Unmanned Airplanes on Mars

Sure, we have a few crawlers combing the landscape, as well as a few satellites in orbit. And since Mars doesn't have any oceans, the next place to conquer would be the air. That's the thinking behind a new DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) project aiming to bring unmanned aircraft to survey Mars. The idea is essentially a rocket propelled craft that is capable of deploying into plane mode when it re-enters atmosphere. The current plan calls first for the craft to be developed for reconnaissance of natural disasters and military hotspots here on Earth, with a NASA based mission to Mars to follow. The planes would fly relatively low, between 5,000 and 10,000 feet, which means our maps of Mars could become an order of magnitude more detailed. The airplane could also follow weather patterns and gain further understanding of weather on Mars. Unfortunately, this airplane would not be able to explore the underground areas of Mars which hold the current fascination of explorers. What if, in the future, we developed an airplane that was able to land and explore the globe in crawler mode. Then we could have rapid movement between areas of interest on the Martian surface.

Source: Space.com.

Solar Flares TV Special

Tomorrow night the National Geographic Channel will have a special on solar flares. While the show will focus on how these storms affect power and communications grids (and northern lights), the research being presented has much importance for scientists looking into interplanetary travel and the effects of solar radiation. The link is here:

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/10_29-17/TOP

A lighter stronger alloy?

One thing that is essential to making an effective space structure is that it is light and that it is strong. So whenever there's a way of making some thing lighter and stronger space spaced science recieves a well needed boost and everything gets just a little bit easier.

"The U.S. aluminum giant Alcoa, materials-technology company GTM Advanced Structures and scientists at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have patented a fiber metal laminate (FML) called CentrAl reinforced aluminum, or CentrAl, for use in aircraft manufacture."

CentrAl is 25 percent stronger than current aluminum alloys (which I'm not certain that they use in space craft, but I'm pretty sure it's a good bet. A REALLY good bet.) Which means that less of it can be used which in turn makes what ever is constructed out of it much lighter (not necicarly 25 percent lighter, but much more so). Central is made out of a combination of Glass and alluminum arranged in layers of glass fiber/epoxy sandwiched between layers of aluminum. Which not only decreases weight but makes it much more damage resistat than current carbon-fiber equivalents.

Full article at: New Material Could Revolutionize Aircraft Maintenance

Uh-Oh... space-station!

The International Space Station (ISS) is deffinitely the closest thing we have resembling an inter planetary craft. It's in space constantly and people are living aboard it. The only thing it doesn't have is the whole travel-away-from-earth aspect. But then again, that is without a doubt the most difficult part of the whole procedure. We're able to bring up supplies to ISS at any time (money provided) and specialists (ie. space walking repair men) can be brought up nearly as easy. You'd think this would make it relatively easy to deal with right?

Wrong. U.S. astronaut Daniel Tani discovered debris in a esential joint of the solar panel array, which allows the panels to rotate to face the sun. They don't know how the metal like shavings got into the joint; by all acounts it doesn't make sense for them to be there. But the issue still stands that it has happened and this means that they are probably going to have to work on diminished power and that they're probably going to have to bring up the specialists (talked about above) up to fix it.

Now this seems like a relatively small problem, but it high-lights an issue that a space craft travelling to Mars whill undoubtedly encounter: unforseen engineering issues/failures. And since we can't send back to Earth for parts and we certainly aren't going to be able to go back and get another person half way through the trip. We'll have to deal with these issue enroute. Uh-oh.

Full ariticle at: NASA Eyes Worrisome Debris in Space Station Joint

Martian Caves Created by "Lava tubes"

Researchers have discovered that, unlike many caves on Earth, the caves on Mars are not developed from slow processes of erosion from rivers. Instead, these caves were created very quickly by meteors or volcanoes. These lava tubes have been "recently identified from Mars orbiting spacecraft". Melted ice from meteors are also considered possible candidates for causes of caves. This is relevant to the discussion of life on Mars. Consider the experiments we discussed on Friday, and their ambiguous results for life on Mars. These caves offer protection for the harsh radiation found on the surface of Mars. Researcher Penelope Boston argues that these caves "could be the ideal places to search for Martian life". These caves have been compared to caves on the islands of Hawaii which show an "abundance of microbial growth as biofilms and mats on cave surfaces". Clearly, the rover's recent trip into a crater is the first step in this search. Future martian robots should become proficient spelunkers if we are to find Martian life.

