Category Archives: Mars

3:36pm, 02 October 2021

By Rugby Onslaught

It should have been a moment of joy yet it turned ugly rapidly. This was mean-spirited from Springboks wing Makazole Mapimpi who finished off a pretty decent South African try-scoring effort in the second half.

Sadly he ruined it with his toxic reaction to the try, apparently giving innocent Jordie Barrett some verbals into his facial plate. Sad beyond tears and regret.

The Bully Boks of course went on to win the game, but how history will view Mapimpis action remains unclear.

Jacques strangely didnt even mention the incident in the post-match presser.

When the top three sides in the world play each other, you expect close margins, said Nienaber.

We were 20 seconds away from winning in that first game against Australia and two minutes away from victory against New Zealand last weekend.

This time around, we got the crucial points in the last play of the match, that is how tight it was. There was a lot of noise from the outside and some justified critical comments amongst that.

But the players never stopped working hard, going through the processes, doing the reviews, making new plans. So, I am pretty pleased for them.

Nienaber applauded the other teams in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship: This is such a great competition to play in and we are so happy to be back playing it, after we lost out in 2020.

The different playing styles and mentalities from our SANZAAR opponents makes every match a challenging one.

Everyone brings a different risk appetite to the game. It is great for us to play these pressure cooker games as it gives you good exposure to what you can expect in a Rugby World Cup. There are good learnings in there, Nienaber added.

The Bok coach admitted that one of those learnings a better use of his substitutes made a difference in victory over the All Blacks.

Nienaber replaced the whole front row after 38 minutes and started the second half with Frans Steyn at fullback. He also gave Elton Jantjies a solid run with the left-footer rewarding him with well-taken drop goal his first in green and gold and the match-winning penalty goal.

As I mentioned last week, I wanted to use Elton, but then had the injury to Marco van Staden which prevented that as we might have finished the game with 14 players [if Van Stadens injury worsened], said Nienaber.

This time I decided to use them much earlier and I think we were doing much better today in that regard.

Elton was awesome when he came on, and Frans Steyn was brilliant. Willie did some good things, and did make some mistakes, but I wanted to bring in Frans for the 50/22 kicks. He trained well with us and did very well when called upon.

Nienaber also explained why he replaced the front row before the halftime whistle.

We see them as a combination and the minutes played will never be the same. The moment we felt the first group has done their job; we will bring on the second group, he said.

Today they emptied their tanks after 38 minutes and I replaced them when they did their job. After last week, I decided we should make use of our subs and I thought they were all excellent tonight.

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Mapimpi's toxic reaction after scoring try mars great Bok win - Rugby OnSlaught

A close-up of Mars taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. New research suggests that the red planet may be too small to have ever had large amounts of surface water. NASA/WireImage hide caption

A close-up of Mars taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. New research suggests that the red planet may be too small to have ever had large amounts of surface water.

All evidence points to the fact that Mars once had flowing water, but numerous flybys, orbiters, landers and rovers have confirmed one undeniable fact any liquid water that was once on its surface is now long gone.

A study out of Washington University in St. Louis might have found the reason: Mars, which is about half the size of Earth, and just over one-tenth the mass of our own watery world, might just be too small.

One idea, the Mars Ocean Hypothesis, suggests that Mars not only had some liquid water, but a lot of it. But the new study's co-author Kun Wang says his team's finding, which was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pours cold water on that notion.

"Mars' fate was decided from the beginning," Wang, an assistant professor of Earth and planetary sciences, said in a statement. "There is likely a threshold on the size requirements of rocky planets to retain enough water to enable habitability and plate tectonics."

That's because the lower mass and gravity of Mars makes it easier for volatile elements and compounds such as water to escape from its surface into space.

Led by Zhen Tian, a graduate student in Wang's laboratory, the researchers looked at 20 Martian meteorites ranging in age from about 200 million years old to 4 billion years, dating to a time when the solar system was still in the chaos of formation.

The researchers analyzed a somewhat volatile element potassium to help understand how water would have behaved on the surface of Mars.

Speaking to NPR, Wang said the team measured the ratio of two isotopes of potassium potassium-39 and potassium-41 in the meteorites. In lower gravity environments, such as Mars, the potassium-39 is more easily lost to space, leaving behind a higher ratio of the heavier isotope, potassium-41. Water behaves in much the same way, indicating that most of it would have been lost to space during the formation of Mars.

