Category Archives: Mars Colonization

Explorer astronaut finding and walking on water on Saturn's moon Titan. An astronaut walking in the ... [+] ammoniac sea of Enceladus. A surreal dream scene..

We choose to go to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn and do the other things not because they are easy but because they are hard.

This paraphrase of JFKs famous Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort from 1962 may seem slightly ridiculous given that we havent even been back to the Moon since 1972, but crewed missions to gas giant moons like Titan, Enceladus, Europa and Callisto will be within our capabilities by the end of the 21st century.

Thats according to new research that lays out exactly what humans can achieve over the next few centuries in the realm of space exploration.

The highlights include the first human-crewed missions to land on Mars, selected Asteroid Belt objects, and selected moons of Jupiter and Saturn before the end of the 21st century. The 23rd century could see launches of human-crewed interstellar missions to exoplanets within about 40 light-years while missions to other galaxies will have to wait until the end of the 24th century.

Saturns largest moon, Titan, is an obvious target but Enceladus (pictured) is at least as ... [+] intriguing for human colonization due to a suspected subsurface ocean.

This rough timeframe for humanity to become a multi-world species via off-world colonization makes for fascinating reading, but it also comes with a dire warning.

Produced by a research team led by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the paper is entitled Avoiding the Great Filter: A Projected Timeframe for Human Expansion Off-World. It constructs a model based upon empirical data of space exploration and computing power through the first six decades or so of the space age. Thats reckoned to have begun in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik-1.

The paper projects the earliest possible launch dates for human-crewed missions from cis-lunar space (not beyond the Moon) to selected Solar System and interstellar destinations.

So as well as looking at what weve achieved so far it uses Moores Law, for long an indicator of developments in the tech industry. Moore's Law states that the number of transistors on a microchipdoubles about every two years and the cost of computers is halved. It also says that the growth of microprocessors is exponential.

Take that to its logical conclusion and what do you get? A space-faring civilization!

With that in mind, and having crunched the numbers, the authors think that these are the first possible launch dates from Earth:

However, all of that can only occur ifand its probably a big ifhumanity can avoid what astronomers call the great filter.

Earth. Beginning with the development and deployment of the first nuclear weapons near the end of ... [+]f World War II, humanity entered a Window of Peril, which will not be safely closed until robust off-world colonies become a reality.

Jargon from those involved in SETIthe search for extra-terrestrial intelligencethe great filter thesis, coined in 1996, states that life in the Universe may be doomed to go extinct due to pandemics, climate change, nuclear war, solar flares ... there are many dangers.

Its an attempt to explain why weve found no intelligent life anywhere else in the Universe despite it being statistically probable.

The authors suggest that humans entered a Window of Peril with the development and deployment of the first nuclear weapons near the end of World War II.

The solution, of course, is for humans to become an interplanetary species, thereby guaranteeing its long-term survival. An aggressive and sustained space exploration program, which includes colonization, is thus seen as critical to the long-term survival of the human race, reads the paper.

An artist's concept allows us to imagine what it would be like to stand on the surface of the ... [+] exoplanet TRAPPIST-1f, located in the TRAPPIST-1 system in the constellation Aquarius. Because this planet is thought to be tidally locked to its star, meaning the same face of the planet is always pointed at the star, there would be a region called the terminator that perpetually divides day and night. If the night side is icy, the day side might give way to liquid water in the area where sufficient starlight hits the surface. One of the unusual features of TRAPPIST-1 planets is how close they are to each other so close that other planets could be visible in the sky from the surface of each one. In this view, the planets in the sky correspond to TRAPPIST1e (top left crescent), d (middle crescent) and c (bright dot to the lower right of the crescents). TRAPPIST-1e would appear about the same size as the moon and TRAPPIST1-c is on the far side of the star. The star itself, an ultra-cool dwarf, would appear about three times larger than our own sun does in Earth's skies. The system has been revealed through observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope as well as other ground-based observatories, and the ground-based TRAPPIST telescope for which it was named after. (Photo digital Illustration by NASA/NASA via Getty Images)

Now we have a to-do list that matches our likely technological development ... though that would need to include propulsion systems that can go at (or close to) the speed of light.

