Global Warming... On Mars

Global warming has recently become a great worry for those on Earth. Many scientists have blamed humans for causing global warming. However, recent climate changes on Mars may suggest that global warming is naturally occurring. The 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the CO2 "ice caps" near Mars's south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row. Scientists believe that solar irradiance is the cause for global warming. Even though, the Earth temperature may be naturally increasing, I believe that humans also contribute to the warming. Even though this is an interesting theory, it is still highly debated.

Terraforming Mars

This article is more of a blog reviewing the possibility of terraforming mars in as little as 100 years. I think it is really interesting because I htink that if we change Mars to being more like earth then it would definately make it would really turn Mars into a "second" earth. I think some of the ideas for how people plan to terraform the planet is kinda funny.

Boneloss in Space

... well kind of. Bone loss and muscle degeneration occur much more rapidly in space where astronaut's bodies are not required to support as they would be in an environment with gravity. It has been shown that the longer an astronaut remains in space, the more damaging the irreversible effects of bone loss are. For astronauts going to Mar's this will be a big concern, as there is the potential for complete osteoporosis during the extended duration mission. Roger Long, with the support of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, is researching ways to help combat this negative effect of long term space flight.

Mars or Beyond?

This article talks about how scientists at Berkeley think we should examine other places besides mars for life. This article article argues that Europa is a likely candidate for life and should be a place that we examine and try to research more fully.

Search for Life Beyond Water

Scientist are now expanding their search to include possible sources of food and energy that could nourish microorganisms on the red planet. The concept of "following the water" to find life is now too narrow. NASA is preparing to send two landers to Mars to hunt for organic carbon on or just below the surface. One potential source of energy is methane.

Zubrin's Plan to Terraform Mars, with pictures!!

Here is a collaboration between Zubrin and Popular Science to have an illustrated guide to terraforming mars into a second earth. Give it a look, the ideas are stimulating and the pictures are fantastic. Don't get too excited though, the process is planned to take about 1000 years!

should we colonize the moon before mars?

This article explains why colonizing the moon before colonizing Mars would make the entire process more efficient. It also argues that colonization of these two locations would benefit human society by giving humans a completely new location that could be run by different laws and with a different kind of government. I think this is interesting because I do not believe that a change in location is going to necessarily change all of the problems we have within our society. A colony on the moon would suffer from the same political problems that we have here on earth.

DOOMSDAY!?!?!?!?!

This article doesn't deal with mars directly but talks about the possibility of an asteroid hitting earth. This is really interesting because it would have a huge impact on the life of earth. It would also be helpful in letting us know a lot about what may have happened to the dinosaurs.

What happened to Water on Mars?

Several missions to Mars have found evidence that water flowed relatively recently on its surface. One theory was that the solar wind, a steady stream of charged ions, carried the water away. However, scientist have found the escape rate is low. Another idea is that an asteroid or some other large object hit Mars in the past and literally knocked off its atmosphere and large bodies of water.

Latest on Lisa Nowak

Lisa Nowak has formally been removed from the mission to which she was assigned for the coming month and NASA recently announced the astronaut who will take her place. This article is interesting because it says that Nowak is currently on only a 30 day leave from NASA and therefore officially still has her job, despite her crazy escapades.

Rocks From Mars

Almost every month a rock from Mars lands on Earth. In the past, scientist thought that very large asteroid impacts on Mars caused Martian rocks to fly into space. However, they have found that smaller impacts (as small as 1.9 miles) may have cause rocks to become Martian meteorites.

Monitoring Radiation Exposure

Exposure to radiation will be an issue for future mars astronauts as they will not have an atmosphere like Earth's to protect the from the harmful radiation produced by the sun. A devicebeing developed by the US Naval Academy will monitor amounts as well as types of radiation exposure experienced by astronauts. Without monitoring astronauts could be subject to the many ill effects of high radiation exposure including nausea, vomiting, hair loss, central nervous system damage, and even cancer.