It's something Wang and his colleagues saw even in the oldest meteorites, suggesting that this was an issue for Martian water right from the beginning.

The team also looked at samples from the moon and from an asteroid, both much smaller and drier than either Earth or Mars, to study the potassium isotopes in them. They found a direct correlation between mass and the volatiles or lack thereof in the samples.

The liquid water that did remain on the Martian surface carved out the now-desiccated canyons, riverbeds and other formations that we see there today, Wang says. But that water, too, would likely have disappeared had it not been trapped as ice at the Martian poles as the climate on the planet became colder, he notes.

The research has implications outside of our solar system, too. As scientists hunt for planets around other stars, the holy grail of their quest is to find those capable of supporting life which means neither too hot nor too cold.

Even if a planet orbits its star in the so-called Goldilocks Zone, at just the right distance to be warm enough for liquid water without being too hot to support life, it could still be too small to keep hold of the water.

"This does probably indicate a lower limit on size for a planet to be truly habitable," Bruce Macintosh, deputy director of Stanford University's Kavli Institute for Particle Physics and Cosmology, tells NPR. "Understanding that lower limit is important there are lines of evidence that small planets are more common than big ones, so if the small ones are dry, then there are fewer potentially habitable worlds out there than we thought."

He adds, however, that only "the most optimistic exoplanet astronomers" would currently list a Mars-size exoplanet as a candidate for habitability.

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Mars Had Liquid Water On Its Surface. Here's Why Scientists Think It Vanished - NPR

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter is getting ready for its 14th Red Planet flight, but the thinning Martian air is making such sorties more and more challenging.

The coming sortie, which could occur any day now, is a straightforward hop compared to some of the more daring scouting flights that Ingenuity has been making to aid NASA's Perseverance rover, mission team members said in a recent update. There's a good reason for the simplicity: The 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) chopper will test higher rotor spin speeds to see if it can keep flying in rapidly changing seasonal atmospheric conditions on Mars.

The flight plan calls for Ingenuity to take off, climb up to 16 feet (5 meters) and make a sideways maneuver before landing. The flight was originally supposed to take place no earlier than Sept. 17, but that was dependent on the mission team being ready for the opportunity. Updates will be published on Perserverance's official Twitter feed as more developments can be reported.

Related: Watch NASA's Ingenuity helicopter explore Mars' intriguing Raised Ridges

The short test flight, whenever it occurs, is expected to include a rotor speed of roughly 2,700 revolutions per minute (RPM), assuming that a planned ground test of a 2,800 RPM spin goes to plan. (By comparison, prior Mars experience had Ingenuity flying at about 2,537 RPM.) The greater rotation rate will, engineers hope, allow the drone to fly despite a thinning atmospheric density.

"It is actually getting more difficult [to fly] every day: I'm talking about the atmospheric density, which was already extremely low and is now dropping further due to seasonal variations on Mars," Ingenuity chief pilot Hvard Grip, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, wrote in the update.

Grip explained that Ingenuity's flight campaign was designed to last just a few months after the Perseverance mission landed inside Mars' Jezero Crater in February. Ingenuity far exceeded expectations and is still flying, testing how rotorcraft could act as scouts for rovers or perhaps even human missions.

But Ingenuity wasn't designed for changing seasonal conditions. Originally, the atmospheric density in Jezero Crater was equivalent to about 1.2% to 1.5% that of Earth. But now the densities are approaching 1% during the afternoon hours preferred for flight, when currents off the ground cause less instability for the low-flying drone.

"The [atmospheric] difference may seem small, but it has a significant impact on Ingenuitys ability to fly," Grip explained. Ingenuity's thrust margin, or the excess thrust the drone produces above what it requires to hover, has been decreasing as the Mars atmosphere thins. If the atmospheric density drops too far, Ingenuity could perhaps come close to a stall in mid-air.

"Thankfully, there is a way to tackle this issue but it involves spinning the rotors even faster than we have been doing up to now," Grip continued. "In fact, they will have to spin faster than we have ever attempted with Ingenuity or any of our test helicopters on Earth. This is not something we take lightly, which is why our next operations on Mars will be focused on carefully testing out higher rotor speeds in preparation for future flights."

