Category Archives: Mars Colonization

Sol 0 - Mars Colonization - Part 10 - Finale!
Subscribe to stay up-to-date with all the latest videos - youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=orbitalpotato Get it here - http://www.solzerogame.com/ Links N #39; Stuff! Twitter - twitter.com/o...

By: Orbital Potato

See the article here:
Sol 0 - Mars Colonization - Part 10 - Finale! - Video

Let #39;s Play Sol 0-Mars Colonization #004 [Deutsch] - Auf der Suche nach Wasser
In dieser Folge mssen wir dringend Wasser finden den das was wir zur Zeit zur Verfgung haben reicht nicht fr unsere gesamte Bevlkerung. Mit ein paar Tricks schaffen wir es noch ein...

By: myNiKa Lets Plays

Continued here:
Let's Play Sol 0-Mars Colonization #004 [Deutsch] - Auf der Suche nach Wasser - Video

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk held a press conference today at SpaceX HQ (via Bloomberg) to discuss a number of his companys upcoming initiatives, including a new engineering office in Seattle, as well as next-generation autonomous driving features for Tesla, and the progress of SpaceXs reusable rocket program, in light of a near-successful recapture of the stage 1 rocket during this weeks Dragon launch.

Musk mostly retread old territory, talking about the new satellite engineering facility in Seattle (which is actually dedicated to satellite development, in addition to actually being a satellite office, yuk yuk) and how it will pave the way for Musks ultimate goal of colonizing Mars within his lifetime.The ambitious CEO has discussed Mars colonization in the past, first in October as a viable option for preserving the future of humanity. Hes also promised more recently to reveal more details of his colonization plan this year, of which SpaceXs satellite plans act as one small part.

Other topics up for discussion at the event included Teslas sales goals: The electric car-maker wants to ship 100,000 vehicles per year, which is a steep incline from its 33,000 shipping total for all of 2014. That was limited by its ability to produce enough vehicles to meet demand, however, and Musk said that plans to ship the SUV format Model X in the third quarter of this year, as previously announced.

The Model X wont just be news because it will offer the convenience factors of a larger vehicle, but because it will be different in other regards from whats come before. Musk said that it will feature a whole bunch of things [] that have not been revealed, according to Bloomberg, and that it will have autonomous driving features that are a step beyond what weve already seen from the company in that area. Musk has previously stated that Tesla will lead the market in autonomous driving, offering something akin to autopilot for its cars before anyone else does so in consumer models.

The SpaceX CEO also discussed the recent landing attempt for the first stage rocket that helped propel Dragon to its fifth resupply mission for the International Space Station. The rocket nearly succeeded in touching down for a landing aboard a SpaceX autonomous seafaring spaceportbarge, but ran out of hydraulic fluid and landed hard instead, damaging the platform. Musk says that in around three weeks time, theyll have a decent chance to pull it off without incident.

I honestly just paused after re-reading that last paragraph and thought I cant believe Im living in a time where Im able to write that sentence, and not in a fictional context. That is all.

More:
Elon Musk Talks Seattle Satellites For Mars, Teases Model X Autonomy Features

Sol 0 - Mars Colonization - Part 9 - Nuclear Explosion!
Subscribe to stay up-to-date with all the latest videos - youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=orbitalpotato Get it here - http://www.solzerogame.com/ Links N #39; Stuff! Twitter - twitter.com/o...

By: Orbital Potato

Continued here:
Sol 0 - Mars Colonization - Part 9 - Nuclear Explosion! - Video

Sol 0 - Mars Colonization - Part 8 - Food Crisis!
Subscribe to stay up-to-date with all the latest videos - youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=orbitalpotato Get it here - http://www.solzerogame.com/ Li...

By: Orbital Potato

Excerpt from:
Sol 0 - Mars Colonization - Part 8 - Food Crisis! - Video

Lifeforms from Earth may touch down on Mars just a few years from now but those interplanetary travelers would be plants, not people.

A tiny, self-contained greenhouse has been selected to fly on the robotic lander that Red Planet colonization effort Mars One intends to launch in 2018, group representatives announced Monday (Jan. 5).

The greenhouse experiment, known as Seed, was one of 35 proposed lander science payloads submitted by university groups around the world. Mars One whittled this original pool down to 10 finalists, and Seed was chosen by a monthlong public vote that closed on Dec. 31. [Mars One's Red Planet Colony Project (Gallery)]

"We are really pleased to be the selected project among so many excellent ideas," Seed team member Teresa Arajo said in a statement. "We are thrilled to be the first to send life to Mars. This will be a great journey that we hope to share with you all."

The payload will send seeds of the small flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana, an organism commonly used in space-science experiments, to Mars inside two containers. (The outer one will serve a protective function.) Upon landing, the seeds will be exposed to heat and a growth medium, giving them the chance to germinate and grow. Images relayed to Earth will let team members who are based at several universities in Portugal and Spain know how the experiment is going.

Seed is designed to advance researchers' understanding of the potential for plant growth on Mars, which could aid the development of life-support systems on the Red Planet, experiment leaders said.

