NASA Flying Saucer test for Mars

Script From Fox News

NASA launched a "flying saucer" on the weekend that will enable the U.S. space agency to test technologies that one day will be key in transporting humans to Mars, and the initial flight of the disk-shaped craft was a dubbed a success when it landed in the expected spot in the Pacific Ocean.

The Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator, or LDSD - better known, even at NASA, as the "flying saucer" - was carried aloft into the upper reaches of the atmosphere attached to a gigantic balloon on Saturday morning from the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

Despite the fact that the craft's parachute did not fully deploy upon the conclusion of the mission, NASA was able to recover the saucer at the planned time on Saturday afternoon when the disk detached from the balloon and landed in the ocean.

The $150 million mission was aimed at creating an alternative to the technologies developed decades ago that the U.S. space agency continues to use for its Mars exploration missions with the objective of one day sending humans to the Red Planet.

The helium-filled balloon lifted the LDSD to about 36,000 meters (118,000 feet, or more than 22 miles) above the earth, where it then detached from the saucer just as an attached rocket ignited, carrying the craft up to 54,000 meters (177,000 feet, or about 34 miles) at four times the speed of sound.

The flight allowed NASA experts to test the vehicle's performance in an atmosphere similar to that of Mars. The Red Planet's atmosphere is very thin, similar to that found at the altitude of 54,000 meters (34 miles) above the earth's surface.

Once it had completed its ascent, the disk deployed a specially-designed parachute to slow its descent back to Earth, and three hours later it landed in the Pacific Ocean.

NASA is planning to conduct more saucer flights soon to continue testing the craft's capabilities, but it declared the maiden flight a success.

Life on Mars Search Continues

I love the report of the Martian Robot explorations that come from NASA in the quest to find life on Mars. This is a new report from the Space Reporter.

NASA’s Opportunity rover is celebrating ten years since it landed on Mars, on January 24, 2004. In the rover’s 24-mile journey from its landing site to the rim of Endeavour Crater, it has uncovered evidence that is helping to elucidate the early history of Mars. The latest findings have been analyzed by a team led by Opportunity Deputy Principal Investigator Ray Arvidson of Washington University.

According to a NASA statement, Opportunity has analyzed rocks older than any others encountered by the rover. The Opportunity team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory employed an instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that is designed to map minerals on the Martian surface. This instrument, the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, began scanning the vicinity of Opportunity in 2010, and detected the signature of a clay mineral called iron-rich smectite at a site on Endeavour’s rim known as Matijevic Hill.

 

The Opportunity team steered the rover in a loop, guided by the orbiter, until it arrived at the promising outcrop. There, Opportunity had the chance to study the smectite in its proper context and determine how its location and position in the Martian geological record relate to those of other minerals and rock layers.

 

Arvidson and team’s analysis of the new data indicates that the warmer, wetter conditions in which the iron-rich smectite formed existed before Endeavour Crater was gouged out approximately 4 billion years ago. This environment also predates acidic and oxidizing conditions represented in rocks previously studied by the rover. The environment would have been suitable for microbial life. The new research has been published in the January 24 issue of the journal Science.

 

Although Opportunity’s twin rover, Spirit, ceased to function in 2010, Opportunity is still working well in conjunction with the larger, newer Curiosity rover half a planet away. Both rovers are guided by data gathered by the Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance orbiters.

 

I can't help wondering if some of the conditions that destroyed Mars might have been around the time when the believed meteorite hit Earth destroying the dinosaurs. Its only a thought, but maybe the solar system had a rain fall of meteorites many billion years ago along a scale more intense then we get at present.

 

Of course I'm no scientist and my dates could be way off and I'm sure NASA scientists have explored such a possibility. I will watch the continuous reports of the Martian exploration robots. Its very exciting stuff and I hope they find some fossil evidence of life, even if its the minutest form of life that once was.

 

 

 

 

 

Nasa Shocked as Mars JPL Rover Comes Upon a Mystery Rock.

 

 

Strange Rock Appeared from Nowhere.

 

 

 

 

From Independent Newspaper

 

A mysterious rock which appeared in front of the Opportunity rover is “like nothing we’ve ever seen before”, according to Mars exploration scientists at Nasa.

Experts said they were “completely confused” by both the origins and makeup of the object, which is currently being investigated by Opportunity’s various measuring instruments.

Astronomers noticed the new rock had “appeared” without any explanation on an outcrop which had been empty just days earlier. The rover has been stuck photographing the same region of Mars for more than a month due to bad weather, with scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California monitoring the images it sends.

Nasa issued a Mars status report entitled “encountering a surprise”, and lead Mars Exploration rover scientist Steve Squyres told a JPL event it seems the planet literally “keeps throwing new things at us”.

He said the images, from 12 Martian days apart, were from no more than a couple of weeks ago. “We saw this rock just sitting here. It looks white around the edge in the middle and there’s a low spot in the centre that’s dark red – it looks like a jelly doughnut.

“And it appeared, just plain appeared at that spot – and we haven’t ever driven over that spot.”

Squyres said his team had two theories on how the rock got there – that there’s “a smoking hole in the ground somewhere nearby” and it was caused by a meteor, or that it was “somehow flicked out of the ground by a wheel” as the rover went by.

“We had driven a metre or two away from here, and I think the idea that somehow we mysteriously flicked it with a wheel is the best explanation,” Squyres said.

Yet the story got even stranger when Opportunity investigated further. Squyres explained: “We are as we speak situated with the rover’s instruments deployed making measurements of this rock.

“We’ve taken pictures of both the doughnut and jelly parts, and the got the first data on the composition of the jelly yesterday.

“It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” he said. “It’s very high in sulphur, it’s very high in magnesium, it’s got twice as much manganese as we’ve ever seen in anything on Mars.

“I don’t know what any of this means. We’re completely confused, and everyone in the team is arguing and fighting (over what it means).

“That’s the beauty of this mission… what I’ve realised is that we will never be finished. There will always be something tantalising, something wonderful just beyond our reach that we didn’t quite get to – and that’s the nature of exploration.”

Squyres was speaking at an event marking the 10th anniversary of the arrival of Opportunity and Spirit on the surface of Mars.

While Spirit lost contact with Earth and was later declared “dead” in 2010, Opportunity has now roamed the planet far in excess of what was originally planned as a three-month mission. Nasa said that with its maximum speed of just 0.05mph, as of “Sol 3547” (15 January 2014) Opportunity had covered just over 24 miles (38km). NASA: Space in pictures

Extra-terrestrial Life Discovered in Earth's Stratosphere.

Extra-terrestrial life has been discovered by Brit students at Sheffield University. Not bug eyed green monsters but microscopic from meteor showers. The scientific investigators have isolated the microbes from weather balloons high in the stratosphere and have quarantined them from infection by Earth microbes. They seem convinced the micro-organisms are alien and from meteor showers that broke up upon hitting Earth atmosphere. 

Humans Colonising Mars

 

There seems to be a growing desire throughout the scientific world to venture forth with Mars. The dream of colonisation is very real and now in the foreseeable future according to some scientists. The above is an impression of what may come to pass.

 

Below is a very real obstacle that we will face when or if we do colonise Mars. How might the human body change within the Martian environment. There will be all sorts of problems to overcome and anatomical development in biology will need to be looked at too.

 

 

 

 

 

Human Travel To Mars

More and more, people are looking at the notion of a manned expedition to Mars. Different scientific teams from all over the world are looking to Mars in the hope of finding evidence of past alien life. The concept of ship design to make the journey and the ideas of return continue to be thought about. It will not be long before someone take on the quest.

 

 

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.