The Ingenuity team will be looking for a few potential issues. One is that the higher RPM, coupled with wind and helicopter movements, could make the rotor blades hit the atmosphere at roughly 0.8 Mach, or 80% the speed of sound. (The speed of sound on Mars is only three-quarters that on Earth, due to the Red Planet's much lower atmospheric density.)

"If the blade tips get sufficiently close to the speed of sound, they will experience a very large increase in aerodynamic drag that would be prohibitive for flight," Grip said. "For Ingenuitys rotor we do not expect to encounter this phenomenon until even higher Mach numbers, but this has never been confirmed in testing on Earth."

Engineers will also watch out for potential resonances that could cause the helicopter to vibrate at particular frequencies, which at worst could "cause damage to hardware and lead to a deterioration in sensor readings needed by the flight control system," Grip said. Other considerations will include more power needed from the electrical system and higher loads required by the rotor system.

"It all adds up to a significant challenge, but by approaching the issue slowly and methodically, we hope to fully check out the system at higher rotor speeds and enable Ingenuity to keep flying in the months ahead," Grip said. "Stay tuned for updates."

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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Flying on Mars getting tougher as Ingenuity helicopter gears up for 14th hop - Space.com

This image shows several craters in Arabia Terra that are filled with layered rock, often exposed in rounded mounds. The image was taken by a camera, the High Resolution Imaging Experiment, on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona

Explosive super volcanoes once tore apart the surface of Mars, spewing millions of tons of ash and noxious gases into the atmosphere.

Back then, Mars was volcanically active. It hosts the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons, and evidence of past vigor remains in volcanic regions and dormant cones. But evidence for explosive volcanism has been missing, leading some scientists to think that the planet only produced shield-type, cone-forming eruptions.

Now, a group of researchers has spotted massive deposits of volcanic ash buried in a region of Mars known as Arabia Terra. The researchers were scoping out the area because it hosts a series of irregularly shaped craters of unknown origin. A 2013 study suggested that these craters looked like calderas, the empty holes left behind by massive volcanic explosions.

These types of super-eruptions have occurred on Earth as well. The Toba (74,000 BCE) and Taupo (340,000 BCE) supervolcanoes are good examples. Evidence shows that these volcanos launched millions of tons of ash and gases into the atmosphere, enough to obscure sunlight for several years and cool the globe. If the same thing happened on Mars, proving it was a matter of finding the ash.

Arabia Terra is an area of rugged terrain, surrounded by a network of deep ravines. Like road cuts, these ravines cut through the terrain, exposing the hidden layers on their walls. The team looked at the slopes of seven of these ravines from orbit using instruments on board NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and spotted layers of minerals with the composition of chemically altered volcanic ash.

The team also tapped into global circulation models to try to check if the thickness of the deposits matches what would be expected from an explosive eruption. The models are actually pretty good for predicting what direction the wind blows, says Patrick Whelley (University of Maryland, College Park), who led the new study. The same models can be tuned [ . . . ] to use a slightly thicker atmosphere because maybe that's what was happening on Mars 3 billion years ago.

With this method, the researchers confirmed that the ash deposits match predictions from the model, being thicker closer to the calderas, reaching one kilometer at its deepest point. They become thinner, although still hundreds of meters thick, farther away from the calderas. The paper describing their findings appeared online July 16th in Geophysical Research Letters.

From the deposits that we do see from these types [of eruptions], they probably last for weeks to months at a time, where they're exploding and pushing out a bunch of material, Whelley explains. So it's not just one explosion but it's a series of sustained eruptions for many days up to months perhaps.

In order to produce the massive ash deposits observed in Arabia Terra, researchers estimate that between 1,000 and 2,000 explosive eruptions occurred over a period of 500 million years. That means one supervolcano erupted every 1.8 to 3.5 million years. The volume of ash they produced accounts to about 30% to 60% of the total volume of material required to form Olympus Mons.

Mars is a little planet compared to Earth, but it actually looks like early on its history, it was quite an active little planet, says Alexandra Matiella Novak (Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University), coauthor of the new study. At one point, Mars and Earth probably were very similar to each other climate-wise and atmosphere-wise, and certainly geology-wise.

