Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Humans caused earth's warming... psh
Pluto and Its Cousins
Looking for Life All over Again
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Visionary, Epic, Crazy...or your next paper topic?
Those crazy Europeans and their 3D pictures
But, did you guys hear what those silly Euros did on their fly by (besides drop of Mars landers?), they took pictures of Mars in...3D!! Now, when I heard this, I assumed that they did some computer-imaging, terrain maping, composite photos or something, but no. When they said 3D, they mean old-school, put on your 3-D glasses, red-blue pictures. They also took some pictures and strung them together to make a movie of Phobos casting a shadow on Mars.
Oh, those crazy Europeans.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Urey Will Test for Specific Building Blocks of Life
Rosetta Measures Mars' Magnetic Environment
NASA Mars Rover Spirit Status 23 February 2007
The Mars Rover Spirit is still functioning and taking measurements of Mars atmospheric opacity. However, the rovers arms are no longer being used. Engineers must perform diagnostic tests to determine why there has been positioning errors with the arms. However, everything else on the rover is still functioning normally.
Using Mars' Orbit
Sunday, February 25, 2007
NASA Builds a Rollercoaster
Buzz Aldrin's Roadmap to Mars
Back to the Moon!!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Radiation You Say? We'll let You Know!
Radiation Consequences of Mars Mission
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Still Can't Find the Beagle 2
Rover Software Looks Promising
NASA Successfully Launches Science Satellite Quintet
USA's Mars and Moon Goals are Blocking Space Station
The Ice is Melting
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Oppritunity passes 10k.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Spirit's Spectrometer
Why Science is Ignored
Saturday, February 17, 2007
ESA spacecraft nears its mars swingby
ESA engineers are preparing for tomorrow, when they will do a swingby of mars. Engineers are using the gravity of mars to put the spacecraft on track to visit a comet that is 4.4 billion miles away. The trip will take a total of 10 years.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Looking for Life Again
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Oh man, HiRISE does it again.
HiRISE (that is one popular telescope) found the offending pictures on a pass over the deep canyon Valles Marineris.
Space Historian Sees Cyborgs in Our Future
Mass Spec to Explore for Life Signs on Mars
A group of scientists at John Hopkins Medical School just received a $750,000 grant from NASA to developed a tiny mass spectrometer that would be designed to search for the 'chemicals of life'. The mass spec would be designed to go with a mission scheduled to launch in 2013. They hope to identify molecules that could indicate the building blocks of life (analogous to the bases and sugar and phosphorus backbone that make up DNA).
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Success for the Thales Space Laser Headed to Mars
The Thales space laser programme in Paris has completed work on a a compact low weight laser that will operate for 2 years on mars. This laser will help to better analyze martian rocks. Tests have shown the the new laser and withstand impacts of 2000 g's.
Going to Mars via Ares
This new rocket system, named after the Greek counter part to the Roman god of war (Mars), has apparently passed first inspections by NASA, and is on its way to becoming the rocket of the future that will take Americans to the Moon and ultimately Mars. Sweet! Sounds like nothing is final yet, but make your own conclusions: here is the article.
Mars Rovers Get Four Upgrades
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
New material being developed for spacecraft that can 'heal' itself
CMU Software Makes Spirit and Opportunity Smarter
Monday, February 12, 2007
MRO glitch is disrupting data
New Space Suits in the Offing
Martian Hiker's Maps
Mars Desert Research Station
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Moon Rocks? Try Martian Moon Rocks
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Night time clouds
Friday, February 9, 2007
Send your name to Mars!
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Astronaut Love Triangle Highlights Mars Mission Challenge: Avoiding Crazy on Long Flights
Astronaut Love Triangle Highlights Mars Mission Challenge: Avoiding Crazy on Long Flights
NASA investigating problems on latest mars orbiter
This article, posted yesterday by USA Today, details the problems that NASA is having with 2 instruments currently in orbit around Mars. The problems began last year, but have recently worsened. Because of these problems, one of the instruments is no longer able to be used. This instrument is called a climate sounder, and it maps the temperature, ice clouds, and amount of dust in mars' atmosphere.
Terraforming Mars
Other than some of the spacey ideas, this page presents the problem at hand with colonizing the red planet and then brainstorms some entertaining ideas of how these might be fixed.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Hardware Problems
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Kepler Mission Goes Looking for Extrasolar Planets
Super Sunday: ISS Spacewalkers Complete Cooling System Overhaul
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
I swear, iI read things other than Telescope Weekly, but still...