Without revolutionary breakthroughs in propulsive engineering, human voyagesand any colonization that would followto interstellar destinations is highly unlikely to be undertaken, write the authors. Fortunately, the Solar System presents a target rich interplanetary environment for astronauts to further explore and adventuring colonists to conquer starting here in the 21st century.

Achieve all this and humans will have assured its own survival and become a true spacefaring civilization. Avoiding the great filter, it seems, is within humanitys reach.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

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The Next Giant Leap? We Can And Must Send People To The Moons Of Jupiter And Saturn By 2080 Say NASA Scientists - Forbes

Over the past few years, the battle to get to space has been fought primarily between two men: Jeff Bezos, the Amazon overlord who hopes to regularly propel civilians into suborbital space with Blue Origin, and Elon Musk, the Telsa baron whose SpaceX hopes to one day colonize Mars. (Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is in the mix, too.)

But what about Tom Sachs?

The American artist may not own a rocket company, but he has spent over a decade exploring an all-consuming passion for space, starting with the Moon at Gagosian in 2007, and onto Mars at Park Avenue Armory (2012) and Jupiters moon (2016). In September, he opened Space Program: Rare Earths, an experience at Hamburgs Deichtorhallen Museum that leads visitors through a series of tasks mimicking the mining rare minerals on earths closest asteroid, which are needed to continue to manufacture iPhones. More recently, he launched a capsule collection with the Canadian retailer Ssense, a sponsor of the Deichtorhallen show. The selection includes mottled ceramic mugs, folding chairs, T-shirts, a Casio watch, and more, and released last week on a microsite that allows visitors to get a sense of the project remotely. Concurrently, the Montreal store is hosting an installation of Sachs's works, and distributing a limited edition zine.

A compelling contrast driving Sachss space projects is that while space exploration is aesthetically defined by technological innovation, Sachss art is characterized by an obsession with handwork and human imperfection. Those with even a passing interest in fashion and art will recognize his handwriting, which covers his studio, films, and fashion collaborations, and pieces in a recent exhibition are made of materials like foam core, plywood, and hot glue. The best made thing ever is clearly the thing were using right nowthis phone, the supercomputer that, If its in the palm of your hand, can do endless things, he said over video chat last week. And yet the phone has no evidence that it was madetheres no sign of the hand, no sign of its construction from human work. It is utterly automated. Or, as Sachs put it, One of its greatest achievements is that its miraculous. Theres no seams. Even the software is designed to make it look like its there without even knowing it.

Sachs likes to show the seams, which is what separates art from the machine. Artists have an advantage over industry, in that Apple could never make anything as flawed, and as personal, as my sculpture, he said. It can't do fonts. [Artificial intelligence] can't do music. It makes noise that sounds like music, but it can't do it. It cant make soul. And the artist has this advantage. The artist can say, I am somebody. I exist. And thats a quality that I'm always trying to amplify in my work.

That quality is further amplified by the pieces created with Ssense, which is known for its unorthodox collaborations but envisions the Sachs project, and its attendant website, as a first-of-its-kind digital counterpart to an art exhibition. Im interested in making things that last, Sachs said. The $10 T-shirt you wear once is the most expensive T-shirt you could own. And the $100 T-shirt you wear a thousand times is the best value you could ever make. And I think all the products we made with Ssense have that quality. Everything, he pointed out, is made in the United States; hes particularly proud of the quality of the shirts. His favorite piece is a Leatherman, the Rolls Royce of pocket knives. I hope that everyone who gets one uses it, he said, [and] doesn't have it on a shelf, but they use it and they fuck it up, and if they break it, they fix it.