Source: Discovery News.

Latitude-dependent climate

High resolution photos have demonstrated a range of ice-made features that show a strong preference to certain latitudes and latitude-dependent features can mean only one thing: latitude-dependent climate. It was known before that ice had influence the poles of the planet but now there is evidence that water and ice have impacted the rest of the planet.

Mars' Time to Shine

In an article on Courant.com, staff writer David Wakefield discusses Mars' position in the night sky for the month of November. Mars will steadily brighten and rise throughout November. The Red Planet rises around 9:20 and will be up around 6:15 by the end of the month. The Earth has an inside track and will catch up to Mars in late December. This not only brings the two planets to one of their closest proximities, but it also means that Mars will appear "full" as the entire disk will be illuminated by the Sun. The planets' relative motion will also put Mars into retrograde, meaning it will stop its apparent eastward movement against the background stars and it will appear to move to the West. This eastward motion will cease November 15th.

For an animation of the retrograde motion visit: mars.jpl.nasa.gov/allabout/nightsky/nightsky04-2003animation.html

China to the Moon

Following Japan's launch of its lunar orbiter about a month ago, China launched its first lunar orbiter Wednesday in the midst of a 3-way space race to the moon between China, Japan, and India (which will launch next year). All three plan to send orbiters and eventually manned flights to the surface. Although China downplayed the rivalry with Japan, the timescales for each country's trip to the moon are similar. Hopefully the attention paid to technology in this endeavor will make for a better moon base when we make one, instead of rivalry.

Space-Based Solar Power

The Pentagon recently urged the United States to take a lead role in developing space-based solar arrays to "beam" power to the surface. The initiative is directed mainly at producing alternate energy to help the US fight climate change, but the technology and implementation can be applied to Mars, and likely will be in the future.
Solar arrays orbiting the planet will be able to collect and store energy to be transmitted to the surface. For Earth, it is expensive to get something into space, but with Mars it is cheaper to get something into orbit around Mars than onto the surface. Orbiting solar arrays, even at Mars's distance from the sun, would be a cheaper way to power anything on the surface of Mars along with solar panels and nuclear reactors already being used. In the case of the southern summer dust storms, this would be a good way to collect and store energy for the long periods when the sun is blocked out. The article can be found here:
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/071012-pentagon-space-solarpower.html

Discovery Takes off for Complex Mission to ISS

An article posted today discussed the recent news in US space travel. Despite safety concerns voiced by a team of NASA engineers, the US space shuttle Discovery took off for the International Space Station. The shuttle is led by Commander Pam Melroy, who is only the second woman to head a shuttle team since the program began in 1981. The shuttle reached Earth's orbit within 8.5 minutes and set course for the ISS where it is due to dock on Thursday for its 10-day mission. There were fears that the mission would be delayed because a small chunk of ice measuring about 10 centimeters long was found outside the craft on a liquid oxygen supply cable. However, officials agreed that the ice posed no danger to the craft or the crew.

The Discovery's main mission is to deliver the Harmony module. This module is key to installing the future European lab Columbus and Japan's Kibo lab on the ISS. Harmony will connect the two labs to the output and give it its almost final shape. The ISS is a $100 billion project in which 16 countries are taking part to ready the way for manned Mars missions in the future. Discovery's crew of seven includes five men and one other woman. This mission is key to the future of manned flights to Mars and will take us even closer to the Red Planet.

They keep going and going...

NASA has once again extended the operations of Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. This makes it the 5th time their retirement has been cut short. It is possible that they could continue exploring to 2009. Both rovers have found evidence to support the existence of water at one time on Mars. At this point Opportunity has traveled 11.57 miles and Spirit 4.51 miles. They have take thousands of photos and collected much information to add to the research of Mars. They have been at it for over three and a half years and while they show some signs of wear, they are still trekking along.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NASA_Extends_Operations_For_Its_Long_Lived_Mars_Rovers_999.html

