Category Archives: Terraforming Mars

Fans of Amazons premiere science-fiction series would do well to spend their time between seasons catching up on its anime forebears.

Its the future. The Earth has united under a single government and failed to deliver on the utopian promise of its technology. Those on top maintain their power by extracting wealth from colonies hanging in orbit. After generations of life in space, the space colonists begin thinking of themselves as a new strain of humanity and strike against the declining colonial center. This is the backdrop of both The Expanses current season and Mobile Suit Gundam.

The Gundam franchise is a touchstone of the Mecha anime genre, featuring young pilots fighting battles inside 60-foot tall robots. It began 41 years ago with a television anime series that performed poorly with the child demographic its sponsors wanted to attract, but fatefully overperformed with teens, college students, and women; whose support lifted it to become one of the highest-grossing global franchises of all time, on par with more familiar American creations like Batman and Spider-Man. Its sequels, spinoffs, and tie-ins have continued ever since. Roughly half of Gundam titles share their setting with the original show, known as the Universal Century timeline, and the rest are divided between numerous timelines of their own. No matter the setting, each installment iterates on the themes and aesthetics of the original. Mobile Suit Gundams influence falls wide across the science fiction landscape, and The Expanse reflects it clearly.

Fans of each franchise recognize the similarities in the other, and there are even some Easter Eggs that seems intentional. The first of the Free Navys meteorites to strike the Earth destroyed Dakar, the home of the Earth Federation congress in 1985s Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. That series also originated the repeated maxim that Earths souls are weighed down by gravity, a line paralleled in Commander Thorsens interrogation of Bobbie Draper: [Gravity]s different when youre there. This oppressive pull-down. It pulls the spirits down with it. That scene was set on the MCRN Scirocco, possibly named for Zeta Gundams final antagonist, Paptimus Scirocco, a man changed by his years spent orbiting Jupiter. But the parallels arent a list of click-bait references, theyre the undergirding assumptions on how science fiction should reflect the world.

Gundam was a watershed moment in the Mecha genre. After it aired Mecha would be split into the super robot and real robot subgenres. The Expanse stands apart for building drama and narrative tension out of Keplers laws, but Gundams own version of realism, though mostly aesthetic, was revolutionary in its own right. Its mechs are treated like any other category of military equipment; only distinct from tanks and planes in their tactical niche. Ammunition and replacement parts are constant concerns. The space colonies are ONeill cylinders, a favorite design among futurists, both strong and fragile in particular ways that boost the believability of the action within them. Small, accurate details ground the walking robot conceit, like only using zero-emission electric vehicles within the sealed atmospheres of space colonies, the ubiquity of sealed drink pouches in zero-g, or characters on EVAs pressing their helmets together to speak in the vacuum of space. Most significantly, our protagonists were in a war between factions of humans, not defending themselves against the alien invaders or monstrous beasts of super robot anime.

That innovation is the strongest link to The Expanse. Gundams wars are born of peoples self-interest, driven by ideology, and rooted in material reality. James S. A. Coreys setting is, at its highest levels, a web of interrelating nodes. Resources are extracted, trade links established, and opportunities exploited across incredible distances so great that individuals become blind to how every action creates a reaction. Colonization of exoplanets moves forward, so Martian terraforming is unnecessary, so the meticulous plan of Martian society falters, so the Free Navy can act without restriction, so millions die in a meteor strike.

Meanwhile in the Universal Century, a revolutionary dies, so an opportunist takes over, and builds a military regime called Zeon, and the independence movement becomes fascist. After winning the war, the Earth Federations special forces violently suppress the colonies, becoming authoritarian themselves, which starts a civil war, creating an opportunity for a new Zeon movement to return. Each conflict, and each individual, is a product of their material reality. Its hard to bridge the gaps when humanity no longer shares the same sky.

But even with all the terrible acts, there are fewer outright evil people than one might expect. Even Zeons royal family are shown in moments of grief, and hoping for their fathers approval. The villain is the war itself, and the yardstick for measuring villainy is how each antagonist relates to it, from those prolonging the war for their own purposes, to the conscripts just hoping to see another day. Somewhere in the middle is Ramba Ral, who treats his place in the Zeon military as his 9 to 5. He even kisses his wife goodbye when he gets into his robot. But thats contrasted against the moment he curses the Earth Federation for making him fire at press-ganged teenagers, absolving himself of responsibility as he pulls the trigger. Its a complexity you might put against Anderson Dawes as he drifts back and forth between gang boss and political figure, his childhood hardships never far from his mind.