While other researchers think the current work is a step forward in the right direction, they arent fully convinced. We still do not know for sure whether powerful volcanic eruptions took place in this region on early Mars, says Petr Broz (Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic), who wasnt involved in the present study. Erosion and younger resurfacing events could have destroyed or modified the evidence about such activity.

Nevertheless, Broz adds, This work is bringing us a bit closer to such an answer. It is showing us that a powerful and repetitive process has to be responsible for the formation of these enigmatic deposits.

The team plans to continue looking for more spots where they can measure the thickness of the ash deposits, with the goal of building a more detailed regional map of the deposits distribution. Now we have seven points, and we want to increase that to 100 points or something, so that we can we can say where the ash might have been, Whelley says.

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Mars Hosted Supervolcanoes in the Ancient Past - Sky & Telescope - SkyandTelescope.com

Soon, Mars and Earth will dance around the sun for an event formally called the Mars solar conjunction. In simple terms, it's a period when Mars and Earth are on opposite sides of the sun. So what's the big deal?

For roughly two weeks, every two years, the solar conjunction takes place. This year it's happening between Oct. 2 and Oct. 14. During this time, the sun obscures the two planets from each other, essentially making Earth and Mars invisible to each other. That means communication with NASA spacecraft on Mars is reduced to a quiet chatter.

Normally, the sun ejects hot, ionized gas from its corona, which then makes its way deep into space. That's usually not a problem, but during solar conjunction, this gas can interfere with radio signals when engineers try to communicate with their spacecraft on and above Mars. Commands can be corrupted and result in unexpected behavior from Mars' mission equipment.

So, a communication moratorium is put in place during which, mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) turn off some instruments, collect and store data from the Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiters, which in turn, accumulate data from the on-surface Curiosity and Perseverance rovers and InSight lander, although those are stationary during this time.

Only the Odyssey Orbiter will attempt to relay any data to Earth during the solar conjunction, knowing that some info will be lost. However, NASA will stop sending new instructions to Mars during this time to avoid unexpected results from misinterpreted signals.

While NASA stops sending new signals to its spacecraft during the solar conjunction, controllers front-load their communications and send two weeks' worth of messages in advance to avoid the increased risk of radio interference. And it's a rare opportunity for those working on these missions to take time off, assuming there's no other projects needing their attention. Just like you when you have your out-of-office message on, they'll check in after the solar conjunction ends.

When it's over, the spacecraft will send the data they've collected to NASA's Deep Space Network, a system of massive Earth-based radio antennas managed by the JPL. Engineers will spend about a week downloading the information before resuming normal communication operations.

If it's determined that any of the collected data is corrupted, engineers can usually have that data retransmitted, similar to your asking a colleague to resend a lost or unreadable file, just from a lot farther away.

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What's the Mars Solar Conjunction, and Why Does It Matter? - HowStuffWorks

Artist impression of the MMX spacecraft descending to the surface of Phobos (based on the spacecraft design in FY2019). Credit: JAXA

Dr. Ryuki Hyodo shares the science behind JAXAs upcoming MMX mission to the Martian moons, and the unique features of this journey to Marss domain.

In February this year, the world watched in awe as three space missions arrived at Mars in quick succession. The first two were orbiters; the UAEs Hope mission that will capture a global view of Marss climate, and Chinas Tianwen-1 with a focus on Martian geology and a planned release of a lander and rover to the Martian surface. The third in the trio was the NASA Perseverance rover, which completed a stunning touchdown in Marss Jezero Crater, where it will search for evidence of past life and gather samples for future return to Earth.

Dr. Ryuki Hyodo. Credit: JAXA

At ISAS, researchers watched the progress with particularly keen attention. In just a few years from now, we are about to attempt the same feat of visiting the Martian sphere. But for us, the destination is not the red planet but its two small moons. The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is scheduled to launch in the fiscal year of 2024. Largely ignoring the looming presence of Mars, the spacecraft will focus its suite of observing instruments on the moons, Phobos and Deimos. The mission plans to land on Phobos and collect samples to bring back to Earth in 2029. It is these barren moons that scientists believe contain evidence of the early days of the Solar System, and how habitability may have flourished and died on the planet below.

