Bringing You Thunder Child to the Rescue and her Growing Audience.

H.M.S. Thunder Child's story seen from the crew of the ship. Read a pastiche of War of the Worlds from a different perspective. 

H.G. Wells captivated audiences in 1898 with his story of an alien invasion from Mars. There have been a few adaptations of this story over the past hundred years and more.

Here is another angle that science fiction fans will, I hope, enjoy. 

The crew of the old ironclad are expecting their small coastal defence vessel to be taken to the scrap yard. They still have obsolete muzzle loading guns. The rest of the Royal Navy have been re-equipped with longer barrel breech loaders. H.M.S. Thunder Child was nearing the end of her service and for this and other obscure reasons remained without her upgrades.

Then the little ironclad wins a reprieve and is sent on a final reconnaissance mission. There are rumours circulating about a Martian invasion. Some believe it is all part of an exercise - the sort of silly things that the services invent for training purposes. Then there are the outrages semaphore messages and the unusual amount of vessels with foreign navies coming into British coastal waters and being welcome. What an Earth is going on?

Then the crew see hordes of refugees along the coast and gradually the sinister reality dawns. Their little floating world is upon the fringe of unreality. There are aliens from Mars and they are roaming the land. Destroy all and everything before them.

War of the Worlds the true story on Amazon

Click War of the Worlds the True Story link below.

Post by War of the Worlds The True Story.

A new War of the Worlds production on Amazon. Looks good and will give it a try.

Alien Atmospheres – Methane, CFCs and Signs of Extraterrestiel Life.

Scientists are developing all sorts of ways to work out if distant stars have planets in orbit. Then they can also work out if there are worlds within the Goldilocks zone of the star system (the just right area) Not too hot or too cold. Now they can also work out if the planet of observation has an atmosphere. To learn more read the report below from Astrobiology Magazine


Alien Atmospheres – Methane, CFCs and Signs of Extraterrestrial “Intelligence” | Astrobiology Magazine

Search for Extra-terrestrial Life in UK

Britain is launching a new in depth search for alien life through out the cosmos. They are trying to scan for anything that signifies life and are using countless ways of monitoring such things. There are various links to follow. This will give a good idea of how the searchers will go about their task.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23202054

http://post.jagran.com/britain-launches-search-for-1373435615

 

Mars and the Hellas Basin Theory Jumps the Gun

Scientists and Theorists will not give up on the Martian question. Many cling to the notion that Mars might be a dead planet that once sustained life. Gradually, ideas are eliminated only to be replaced by new ones. The optimism that Mars once sustained life remains. Many explorations and experiments are waiting to be conducted. Unmanned space craft have been sent and more will follow to scratch the surface and find evidence that might support the notion that our Red Planet once harboured, carbon based, organic cells. We have the robot jeep Discovery project carrying out surface tests and soon ExoMars will launch two missions. One via satellite and another robotic jeep like the Discovery will land on the surface. This will be done by the ESA (European Space Agency) with help and support from the Russian Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS)

Observersof the Red Planet are continuously puzzled by many of the rock formations. Geologists often question the possibility that once water might have been there. Why did it all end if the planet was once on the journey to evolve carbon based life forms? 

Perhaps a violent ecological disaster might be the reason for the sterile landscape that teases the observers. Some theorists have tried to peddle the idea that Mars was hit by a huge asteroid over a thousand miles in width and this created the Hellas Basin. Before the planet could recover more asteroids hit the surface denying Mars any chance of the healing process being able to kick in. Somehow, the magnetic field stopped working and water could no longer be contained and left the planet. This all sounds far-fetched and fanciful. Many scientists understandably laugh at the notion.

If Mars did once have life, the reason for it becoming extinct would be a new undertaking of discovery. Then new ideas will need to be looked at, but wild speculation like the Hellas Basin concept is often like running before we can learn to walk and looked down upon by most geologists. After all, we are not sure still, if Mars has ever had life in the first place. Inventing ideas as to why it is no longer present, is jumping the gun. 

ExoMars - Europe's Double Mars Mission

After arguments concerning finance for Europe’s plan to send two expeditions to Mars; plans are finally back on track and looking positive for both missions. One is for a satellite to explore the surface topography by camera and search for trace gases in the planet’s atmosphere. These tests will be for methane mainly, but also other credible gases helpful for carbon life in the Martian sky. This is due to launch in 2016.

There is also another plan for a land rover or mobile robot upon the surface of Mars in 2018. Both the European missions have been named ExoMars and the funding for this has now been agreed and the work schedule for both launches begins in earnest and a new mood of enthusiasm. All believe that ExoMars (joint missions) will happen. The contracts of agreement were signed on 17^th June 2013 at an agreed cost of 216 million Euros. The main contractor for this work is; Thales Alenia Space – TAS.

The biggest chunk of these funds will be spent upon the first satellite mission known as Trace Gas Orbiter – TGO. This totals 146 million Euros and will launch in January of 2016. After this, all the rest of the schedule will be for the descent module of project TAS to be completed for the second 2018 mission. This will prove Europe’s combined ability to land a robotic functional vehicle on Mars

One of the main sources of help for ExoMars was the Russian space agency (Roscosmos.) The Russians came to ExoMars aid because the U.S. had to step down due to budgetary problems and other commitments within their space agency NASA.

The Hunt for Past Life on Mars

The news of past life on Mars seems to come and go. One moment it is all in the news and we are hopeful and then it seems to fade away. These latest finds seem to keep the pot simmering for past life on Mars and the hunt for water. Let us hope so.