chief, Michael Eisen, after he retweeted a satirical article referencing the IsraelHamas war. The board of directors clearly view this as me having done one too many somethings, Eisen says. eLifes board issued a statement indicating that the biologist had been dismissed more broadly because of his approach to leadership, communication and social media. The decision has spurred an exodus of eLife editors, and a protest letter in support of Eisen has so far been signed by more than 2,000 people.

Nature | 6 min read

An artificial intelligence (AI) system mimics the human ability to quickly fold new words into an existing vocabulary and use them in fresh contexts. By being programmed to learn from its mistakes, the neural network outperformed the chatbot ChatGPT at making generalizations about language, scoring as well as and sometimes even better than human volunteers. This suggests that there are ways to reduce the gargantuan amount of necessary training data and make systems more efficient learners, says AI researcher Elia Bruni.

Nature | 5 min read

Reference: Nature paper

Two solar probes launched in 2018 and 2020 are giving scientists the most detailed views ever of the Sun. The two missions sometimes work together to capture events such as one of the largest solar eruptions ever recorded. The amount of details, the amount of complexity and also the violence of the event weve never seen it before and its just impressive, says solar physicist Nour Raouafi. The observations can help space-weather forecasters to better understand solar storms, which can disrupt communications and knock out power grids once they reach Earth.

Nature | 8 min read

Postdocs in some parts of the world are striking to highlight their struggles, such as low pay, job insecurity and worries about career progression. Some funders and employers around the world are taking steps to improve the postdoc experience. Others must follow, argues a Nature editorial, or risk losing the next generation of scientists.

Nature | 5 min read

Gordon Conway (19382023) was passionate about agriculture and sustainability long before they were fashionable topics. By paying close attention to local farming practices, Conway revolutionized rural-development approaches. I remember Gordon and Robert [Chambers, a development scholar] returning from a visit to Wollo in northern Ethiopia in 1988, full of excitement about the lessons they had learnt from farmers, writes researcher Ian Scoones about his former supervisor.

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Philosopher Catarina Dutilh Novaes says that misinformation isnt a new problem and is often entangled with worries about changing information-sharing technologies. (Undark | 6 min read)

Today, Im gazing at 276 feline facial expressions, which cats have probably evolved over the course of their 10,000-year history with us.

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Daily briefing: A unique layer of molten rock envelops Mars's core - Nature.com

A CITY ON MARS: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?, by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

Face it, folks. Earth is finished. Its overheated, overcrowded, overregulated. Its the ultimate fixer-upper, a dump we inherited from our parents that wed be cruel to pass on to our children. Its time to pull up stakes. Its time for Mars.

Or maybe not.

Lighting out for the solar system is an appealing fantasy, but A City on Mars, an exceptional new piece of popular science by the Soonish authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, suggests we shouldnt be so quick to give up on Earth. Forceful, engaging and funny, it is an essential reality check for anyone who has ever looked for home in the night sky.

A City on Mars groups the arguments in favor of immediate colonization into two categories. The first is the high-minded idea that mankind must spread to other planets before civilization crumbles, as Elon Musk told Walter Isaacson. The second is the hot tub argument: Going to space is worth it because its cool.

The authors dismantle the first theory with tact. Self-described science geeks, the Weinersmiths embarked on this book expecting to write a sociological road map to building off-world colonies in the near future. But as they dived into their research, they found that the loudest advocates for space settlement are so dazzled by the beauty of their rockets that they wave away the stuff regular lives are made of, like food and birth, democracy and law. The main problem, the Weinersmiths write, is that Space is terrible. All of it. Terrible, adding:

The Moon isnt just a sort of gray Sahara without air. Its surface is made of jagged, electrically charged microscopic glass and stone, which clings to pressure suits and landing vehicles. Nor is Mars just an off-world Death Valley its soil is laden with toxic chemicals, and its thin carbonic atmosphere whips up worldwide dust storms that blot out the sun for weeks at a time. And those are the good places to land.

The terribleness of space might be worth overlooking, they concede, if civilization really were about to crumble. But it isnt. Life on Earth is hard. It always has been. But mankind has no problems that would be solved by relocating to a place without food, water or air. As the Weinersmiths write, An Earth with climate change and nuclear war and, like, zombies and werewolves is still a way better place than Mars.