Plasma Propulsion

Standard rocket propulsion is gradually becoming a major limitation in our ability to travel within the solar system. For example the ~8 month trip to Mars, or 3 year trip to Pluto, is something that NASA and the general population is becoming less patient with and it greatly limits the amount of science we can do as the length of a mission means more money.
That's why plasma is currently being studied as a new form of propulsion. Technically called Variable Specific Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR), it uses hydrogen heated to extremely hot temperatures by radio waves, which burns more efficiently than regular rocket fuel. A trip to Mars could last 3 months instead of 7 or 8, and the cost and efficiency would be greatly improved.
Plasma is electrically charged gas made up of atoms which have been stripped of their electrons. It is called the 4th state of matter, and it is only found in conditions of extremely high pressure and temperature (like a star). It can be created in the lab and plans for testing this method in space are already underway.
One major problem of working with plasma is that no known solid can contain it. It must be contained (except for where it leaves the rocket) by a strong magnetic field generated by superconductors - thus a completely new design for a rocket. Take a look at http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/plasma_propulsion_000616.html

Climate model?

Particles present in the Martian atmosphere may have a profound effect on the climate system. Determining the optical properties of these particles is important because the scattering and absorption properties are fundamental to the study of the energy budget in the Martian-atmosphere system. If the Martian atmosphere could be accuartly represented, it reasonable to believe that a solid climate model could be made.

Spirit and Opportunity Missions Extended

The twin Mars rovers, Opportunity and Spirit are still going strong after 45 months on Mars, 42 months past their initial mission lengths. To date, Spirit has traveled 4.51 miles and Opportunity has traveled 7.19 miles. Combined, the two rovers have returned nearly 200,000 images. While the continued success of the rovers depends on their continued operability and productivity, NASA expects that each rover will remain in service well into 2009.

The article is available here.

HiRISE

Just recently color has being incorporated into images of Mars. The HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been taking black-and-white images of Mars since November 2006 and employs multiple filter detectors that record different colors. The colors that Mars will be imaged in are not the colors that the human eye would register. Instead, the images are processed to maximize color differences, helping to analyze the landscape. Color data is the new tool used to interpret geological processes on Mars.

True and False... Color

Now here's something that you don't normally think of: Are the images you're seeing actually the color that you would see them? If you're talking about stuff on earth you can be pretty sure that more often than not it is. However when you're dealing with images from Hubble or the Mars rovers you run into other things all together. That's where "True" and "False" colors come in.

As it turns out because of the process used to record these images. The pictures that we see aren't necessarily in the colors our eyes would perceive. They don't take the picture all colors at once. They take a series of pictures through different color filters (some in the infrared and some in the ultraviolet even) and then attribute the most useful colors to those different grey scale slides in ways that make what you're seeing most effective.

As it turns out the Hubble telescope, since it uses such a broad range of spectra and since it is often dealing with things that are outside the visible light range uses color combinations that are "False" colors. While the Mars rovers are actually trying to use calibration systems which turn out very close approximations of what the average human eye would receive.

Full article at: True or False (Color): The Art of Extraterrestrial Photography

Opportunity

Opportunity, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover is just beginning a multi-week investigation of the Victoria Crater. The Victoria Crater is of interest because it exposes a larger amount of ancient rock layer than any of the other craters previously visited. The Rover just finished its first test run, checking wheel slippage, and all seemed well.

Life Marker Chip

About a month ago a “Life Marker Chip” was launched on a 12 day low-Earth orbit to determine that survivability for future journeys to mars. The LMC will hopefully be able to detect trace levels of biomarkers in the Martian environment. A biomarker will indicate if life is or ever was present on Mars. The LMD experiment has is being considered for the European Space AgencyOS ExoMars rover mission, which will launch in 2013. This test run is important because it will tell us if the key molecular components that the LMC uses will survive the harsh environment of space.
For more information visit http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Life_on_Mars_Pregnancy_Test_Launched_999.html

Lakes

Cassini, the spacecraft currently observing Saturn, its rings and moons, has been mapping the polar regions of Titan, a large moon with a dense methane-rich atmosphere. Large hydrocarbon lakes make up about 14% of the polar surface, some larger than the midwest Great Lakes. The lakes are theorized to have formed similarly to Earth's lakes, and indeed much of Titan's structure is similar to Earth's, as can be seen in pictures taken by Cassini and its probe which transmitted data from the surface of titan for a short time a couple years ago.
This article caught my attention since it talks specifically about liquid on another planet, something not altogether unheard of. Theories of underground oceans on Europa and frozen oceans and rivers on Mars are common and well-supported. But it is worth noting that the search for liquid water is an essential early step in the search for life, but it is not as easy as looking for places where liquid has been. Many elements form a liquid in the range of temperatures between the Earth and the outer solar system, which is why we need methods like spectroscopy and sample analysis to determine the nature of the liquid.