What The Expanse and the Gundam franchise share is an impulse to reflect the world as it is, but on a grander scale. To use genre trappings to heighten the contrast, and make the truth more visible. Its magical realism without the magic. They approach that goal through a materialist lens, and set an array of pieces out on a board bigger than the Earth can hold, to see how each still exerts a force on all the others. If youd like to see this in practice for yourself, the following is a list of five Gundam titles that each exemplify a piece of the brands connection to The Expanse.

For Rocinante fans: Mobile Suit Gundam (1979)

The originator. Nearly all the above examples of parallels come from first Gundam so I wont repeat them. The series follows a group of young people, mostly civilians, who are forced to flee in and crew an Earth Federation warship to escape a sudden attack on their home colony. They navigate the space between enemy attacks and allied neglect as the war changes each member of the crew. Like the Rocinante crew, they come to be the best hope for a peaceful solar system, despite having no home to truly rely on.

For Free Navy Fans: Mobile Suit Gundam: Chars Counterattack (1988)

Marco Inaros was not the first person to strike at the colonial elites of Earth by lobbing asteroids at them. He wasnt even the first to broadcast a premature victory speech turned civics lesson while wearing a uniform with an abstracted bird emblem across his chest. This theatrical film is a sequel to the three animated tv series that preceded it, paying off 9 years of intertwining plots and character arcs. At its core is Char Aznable, a charismatic leader that feels like a very direct inspiration for Inaros, and every major player gets a moment to puzzle over just what exactly motivates him. It also introduces new young characters, who will return in this years upcoming feature film Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway.

For Tech Fans: Mobile Suit Gundam: 08th MS Team (1996)

What if Romeo & Juliet was a Vietnam War movie, fought with giant robots? This 12-episode series, originally released direct to video, follows a platoon of Federation pilots in a ground campaign through Southeast Asia. The team and their robots are both slapped together from spare parts. This may be the Gundam title that takes the real robot designation most to heart. A gummed-up air filter will reduce your fighting strength as easily as enemy mortars. And heat is lovingly animated, both in a shimmering desert and the way beam weapons melt, burn, and scorch different materials. The central dramatic question is whether Ensign Shiro Amada can be relied on to kill the enemy, after he loses the ability to dehumanize them. Shiro, like James Holden, is a character at his best when hes a step or two more moral than the world around him.

For Churn Fans: Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt (2015)

This pair of films is the most stylish of all Gundam titles, with a free jazz soundtrack and electric action direction. Its also the most grim by far. Characters only have happy moments, outside of flashbacks at least, in the second film. And not particularly often even then. It asks if war makes monsters out of men, or reveals the monsters that were always within, but wraps its bleak outlook in exhilarating, acrobatic violence through wrecked monuments to earlier battles. It was also left on an incomplete ending, with no announcement on further adaptations of the manga source material. Well see if thats another parallel to The Expanse after season 6.

Fo Beltalowda: Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans (2015)

This is the only title on this list set outside the Universal Century timeline. In this setting, life on Mars is cheap. Cheap enough that companies would rather give child workers risky surgeries that let them plug their nervous systems into heavy machinery than teach them to read or give them on-the-job training. The trauma and poverty foisted on these teens make them fiercely loyal to one another, with a powerful bravado. They may have been born on the Martian dust, but theyre Belters through and through. The setup sounds like bait for teenage edgelords, but the shows commitment to the truth of its characters, and showing the audience possible avenues of action their blinkered experience will not let them imagine, makes IBO a gripping tragedy. Every step the protagonists take is another nail in their coffin, even their greatest short-term victories.

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The Expanse and Mobile Suit Gundam: two sides of the sci-fi coin - The Spool

Elon Musk has mentioned his plans of taking humans to Mars for a while - and he finally has a timeline for it.

Elon Musk, the SpaceX and Tesla boss, appeared on the exclusive audio-only Clubhouse app Sunday night, joining The Good Time Show to talk all things Mars, memes and monkeys playing video-games in their heads.