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Tom Sachs Is Winning the Space Race, With Merch to Match - GQ

By John Moriarity

Elon Musk has been talking about colonizing Mars for years. He said he only needs about 60 years to create a self-sustaining civilization there with a million people, and every time I turn on the tube I see another one of his rockets doing amazing things. But let me ask you this, Mr. Musk: Once I get to the Red Planet, where in Gods name can I find a decent cup of coffee?

Here on Earth coffee is the second most valuable commodity, after oil. Over 2.25 billion cups are consumed daily. If coffee were to suddenly disappear, a global panic would surely follow, shortly after sunrise. We simply love the stuff: Here in the U.S., 70% of the population starts the day with a cup or two or three.

Ive got coffee on the brain and in it too. I run a coffee shop in Old Towns Fontaine Caffe & Creperie where I serve some of the worlds finest coffee under my brand Roastee Toastee Coffee. I source it, roast it, brew it and sometimes add latte art, such as flowers and hearts, into ceramic cups of it. My company began in 2018 when I asked the same question I offer to Elon: Where do I get the good stuff?

This coffee question isnt easily answered. In fact, Ive found that the big players in coffee have blitzed us with propaganda and marketing for a good 100 years or so, to the point where most folks dont even know what a good cup of joe tastes like.

Lets start with a few crucial basics.

First, in order to have great coffee, you must have great beans. These beans often grow at high altitudes in volcanic soil in far-flung, off the beaten path locations, like the jungles of Guatemala or high in the mountains of Kenya.

For you DIY types that think you can do it all, you cant grow Arabica coffee shrubs in your home garden, unless you live in Kona, Hawaii, in which case Im inviting myself over to your place for a few months to help you kick-start the venture.

Even if you have the good beans and have figured out which types taste the best out of the more than 6,000 Arabica varietals, those beans need to be roasted properly to bring out the proper flavors. The alchemy that turns coffee cherry seeds into grindable, brewable beans is known as the Maillard reaction, named after French chemist Louis Camille Maillard. In 1912, Maillard scientifically identified that when roasting coffee beans, caramelizing sugars begin to combine with amino acids to form delicious molecules called melanoidins. I could go on, but I feel like I might bring on a feeling of chemistry class deja-vu. The takeaway here is that melanoidins taste darn good.

Brewing coffee is all about extraction. To take top-notch beans and transform them into a magical elixir in your cup, you must have the proper dose or amount of coffee ground to a specific fineness and combined with just the right amount of water heated to exactly 200 degrees. The literal scientific term used to describe a properly extracted cup of coffee is known as the tasty point.

It may not be as grand a plan as putting a town on Mars, but I plan to spend the rest of my life striving to find the ultimate tasty point. Why dont you join me? Itll be an otherworldly delicious experience, right here on Earth.

The writer is founder of Roastee Toastee Coffee, which operates out of Fontaine Caffe & Creperie located at 119 N. Royal St. in Old Town.

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Foodie: Coffee 101: The beans, the roast and the brew - Alexandria Times

The creation of factories in space is not a whim of billionaires detached from reality, but projects that are gradually developed and bearing fruit. Like Jeff Bezos, president of Blue Origin, which aims to send polluting industries into space, space research firm Varda Space aims to be the first to build a factory in space through a partnership with SpaceX, which should be as early as 2023.

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An industrial plant in space? Varda Space may seem far-fetched there is no shortage of space on land to design factories but it could lead to the development of industries on the ground.

Fardas interest is in using microgravity to create new materials or advance research into specific products on the International Space Station. According to TechCrunch, for example, we can make bioprinted devices or Semiconductors Even if nothing is announced at the moment because no contract has been signed with the client.

In order to make the flight, Varda Space must find partners to make the flight to low Earth orbit. This is the place SpaceX The latest offering comes in a show of companies looking to send things into space to take advantage of one of their scheduled flights to do so. In short, the two companies are on a journey through space together. When they reach their destination, they separate and each goes to work for himself. In short, a kind of spatial car sharing. A little different from your Sunday trip between Angers and Paris

Varda Space has announced that it wants to move its factory to Falcon 9, Properties SpaceXBefore the start of the year 2023 launchers From SpaceX, it will carry the supplies needed to set up the plant in space. If the companies dont reveal any of the contract terms, we know the machine will spend about three months in orbit testing these new manufacturing technologies.