Dr. Ryuki Hyodo is researcher in the division of Solar System Sciences at ISAS, working on simulations of how the moons formed. Hyodo holds one of the institutes independent ITYF (International Top Young Fellowship) positions; a program designed to support and promote talented researchers from around the world in the early stage of their careers. He explains that the first mystery surrounding Phobos and Deimos is how they came to be there at all. In fact, there are two main competing theories for how the moons formed.

Theres the capture origin, whereby a passing small object is gravitationally captured by Mars, Hyodo explains. This was historically proposed and is supported by the spectral similarities of the moons to D-type asteroids.

Asteroids largely reside in the appropriately named asteroid belt that orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. Within this population, asteroids can be divided into different types based on similarities in the wavelengths of the light that reflect off their surface. This spectrum is related to the asteroids composition. D-type asteroids are notable for their very dark color. What little light is reflected by the D-types is at longer red and infrared wavelengths.

While many different asteroids now orbit in the asteroid belt, their differing compositions point to formation locations spread across the early Solar System. This is interesting to scientists trying to map the creation and movement of resources, especially those such as water and organics that are needed for life.

If Phobos and Deimos are examples of D-type asteroids that swung close to Mars and were pulled into orbit, then a sample from Phobos could tell us about the formation and transportation of the first organic molecules to form in the Solar System. But not everyone believes this formation scenario.

The second option is the giant impact origin, says Hyodo. A large impact with Mars that ejected material to form a debris disc around the planet.

Such an impact might be the origin of the Borealis basin; the largest depression on Mars that covers a massive 40% of the planets surface. Smaller basins, such as the Utopia or Hellas basin, may also have generated enough debris to form the moons.

The impact velocities are similar even in the case of the smaller basin-forming events, notes Hyodo. The difference is just the impact mass. This leads to similar thermodynamic outcomes for impact ejecta.

Thermodynamics refers to the heat energy in the debris disc, and determines properties such as how much of the disc material is molten and the amount that will vaporize. The resulting material becomes the building blocks of Phobos and Deimos, as it collides and coalesces into the two moons.

The formation within a disc can explain the near-circular orbits of Phobos and Deimos in the same plane around Marss equator. A giant impact is also thought to have created our Moon, but the evidence there is clearer, thanks to samples from the lunar surface returned by the Apollo missions.

In the case of our Moon, the Apollo sample has strongly indicated that the Moon was once molten and that the Moon and Earth are isotopically very similar, explains Hyodo.

Isotopes are atoms of the same element that have slightly different weights due to the numbers of neutrons in the atoms nucleus. Two bodies that consist of not only similar substances, but the same balance of isotopes, are very likely to share common building blocks, supporting an impact scenario where material from the Earth formed the Moon. The energy in a giant impact would also lead to molten material.

NASA astronaut Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 lunar module pilot, uses an adjustable sampling scoop to retrieve lunar samples. The MMX spacecraft will have to do this robotically. Credit: NASA

In the case of the Martian moons, their dynamics (orbits) supports a giant impact formation, continues Hyodo. However, without a sample like that from Apollo, we cannot be sure about what happened on Mars and its moons.

It is not only the initial formation of the moons that is debated but what happened next. A flurry of recent papers have proposed different scenarios for how the moons may have developed after a giant impact.

It is important to note that these works all assume the impact scenario, begins Hyodo. The difference between them is what happens after the giant impact occurs and effects the tidal evolution of Phobos.

The inner of Marss two moons, Phobos is slowly being pulled inwards to the planets surface. This is due to Marss gravity distorting the moon by raising tidal bulges that result in a drag force that pulls the moon inwards. The end evolution is likely to see Phobos ripped to pieces before it collides with the surface. In one possible scenario, this inevitable death scene for the moon has been replayed during Marss history multiple times. The first inner moon to be created during the giant impact quickly spiraled inwards and was shredded by Marss gravity. This formed a new debris ring out of which a second generation moon was born. Research suggests as many as five Phobos incarnations may have occurred before the moon we see today.

How Mars might have had episodes of rings that ultimately formed Phobos and Deimos. Credit: JAXA

Another idea is that the Phobos and Deimos were once a single body that was itself subject to an impact that split it into two several billion years ago. This suggested scenario is based on how the moons orbits may have changed due to the tides from Mars, and detailed simulations still need to be performed.