Underground "pipes" may held Mars' water

Using geological principals and a really expensive camera, scientists recently discovered what they believe to be an underground "liquid flow" system on Mars. This explanation is not the only one however for the appearance of joints under Mars' surface: one scientist believes that volcanic magma could have had the same affect on the rocks.

Dust Devils

Dust Devils are like miniature tornadoes and can be as wide as a football field with winds up to 60 mph. They are created by wind that swirls around a column of warm rising air. Recently researchers have unexpectedly found that dust devils on Earth have large electric fields exceeding 4,000 volts per meter. Researchers claim, that if Martian dust devils are highly electrified, this may interfere with space suits, equipment, and radio communications. In the future, NASA could equip a landing craft with an instrument to detect a dust devil's electric and magnetic field.

Exopaleontology?

This article talks about an Arizona State University professor Jack Farmer and his idea that looking for traces of life on Mars is best done looking for "past life, preserved as 'biosignatures' in old rocks" with current technology. Because we are unable to drill to the depths required to find any possible liquid water, he says that searching for traces of former life, or exopaleontology as he calls it, is the path we must follow for now until technology advances to allow us to dig thousands of feet down into Mars.

Not recent but we should talk about it...

This is a review of the discovery of possible microbial fossils on a Martian meteor. The meteor is under strong debate of whether or not the fossils are legitamite or not. I think that this is really interesting because if these fossils are realy than this really changes the pursuit of life of Mars where as if they are not real then there is a lot more to prove there is life on Mars.

more about water on mars

Although this seems to be fairly popular blog topic I just found another article discussing water on mars. THis is important to the search for life on Mars because on earth all life depends on water and thus if we are able to find water on Mars we might be better able to search for life. THe article reports that the amount of water estimated to be on Mars is very big; however, the location and the state of the water (ice or liquid) is still unknown.

Space Spuds

"Space Spuds" are currently the culinary fad to hit Shanghai. These slightly sweet and purple potatoes named Purple Orchid Three are bred from seeds that mutated while being carried aboard a Chinese spacecraft. The Chinese space program claims to have produced numerous mutated fruits and vegetables by exposing seeds to space radiation, capsule pressure, and weightlessness. Some experts claims that food grown from these seeds can be hardier, more nutritious, and produce higher yields. I found it interesting that the Chinese have taken the next step and produced genetically modified foods in space.

Astronaut Fashion

A student at the University of Houston has been analyzing video of moon walks to determine where improvements should be made to the space suit. Using video and metabolic information collected during walks on the moon, she determined the amount of energy astronauts used. Additionally, using reduced gravity simulators she is trying to determine locamotive stability on martian an lunar soil. All this information will be valuable in determining how much to add to space suits, and where to add it.

This article is a couple of years old, but it deals with a subject I find interesting: terraforming. A graduate student at the California Institute of Technology wants to use greenhouse gases to raise the temperature on Mars enough that it could comfortably support Earth-based life forms. She proposes to use these gases, such as octafluoropropane, to change the Martian climate and has coauthored a NASA study on the subject. However, it is projected to take hundreds of years for this method to increase the equatorial temperature to 50 degrees. This seems like too long of a time frame for most people to seriously consider, as most people (or at least those with power and money for funding the project) would want assurance that such a project would allow people to colonize Mars more quickly than that. However, I think it is a fascinating idea. One must also consider the ethics of such a venture: should we really overhaul this planet to suit our own needs and wants, even if it doesn't contain any native life? And what happens if Mars does turn out to harbor life forms? Should we leave the planet completely pristine for the sake of some microbes? Who can say?

Getting to Mars Faster... with Nuclear Power

This article mainly focuses on getting to the outer planets faster by using nuclear power. The problem with traveling to outer planets and even Mars, is that it takes too long. According to Russian data on microgravity, the human body cannot with stand long-term missions and will continually deteriorate. One man was stationed on the Mir space station for over a year. He lost bone density and had a weak heart because his body didn't need compete with the gravity on earth. This would be a problem for astronauts traveling to Mars; their bodies may deteriorate to a point where they can't return to earth. By using nuclear power to cut traveling time, it could potentially eliminate long-term health concerns.

