The Marsist

My favorite Frank Black song maybe. Live.

Not That Bad Really

So we aren't going back to the moon--which is disappointing--but we are now shooting for something much more difficult and way more scientifically interesting: an asteroid. And Mars is still a national priority.

I like Obama's program for NASA for 4 reasons:

1. It's fiscally doable, as necessity can be defended via planetary security. Bush the Younger proposed a moon mission, then poorly funded the endeavor so that the next administration could take the hit for cancelling it. Thanks Bin Laden....This mission transcends Chinese bombastics and national apathy: we Americans will provide the world with the data necessary to defend our planet from asteroids.
   
2. It, through an outer-terrestrial manned mission, sets up the engineering and national excitement for the longer, more exciting Mars mission.
3. It focuses on heavy lifting, which will be required for all of our serious robotic explorations (the overdue replacement for the Hubble, a Europa probe, etc).
4. It, through out-sourcing near-earth orbit duties to civilian and international space agencies, allows the NASA budget to be spent mostly on what it should: science.

I know that many in these parts are unhappy with the cancellation of the moon missions. But think about the international implications of our new goal:

"Go ahead and land your people on the moon China...we went there decades ago. And try not to choke on our fumes as we land people on an asteroid and collect data that could save humankind."

How much you want to bet that as we get closer to landing Americans on an asteroid, the Chinese become less interested in landing their people on the moon?

"Sun Shines In The Rusty Morning"

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken many beautiful pictures of what the camera's designers are describing as an "airplane view" of the red planet. They are quite stunning.

NASA Is Already Getting Gear Ready To Analyze Those Martian Farts

Science (potentially) can determine whether methane is biogenic or abiogenic. Already work is being done towards getting an instrument on Mars that can make that determination.

While its readings wouldn't be conclusive, they would be highly suggestive. Suggestive enough, let's hope, to convince the world that Mars should be explored more thoroughly (ie, by humans).

"Heinlein on helium"

Mars Has Lots Of Water

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter found huge glaciers buried underneath the Martian surface.

So Much Done In So Little Time

The Phoenix lander has died. But it enriched our species, and its successes should be celebrated.

Phoenix's preliminary science accomplishments advance the goal of studying whether the Martian arctic environment has ever been favorable for microbes. Additional findings include documenting a mildly alkaline soil environment unlike any found by earlier Mars missions; finding small concentrations of salts that could be nutrients for life; discovering perchlorate salt, which has implications for ice and soil properties; and finding calcium carbonate, a marker of effects of liquid water.

Phoenix findings also support the goal of learning the history of water on Mars. These findings include excavating soil above the ice table, revealing at least two distinct types of ice deposits; observing snow descending from clouds; providing a mission-long weather record, with data on temperature, pressure, humidity and wind; observations of haze, clouds, frost and whirlwinds; and coordinating with NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to perform simultaneous ground and orbital observations of Martian weather.

Until we meet again, dear friend...

Enriching Earth Through Mars

National Geographic will air a program entitled "Five Years on Mars" on Sunday, November 9. It will document the hugely successful and inspiring stories of America's Spirit and Opportunity droids on Mars. I imagine they will also cover the three orbiting probes that continue to provide us with invaluable data, as well as the successful mission of the Phoenix lander.

Unexpected [Ice] Gold

Our Phoenix droid may have kicked up some ice chunks during landing. If correct, early ice samples will be analyzed before the projected month-long digging gets to the embedded permafrost ice. I'm all prematurely hard!

I love this mission. I defy anyone to watch the video of JPL during Phoenix's landing and not get all teared up. No monument of mankind could ever be as awesome as our dead droids on Mars.

It's frontier science for rationalists!

Coolest. Picture. Ever.

That's our Phoenix droid underneath its parachute DURING DESCENT, as taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter! DURING DESCENT! Holy shit!

I am in awe.

Phoenix has landed.

First Images from Mars' North Pole:
Telegraph , Discovery Channel, Official Site at U. of Arizona.

Damnation!! I want my space race now!!

Russia says it is ahead in race to put man on Mars

Russia is leading the race to complete a manned mission to Mars and could land a Russian on the Red Planet by 2025, a leading scientist was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

"We have something of a head start in this race as we have the most experience in piloted space flight," the director of the prestigious Space Research Institute, Lev Zelyony, told Interfax news agency on Tuesday.

The goal of becoming the first country to land a human on Mars is "technically and economically achievable" by 2025, he said.

Mars is the most prestigious prize for the Russian space industry if it wants to boost the country's "scientific and political prestige" through manned space flight, he said.

"We lost the race to the moon," Zelyony said.

The United States achieved that goal on July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon.

The last manned US mission to the moon was the December 1972 flight of Apollo 17.

It Better Not Hit Our Droids!

An asteroid has a 1 in 75 chance of hitting Mars on January 30.

Safe Voyage, Beloved Droid!

The Mars Phoenix Lander was launched today.

May she fair better than her predecessor.

Blue Mars

The latest photos from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal more evidence for liquid water on ancient Mars. The blue in the photo is not presumed water, but sand dunes. The halos are the interesting parts.

This orbiter is another great success for NASA, and it will be critical for future exploration.

And the rovers are still going, four YEARS past their scheduled lifetime!

In related news, christians are still waiting to get their good glimpse of Mars during the rapture, when they are pulled up through the universe to heaven by Jesus. Glad we didn't have to wait for their reports...

[Oops, the Orbiter is having some problems. So please ask any rapture-ready christer engineer you know to kindly fix them on their way out.]