However, another launch option has been explored using Electron missiles by Lab racket. But Varda Space did not want to put all its eggs in one basket, as the New Zealand company would provide the spacecraft to house supplies, as well as the capsule to return to Earth. A very important capsule since returningAtmosphere It is made at Mach 28 and the material should not break Drop.

In fact, the most complex moment from industrialization to recovery remains the moment of return. Mach 28 times the speed of sound (1,224 km/h). Think of science fiction movies where we see the capsule returning to Earth. Now imagine moving sensitive materials through this uncertain environment while absorbing many outside influences. This will undoubtedly be one of the pivotal moments of the mission.

Unlike other spacecraft specializing in communications or imaging, Varda Space and its Space Factory It does not require a specific task path. It is enough to stay there low earth orbit. Lessons learned during this first trip may enable others to implement. Varda Space hopes to launch a second or even a third by the end of 2024.

A date that remains elusive, allowing other projects to see the light of day. For example, we know that the European Union is working on this topic through the Period project, which aims to develop an orbital station. It will focus on assembling and manufacturing satellites directly from space in partnership with Airbus. Either way, these ambitious projects give us a glimpse into new horizons for industrialists and entrepreneurs from all fields.

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SpaceX launched the first factory in space - Taylor Daily Press

Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has commented that he would like to build cars on Mars before he dies.

According informs Fox Business, during a meeting of Tesla shareholders held last week in Austin, Texas, one of the attendees asked Musk when the company would start assemble cars off earth.

An off-planet factory? I like the way you think, replied the mogul. After admitting that he found it difficult to establish a plant on Mars in the near futureHe noted that he would like to see one before he dies. I do not know what we will have in about 40 years, but if hopefully it will be possible to create such a factory before we die, that would be greathe insisted.

The idea of colonize the red planet Its nothing new to Elon Musk, who aims to build a self-sufficient city of one million people there by 2050. Those people would come to mars on the Starship spacecraft, the reusable interplanetary vehicle that SpaceX is developing.

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Elon Musk wants to see Tesla build cars on Mars before he dies - Market Research Telecast

Scott Morrison has signed a deal with NASA to build a rover that will be sent to the moon. The project will be supported through the Trailblazer program under the Australian Governments $150 million Moon to Mars initiative.

The Australian government is hoping that the Trailblazer program will accelerate the growth of the Australian space industry, lift Australian involvement in national and international supply chains and be an inspiration to the Australian public.

Scott Morrison said, This mission to the moon is just one exciting way that we can create opportunity and jobs for the future, and our government will ensure Australians reap the benefits,. Morrison isaiming to triple the size of the space sector by 2030, adding $12 billion to the economy and creating up to 20,000 high-skilled jobs.

Up to $50 million in funding will be available to Australian businesses and researchers building the semi-autonomous robot that NASA will then fly to the moon. The aim is to collect lunar soil (regolith) containing oxides in the hopes of extracting oxygen. If successful, this mission could lead to establishing a man-made moon base.

The moon rover could make its landing as early as 2026, and if successful, will be the first time Australia makes its presence on its closest solar neighbour.

Finding a source of oxygen on the moon is considered crucial to establishing a sustainable human presence and supporting future missions to Mars.

Colonizing the moon could be beneficial to human civilisation in space as farming at the lunar north pole would provide eight hours of sunlight per day during the local summer, creating more efficient and substantial farming methods.

It is estimated that a 0.5 hectare of farming space could feed 100 people.

By working together with the Australian Space Agency and our partners around the world, NASA will uncover more discoveries and accomplish more research through the Artemis program, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said regarding the deal reached by the two governments.