Aquarium Hosts Mars Exhibit

On display through 2007, the $500,000 Mars exhibit is being displayed in the Ripley's Aquarium in Myrtle Beach. I never thought that an aquarium would host a Mars display, but evidently, robots and other technology used to explore the deep sea and the wide reaches of space are "very similar". I thought that this was interesting because in the future we may not only have Mars colonies, but it also may be possible to have viable water colonies too.

Frozen Sea

This article talks about the discovery of a frozen sea just under the surface of Mars. The question that everyone is proposing is will the Eurpean probe be able to core deep enough to get into this ice layer and thus determine if life once existed on Mars. It is really interesting because it is by the BBC and shows a much less biased view of the space programs that most Americans are used to hearing and seeing.

Research on bone loss due to space travel

A researcher from the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco was named 2006-2008 Postdoctoral Fellow by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, and will receive a total of $80,000 over a 2 year period to study the causes and possible treatments of bone loss due to the weightlessness of space travel. His research will also have applications for medical patients that are unable to move and also experience the same 'skeletal unloading' state because of the bone cells being unable to replace old bone cells that naturally die off.

cloudy mars

This article reports on a video taken on Mars that shows clouds. This is important to the study of life on Mars because it allows us to compare differences and similarities between the environment on Mars and that on our own planet. The environment here is clearly an important part of the life processes and maybe if we are better able to understand the environment on Mars we will be better able to determine if life there truly exists.

Skiing on Mars

I found this article while doing reserch for my paper, it is kind of old but has some good info about the type of snow that is on Mars, when it "snows", the permenance of the polar ice caps at the north and south poles- implicating global warming, and the possibility of water ice under the frozen carbon dioxide.

Deep Life

This article talks about how if there is life on Mars it is probably buried very deeply and therefore will be beyond the depth that the probes on the European probes will be able to reach. I think that it is interesting that they are posting this article even though they are planning on sending a probe still. It seems like it would be really bad for there attempts to obtain funding for future missions.

Human hibernation?

While this article does say that hibernation for the purpose of space travel to distant planets or galaxies is far off, it is definitely worthy of further research additionally for the medical field. It discusses some current hibernation techniques of animals and the physical processes involved, and also gives a few examples of people that had been revived after appearing to be dead in extremely cold situations. Even if hibernation for human application is as they say "decades away," so is human travel to Mars. If hibernation proves to be a safe and feasible endeavor before the mission to Mars project is fully underway, a lot of time and money could be saved with the relatively sparse materials needed to keep the crew alive for the flight if they were hibernating rather than active and awake.

Global Warming could make Mars habitable

This article discusses how global warming could be modeled on Mars in order to make it a warmer and more people-friendly environment. The article discusses a theory that perflurocarbons could increase the climate temperature on Mars just as they have done on earth. However, in practice, due to its cost and inefficiency, the reality of this proposal will probably not happen. I still think its interesting that we are fearing global warming on this planet but want to use it our advantage on another.

Kids Building Mini Mars Rovers

The article reports that a bunch of kids from Horsforth School have taken on the challenge of building a miniature Mars rover. Their entries will be judged by the NASA, ESA, and Norwegian Space Agency. I thought that this was a wonderful idea to keep youngsters interested in space travel. In addition, it may give NASA new ideas that may fuel the public's interest in Mars.

Stem-Cell Fast Food: From NASA to Nourishment

Some space technobiology coming from NASA to your BLT!

CLICK ME OR DIE.

Astronaut Love Triangle Highlights Mars Mission Challenge: Avoiding Crazy on Long Flights

Someone Else may have already posted this but I found it to be particularly pertinent to our discussion in wednesday's class. It's a PopSci article specifically about how this event might affect a possible Mars mission.