About Mars specifically, for the first time ever, Musk has mentioned a time-line to get humans on the red planet. "Five and a half years," Musk told hosts Sriram Krishnan and Aarthi Ramamurthy at the beginning of the show, reports CNET.

While that's not a hard deadline. Musk listed a number of caveats -- there's a raft of technological advances that must be made in the intervening years.

"The important thing is that we establish Mars as a self-sustaining civilization," he said.

The strange thing is the deadline may be a little ambitious, as even USA's leading space agency, NASA, had a much more different date, one which is seven years after Musk's time. The Perseverance uncrewed rover will arrive later this month to take rock samples and search for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet - but the first humans aren't due to arrive on a NASA funded rocket until at least 2033.

That will be part of the Artemis - to the Moon and Mars - mission that will first see a sustainable presence established on the lunar surface.

Musk also answered other questions about Mars. 'Over time you can make Mars Earth like by terraforming the planet by warming it up,' said Musk.

When asked if he would allow his children to go to Mars on a future rocket trip he said 'if we're talking about the third or fourth set of landings on Mars I'd be ok with that,' adding that 'so far none of them are jumping to go to Mars'.

This isn't the first time Musk has spoken about civilization on Mars. A report in November last year found that SpaceX will not be recognising any international law on Mars and will instead follow a set of self-governing principles that will be laid down during the Martian settlement.

Elon Musk appears to have very subtly slipped in a clause into the terms of agreement of Starlink satellite broadband services that SpaceX will make its own set of rules on Mars.

The Starlink terms of agreement reads: For services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship, or other colonisation spacecraft, the parties recognise Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities. Accordingly, disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith, at the time of Martian settlement.

Maybe with its own laws, Musk wanted to beat NASA at reaching the red planet from the start. If that's the case, he's right about his time: getting there much ahead of NASA.

Link:

Elon Musk Shares Plan of Getting Humans to Mars By 2026. That's 7 Years Ahead of NASA - News18

Meet Martin Soederhamn, founder of Tumbling Heads. Tumbling Heads, a board game development company, is preparing for the upcoming Kickstarter launch of its new trivia board game, Hexaquest. Check out our interview with Martin below to learn more about howHexaquestcame to be, his hopes for the future of the game, and so much more.

Martin Soederhamn, founder of Tumbling Heads

Tumbling Heads was originally founded way back in 2011 as an iOS app development company. We released a couple of games on that platform but learned that our true passion was more in the development of physical games. Today, our sole focus is on board game development, and were currently in the final stages of production of Hexaquest. Its currently just two of us, myselfand my business partner, Dylan.

Dylan served in the U.S. Air Force along with a previous roommate of ours, and Dylan moved in when he moved out. We became really close friends and although we have dramatically different personalities, we share a lot of the same passions. He showed a lot of interest in Hexaquest and it became apparent that, as a team, we would really be able to make an impact. Dylan has an incredible sense of organization from his time in the Air Force, as well as from having worked as an area manager at Amazon. That experience has been really useful in helping us to set up Tumbling Heads for a sustainable, long-term future.

Hexaquest, Courtesy of Tumbling Heads

Hexaquest, in itsbasic form, is a trivia board game with six fun categories. It comes with 60 hexagons that form the playing board, as well as 300 cards with a total of 1500 questions.

You know, its a bit of a crazy story. I actually came up with the idea 15 years ago as I was sitting playing Trivial Pursuit in Thailand, where I was working as a scuba divinginstructor. The idea stuck with me and I started chipping away at the logistical challenges. Sometimes, I would hit roadblocks that would put the project on pause, but I always knew that Hexaquest would get itschance one day. Now, 15 years later, that day is getting mighty close. Were beyond excited about how the game is looking and feeling at this point. Although the concept has remained the same at itscore, every element of the game is far superior to what I dreamt of in the past.