LMT stands for Liquid Mirror Telescope, and it is made by "spinning reflective liquid, usually mercury" to create a reflective parabolla. On the earth the size of these telescopes are limited because they create wind when the spin, but on the moon... The plan right now is to build a 20 meter mirror. For reference, the Hubble has a 2.4 meter mirror, and its replacement will have 6m mirror. This telescope has the potential to "provide a depth of observation which would be unmatched with any telescope on Earth or in space"!! Heck yeah!
Just replace "Star Trek" with "Research is Good"
The difference between the tone and attitude of the two sites could not be more apparent. Where Hoagland’s site was obviously dedicated to espousing propaganda-like theories and solely interested in promoting his ancient-Martian theory, The Mars Society presented itself as a private Mars interest group, looking to stimulate and encourage any and all research about Mars. The home page of The Enterprise Mission’s site was enough for me to completely disregard anything else on the site, because as I scrolled down I was inundated with cynical advertisements for lectures on the latest cover-up and conspiracy theory. The skeptic in me had warning bells and red lights flashing within the first 10 seconds I read the page. The website is full of remarkable claims defended by questionable and sometimes non-existent evidence. The grandiose claims and the sparse evidence results in feeling like the whole website is more conspiracy-theory than science.
In comparison, the Mars Society presents a much less biased attitude towards Mars research. Their only true bias seems to be that Mars research should be more important and receive greater attention. Just replace the hokey Star Trek references and conspiracy theories with bulletins about political awareness and accolades about research, and they’re pretty much the same website.
In both cases, the websites aren’t libraries filled with a wealth of actual Mar’s information. They act more as a hub and start point, with myriads of links to other sites, promising more information. While they do provide limited (really basic) information, they act more as jump points for people to further pursue their interests, but don’t expect a lot of organization from either site.
Oh, and don’t forget your PayPal account, to continue funding for these not-for-profit organizations.
Super Bowl and New York Times Predict Junk
Site for Next Mars Mission Debated
Nasa is sending a stationary robot to the icy northern pole of mars this summer, however, they need to find a new landing site before they can do this. They thought that they had a landing site chosen, but new photos have shown that the original landing site is covered in huge boulders. Three other sites are currently being looked at, and are going to be further investigated to determine which site would be the best one for the robot.
How Earth Escaped Mars' Cold Fate
Monday, February 5, 2007
Reviewing The Mars Society and The Enterprise Mission
Next, I looked at The Mars Society and was optimistic at first after having visited The Enterprise Mission. I liked that the goals of the site were listed at the very beginning and the articles and links on the main page were organized, clear, and current. However, I didn't like that you had to be a member to look at certain content. In the end, the Mars Society was better organized and seemed on top of things, but they come off as over eager and demanding. The interview with Robert Zubrin by USNews sums it up by saying "when it comes to the red planet, Robert Zubrin is a true believer and has spent decades agitating for a more ambitious NASA."
Overall, the Mars Society was better. Their info seemed more credible and there wasn't a conspiracy theory feeling like on the Enterprise Theory. In the end, both sites suffer from being too pushy with their agendas. I might consider using the Mars Society for info, but it wouldn't be my first choice and the Enterprise Theory is definitely out.
This Phoenix better not have to rise from any ashes
The Solar Wind at Mars
This is an article put out by Nasa on January 31 2007 that details the effect that the solar wind is having on mars, due to the lack of a magnetosphere. The article discusses how scientists believe that whatever atmosphere used to exist on mars was litterally "blown away" due to the strong forces of the solar wind, which the earth is shielded from by the magnetosphere.
The Mars Society and The Enterprise Mission: A Short Review
The Enterprise Mission website has a more flashy and commercial feeling. There are a lot of banners and graphics that are eye catching. But once you get past the bright colors and interesting fonts, you see that what they say isn't as impressive. All the website seems to reiterate time and time again is "[p]ublic understanding of major achievements of the Space Age over the past 30 years -- carried out by both the former Soviet Union and the United States -- increasingly seems to have been nothing more than a carefully constructed "version" of a much more extraordinary truth" or " Far more disturbing than this evidence (if it is indeed disturbing, to a generation raised on "Star Trek"...) is other, equally-documented evidence of a profound, deliberately politically-motivated cover-up of this important data by both major spacefaring nations... for more than 30 years". Basically, all its saying is that there is a lot of (government) opposition to finding extraterrestrial things (mainly living things) out in space. This sounds more like conspiracy theory jargon than anything. However, some of the external links contain less "conspiracy theory" driven information. A thing to note is a lot of the stuff on this website is older (from the late 90's). There are a lot of things that have changed since then.