Astronaut Love Triangle Highlights Mars Mission Challenge: Avoiding Crazy on Long Flights

Warmer Wetter Mars

This article discusses how mars was at one point much warmer and wetter than it used to be. The research also shows that by looking at the effects of the ionized radiation that is making its way throught the Martian atmosphere that microbial life could survive the radiation and that this means that there is a good chance that if there was life on Mars it would likely just be dorminant and could probably be revived. This is amazing because it shows evidence that life could still exist and that if we can acquire it we can can probably keep it alive in culture and study it on Earth.

How Earth Avioded the Cold Fate of Mars

This article states that the carbon dioxide present on earth prevented it from freezing over. Researchers have analyzed the world's oldest sedimentary rocks and found that CO2 likely kept the planet's temperature above freezing. The rocks found near Hudson Bay in northern Quebec showed that high concentrati0ns of carbon dioxide allowed the atmosphere to keep more heat than Mars. Maybe we should complain less about the greenhouse effect... it saved our planet billions of years ago.

Searching For Life Without Being There

This article discusses how the european space agency has come up with a new probe that will be sent to mars to search for evidence of life on the planet. The probe has three parts one that will search orbit the planet and another lander which will take cores of the planets surface and search for the presence of amines. I thought this was really amazing because instead of just searching for the amine groups within the cores that it will take the lander will also assess the chirality of the molecules which will inform researchers a lot more about the nature of the potential organism that they have found on the planets surface. This is really awesome and exciting to see that other places besides the US are actively pursuing research on Mars.

Radar shows clues to past

This article is a review of a recent scientific paper published in Nature regarding the results of a radar study of the surface of Mars. Scientists discovered that the surface of the planet that we see may be a lot older than we thought since craters were detected sub- surface level. This study is relevant to the search for life on Mars because it allows the researches to study the processes that might have led to the hiding of the below-surface craters. It also gives insight to what the surface of the planet looked like years ago which could provide evidence for life.

link to article:

http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2183&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Hot Clouds on Mars?

This article discusses how the clouds that cover Mars surface at night are five times thicker and hover close to the ground. The thinking behind this is that it keeps the surface of the planet from freezing at night. The discovery of these clouds was made when researchers using the Mars Global Surveyor noticed a temperature anomaly at night and were trying to figure out an explanation for it. Then using a laser altimeter they found out that the surface of Mars they were recording was higher than the surface they recorded during the day leading to the discovery of these clouds. I think this is interesting because if there is a possibility that certain locations avoid freezing temperatures then the possibility of microbial life existing is much more plausible.

Mesmerized by Mars

This is just a little interview with Dave Beaty, the chief scientist for Mars exploration at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. He explains some of the new programs and what motivates him to focus on Mars. One interesting question was whether he believed that life could exist without water. He acknowledges that "alternative lifestyle" may be possible. However, due to the similar raw materials present on both planets, he more interested in if organisms on Mars would be similar to organisms on earth. I find it interesting that we expect to find something that would be familiar , when actually we may find something completely "alien".

Martian Life: A threat to our planet?

This article addresses a newer thought regarding life on Mars because it looks at the precautions humans would have to take in order to preserve life on earth as we know it. I also liked this article because it addresses how the scientists studying sampled rocks from Mars for life would have to figure how to present their data to the public.

Travel to Mars

The first of two websites dealing with the idea of traveling to and possibly finding life on Mars focuses on astronautical engineer Robert Zubrin. Zubrin believes that is is humankind's destiny to walk and live on Mars, and he has some interesting ideas concerning how to do this, and do it soon. He is probably quite correct that "NASA needs to have a central driving mission", as they seem to have lost their focus and drive over the past few decades. Zubrin also has a point that it is NASA's mission to "do 14 years from now what they did 50 years before" (which is to go to the moon). This is kind of ironic, but may be necessary to ensure that this time everything they do is safer and more efficient. Zubrin is of the opinion that humans can actually get to Mars within 10 years. I don't know if this is actually feasible or even possible, given the state of affairs the world is in now and the fact that colonizing Mars doesn't seem to be high on the priority list of most governments. However, I do think it is a fascinating and admirable goal. Zubrin also has some novel ideas on how to accomplish this, such as creating rocket fuel for the return flight from materials obtained on Mars to avoid having to carry the fuel the entire way. Another interesting idea that would progress his hoped-for eventual permanent Mars base is that the astronauts would travel to Mars in a "habitation module" while the return rocket was sent ahead to produce fuel; the habitation module would then be left on Mars to form part of the base, which would then be added on to by subsequent expeditions.