Well, its partly in the name. Its called HexaquestThe Strategic Trivia Game. In the past, Id always been frustrated with how other trivia games were set up. You never seemed to have much control over the gaming experience, and thats something I wanted to change. I wanted to get rid of the dice, get rid of the board, reduce the randomness of difficulty, and introduce strategic elements, while, at the same time, offering players a variety of ways to customize how they play. Im proud to say that I managed to design a game that does all of that and then some. You can choose which categories you like and ignore the ones you dont. If you only want to play with the "Backpacker" and "Gourmet"categories, go for it. Its your game to play as you like. You can add expansion packs with new fun categories that can be played standalone or added to the main game. You can have as many players as you want and players can even join in the middle of a game. You have control of either how hard questions will be or which category theyll be in. And these are just some of the core aspects of Hexaquest that I think make it unique and ensures itslongevity.

As a kid, I was always hoping for board games when my birthday or Christmas came around. It would usually be a family friend showing up with a board game, but never necessarily the ones that I wanted. You can only play so much Monopoly, right? Even early on, I gravitated towards deeper, strategic experiences, and I remember really enjoying games that had a bit more depth. I remember one of my favorite games being Scotland Yard, a classic game of cat and mouse where you tryto expose criminals in London through strategic thinking. Thirty-five years later, Scotland Yard is still around, so I guess thats a testament to how good of a game it is. I actually just picked one up at a yard sale, so that should be fun to revisit.

The world of board games has changed in so many incredible ways in the last couple of decades. There are so many clever games out there that really push the boundaries for what a board game can be. I still definitely like getting deep and nerdy with games like Terraforming Mars and Star Wars Rebellion. They easily end up taking the better part of a day to play though, which is why I often steer towards the gateway games that offer a bit more of a relaxed experience. As a game designer, I believe that its much harder to make a simple yet strategic game than a deeply complex one. I have a few more ideas up my sleeve for the future and they all follow that same train of thought. Well always aim for truly innovative ideas that are sure to rock the board game industry a little.

Weve been taking our time polishing the game, playtesting, and ensuring that every little aspect is 100-percent readyand today, it is. The preproduction process is complete and our manufacturer is ready to hit the button, so to speak, as soon as we give the go-ahead. Were partnering with Panda Game Manufacturing, which is one of the absolute best manufacturers in the industry. The production quality has always been paramount to me, and honestly, it's one of the reasons that its taken such a long time to dial in how to produce it to the level of quality that I wanted. I want Hexaquest to be something that people want to show off to their friends and family, and in the case of the FoundersEdition, hopefully, something that will be passed on for generations to come.

Hexaquest, Courtesy of Tumbling Heads

Yes, absolutely! The limited FoundersEdition is a token of appreciation for the Kickstarter backers. I wanted to offer a true collectors item; the ultimate version of Hexaquest. It comes in a beautiful, custom wooden box with a slick neoprene insert that holds the full base game, as well as six expansion packs. The production is limited to just 80 copies, with 75 of those being made available to the public. When we had the first final version of the box, it almost brought me to tears. Its really something to behold and I have a feeling that fans will be all over it once the Kickstarter gets rolling. First come, first serve!

Well, of course, in the near future Id love to see a successful Kickstarter campaign. Weve worked extremely hard on setting up a campaign thats really attractive to backers. We have some really cool stuff up our sleeves as the campaign moves along and with a bit of success, well even start unlocking expansion packs.

Looking a bit further, I seeand always have seengreat potential for the evolution of Hexaquest, not just as a singular game, but as an entire ecosystem that allows people to customize their trivia experience to their liking. Id like to see a huge variety of expansion packs, getting into the real nitty-gritty and exploring more and more niche subjects, making sure that theres something for everyone! A good example of that would be the "Conductor" category, which caters to the classical music lover. To me, this category would be nearly impossible to do well at, but for others, it might be a breeze. I personally love the "Backpacker" category. Im quite good at it as a result of having traveled extensively with my wife, Amy, filming documentaries for our YouTube channel, Adventure Calls.

We have some pretty wild and exciting plans for the future of Hexaquest, some of which we arent quite ready to discuss just yet. Trust me, were far from doneeven after a successful Kickstarter campaign. Translation/localization will eventually be pursued, and were also working on offering customized expansion packs for businesses, among other things. Im hopeful that people will believe in us and support us, and we ensure that well continue to bring fresh and fun entertainment your way!

Were currently a couple of months away from launching our Kickstarter campaign. The best way to support us right now, and to really get a good feel for what will be offered during the campaign, is to sign up for our newsletter. And make sure to check out our Instagram (@hexaquest) where we do daily quizzes, giveaways, and other fun stuff. So far, the response has been extremely encouraging and were having a lot of fun building our community!