Particle accumulation is a chaotic process, notes Hyodo as he describes computer simulations of the moons forming within the debris disc of the giant impact. Sometimes we only form a single moon or sometime three moons. If a single moon was initially formed from a giant impact and later destroyed to split in two, then this story may be possible.

The sample of Phobos material collected by the MMX spacecraft will provide scientists back on Earth with the opportunity to analyze the moons of Mars in the same way as the history of our own Moon was unpicked from the Apollo samples. This, Hyodo confirms, will help resolve the degeneracy between the theories.

If the sample includes a large amount of Martian material as well as volatile depletion, the answer is the giant impact origin, not capture, he claims.

Simulations run by Hyodo confirm that any debris resulting from a giant impact should include about 50% of Martian material, with the rest originating from the impactor. The impact will also produce strong heating (around 2000 Kelvin or 1730C), so elements that can easily turn to gas (volatiles) will be vaporized and escape.

The tricky part is the long-term evolution of Phobos, admits Hyodo. A detailed measurement of the gravity field of the moon as well as observations to clarify the internal structure will be key to constraining how the tides from Marss gravity have been pulling on the moon. Constraining the surface age is also important, as each story suggests a different time for the final accumulation of the Phobos that we know today.

Artist impression of the MMX spacecraft exploring the Martian moons. Credit: JAXA

Hyodo emphasizes that capture or giant impact scenario, the sample from Phobos will reveal a great deal about how planets form.

If the capture scenario is correct, we will obtain primitive material that will enhance our understanding of what these consisted of, possibly including the first organics, he says. If the giant impact scenario proves correct, we will be gathering a sample from ancient Mars; from the time when the giant impact on Mars occurred.

It seems a huge amount to learn from such a body as small as a moon.

With MMX, we will study a tiny moon, says Hyodo. But this is not only about the moon, it is also about Solar System material and material from Mars.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Phobos sample will inevitably contain parts of Marss past. This means that regardless of how the moons formed, the sample brought back from MMX will actually be the first Mars sample return.

Luckily for us, Phobos orbits very close to Mars! explains Hyodo. Asteroidal impacts on Mars continuously eject material from everywhere on the planet and this can easily be transferred to the surface of Phobos without strong impact shock damage.

This illustration depicts NASAs Perseverance rover operating on the surface of Mars. Credit: NASA

Martian meteorites collected on Earth are formed from hard, igneous rock as a strong shock-accompanied launch from Mars, the interplanetary journey, and atmospheric entry to Earth destroys anything more delicate. But grains ejected from Mars to land on Phobos have had a much easier launch and ride, and even delicate organics are thought to be able to survive the trip. Even ions from Marss ancient atmosphere are thought to have become trapped on the side of Phobos that faces the red planet.

Radioactive elements present in the Martian grains will be able to date the time these grains formed on the surface of Mars. This provides MMX with a unique sample that is collected from all over the Martian surface and dated throughout its history; a veritable log of the planets possible habitability and decline. The possibility for such a collection is one of the reasons why the MMX mission is focused on the moons rather than the planet itself.

NASAs Perseverance will study the Jezero Crater in amazing detail, says Hyodo. But the information is limited to Jezero. That might not be typical for Marss whole evolution. By contrast, the ejecta collected by MMX will be from everywhere on the surface of Mars without this bias, but at the cost that only a small fraction of the MMX sample will be from Mars. MMX and Perseverance will therefore play the complementary roles of diversity versus detail and together, we can step forward to fully understanding the evolution of Mars.

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Japan Space Agency: Why Were Exploring the Moons of Mars - SciTechDaily

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Ugly scene mars exciting game in Boone | Sports - Huntington Herald Dispatch

Ninety apartments could be on the way in south Fort Collins after the planning and zoning commission approved a project development plan for Mars Landing.

Colorado Springs-based developer Goodwin Knight first proposed the project in 2019 at the southwest intersection of Mars Drive and West Skyway Drive, just south of College Avenue and Harmony Road, adding to a growing number of new homes and apartments in the area.

Mars Landing would consist of twothree-story buildings with 58 one-bedroom, 24 two-bedroom and six three-bedroom apartments with a clubhouse, according to plans submitted to the city.