And what about the hot tub? The Weinersmiths argue that the current state of space law means an unregulated scramble for the vanishingly few resources of the moon and Mars would make war on Earth more likely. The greater our off-world presence, the easier it would be for a terrorist or disgruntled billionaire to hurl an asteroid at Earth and wipe out the species we are theoretically trying to save.

The more capacity we have to do things in space, they write, the more capacity we have for self-annihilation.

Such grim thoughts are tempered by levity: A City on Mars is hilarious. The breezy prose is studded with charming cartoons that illustrate everything from a two-person zero gravity sex suit to the baffling urination device NASA engineers designed for women astronauts, apparently without consulting any women. There are sections on Getting Strange in the Lagrange, or, Can You Do It in Space? and How to Have Space Babies Without Marrying Your Space Cousin, a chapter on funny astronaut names, and a whole paragraph about lunarcrete a theoretical building material made by mixing Martian soil with human blood.

But most of the book is devoted to fascinating, practical questions of colonization. There are histories of rocketry, of space law, of celestial advertising. We learn how to build an orbital colony, why barren lava tubes are the choicest Martian real estate, and that company towns are a bad idea when management controls its workforces food, water, light and air.

Throughout, the Weinersmiths advocate for a colonization approach that they call wait and go big. Fund hundreds of biospherelike experiments on Earth to learn about human survival in a closed habitat. Do systematic studies of animal reproduction in orbit, so we can find out if its even safe for people to get pregnant away from Earth. Modernize space law and establish a regulatory agency to ensure that the cosmos is treasured like Antarctica, not savaged like the Amazon. Once the framework is in place, move hundreds of thousands of settlers all at once enough to establish a real civilization. Enough to thrive.

In the meantime, appreciate what we have. Earth isnt perfect, the Weinersmiths write, but as planets go its a pretty good one. This book will make you happy to live on this planet a good thing, because youre not leaving anytime soon.

A CITY ON MARS: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? | Kelly and Zach Weinersmith | Penguin Press | 430 pp. | $32

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Book review: A City on Mars, by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith - The New York Times

By: Tribune-Review Saturday, October 28, 2023 | 12:29 AM

Christopher Horner | Tribune-Review

Mars Evan Wright works out on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023, at Mars.

Luke Goodworth hit Aidan Alessio with a 20-yard touchdown pass with 10 seconds left in the game to give Mars a 17-14 victory over North Catholic in a Class 4A Greater Allegheny Conference game Friday night at J.C. Stone Field in North Park.

With the win, Mars claimed the Greater Allegheny Conference title. Goodworth threw for 106 yards while teammate Evan Wright ran for 172 yards for Mars (8-2, 5-0).

North Catholics Jack Fennell ran for 99 yards and a touchdown and caught a 71-yard scoring pass from Kaden Sarver, who tossed for 126 yards.

Connellsville 35, Laurel Highlands 13 Connellsville (5-5, 2-4) beat Laurel Highlands (2-8, 1-5) for the Big Seven Conference win.

Trinity 61, Ringgold 21 In the Big Seven Conference, Trinity (6-4, 4-2) returned three interceptions for touchdowns in its 47-point first quarter as the Hillers beat Ringgold (0-10, 0-6). Luke Lacock caught two touchdown passes from Jonah Williamson and returned a kickoff 93 yards for another score. Williamson threw for 93 yards and ran for a 44-yard touchdown.

Blackhawk 20, New Castle 14 Blackhawk (1-0, 1-6) beat New Castle (1-9, 1-6) in the Parkway Conference.

Chartiers Valley 41, Ambridge 31 Austin Efthimiades ran for 276 yards and four touchdowns to lead Chartiers Valley (3-7, 3-4) to a playoff spot with the Parkway Conference win against Ambridge (2-8, 1-6).

Plum 49, Indiana 7 Nick Odom rushed for 210 yards and a touchdown as Class 5A Plum (4-6) beat Class 4A Indiana (2-8). Sean Franzi threw for 174 yards and two touchdowns for Plum while Trevor Smith threw for 177 yards for Indiana.

Tags: Ambridge, Blackhawk, Chartiers Valley, Connellsville, Indiana, Laurel Highlands, Mars, New Castle, North Catholic, Plum, Ringgold, Trinity

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WPIAL Class 4A football roundup: Late TD lifts Mars to Greater Allegheny Conference title - TribLIVE.com