What do you think ofHexaquest? Will this become your new favorite board game? Sound off in the comments below.

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Meet One of the Creative Minds Behind 'Hexaquest', a Brand-New Trivia Board Game Launching on Kickstarter - ourcommunitynow.com

Scientists are hoping to turn Mars green one day according to a new study in Icarus. The journal details Basically NASA is helping scientists learn how they might be able to start up food production or more on the red planet. In-Situ Resource Utilization, basically replacing objects commonly found on Earth, for use in both establishing a community there or farming for people back on our planet. But, tossing a bunch of Miracle-Gro in a space shuttle isnt very practical. Researchers are trying to estimate how hard it would be to have the soil on our neighboring planet grow organic life. Its a herculean task that would dramatically alter Mars if it proved successful. But, for the moment, actually terraforming the planet is the stuff of science fiction. But, one day, it could really be possible if multiple societies put their minds to the task. Regolith, Mars soil, contains elements like calcium, potassium, iron, and magnesium. But, the rocks on the surface are so oxidized, along with concerns about the atmospheric conditions that there is a long way to go. For now, keep your eyes to the sky.

Soil on Mars is known to contain the majority of planet essential nutrients, but many questions of both the benefits (e.g. bioavailability of present nutrients) and limitations (e.g. extent of toxins) of Martian soil as a plant growth medium remain unanswered, researchers said in the Icarus article.

Andrew Palmer, an ocean engineering and marine sciences associate professor told Florida Tech News, These findings underscore that ISRU food solutions are likely at a lower technological readiness level than previously thought. Our strategy was, rather than saying this simulant grows plants so that means we can grow plants everywhere on Mars, we need to say that Mars is a diverse planet,

Simulating the mineral makeup or salt content of these Martian mixtures can tell us a lot about the potential fertility of the soil. Things like nutrients, salinity, pH are part of what make a soil fertile and understanding where Mars soils are at in that spectrum is key to knowing if they are viable and if not, are there feasible solutions that can be used to make them viable, Laura Fackrell, UGA geology doctoral candidate told The Next Web.

Do you think we will see Mars growing food within our lifetimes? Or is that just a little bit too far-fetched? Let us know down in the comments!

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Scientists Are Hoping to Turn Mars Green - ComicBook.com

Tired of sitting at home with nothing to do? Physical board games are expensive, but some are online. If you enjoyed Wingspan, try these other virtual board games.

Who doesn't love a good board game? Video games have come a long way since Pongand board games aren't just the same old boring round of Monopoly and Candy Land they used to be. Wingspan was one of the hottest board games of 2019 and with its recent release on Nintendo Switch, many gaming fans have learned just how much fun virtual board games can be.

RELATED:10 Tabletop Games That Have A Great Online Version

It's not always easy going out to play board games so sometimes doing so in the virtual space is the way to go. Not all adaptations of board games are created equal, so those looking to give them a try need to know which ones are going to provide countless hours of fun.

For gamers that have played every wild version of Risk out there, Small World could be the next step in their virtual board gaming adventures. This eight-time award-winning game has players fighting for map dominance with fantasy races that all have unique randomized traits.A battle between Flying Rat Men and Diplomat Orcs can be utterly fascinating fun. The game is widely available for PC, Android, andiOS.

From award-winning game designer Jamey Stegmaier, Scythe is set in an alternate history of the 1920s. Players have to collect resources, create infrastructure, and do battle with giant steampunk mechs. Kickstarter backers contributed over $1.8 million dollars when the game was first printed showing that board game fans understand Scythe's quality on sight alone.

Scythe: Digital Edition was released on Steam in 2018 and now even has a cell phone version making it easier to play than ever before.

Terraforming Mars is considered by many to be one of the best board games released in 2016 and to currently is ranked among the top five games of all time on BoardGameGeek. In Terraforming Mars players are tasked with making Mars inhabitable for human settlers. The game has five expansions that will keep gameplay fresh for a long time and is available on PC, Android, and iOS.

Sagrada is one of those games anyone can pick up and play. Trying to build the most beautiful stained glass window is simple at first with many complexities for players to learn and explore. The game is particularly fun to play on the Nintendo Switch with friends. it's simple, quick, and great to pick up and play.