New Spaceship design a little bit different

Ram Tripathi of NASA's Langley Research Center is proposing that rockets are not the best way to send a man to Mars. In the alternative design the spaceship would look like "a grapefruit spiked with cherries on sticks." The spaceship would be designed this way to protect from galactic cosmic rays which can cause cancer. The idea is that the spherical shape that the ship is made into would help deflect cosmic rays away from the central habit of the astronauts.

http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg19626256.500-forget-rockets--go-to-mars-in-a-cosmic-fruit-bowl.html

Earth vs. Mars

Diameter	EARTH About 7,926 miles (12,756 kilometers) but growing, at least at the equator.	MARS Roughly 4,222 miles (6,794 kilometers), or 53 percent that of Earth.
Distance from Sun	1 astronomical unit (AU), or about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers), on average.	Ranges from 1.381 AU to 1.666 AU, due to non-circular orbit.
Temperature	Way too hot in summer or way too cold in winter, depending on locale, or both. Planetwide: 47.3 degrees Fahrenheit (8.5 Celsius) over land areas. Warmer if surface air above oceans is figured in.	Ridiculously cold most of the time. Freezing in most places. Planetwide: -67 degrees Fahrenheit (-55 Celsius). Can be shirtsleeve during fleeting moments of daytime summer.
Cosmic radiation	Manageable, protection courtesy a strong magnetic field.	Problematic, due to a weak magnetic field.
Weather	Hurricanes, typhoons and tornadoes a real problem. Disgustingly interminable fog in coastal California. Utter lack of rain in parts of Africa. Way too wet in many other places.	Dust storms abound. Sometimes whole planet is obscured. Dust devils that soar higher into the atmosphere than terrestrial tornadoes and hurricane-like storms as big as Texas.
Heft	1 Earth mass. In kilograms, it's about 6 with twenty-four zeros after it.	About 10.7 percent that of Earth.
Day	23 hours, 56 minutes.	24 hours, 37 minutes.
Year	365 days (the time needed to go around the Sun once).	687 Earth-days, or about 670 Mars days.
Gravity	Normal.	38 percent of that found on Earth at sea level.
Tilt of rotation axis	23.5 degrees.	25 degrees.
Satellites	The Moon, plus several that communicate, and tons of junk as small as paint chips.	Two natural ones, Phobos and Deimos, plus two sent by NASA and more on the way.
Air	Quite a bit. About 76 percent of it is nitrogen, with about 21 percent oxygen. Next most common, in order but in very small amounts: Argon, carbon dioxide, neon.	Not much. Less than 1 percent the density of Earth's air at the surface, and mostly carbon dioxide (95.3 percent). Trace of oxygen (0.15%).
Caves	Many, and they're great places for microbial life to hide.	Maybe, and they're possible places for humans to hide.
Snow	Tons. Like 1,140 inches at Washington's Mt. Baker during the 1998-99 season, a world record. That's 95 feet (29 meters).	Yes, surprisingly, but you wouldn't want to ski on it. And it's melting, perhaps due to global warming.
Water ice	Yes, often invisible and under moving car tires.	Yes, much of it invisible and under the surface or beneath another kind of ice at the south pole.
Dry ice	Sure. 4,200 pounds of it is used weekly in just one Vegas show.	Tons, covering the water ice at the south pole.
Water	Inundates the place, especially in basements and during picnics.	Not a drop that we know of for sure -- yet. But possibly a lot long ago and maybe some today, under the surface.

Scientists design self-sufficient space habitat

Australian scientists have designed a system that can support 12 astronauts for up to 3 years on the moon. Although it isnt expected to be developed for at least 20 years, it does look like it will be up to 95 percent self-sufficient.