Artemis is NASAs mission to return humans to the surface of the moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new generation of explorers.

Science Minister Melissa Price was in agreement that this mission would grow our space sector enormously:

With our expertise in robotics technology, NASA wants to partner with us on this project to the moon, creating our own lunar history,.

While details regarding the design remain largely in the hands of whichever businesses or researchers are granted the funding, it is expected that the mission and the rover adhere to the following criteria including, but not limited to:

Further details will be announced when the Trailblazer program guidelines are released later this year, with applications expected to be submitted in early 2022.

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Australia is going to make it to the moon for the first time in history! - Happy Mag

In a new study, researchers led by Jonathan H. Jiang, a scientist at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, investigated what humans can achieve over the next few centuries when the subject is space exploration. The results showed that manned missions to moons such as Titan and Enceladus would be within reach of our resources and capabilities by the end of the 21st century, and that missions to other star systems could become a reality by the end of the 21st century.

To that end, the authors projected some of the closest release dates for the first manned missions to places in the Solar System and beyond. Then they created a model with empirical data from space exploration, added to the computational power during the first decades of the space age, the beginning of which is marked by the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1, in 1024. As a result, they got some interesting estimates.

The authors believe that manned missions to Mars can take place until the end of the decade 2020 (Image: Play/Unplash/Mike Kiev)

For the authors, the first settlements could be assembled on Mars by the end of the decade 1996. Manned missions there, to selected objects from the Asteroid Belt, and even to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn could take place before the end of this century. As early as the 23rd century, we could track interstellar mission launches destined for exoplanets up to light-years away. Missions to stars, which are half the distance to the center of the Milky Way, would be possible from the end of the XXIV century.

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Propulsion is a challenge

To reach their destinations, the crew of these missions would have to traveling in vehicles with propulsion systems that allow reaching the speed of light or, at least, approaching it. Without revolutionary inventions in propulsive engineering, human travel and any subsequent colonization to interstellar destinations would be highly unlikely, the authors point out. filter.

This is a theory coined in 1996 by the economist Robin Hanson, who proposed that there must be something inanimate that prevents matter from joining together to form living organisms through abiogenesis, and from reaching a certain level of development. Thus, life in the universe would be doomed to be extinguished by various factors, such as pandemics, climate change, nuclear wars, and various other dangers that perhaps explain why we have not yet found intelligent life out therealthough this is statistically likely to happen.

So, the authors suggest that humans entered a window of danger at the end of Monday World War due to the development and use of the first nuclear weapons. So they believe that the only way to safely close that window would be to become an interplanetary species to ensure our long-term survival. An aggressive and sustainable space exploration program, including colonization, is considered critical for the long-term survival of the human race, they warn.

The article with the results of the study is available in arXiv online repository, no peer review.

Source: Forbes.com, Universe Today

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Manned moon and asteroid missions could happen later this century The Clare People - The Clare People

Despite heavy doses of rumor and speculation (via Half Guarded)that a "Martian" sequel is or at least, was underway, "The Martian 2" never attained liftoff, much less a countdown to launch. Instead, Andy Weir has another space adventure underway, but this one is based on his crime thriller set on the moon.

Following up on the success of "The Martian," the Los Angeles Times reported in 2017 that Weir's next movie adaptation would be of his novel "Artemis." IMDb, however, lists "Artemis"as in development, with "The LEGO Movie" and "21 Jump Street"filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller listed the directors.

While the plot outline of "Artemis" is unique, it hardly could be considered as a sequel to "The Martian." In an interview with Indulge Express, Weir said the story "takes place in a city on the moon in the late 21st century. The main character is a woman who is a small-time criminal, and she gets in way over her head."

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Will We Ever Get The Martian 2? - Looper

Its been 15 years already since the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) reached the neighboring planets orbit with only one goal in mind: survey it from above. In that time, countless images of the Red Planet have made their way back to Earth, but most of them have remained largely unknown to the wider public for various reasons.

