Welcome to our Mars blog!

below you will find all you want to know about Mars. Use the archive links to the right to navigate the different article posts. Enjoy and share the knowledge!

Take our Quiz, please post responses!

Take a turn reading over our quiz and post your answers on our blog. If you need help, look in the articles on this blog!



1. The methane emissions in Mars' atmosphere may be from which of the following:
a. Geological processes
b. Asteroid/Comet impacts
c. Microbial processes
d. Both a and b are possible factors

2. Which of the following are ways water may exist on Mars?
a. Liquid underneath the surface
b. Gas in methane plumes
c. Ice on the surface
d. All of the above



3. What % of bone loss do astronauts experience for every month spent in zero gravity?

A. None
B. 2.5-3.0%
C. 0.1-0.5%
D. 1.0-1.5%

4. What is the term used to describe this phenomena?
th
A. Disuse Osteoporosis
B. Bone Sloughing
C. Calcium Deficiency
D. Skeletal Breakdown


5. Which mission achieved
the first successful orbit of Mars?

A. Marsnik 2
B. Mariner 10
C. Viking
D. Mariner 9


6. Which mission achieved the first successful
Mars landing?

A. Mariner 4
B. Mars 3
C. Mars Pathfinder
D. Viking


7. What country has the potential to begin another space race with the United States?

A. Italy
B. The U.K.
C. China
D. Cuba

8. Which of the following countries is not a key player in the space race today?

A. China
B. U.S.
C. Russia
D. South Africa

9. What are the potential benefits of using the carbon dioxide on Mars in order to create the propellant for the return flight, as opposed to just bringing all the propellant we need from Earth?

10. What are the risk and cost factors of having a two ship Mission, where one crew is stationed on the surface of Mars as one crew remains in its orbit?

11. How much money was spent on the initial 90-day mission?


A. 150 million

B. 750 million

C. 820 million

D. 20 billion


12. When did the rovers finally land on Mars?


A. September, 2002

B. July, 2006

C. December, 2008

D. January, 2004

13. What is the best building material we can readily use to make structures on Mars?

14. How do you get enough fuel to send a ship home from Mars?

Alternative Transportation Method, By Nate Castner

Mars on a Shoestring” (1)

An alternative to the commonly proposed methods of getting to Mars has been proposed by veteran inventor, Eric Knight. Knight unveiled an idea that would allow human exploration of Mars in only a few years, as opposed to the 10-year timeline proposed by most space authorities. Knight’s idea arose from his dismay of the future retiring of current space shuttles. He wanted to think of a way that would put them to use instead of packing them away in moth balls. The idea is quite simple. Knight proposes launching two space shuttles into Earth’s orbit. Once there, rendezvous and connect the two shuttles together, top to top through the use of a truss. The ends of this truss would be anchored to the base of the orbiters’ payload bays. In the middle of the truss, there would be a propulsion stage with enough capacity to accelerate the whole system to the required speed. Once up to speed, the stage could be detached along with the truss. The two shuttles would separate to a distance of a few hundred feet, but remain connected by a tether cable. There would be a large conduit between the two shuttles that would allow passage of crew members between the two shuttles. The shuttles, once fully separated, would fire thrusters to put the system into a rotating “orbit” to create a comfortable level of gravity for the remainder of the trip.
This idea provides many solutions to many of the problems associated with long distance travel. Having a level of gravity will diminish the effects on the human body in prolonged absences of gravity, such as muscle and bone deterioration. Having a two shuttle system would provide ample living space for the crew while being able to store large quantities of food and equipment. There would also be room for hydroponic gardens, which aside from providing food also help convert carbon dioxide into oxygen for the crew. Granted, usual storage space is lost with “gravity” present, since storage on the ceiling does not work out so well under gravity.

“Space Infrastructure” (2)

Another novel idea to avoid the inefficiencies of chemical propulsion, large amounts of fuel consumed, and the weight associated with the fuels is to set up “pit-stops” in space. The idea is to create a set of man-made space stations on natural celestial bodies, such as asteroids, and set them in orbits that are useful to the route. These space stations would provide human habitat and depot facilities. More importantly, they would contain electromagnetic launchers to rapidly accelerate spacecrafts without the use of conventional fuels or consuming onboard resources. One problem with this idea is that an object in the ideal orbit will have a period of about 26 months, which would represent the time between opportunities for missions to Mars from Earth. However, this technology wouldn’t stop just for missions to Mars. This would provide a sort of network infrastructure to get us to wherever we want to go, time now only being the limiting factor.