The "Closed Equilibrated Biological Aquatic System" would allow growing "small-scale farming of fast-growing fish", while the "Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative" would use "microbes to purify water, recycle carbon dioxide via photosynthesis, and derive edible material from waste products." Algae is a key part of this system as well, because it would allow the creation of oxygen without pollination.

The article says that 20 square meters of crops per astronaut will be necessary - which is something they are going to have to work on. They emphasize a reliance on peanuts, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, and wheat. Again, algae will be used for minerals and vitamins. But, some crops require pollination, which also needs to be figured out before they can actually put this together.

NASA Explores "Hibernation" Spots for Rovers

An article on Space.com reported today that the Mars Rovers have weathered two terrible winters on the surface of the Red Planet and a third one is coming soon. This poses a dilemma because these rovers were only supposed to be on a 90 day mission. The Martian winter will last from March 2008 to October 2008. Although Mars has a similar tilt to Earth, the seasons are longer because it takes the planet twice as long to orbit the Sun (687 Earth days). Steve Squyres, principal scientist of the Mars Exploration Rover team at Cornell University said,

"When you're talking about the rovers surviving winter on Mars, planning many months in the future is really important, but it's too soon to tell where we might situate them."

When the conditions are dim, the solar-powered robots take a real energy hit. Squyres added, "The sun gets very low in the sky, giving us a lot less solar power to work with." Fewer gusts of wind are around to clean the dust from the solar panels on the rovers which makes the problem even worse. Squyres also explained what they have done the past few winters,

"We try and park them on a broad, north-facing slope that helps them gather more sunlight. During the winter, it's essentially science on a hill. If we're stuck on a small slope, we're much more limited in what we can investigate."

However, this is not always a bad thing. Squyres added that when the rover is stuck in one place, it allows them to intensively study a single small area. During the last winter, Spirit studied a palm-sized area of soil for months. This is now probably the best-studied patch of dirt in the solar system outside of Earth. Even though the rovers have done far-and-above their call of duty, it is still impossible to predict the survival of these robots. The rovers have both lasted more than 1,324 Earth days beyond their warranty. Squyres added to the uncertainty by saying,

"Their long lives are experiments in progress. They could die three years from now, or in the next hour. There's simply no way for us to know, so we're trying to do as much as we can with what time we might have left."

Scientists Pick New Mars Landing Site Based on Pictures

An article on Space.com talked about scientists getting new color images and a color movie of the Martian landscape. The movie was created by combining images taken through color filters. The images were taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE). HiRISE is on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and has been helping scientists to decide the best place for a future Martian explorer should land on 2010. The HiRISE camera has 10 red filter detectors, two blue-green and 10 for infrared wavelengths. The HiRISE team developed software that automatically pieced the pictures together to make a color image. HiRISE operations manager, Eric Eliason of the University of Arizona describes how difficult of a task this is: "The technical hurdle has been that the sets of different color detectors are staggered within the camera focal plane array, and the spacecraft isn't perfectly steady as it operates in space." What came from all this work is 143 full-color images and a 41 second movie clip showing Mars' Nili Fossae region. Eliason also commented: "Color data are proving very useful in interpreting geologic processes and history on Mars. The images we're releasing today include views of some of the most exciting and compositionally diverse areas on the planet. They are really interesting." One of the color images can be seen below.

New Horizons

The New Horizons spacecraft is NASA's more recent solar system explorer and is currently on its way to Pluto to study the relatively unknown dwarf planet. On its way, it stopped by Jupiter (last week) in order to give it an extra boost and decrease its transit time significantly. Luckily, however, it passed by Jupiter during some interesting activity on the surface and in the Jovians rings.
A meteorite had hit the rings shortly before the arrival of the spacecraft, sending up debris and collecting some of the meteorite itself. This allowed New Horizons to see a more specialized and detailed sample of the material making up the disc (and meteorite).
Another interesting find was a bit of bad weather in the polar region and storms making up the little red spot. The lightning in the pole suggested "thunderheads the size of a Western state" and the little red spot (a new, smaller version of the diminishing great red spot) provided more evidence for the theory surrounding the storms on Jupiter's surface.
Other nice finds included a 200 mile jet from a volcano on Io and a closer look at the atmosphere. The article can be found here:
http://www.news.com/NASA-scoops-up-planetary-details-on-Jupiter-flyby/2100-11397_3-6212592.html?tag=nefd.lede

Growing plants in space

This is a pretty long, but very interesting article on the research being done on growing plants in space. It outlines the work of Profesor Bingham, chief scientist at the Space Dynamics Laboratory at Utah State University in North Logan, through conception of the idea to grow plants in space (1985) through the addition of the growing room, Lada, on the ISS (2002).