The box for the physical game of Gloomhaven weighs over twenty-two pounds so having an easier to access virtual version might be the way to go. The game is a legacy styled game, which means the choices and actions the players take will affect the game going into the future.The digital edition of Gloomhavenis currently available on Steam Early Access.

Ticket to Ride is a unique set collection game that has players trying to collect sets of similarly colored cards to build a massive railroad system. The gamehas won over 35 awards including the prestigiousSpiel des Jahresso there's no denying it's good. With multiple maps across dozens of countries, Ticket to Ride can keep players busy for hours.

RELATED:TCG: 5 Best Trading-Card Video Games Ever (& 5 You Forgot Existed)

The game and all of its expansions are usually cheap and easy to buy during any Steam saleand it's available on just about every platform.For those with friends too busy to play it'seven possible to play Ticket to Ride against an Amazon Alexa.

COVID-19 haschanged the world of gaming and this game provides the ultimate power fantasy of taking not only one, but multiple pandemics down. Pandemic has players working together cooperatively to completely cure multiple pandemics before they take over the globe. Each player has special powers only they can use and it takes cunning to win. The game has multiple difficulty levels making it approachable for gamers of any skill.

It's just not always possible to get friends to play games, even in the digital realm. Thankfully, there are fantastic solo games! No, this isn't just solitaire, Onirim has players navigating the realm of dreams to escape the dream labyrinth before time runs out. The app version of the game even includes one of its expansions for free making this an excellent value.

Social deduction games have taken the world by storm just look at Among Us! Ifa gaming group loves hunting down the imposter they'llfind that Secret Hitler is the perfect virtual board game for them to try. The game made $1,479,046 in its initial Kickstarter run showing just how excited board game fans were to try this game.

RELATED:10 Board Games Worth The High Price Tag

The game has players trying to kill Hitler and stop the fascist's rise to power before the second world war. The game has been praised for its bold yet educational take on a difficult topic while providing amazing gameplay. Not only is the game free to print and play on the game maker's website, but there's even a website to play it for free with friends for any boardgame fans interested in giving it a try.

Tabletop Simulator is the epitome of virtual board games that no one will want to miss. The game allows people to play virtually any board game as long as it can be programmed into the engine. The number of games that be played using Tabletop Simulator boggles the mind. This unique sim game allows fans to add in their own content through the Steam Workshop making it so the number of choices available just keeps on expanding.

NEXT:Top 10 Board Games Based On Gaming Franchises

Next 10 Best Open-World Maps In PC History, Ranked

Linnea Capps is an award-winning author who has worked writing within the gaming industry for over ten years. Ey has worked for esports teams, holds speedrun world records, and now writes about eir favorite games for Game Rant. When not writing about games, ey work on eir upcoming visual novel about marbles (no that's not a joke).

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10 Virtual Board Games To Try If You Enjoyed Wingspan | Game Rant - GameRant

If we look to the skies on a clear night we get a glimpse of the expanse of space and the planets beyond our own. It may make you wonder, could humans ever live somewhere other than Earth?

Living in space

If we consider living outside of the Earths atmosphere then we have already achieved this; Russian cosmonaut, Valeri Vladimirovich Polyakov holds the record for the most consecutive days in space. Polyakov stayed aboard the Mir space station for more than 14 months during one trip. The most time spent on a celestial body is a Moon visit in December 1972. During that trip, Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan of NASAs Apollo 17 mission spent more than three days on the lunar surface.

Lunar return

The International Space Station has had continuous human occupancy for more than 20 years (since November 2nd 2000). Now NASA plans to establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon too, within the next decade, with its Artemis program. This should also help to advance other programs aiming to put humans on another planet, Mars.

Living on Mars

If humans are ever to inhabit a planet other than Earth, then Mars is the most likely candidate. The surfaces of Mars and Earth were once very similar. Both had heat, moisture and thick atmospheres. While we retained these ideal living conditions on Earth, things took a turn for the worst for Mars about three to four billion years ago. If we want to live there we would have to work out how to turn back time.

Traveling to the red planet is possible, in theory, and could take between six to nine months. There is a big difference between surviving in a controlled living environment and actually living on a planet though. To really live on Mars we would need to terraform the planet.