(1) http://www.remarkable.com/marsonashoestring.html
(2) http://www.marssociety.org/portal/TMS_Library/MAR_98_078/?searchterm=habitation

Mars Exploration Program, by Chris DiMeo

In 2003, two Mars Exploration Rovers launched towards Mars. These exploration rovers, aptly named Spirit and Opportunity, were part of a larger program called the Mars Exploration Program. This NASA program has sent three rovers to Mars including the two Viking landers in 1976 and the Pathfinder in 1997. One of the main goals of this project has been to explore the martian landscape and find clues that could lead to past water activity on Mars. Although the past Viking and Pathfinder rovers have made significant headway in this process, the Spirit and Opportunity Rovers are clearly the most advanced and capable rovers to accomplish this goal.

Significant research, preparation, and funds went into the construction and launch of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. The estimated cost of building, launching and landing the rovers on Mars was $820 million for the initial mission, not to mention the years of planning and research that was part of the process. The rovers were built with solar panels as well as a battery in order to keep running. They are 5 feet tall, 7 and a half feet wide, about 5 feet long and weigh almost 400 pounds. Due to the large dimensions of the rovers, they cannot move at a very high speed. At maximum speed, the rovers move about 2 inches per second. However, about every 10 to 20 seconds they have to stop and reassess their position so it takes a significant amount of time to get from one place to another.
Rover Dimensions Diagram

Scientists spent years planning out exactly how the rovers would make there way to and land on Mars in the safest way possible. The actual landing on the surface was one of the most complicated parts of the plan. A parachute that had 48 suspension lines and has a load of 85 kilonewtons (when fully inflated) was designed to ease the rover’s descent onto the surface. Retrorockets were also used to guide the rover onto the surface. These rockets were necessary due to the fact that the parachute alone could not bring the rovers to a slow enough landing speed. After all of these crucial calculations were solved, the rovers were finally set to launch in the summer of 2003.




Spirit and Opportunity launched towards Mars on June 10 and July 7,respectively. These rovers landed on Mars in January of 2004 and began the large tasks that lay ahead of them. Beginning on opposite sides of Mars in areas where water was theorized to have been in the past, the first objective was to take detailed pictures of the surface. Spirit and Opportunity took panoramic images that allowed scientists on Earth to decide where to go next with the mission. The Rovers then visited various sites and performed geological investigations. They have a highly complex movable arm and an array of tools ranging from X-Ray spectrometers to microscopic imagers. This technology has lead to numerous geological findings. In March of 2004 the Spirit rover found traces of water history in a rock called “Humphrey”. Opportunity found rocks with the same water-like qualities on the other side of the planet. These findings hve led researchers to believe that there definitely was once running water on Mars. This observation, in turn, has led many to consider the possibility that there once could have been life on Mars. The original plan was for the rovers to be on Mars for only 90 days, but the rovers have now been on Mars for 5 years and are still running. They have received a mission extension that should let them run through 2009. Due to the great success of the Mars Exploration Program, scientists are working on a project called the MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft, which will study the atmosphere of Mars. These Martian exploration projects help us to observe Mars and study the possibility of past life on the red planet.


Also, my sources used were Wikipedia, www.nasa.gov,
http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/home/index.html
http://hobbiton.thisside.net/rovermanual/
http://news.softpedia.com/news/NASA-039-s-Next-Mission-On-Mars-Will-Be-MAVEN-93724.shtml

Habitation and Manned Missions, By John Daugherty

After browsing the web on this topic I stumbled upon a book by Robert Zubrin called The Case for Mars. I have decided to use this book as my guiding light while discussing this topic because after reading his plan, I have become convinced we can live on Mars. There is a “low budget” plan to get to the red planet outlined by Zubrin called Mars Direct. This plan takes advantage of a principle not yet used in space travel: living off the land. The Mars Direct plan will send chemical plants ahead of any manned missions to Mars and have the small probes churn out fuel for the manned mission’s return home as well as the exploration vehicles that will follow. This approach saves a tremendous amount of cost (it's expensive to lift the tremendous weight of fuel into orbit and then to Mars) in the mission, bringing down the price tag from $400 billion in the famous 40 day plan to something around $30-50 billion.



