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.

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

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.

 

 

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.