Terraforming Mars

Terraforming the red planet would require the creation of a thicker atmosphere with breathable air and soil that can ultimately grow edible plants. Mars does contain a lot of carbon dioxide, most of which is bound in solid form in its polar caps. Even if all this was released into gaseous form, it would not be enough to create an atmosphere thick enough to hold in heat, water and other necessary gases. The latest NASA rover (Perseverance) on its way to Mars should land on February 18, 2021. One piece of equipment included on the Perseverance rover is the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE), intended to produce oxygen from Martian atmospheric carbon dioxide, on an experimental scale. Even if successful, this technology could only create small amounts of oxygen.

Could plants be introduced as a means of converting carbon dioxide into oxygen? Such plants would require nitrogen rich soil and the right levels of sunlight for photosynthesis. Neither are available. Cyanobacteria may do the job more efficiently, but it would take a long time, and much of the oxygen would still be lost without a thick enough atmosphere. A day on Mars last 25 hours, a year lasts 1.9 Earth years. Mars has four seasons, just like Earth, but they last almost twice as long as our seasons.For the foreseeable future, any human inhabitants of Mars would need to be comfortable living in controlled, indoor environments. At least the last year would have given them some training in this regard.

Read more from the original source:

Dr Naomi Lavelle: Is there (or could there be) life on Mars? - Irish Examiner

Over at Nvidia, Nicole Castro has posted an excellent write-up on how director Peter Hyoguchi and producer Joan Webbs epic space adventure, Gods of Mars, is being produced with a game-changing combination of real-time rendered graphics, virtual production, and miniatures.

The movie, currently in production, tells the story of a fighter pilot who leads a team against rebels in a battle on Mars, a planet now filled with cities after decades of terraforming. The project features a mix of cinematic visual effects with live-action elements to bring intergalactic scenes to the big screen.

The film crew originally planned to make the movie primarily with miniatures but switched gears once they were introduced to real-time NVIDIA RTX graphics and Unreal Engine.

Hyoguchi and Webb, working from an Epic MegaGrant, brought together experienced VFX professionals and game developers to create the film. The virtual production started with scanning the miniature models and animating them in Unreal Engine. Ive been working as a CGI and VFX supervisor for 20 years, and I never wanna go back to older workflows, said Hyoguchi. This is a total pivot point for the next 100 years of cinema everyone is going to use this technology for their effects.

Check out a behind-the-scenes look at how the filmmakers are harnessing virtual production and real-time rendering to produce their film:

Hyoguchi and team produced rich, photorealistic worlds in 4K to create futuristic scenes with a combination of NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 GPU-powered Lenovo ThinkStation P920 workstations, ASUS ProArt Display PA32UCX-P monitors, Blackmagic Design cameras and DaVinci Resolve, and the Wacom Cintiq Pro 24.

The films live-action are supported by LED walls with real-time rendered graphics created from Unreal Engine. Actors are filmed on-set, with a virtual background projected behind them. To keep the set minimal, the team only builds what actors will physically interact with, and then uses the projected environment from Unreal Engine for the rest of the scenes.

Check out more behind-the-scenes breakdowns of the films production in this Creating a Universe video:

One big advantage of working with digital environments and assets is its real-time lighting. When previously working with CGI, Hyoguchi and his team would pre-visualize everything inside a grayscale environment. Then theyd wait hours for one frame to render before seeing a preview of what an image or scene could look like.With Unreal Engine, Hyoguchi can have scenes ray-trace rendered immediately with lights, shadows, and colors. He can move around the environment and see how everything would look in the scene, saving weeks of pre-planning.

Real-time rendering also saves money and resources. Hyoguchi doesnt need to spend thousands of dollars for renderfarms or wait two weeks for one shot to complete rendering. The RTX-powered ThinkStation P920 renders everything in real-time, which leads to more iterations, making way for a much more efficient, flexible and faster creative workflow.

Ray tracing is what makes this movie possible, said Hyoguchi. With NVIDIA RTX and the ability to do real-time ray tracing, we can make a movie with low cost and less people, and yet I still have the flexibility to make more creative choices than Ive ever had in my life.

Head over to the Nvidia website to learn more about the project and underlying technology.

Source: Nvidia

Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.