Once there are resources available, the Mars exploration team will be sent to the red planet in search of answers to the most important questions we have: has life existed on Mars? can life exist once again? The unmanned gas harvesting probes and the manned missions will alternate, giving us multiple small bases on the Martian surface. Each of these manned bases will have living quarters that will sustain astronauts for the 18 months it takes for Mars to align with Earth for the shortest possible travel time between the two. With each base there will also be a vehicle that will allow humans to travel long distances on the surface, looking for a key ingredient for life: water.



Eventually, one of the manned frontier bases will be chosen for a long term habitat on Mars. All flights from that point after will be routed to that location, and a base of multiple habitation units will be constructed. To turn the base into a permanent Martian settlement, we must again use a live off the land approach and construct buildings with available materials. Bruce MacKenzie published a series of papers outlying a method to build structures on Mars with a low-tech concept of brick. The probes on Mars have already identified the soil contents of the Marian dust to be feasible for constructing brick. Brick buildings with Roman-style vaulted ceilings with 2.5 meters of dirt on top could be pressurized to habitable gas levels. Other advantages to these structures include decreased cosmic rays (thick, solid ceiling) and great insulation.



Once we have some pressurized space, the plan outlined by Zubrin calls for geodesic domes made from materials like Plexiglas and Kevlar to increase the amount of living space in our permanent home on Mars. There is still a debate on what the best type of dome would be; suffice it to say the math outlined in the book points to the conclusion that a very feasible amount of safe living space could be sent from earth with relative simplicity.

The book goes into making plastics, glass, ceramics, getting water, building green houses, farming crops, manufacturing steel, refining silicon, using solar, geothermal, and wind power to augment and replace the nuclear reactors that powered the beginnings of the program, and eventually grow a small base into a colony for humankind. I hope you use this post as impetus to go out and read this adventure-inspiring book.



-friendly blog master.

References:

-Zubrin, Robert-The Free Press-The Case for Mars: The Plan to settle the Red Planet and why we must; 1996
-Wikipedia
-http://www.redplanethost.com/images/bak/Red%20Planet.jpg
-http://www.eyalyurconi.com/yurconi/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/the-case-for-mars.jpg
-http://www.geocities.com/marsterraforming/miss_seq.jpg

Mars Direct-A Cost Effective Proposal, by Brandon Cratty

My job for the project was to research how such a large intergovernmental project would be financed. Since the end of the Second World War, there have been numerous proposals for manned missions to Mars, each with widely varying concepts and budget proposals. One such mission, named Mars Direct, is a cost effective proposal put forth by Robert Zubrin and David Baker in their series of conferences at the University of Boulder Colorado. Since NASA has taken Mars Direct into consideration as a possible mission model, I thought I would talk briefly about a predecessor proposal named SEI and its failings and lead that into the Mars Direct Mission and how it offers a cheaper, safer, and quicker alternative to some of the 100 billion dollar Mars Orbiting missions proposed by NASA.


In July of 1989 then President George H.W Bush announced a prolonged plan deemed the Space Exploration Initiative. The project, which would have comprised of building Space Station Freedom, a Lunar Base, and sending a manned mission to Mars, would surely have been a monumental task. It would have required permanently manned space stations on both the moon and the Earth’s orbit, a complete revolution in the size, construction and function of spacecraft, and not to mention lots and lots of money.

Unfortunately, President Bush was at the time unaware of the cost estimates of such an endeavor before he announced SEI’s plans to the public. In August of 1990, after hearing NASA’s estimated 400 billion dollar price tag over three decades, Bush established a committee to encourage NASA to focus mainly on Earth Science. In 1996, SEI was scrapped altogether in the Clinton Administration’s National Space Policy and Space Exploration was officially removed from the National Agenda.