Looking at the Mars Society website, just from first glance, this one has a more "educational" feeling. As soon as the homepage comes up, there are links to various articles, many of which are fairly to very recent. The downside is that you have to be a member of the website in order to read some of articles. After getting past the home page, you can see that there are some really interesting things to look at, such as the University Rover Challenge, the Translife / Mars Gravity Biosatellite, and the Archimedes Balloon Project. This website seems more of a place to get sources than to actually get information to use directly. They have an extensive list of external links.
The Mars Society website seems to be updated regularly as opposed to the Enterprise Mission website that has a lot of stuff from about 10 years (or more) ago. Although the Enterprise Mission website seems to be a little bit more one sided and very conspiracy theory oriented, it does provide places to get information to make your own conclusions. The Mars Society website I see more as a place to look for information (and articles!) instead of a place to get information. I like the fact that it is not as one-sided as the other website, but it lacks in the flashy eye catching stuff. I would probably look at this website for educational purposes only.
Chinese Long March 3A Rocket Orbits New Satellite
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Phoenix Getting Closer to Having a landing site
Enterprise Mission - Warp Speed to the Nut House
The Mars Society site appears to have more focus than the Enterprise Mission, clearly stating their goal and the ways they wish to accomlpish it. Under the surface it does get a little stranger especially in the section 'Resources- Everything you need'. In this section they equip anyone who wants to help the society out with pictures, handouts for a meeting, sample letters to write to congress and basic information to memorize. This is not necessarily a bad idea but I think they need to take it one step at a time and not give someone who wants to convince people that we should go to mars cartoon pictures of martian space suits.
Friday, February 2, 2007
A new look at something old
Mars Society and Enterprise Mission
I would not feel comfortable using anything off The Enterprise Mission as a source in a paper. There are obviously a lot of trekkies running around who are extremely devoted to Star Trek, but even they know that it is fiction. It doesn’t seem to me that modeling something after Star Trek is the best way to be taken seriously (but who knows, maybe that isn’t their goal). However, everything I read on the site kept me very entertained and made me want to read more. Reading about trekkies complaining about NASA is just pretty hilarious. I especially liked the article “When We’re Right, We’re Right.” Clearly the people running this website have very active imaginations.
Even though the Mars Society Website clearly had better information than The Enterprise Mission website, the stories on the Enterprise Mission were a lot more fun to read. This means that I’m probably most likely to waste time surfing their website than I am the Mars Society Website, so maybe Enterprise Mission is doing something right.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
The Enterprise Mission and The Mars Society
The Mars Society web site is so much better in pretty much every aspect. Even just looking at it, you would be more inclined to read what it has to say, regardless of its claims and assertions. The fact that it has their mission statement at the top of the first page, in three concise bulleted sentences, also goes a great way to understanding and accepting the site. You might not agree that getting the word out is a good thing, or that even going to Mars should happen, but you are not immediately skeptical because they never make a claim that can not be readily proven true (unlike The Enterprise, who say life has been discovered on Mars already - you'd think you would have heard about that if it was somewhat credible at all). The site also has links to other credible organizations, such as several universities.
The Mars Society, although perhaps run by people with the same zeal and fanaticism as The Enterprise Mission, has a completely different 'Mission Statement'. Where The Enterprise Mission wants to discover cover-ups and life on mars, the Mars Society wants to get there. One of these can be achieved through the scientific method, and one cannot. The Mars Society wants to "further the goal of the exploration and settlement" of Mars. They are trying to raise awareness of the possibility of getting to Mars, as well as researching and developing ways to get there and survive there. They can do this through performing experiments on earth in surprisingly Martian terrain (deserts of the Southwest) or even simulated atmosphere or terrain. In the film we watched in class, Robert Zubrin is determined to get there, and is devising ways to do so. Hoagland, of The Enterprise, does not really have any way to prove his hypotheses; and as such, it seems, has fallen to gaudy web ads and misleading fallacious arguments.
And, just in general, if you are trying to be taken serious by the general public, it probably is not a good idea to have, right next to your controversial claims, links to sites about UFO's, E.T., and the Mayan countdown to the end of civilization in 2012. Nor to have your website tied so intricately with a science fiction television show.
MGS sees changing face of mars
This is an article that talks about how the geology of mars has changed over the past 30 years. It talks about the new technology that is being used to take higher resolution photo's of the planets surface.