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'Gods of Mars': Virtual Production and NVIDIA RTX Real-Time Graphics at Work - Animation World Network

Its not long now until the most ambitious human mission to the Red Planet arrives there. The Perseverance rover is on course and well on track of making a perfect landing in the Jezero Crater in February 2021, and NASA is planning to make a spectacle of it.

The comprehensive coverage of the Perseverance rover includes everything from the Interactive Virtual Launch Packet, a 3D model of the rover, stickers, posters, and much more. You can find them all by accessing this link.

Aside from this resources package, NASA wants people to be a part of all this, so it set up a watch online guide for the landing, complete with the calendar of upcoming events.

Perseverance is scheduled to land on Mars on February 18, with the broadcast from Mission Control expected to start at 11:15 a.m. PST/2:15 p.m. EST. Following that moment, we are promised daily news and images from Mars on a specially created website.

Perseverance is based on the same platform as the Curiosity rover. Developed by JPLs Mars Science Laboratory, it is about the size of a car and packs a wealth of instruments for the exploration of the neighboring planet.

As the first of its kind to target long-term goals, the rover will look for signs of life, track natural resources and hazards, assess the habitability of the environment, and even try to generate oxygen in what is the first attempt humans have ever made at terraforming another planet.

It will also pick-up and store rock samples in canisters placed in strategic areas, for a future mission to pick them up and bring them to Earth.

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Mars Rover Landing Coming, Here's How to Enjoy It All - autoevolution

One of the main storylines of season 4 is the conflict on the newly discovered planet called Ilus, or New Terra. A group of Belter refugees (people who live a hardscrabble life in our solar system's asteroid belt) has colonized the seemingly hospitable planet. However, they are quickly set upon by a UN-backed research group called Royal Charter Energy (RCE) who wants to drive them from their new home.

While Ilus wasn't inhabited when the Belters and RCE arrived, it clearly was at one time. James Holden (Steven Strait) is sent to the planet to monitor the situation. But when he arrives, alien structures that appear to be powered by the presence of the protomolecule spring to life, threatening the Belter colonists and RCE crew alike. Holden has some protomolecule traces in him, which is what allows him to see the specter of Joe Miller (Thomas Jane), who was subsumed into the powerful blue goo earlier in the series. The specter is the protomolecule coming to Holden in Miller's form, but eventually what's left of Miller's consciousness gains enough control to act independently, and he is able to help Holden put an end to the chaos on Ilus.

Miller leads Holden to an ancient alien device (no, not those Ancient Aliens) that is leftover from an intergalactic war long, long ago. With the help of Elvi Okoye (Lyndie Greenwood), a geologist with Royal Charter Energy, Holden delivers Miller to the device, which shuts down the structures on Ilus. It's a victory for humankind on the frontiers of space, but it's unlikely to be the last alien threat the species faces.

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The ending of The Expanse season 4 explained - Looper

Just a little over a week separates us from the moment when the Perseverance rover is scheduled to take off on its mission to Mars. The American space agency is targeting a 7:50 a.m. EDT Thursday, July 30 launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, but that may change depending on a variety of factors.

To get the hype up, NASA launched in the previous years a naming competition for the rover (Perseverance won) asked people to digitally write their names on chips that would travel to the Red Planet (about 11 million names were entered) and even had a live feed of the rovers bay up and running the whole time the machine was being assembled.

It only makes sense for the launch to be a very in-your-face event. NASA will kick off pre-launch festivities on Monday, July 27, with a pre-launch news conference and science briefing, On Tuesday, some more briefings will follow, this time related to the sample return part of the mission, and another news conference is scheduled for Wednesday, July 29.

On the day of the launch, NASA will air live the start of the mission on the NASA Television Youtube channel (video attached below) and the agencys website. By 11:30 a.m. EDT, the launch should all be done with, and a post-launch briefing is scheduled.

If you still have mixed feelings about Perseverance, you should know this: the rover is the single most important machine humans have sent to another planet. Not only is it tasked with all the chores described above, but it is also the first piece of hardware to be sent to Mars as part of the countrys Moon to Mars exploration approach that will culminate, some hope by the end of the current decade, with the first humans setting foot on another planet.

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Perseverance Rover Launches on July 30, Here's How to Watch - autoevolution