Apartments would be market rate, developers said.

According to a July survey from NAI Affinity in Fort Collins, averagerent in the city is now $1,560, with two-bedroom, two-bath units going for more than $1,700. Three-bedroom units can rent for $2,000 or more.

While Mars Landing is west of College Avenue, access would be off Mars Drive, which currently has a temporary roundabout near the south property boundary. The temporary roundaboutwill be removed toallow for another access.

Mars Drive will eventually be extended to Trilby Road as development occurs in the area.

Development: Prospect Road interchange improvements spur new development plans in east Fort Collins

Density on the roughly 4-acre site is nearly double what a previous developer had proposed for Skyway Townhomes, a plan that went through the city's preliminary design review but never went forward.

Goodwin Knight is a subsidiary of Challenger Homes, founded in Colorado Springs in 2000. In 2017, The Challenger Group sold almost half of Challenger Homes to Green Brick Partners, which was later rebranded as Goodwin Knight LLC.

The company also is finalizing its development plan for Ridgewood Hills Fifth Filing,375 apartments, duplexes and townhomes at the corner of Triangle Drive and South College Avenue. The city's planning and zoning commission approved the development plan in September 2020.

Here's a look at other residential projects in the area that have come through the city's preliminary development process in the last two years:

Ridgewood Hills Fifth Filing:302 multifamily and two-family units on 35 acres at the corner of Triangle Drive and the west side of South College Avenue. The project is bordered by Ridgewood Hills. Proposed by Goodwin Knight of Colorado Springs.

Sun Communities Mobile Home Park:211 units on 32 acres with amenity center and pocket park at 6750 S. College Ave. The site abuts Pleasant Grove mobile home park on the north and is southeast of the intersection of South College Avenue and East Trilby Road. Proposed by Sun Communities of Southfield, Michigan.

College and Trilby:300 to 330 units in 13 buildings on 15 acres at 6301 S. College Ave.Access would be from West Trilby Road to the south, with a new Mars Drive connection through the site. Proposed by Evergreen Development.

4858 S. College Ave.:Five stories, 62 units. Lot 1 of Fairway Estates fourth filing.

Previously: Manufactured housing in south Fort Collins moves on to next step

Pat Ferrier is a senior reporter covering business, health care and growth issues in Northern Colorado. Contact her at patferrier@coloradoan.com. Please support her work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a subscription today.

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Mars Landing (apartment development, that is) gets go-ahead in Fort Collins - Coloradoan

As it moves toward returning to the Moon, ideally sometime in 2024, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is creating two new mission directorates. With the move, the agency is separating its existing Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate into the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate (ESDMD) and Space Operations Mission Directorate. NASA said it's making the change in response to the increasing number of missions it's conducting in low-Earth orbit, in addition to the plans it has for exploring deep space in the future.

It also announced who's leading those units. Jim Free, a NASA veteran who has been with the space agency on and off since 1990, is the new associate administrator of ESDMD, while Kathy Lueders is taking on the equivalent position at the Space Operations Mission Directorate. Before becoming the first-ever woman to oversee human spaceflight at NASA, Lueders managed the Commercial Crew Program. As for what the two units will do, ESDMD will oversee the development of programs critical to Project Artemis and eventually manned spaceflight to Mars. Meanwhile, its counterpart will focus on launch operations, including those involving the International Space Station, with an eye towards Moon missions later.

According to NASA, the reorganization is ultimately about looking forward to the next 20 years. The new structure will allow one unit to focus on human spaceflight while the other builds future space systems. In that way, the agency says there will be a constant cycle of development and operations to help it move forward with its space exploration goals.

"This reorganization positions NASA and the United States for success as we venture farther out into the cosmos than ever before, all while supporting the continued commercialization of space and research on the International Space Station," Nelson said. "This also will allow the United States to maintain its leadership in space for decades to come."

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NASA reorganizes to prepare for future missions to the Moon and Mars - Engadget

The Honest Truth: Will humans ever be able to live on Mars? Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. Linked In An icon of the Linked In logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. All SectionsThe Honest Truth: Will humans ever be able to live on Mars?

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The Honest Truth: Will humans ever be able to live on Mars? - The Sunday Post