In contrast to Zubrin's ambitious but within-the-realm-of-possibility plans, Richard C. Hoagland is a former NASA consultant who believes firmly in the existence (or previous existence) of a higher civilization on Mars. As his evidence, he cites many photographs of the Martian surface showing what some believe to be geometric structures too regular to have been created by nature. The most famous of these is the "face" of Mars, which appears to be an enormous carving of a well-proportioned humanoid face. Hoagland argues that the "face" conforms to the classical standards of a face shape. This seems odd to me, however, because even if a higher intelligence did arise on Mars, who is to say that it would even REMOTELY resemble a human? I believe that this is beyond unlikely. Also, when later, clearer photographs of the "face" were taken by rovers, the structure looks much less like a face and more like a natural mound, eroded by weathering and time. Hoagland may be convinced that intelligent life has developed on Mars and that is has been covered up by the government, but I think he needs to re-evaluate his facts and not rely on conspiracy theory.

Criticism of Mars probes

The lead author of a recent study from University College London claims that current probes don't drill deep enough to discover any possible living cells that may exist. Radiation levels on the have been determined to be lethal to cellular life "within several meters of the surface" which is beyond the reach of the probes designed to test for life on Mars. The researchers also determined that young craters, gullies, or recently exposed ice would have the best probably of finding life due to the relative short time period of being exposed to cosmic radiation. A newly discovered frozen sea known as Elysium is a promising location for future study.

website review

These websites were interesting because they showed the lives of two individuals who have dedicated their lives to the study of the planet Mars. The first, Robert Zubrin, is a man wholly devoted to creating a manned Mars exploration. The second, Richard Hoagland, is convinced that life on Mars exists and continues to exist due to geographic evidence he has interpreted.

Dr. Zubrin’s stance on Mars is the most fascinating to me because he really believes that putting humans on Mars will change our world, and that of Mars, for the better. Dr. Zubrin is a very educated man and thus his argument is more convincing because he understands the theories of science which back up his ideas. His website is clearly sending a message to its audience: settlement of Mars is necessary and should be accomplished by all means feasible.

Mr. Hoagland also strives to convince his readers of the truth behind the theories on his website. Although Hoagland employs educated language in his arguments, the text is so wordy I had a hard time understanding exactly what his message was trying to convey. This website seems a bit less professional than that of Zubrin. The “open letter to President Clinton” is an interesting aspect because it allows the reader to see all of Hoagland’s “evidence” for previous colonization of Mars; however, I was not convinced by his data. And upon further surfing, I found that he is speaking at a convention of people that believe that Martians are continually coming to our planet.

I also thought it was interesting to notice the similarities between the two websites even though they addressed relatively different Mars issues. The website designs were both futuristic, flashy and space-like, probably meant to attract the typical web-surfer since both messages carried a political movement component. Both Zubrin and Hoagland believe that with the power of the general public they will be able to accomplish their goals with regards to Mars.