Although Seed won the competition, it has not yet locked down its spot on the 2018 mission. Mars One will first examine the proposal, to make sure it is feasible and can be integrated on the lander, group representatives said. If this analysis reveals any serious issues, Mars One may end up going with one of the contest runners-up. (You can read more about all 10 finalists here; the second- and third-place finishers are Cyano Knights and Lettuce on Mars.)

Mars One aims to land four astronauts on the Red Planet in 2025, kickstarting a permanent colony that will be augmented with new arrivals every two years thereafter. There are no plans at the moment to bring any of the settlers back to Earth.

To help prepare for colonization, Mars One a nonprofit based in the Netherlands plans to launch a number of robotic precursor missions, including the 2018 effort, which would send a communications orbiter and lander to Mars.

Mars One intends to pay for its ambitious activities primarily by staging a global media event around the colonization process, from astronaut selection through the pioneers' time on the Red Planet.

Read the original:
Tiny Greenhouse Could Fly Plants to Mars in 2018

Lets Play Sol 0 Blind 5
Sol 0 is a Mars Colonization Game that is in very early development at time of this recording. Check out the game here: http://www.solzerogame.com/ This is a...

By: Negative Root

Read the original here:
Lets Play Sol 0 Blind 5 - Video

Sol 0 - Mars Colonization - Part 6 - Colonists!
Subscribe to stay up-to-date with all the latest videos - youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=orbitalpotato Get it here - http://www.solzerogame.com/ Li...

By: Orbital Potato

Follow this link:
Sol 0 - Mars Colonization - Part 6 - Colonists! - Video

Sol 0 - Mars Colonization - Part 7 - Repairs!
Subscribe to stay up-to-date with all the latest videos - youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=orbitalpotato Get it here - http://www.solzerogame.com/ Links N #39; Stuff! Twitter - twitter.com/o...

By: Orbital Potato

Read the original post:
Sol 0 - Mars Colonization - Part 7 - Repairs! - Video

When the first living visitor from Earth lands on Mars we might well expect it to be a man or a woman, but if students from the University of Southampton Spaceflight Society have their way, it could be one small step for a lettuce. That may seem more than a bit mad, but its part of an experiment to see if crops can grow in the Martian environment as a prelude to colonization.

If Mars is ever going to be colonized, the pioneers are going to have to learn to live off the land. Shipping food, water, air, spare parts, and the other necessities of life would be insanely expensive, and a completely self-contained habitat, even if feasible, misses the point of colonization and might as well be built in the Gobi Desert or Antarctica. A truly success colony will need, for example, to use the Martian air and the Martian sunlight to grow crops.

Developed by a team of under and postgraduate students as part of an international competition sponsored by the Mars One group, the Southampton #LettuceOnMars experiment consists of a small greenhouse that will be able to grow lettuces using the atmosphere and sunlight on Mars. The goal is to demonstrate that it is feasible to grow crops on Mars with an open-ended technology that uses Martian resources rather than the closed systems used in gardening experiments on the International Space Station or relying on materials sent from Earth.

The #LettuceOnMars team

The greenhouse consists of an aircraft-grade aluminum case with a polycarbonate dome, which is curved to prevent to accumulation of dust in the event of a storm, blocks the hard UV radiation from the Sun, and acts as a bioshield to separate the growing area from the outside world. In addition, the experiment also includes pumps for pressurizing the extremely thin Martian atmosphere; filters to keep out dust; a heater; supplies of water, nutrients, and pH balancing chemicals; and a bank of UV lamps.

The latter is particularly important because the sunlight on Mars is only half as bright as it is on Earth. On the best days, it only reaches the level of an overcast winter's day, so LEDs designed to shed a narrow spectrum of light to promote growth will be used as a supplement.

So why choose the common lettuce? According to the Southampton team, it is because lettuce is often used in growing experiments, has already flown in space several times, is edible, grows quickly from hardy seed, and is compact.

Block diagram of the Martian lettuce experiment

At the beginning of the mission, the experiment, if selected, will be inactive and the lettuce seeds frozen into a state of dormancy for the seven-month voyage to the Red Planet on the Mars One unmanned lander in 2018. The landing area has yet to be determined, but Mars One says it will be in a band covering the ancient Martian seabeds that now form the northern plains of Mars between 40 and 50 latitude. This is regarded as an area for a future colony because the air pressure is slightly higher than in the uplands.

On the surface, the greenhouse will be heated to 21 to 24 C (70 to 75 F), then pressurized using the Martian atmosphere combined with nutrient-laced water vapor and oxygen generated by electrolysis. Once the seeds have germinated, the twilight-like Martian sunlight will be supplemented by the LEDs as cameras and sensors track the growth of the lettuces over a four week period. After the experiment is complete, the heating unit will be turned up to high to kill the lettuces and destroy and living organisms that might be in the greenhouse to avoid contaminating the Martian environment.

Continue reading here:
Growing greens on the Red Planet