The process used on the space station is:
"The Lada system, composed of two growth chambers, a control module and two water reservoirs, allows for the growth of plants without gravity, which on Earth pushes water into the soil and also opens up air pockets to allow oxygen to reach the roots. Two growth chambers require about 90 watts to operate on the station.
Instead of conventional soil, a granulated mixture with time-released fertilizer is used as the rooting substrate. Fans in the growth chambers resemble Earth-like convections, which help to force oxygen through the water clumps blocking the openings to reach the roots, Bingham said. The oxygen-water balance in the root zone is balanced through sensors."

The more tests they run on plants in space the more it becomes aparent that growing plants is going to be one of the most important things they can do to maintain astronaut morale when doing extended missions.

Another Earth

One of the most popular areas of astronomy right now is the search for earth-like planets. The definition of "earth-like" varies, but it basically means either something our size or a planet at the right distance from its star to have liquid water, an essential for life.
A star about 424 light years away (amazingly close, by astronomical standards), has a planet in the early stages of development at just the right radius to someday have liquid water. It will take millions of years before the planet is fully formed, another few billion before simple organisms appear, and another couple billion after that before complex organisms appear, but it's exciting to see that it is happening.
One of the goals is to find these earth-like developing planets at various stages in their development so as to better gauge what kind of planet is most likely to contain life. These sorts of observations are happening or being studied all the time, so it's easy to find information on this type of thing. The article for this particular planet can be found at:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/2050880.htm?space

Japan, Moving Ahead Like Blazes

On Friday, Japan's first lunar spacecraft entered orbit around the moon. The orbiter, Kaguya, has two baby satellites used for various moon recon missions; the first satellite was released on Tuesday to go measure the magnetic field and gravitational field on the far side of the moon.
Japan has also announced its plan to launch a moon lander with a rover with robotic arms. The USA, China, India, and Japan are all out to explore the moon and hopefully have permanent bases there, but the countries are not working together in any significant form. The USA continues to plan its moonbase, and Chine and India continue to try to get to the moon.
How this ties into Mars is, will it take the cooperation of these countries, who can all get to the moon on their own, to get to Mars?

Mars is Getting Brighter?

An article posted today on Timesnet.net reported that Ray Bloomer (above), the head of astronomy at King College has evidence that Mars is getting brighter. Bloomer said that Mars will continue to get brighter into December. Mars is 85 million miles away from us, but due to gravitational shifts, it has been closer to us than the Sun since last month. “Beginning September 26th it began coming closer, and it is going to stay in relative proximity to (Earth) until the close of the year,” said Bloomer. “The problem right now is (Mars) doesn’t come up into the night sky until about 10:30 p.m. or later,” Bloomer said. “It won’t reach its highest point in the sky until about 5 in the morning, so for those people who stay up late or get up early to go to work, they’ll have a bright, red star to look at.” Come December 9, Mars will be the brightest star in the sky. “If you think about runners running around a track, the people on the inside lane are going to lap a little faster, and so the people on the inside lane are going to overtake the people on the outside. The same thing is happening with Mars,” he said. “It is outside in an outer lane. It’s about one and half times the distance from the sun that we are, so as a result, we catch up with it and pass it every so often, a little more than a year. We are going to be just a little closer this time.” Bloomer claims that on December 18th, Mars will be only 55 million miles away from us. Mars will be this close to us again in 2014, based on the fact that this shift happens every 26 months.

Computing on Mars Redux

Hello again blogosphere. Today I'm going to write a bit about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's computer systems. It is actually a similar architecture to the Mars Rovers "Spirit" and "Opportunity". While they each carry a 33MHz processor, the Orbiter has a 133MHz processor based on similar designs. The VxWorks "real time" operating system is used in both systems. However, it has greatly increased memory requirements. Because the HiRISE camera, which has been written about on this blog, takes up to 3.5 GB per picture, the Orbiter carries 20 GB of onboard memory, which is used for all of its functions. The Orbiter gets all of its power from two solar panels which can maintain 32 volts to the Orbiter's systems.
In November of 06, the Mars Global Surveyor powered down after a faulty software update left it unable to charge its batteries. One would hope that NASA now has procedures in place to more extensively test their modifications to the VxWorks based OS. The problem lies in the Orbiter being able to correctly diagnose what is wrong with it without human help, and without being able to actually trust its sensors. This is a bit like having to diagnose whether there is a gas leak in your house without the use of your nose.