Zubrin & Hoagland

These articles are both aimed at one specific purpose; primarily manned exploration of Mars. The page that has Zubrin as their figurehead appears to approach the idea of exploring and creating a martian civilization as a goal that is readily attainable and something we should pursue because Mars is worth exploring. The other site with Hoagland as their figurehead has very strong founded opinions that both Russian and American governments have been covering up evidence of intelligent life on Mars.
In looking at the site hosted by Hoagland I found an article where he discusses how people now have the ability to control the weather, primarily hurricanes, for military purposes. As I read this article I started to wonder how much of the site was going to contain articles that did not directly relate to the exploration and possible settlement of mars. After further exploration of the site I found the articles that pertained to Mars and found some of them very informative. I thought the brief synopsis of Hoaglands reasoning for why geometrically the face that was discovered on Mars represents an extra terrestrial creation rather than just the eroded mesa that many scientists believe it is. In examining the posting dates of many of the articles I noticed that many of them are a couple of years old which made me wonder how up-to-date the site is and whether or not the society still exists.
The Zubrin page seemed like it was founded more on the desire to explore Mars and was more a petition to convince people to help the cause. The dichotomy of the two sites reminded me of the age old story of one scientist pursuing the general public with shock value where the other scientists is truly interested in the material and pursues it for the pursuit of knowledge. This site run by Zubrin has articles that discuss a lot of the problems that would arise with travelling to and colonizing Mars. In one article reviewed by Zubrin the author discusses how the colonization of Mars would be very similar to the colonization of the New World. He related the problems or resource exploitation and dependency on an old world at the beginning as problems that would arise again. He also talked about in time of the revolutionary war it took so long for News to travel to Europe that many of the things that happened were unbeknownst to the King for a long time.
I thought this article was very interesting because I found it very easy to relate to the idea of Mars being the New World because I personally find it easier to fathom things on a smaller global scale rather than an inter -planetary scale. This really made me realize that the colonization of Mars is a definite reality and one that I believe we will see in the future. Thus, I believe that this site is very well formulate because it was able to convince me that we will colonize Mars and that the resources are in place to do it.

Zubrin and Hoagland

While both sites were interesting, I thought that the Mars Society site was more informative and organized. Mars Society had a clear mission and grounded theories. The enterprise site was rather entertaining, but the articles were more science fiction-like.

An article posted on the Mars site was an interview with Zubrin. He talks about, based on his research, how a voyage to Mars would work. He believes that the return ship should be first sent to Mars. ]The crew in habitat modules will then follow. They conduct their research and return on the returning ship leaving the habitat module. Eventually there will be a colony of habitat modules on Mars. I thought the theory was intriguing, it was well thought out and seems to be a reasonable plan. Instead of temporary stations, Zubrin is thinking long term and permanently colonizing Mars. In addition, the article also mention Mars simulated bases located in the desert and the Artic. I didn't realize that there were actually places where people pretended being on Mars, wearing a space suit everytime they go outside. I wonder what kind of training they go through (physically and mentally) when "preparing" for Mars.

An entertaining article "Face it- It it a Face" on the Enterprise Site was rather entertaining. I'm not sure if it's all that reasonable, but still interesting. The article starts off by bashing NASA, claiming their explanations of the "catbox" image are politically based rather than scientifically based. Even with the higher resolution, the author still believes that it is a face. He claims that it is symmetrical, has two eye sockets, and has other qualities that would indicate a "sculpted" object. In addition, the article blames the imaging for details that opposes the face theory. The author claims that NASA is trying to trick the public and wants the data to speak for itself-- base on the data, in my opinion, it is not a face.

ammonia = life?

This article tells us how ammonia could be the next indication of life on mars since it is the product of active volcanoes and microbes. Since active volcanoes have yet to be discovered, scientists believe that the presence of ammonia could be a good indicator of life. This article is cool because it shows that even with the smallest amount of data, scientists are able to deduce reasonable hypotheses about the red planet.

Diamonds from Outer Space

This article technically isn't about mars, but I thought it was interesting anyway. Geologists have discovered that black diamonds are actually from outer space. Unlike conventional diamonds, the presence of hydrogen in black diamonds may indicate an orgin in the hydrogen-rich interstellar space. Black diamonds also can not be found in mining fields. Geologists believe that black diamonds were once the size of asteroids when they first landed on the earth. It was mentioned in class that earth and mars are constantly exchanging rocks. Essentially, black diamonds could be scattered throughout the solar system including Mars. Maybe diamond companies should be interested in colonizing Mars.