In the same year, a series of conferences at the University of Boulder Colorado between 1981 and 1996 and was condensed into a book by Robert Zubrin, called The Case for Mars. The book advocates for return to the days of frontier exploration being at the top of the agenda. He recalls the adventures of Lewis and Clark and Roald Amundsen, the first man to reach the North and South poles, and that the key ingredient in groundbreaking expeditions is the fact that these explorers thrived and survived by “Living off the Land”. This is what Zubrin believes to be the essential tactic if we are to ever successfully explore and colonize Mars. He says that it would have been completely irrational unfeasible for Lewis and Clark to bring along all of their necessary food and supplies for their three year trip across the continent. And that Sir John Franklin, an explorer and idol to his successor Amundsen, failed in his attempt to traverse the Northwest Passage because he brought with him a huge ship stocked with an abundance of unnecessary supplies. Zubrin asserts that in the entire history of Frontier exploration, it has always been large party, large budget expeditions that fail, and the small crew, small budget survivalist groups that continually succeed. He argues that space should be no different, and that programs like SEI will always be doomed to fail.

The spacecrafts used to get to Mars would be non orbiting, and as self-sufficient as possible. The first shuttle to be launched roughly two years before the manned launch, would be called the "Earth Return Vehicle", or (ERV) and would be sent directly from Earth's surface to Mars using essentially the same technology that is used today in the

The crew would consist of four, and as Zubrin puts it; “true renaissance men and women.” They would comprise of two field scientists, a biogeochemist and a geologist and two mechanics. The primary flight engineer should be a “Jack-of-all-trades”, able to help all other crew members with their daily tasks, as well as being the flight commander. In all each, crew member should be competent in as both active field scientists and mechanical engineers.


The ERV would carry only a supply of hydrogen, and a chemical and nuclear reaction plant to produce methane and oxygen for the return flight home for both the ERV and the second ship. The second ship would be called the "Mars Habitat Unit" (MHU) and would bring a crew of four to the surface of Mars. Due to the effects of prolonged exposure to zero gravity, this ship would have the habitat unit would set on a rotating axis in order to create artificial gravity for the astronauts. The MHU also includes a small, pressurized land rover that would be assembled on the surface of Mars in order to save space on the ship. The rover would be powered by the methane produced by the ERV Powered by a small methane engine, and would be used primarily to explore the regions around the base.

Because of the limited amount of spacecraft and flight crew, Zubrin estimated that the initial mission with the two spacecraft and crew would cost about 55 billion dollars, only an eighth of the cost of the SEI proposal, and with each successor mission costing less as the technology improved. Overall, Mars Direct offers a cheap and relatively safe way for mankind’s exploration of Mars to continue.


References

Zubrin, Robert-The Free Press-The Case for Mars: The Plan to settle the Red Planet and why we must; 1996

http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/mars_worldbook.html

http://chapters.marssociety.org/toronto/Education/MarsDirect.shtml

The Space Race Part II? By Meagan Ledlow

The historical space race that occurred between the US and Russia during the cold war is clearly over, and cooperation seems to be the normal interaction among space programs today. However, with so much of that race having been ignited by the struggle to be the first to the moon, it is more than reasonable to worry if that trend will repeat itself with a race to the planet Mars. Everyone from Europe, India, Japan, and Australia to the three key players in space travel today, the United States, Russia, and up-and-coming China have space programs budding and eyes turned to Mars. Though their progress differs, all have studied Mars and possible travel to it.

The current state of European peace is providing a golden opportunity to focus on global scientific endeavors. Russia has announced a very ambitious plan of space exploration in years to come. It involves permanent habitation of the moon followed shortly by travel to Mars. Both India and China are in the throes of an unmanned lunar mission, and have research devoted to following it up with manned missions to both the moon and Mars.

Cold hostility towards the Chinese by the United States has forced their program to go the space race alone. In the same trend, the Soviet Union experienced a brief deceleration in its progress at the end of the Cold War. Because of the capitalist- communist conflict, much of the world is unwilling to share information or aide with the Chinese. To this day, the two share little direct contact at all, and have only collaborated to share information when it is on global rather than two-party terms. Fears are raging in the Western world that with new military-run operations by the Chinese in space that the next war of global proportions could take place not on the globe at all, but instead in the skies above it. This seems to be just another familiar piece in the puzzle of a race to space.

The good news is that despite much rivalry and competition, the similar interests of a diverse range of nations provide an ideal opportunity for cooperation and partnership. Evidence of this has already been seen in many programs such as the international space station as well as the possibility as an international human home on the moon. All in all, amazing steps are being taken towards an international home outside Earth’s atmosphere.

References

http://planetbye.blogspot.com/2009/03/mars-travel-preparations-in-russia.html
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3550741&page=1
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4208176.stm