To help these guys along, weve started our Get to Know Mars section, and weve featured quite the number of Mars images already. Today, were all learning about how the frozen dunes of the planet seem to be charging into the great unknown once the sublimation process starts going during the planets spring season.

What youre looking at on the right side of the image is a region in the Kaiser Crater, an area filled with dunes that during the winter get covered in dry ice.Once temperatures rise during spring, this carbon dioxide ice sublimates, moving directly from solid to gas state, and creating in the process incredible rippled images on the surface.

The image youre looking at now was taken by HiRISE from an altitude of 250 km (155 miles) back in 2016, but was only recently dusted off by the operators of the orbital camera. The American space agency says the alcoves visible at the crest of the dunes could have been formed by the gas coming from the dry ice.

Just like all other images sent back from Mars over the years, this one too could lead to a better understanding of the planet were planning to colonize over the coming decades, provided we can stick to our ambitious space exploration goals.

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Still-Frozen Martian Sand Dunes Seem to Be Charging Into the Great Unknown - autoevolution

Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars and put Dogecoin on the moon. The Tesla CEO and SpaceX boss, cryptocurrency Dogecoin market mover, Bitcoin enthusiast, serial meme-poster on Twitter may also be a fan of the hit TV series, Game of Thrones. The chief of Tesla recently replied to a tweet posted by Clean Technica containing an article link that read Looks Like Tesla Paid Off Its $1.4 Billion China Loan Agreement For Giga Shanghai Early." The story on the website went on to detail that In December 2019, Tesla was granted a $1.4 billion loan from Chinese banks for Giga Shanghai. The five-year loan was partially used to roll over previous debts. The rest of the money would go towards Giga Shanghai and Tesla Chinas operations. The interest rate was pegged at 90% of Chinas one-year benchmark interest rate." The article also detailed that Teslas Q2 2021 balance sheet no longer shows the $1.4 billion loan or any portion of it, implying that any restrictions on Tesla associated with those loans have ended.

Elon Musk on Twitter had replied to the statement with Tesla always pays its debts."

While to most people Musks sentence may seem just like an example of exceptional integrity for one of the worlds richest billionaires, for Games of Thrones fans, the line reminded them of one from the series. A Lannister always pays his debts."

What does the Game of Thrones line mean? The official Lannister motto is actually Hear Me Roar," which underlines the Lions power, strength and ferocity that they want to project. But this motto is rarely used. Behind closed doors, the Lannisters are defined by their unofficial saying, A Lannister Always Pays His Debts. On one level, the saying reminds everyone that the Lannisters are rich. On the literal level, A Lannister Always Pays His Debts means they can be trusted to pay back favors or loans, but the motto has a flipside - if wronged, a Lannister will seek revenge, explained The Take on Game of Thrones symbolism.

While Tesla may have paid off their debts to China, they certainly didnt pay Musk much for his contributions to the company. In August this year, Musk revealed his compensation from Tesla, one of the worlds largest e-vehicle companies, however, was allegedly zero in the year 2020. Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) said Chief Executive Officer Elon Musks total compensation for 2020 was nil, compared to $23,760 in 2019, reported Reuters. The electric-car maker also said in a regulatory filing that finance chief Zachary Kirkhorns total compensation was $46.6 million, versus the $21.2 million he got in 2019. The pay package of Musk, who is also a major shareholder and CEO of rocket maker SpaceX, requires Teslas market capitalization and financial growth to hit a series of rising targets. As of April, Musk had qualified for Tesla options in his 2018 pay package that are now worth over $30 billion.

Tesla added Technoking of Tesla" to Musks list of official titles in a regulatory filing in March that also named Kirkhorn Master of Coin." In April, Reuters had reported that Musk, who is also a major shareholder and CEO of rocket maker SpaceX, receives no salary at Tesla. His pay package requires Teslas market capitalization and financial growth to hit a series of rising target.

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Did Elon Musk Just Make a Game of Thrones Reference About Tesla? - News18