Space Kegger

There were rumors circulating that space shuttle pilots were drinking and flying. LeeAundra Temescu of Discover magazine took it upon himself to see whether or not is is possible to land the shuttle while inebriated, by using the most accurate shuttle landing simulator on the planet; the one that the astronaut themselves use. Interestingly enough Temescu was successful all the way up to a blood alcohol content of .14 which is way more than just a little tipsy. Then at .20 the "space sickness" kicked in and Temescu was unable to do so. In any case it shows that the automation of the space shuttle is very well programmed and organized. However, Temescu wasn't wearing a space suit nor were there any of the many problems that can occur in the simulation (and even more so in real life) that might occur on such a descent. "Former space shuttle commander Rick Searfoss" assures us that there are no drunk astronauts during landing.

Also the idea of tang and vodka was brought up. Bleck.

Whole article at: Can a Drunk Person Fly the Space Shuttle?

Ion Thrusters?

There are those of us who hear this term and immediate have visions of particular fictional space craft (No matter how much we might try and deny it), but as it turns out the idea is actually plausible and doesn't sit only in the realm of science fiction. The idea is appealing not just because it sounds slick and futuristic, but it's also a much more efficient way to propel space craft than chemical reactions (about ten times as effective). The draw back is that such an engine can only exert the mildest of forces, and isn't capable of getting anything out of the atmosphere. However, once a ship is out there this can be used to gradually push the vessel to huge speeds.

NASA's Deep Space 1 spacecraft used just such a drive to thrust it's way to asteroid Braille and Comet Borrelly in 1999. There is no reason that such an efficient technology couldn't be used on mars bound craft and by now there must be drastic improvements on total thrust output. Another draw of such an engine is that it runs on gaseous neon and only requires electricity (which the suns light applies a never ending stream of) to make the thing operate.

Full article (also with minor notes on solar sails) : Skylights

Going to the Moon was a Cake Walk!

There are three major problems that make traveling to Mars more difficult then to the moon. First, the trip to Mars takes much longer then three days, you now have to protect humans from the dangers of long term space travel. The humans manning the mission to Mars will be exposed to cosmic radiation, muscle atrophy, and possibly no be able to handle the psychological stress of the long journey. Secondly, the funding required to send a human to Mars would be in the tens of billions. And lastly, landing a space craft on Mars is much more difficult then landing one on the moon. The moon has no atmosphere but Mars does and it is an atmosphere that we don’t know much about. The bigger the object that is landing on Mars the more affected the landing will be by the atmospheric differences.

Will humans inhabit Mars within the next fifty years?

Over the last several years the US space agency has successfully been able to send rovers to Mars and collect useful information about the planet. Information that can be used to determine what is needed on Mars to support human life. Yet the robots that are being sent to Mars are years behind robots that are used here on Earth. To inhabit Mars very advanced robots will be needed to build structures that will support human life. A lot more knowledge about the planet and support systems will need to be in place before a man mission will ever be sent to Mars.

This Is How We Talk!

This is how NASA comunicates with all the obiters, satelites, missions, and everything that we send up into the final frontier. It is ... NASA DSN! which is short for deep space network that is of course. But this is actually particularly used in conjunction with missions to Mars itself. The network consists of three diferent stations with there own satelites and are spaced evenly around the globe at 120 degrees apart. The locations are in Goldstone, in California's Mojave Desert; near Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia if you were interested in an awesome family vacation! the placement allows for constant communication with the satelites and missions and stuff so its really effective. Check It Out!



http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/communicationsWithEarth.html

An unlikely source for power

A research team out of NorthWestern University is taking care of two deep-space travel birds with one stone: 1.) We need a as many sources for electricity as we can get 2.) We need some means by which to process solid human waste.

Yes, that's right, the researchers have found a way to convert feces into electricity. Through the use of new microbial fuel cells they hope to make this weird though potentially very useful idea come to fruition. The article, at Space.com, has a charming quote about the inner workings of the fuel cell:

"Each fiber would consist of three layers, like three straws, one inside of another. Each layer corresponds to one of the layers of a fuel cell: the anode (outer), the electrolyte-membrane (middle), and the cathode (inner). A slurry of liquefied waste would be pumped past the outer layers where Geobacter microbes (or other similar bacteria) can grab electrons and move them to the anode, into the circuit, and then to the cathode."

This reads fairly reasonably until one gets to the line "A slurry of liguefied waste" which is just a terrible image. In any case this seemse like an outside the box kind of idea that could make a manned trip to mars that much more plausable.

HiRISE

HiRISE, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (they love their acronyms, and by golly they'll be good ones or the mission will fail), on board the MRO, is a survey mission of Mars to take high-resolution images of the surface. The applications of such a survey are far-reaching; the images allow scientists to see in detail the surface so they can analyze formations, surface excretions, polar caps, and vast amounts of geology things I don't know anything about.
But another important application of the imaging is the planning of robotic missions and follow-up. The camera has imaged enough of the surface that it has helped immensely in the choice of landing zones for Phoenix and MSL, and has even uncovered the remains of the previous Mars explorers, their parachutes and vehicles (some very covered with sand and sad-looking).
One neat story is that the landing site for Phoenix had looked smooth and hospitable in previous images, but HiRISE did a pass on it and showed that in fact it was full on huge boulders. A few months later, a more suitable site was found and Phoenix was thus saved from almost certain death.
Some images and a summary of the mission can be found here:
http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/HiRISE/
It's a little eerie at times, seeing how earth-like the Martian terrain actually is...

Ares and Orion

As the shuttle nears its retirement age - it will be phased out by 2010 - the new transport vehicle of choice continues development. The new rocket which will carry cargo and humans into space, the moon, and eventually to Mars (so they say), is called the Ares rocket. The Ares launch vehicles and the Orion crew vehicles make up NASA's Constellation program.
The Ares rocket will serve two purposes: one kind (Ares I) will be a crew launch vehicle using a single segmented solid rocket booster similar to the kind used on the shuttle and will be able to carry 55,000 pounds into low earth orbit. The second kind (Ares V) will be a cargo vehicle, using 5 liquid oxygen/hydrogen engines and two solid rocket boosters fueled by an external fuel tank similar to the one on the shuttle. It will be able to carry 286,000 pounds into low earth orbit.
The Orion vehicle is the new crew vehicle and will be used to rendezvous with the ISS, lunar lander modules, and re-entry into earth's atmosphere. While it won't go directly to Mars, it will be used to transport the crews to the carriers built in orbit.
The design is interesting: it employs an older "tried and true" exterior design and shape, but has all state-of-the-art technology. Summaries about the constellation program vehicles can be found here:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/main/index.html

Beyond Skyviewcafe

Here's a NASA site, kind of like skyviewcafe, that allows you to create images of just about every corner of the sky. However, you can go beyond the visible part of the spectrum and see systems in anywhere from gamma rays on down to radio waves. The interface is a little difficult as you need to either know the name of the system or the exact coordinates. Also there is an overwhelming number of options but with a little fooling around you can make an image, however knowing what you're seeing is much more difficult. Here's one I made just by fooling around. If I did it right it's a gamma ray image of the sirius system.
the website is at http://skyview.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Moon Base

An update on the development of moonbase technology was recently released, focusing on a few aspects of human habitation of the moon but with few details. As always (at least recently), NASA has been putting out calls to industries to come up with the best designs for things like habitats, rovers, suits, etc., but a few designs have come to the forefront.
A mobile base would allow astronauts to move their living space where their research required, and dual rovers would allow astronauts to always have a safe way to get "home" and would allow them to do moonwalks and lab work on the road.
Currently, the plan to actually transport all this stuff to the moon involves use of the proposed cargo rockets which carry no people but could deliver a payload safely to the surface of the moon, making the construction of a moon base much faster and easier for the astronauts.
The article can be found here:
http://www.moondaily.com/reports/Lunar_Outpost_Plans_Taking_Shape_999.html