The Carnival of Space celebrates its 100 edition at the One Minute Astronomer.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Apollo 17 Astronaut Harrison Schmitt to visit the island of Malta
Today on Discovery Enterprise we will be launching a series of articles concerning the past, present, and future of lunar exploration to mark the occasion of Apollo 17 Astronaut Harrison Schmitt’s visit to the island of Malta.
Dr. Schmitt is a former United States senator and a geologist who was involved in NASA’s Apollo space program. He was the lunar module pilot of the Apollo 17 mission and is the only scientist ever to travel to the moon. Following this mission, Senator Schmitt was appointed a Professor of Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, served one term as US Senator, is the Chairman of the NASA Advisory Council and founder and Chairman of Interlune-Intermars Initiative Inc. an organization whose goal is to advance the private sector’s acquisition and use of lunar resources.
Senator Schmitt was invited by the Department of Physics of the University of Malta in collaboration with the International Year of Astronomy 2009 Malta Committee and the United States Embassy to deliver two public lectures entitled “A SCIENTIST ON THE MOON - APOLLO 17” and “SPACE EXPLORATION AND EXPLOITATION” on the 22nd and 23rd of April 2009 as part of series of activities to mark the International Year of Astronomy and to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing.
The full programme of the activities connected to this event can be found at the Malta’s International Year of Astronomy website.
Senator Schmitt is also an advocate of returning to the moon and envisions using the energy and mineral resources of Earth’s nearest neighbor to create a spacefaring civilization.
The series of articles that will follow in the coming days are dedicated to the young men and women of today who will be the active participates of making this vision a reality.
Alex Michael Bonnici
Dr. Schmitt is a former United States senator and a geologist who was involved in NASA’s Apollo space program. He was the lunar module pilot of the Apollo 17 mission and is the only scientist ever to travel to the moon. Following this mission, Senator Schmitt was appointed a Professor of Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, served one term as US Senator, is the Chairman of the NASA Advisory Council and founder and Chairman of Interlune-Intermars Initiative Inc. an organization whose goal is to advance the private sector’s acquisition and use of lunar resources.
Senator Schmitt was invited by the Department of Physics of the University of Malta in collaboration with the International Year of Astronomy 2009 Malta Committee and the United States Embassy to deliver two public lectures entitled “A SCIENTIST ON THE MOON - APOLLO 17” and “SPACE EXPLORATION AND EXPLOITATION” on the 22nd and 23rd of April 2009 as part of series of activities to mark the International Year of Astronomy and to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing.
The full programme of the activities connected to this event can be found at the Malta’s International Year of Astronomy website.
Senator Schmitt is also an advocate of returning to the moon and envisions using the energy and mineral resources of Earth’s nearest neighbor to create a spacefaring civilization.
The series of articles that will follow in the coming days are dedicated to the young men and women of today who will be the active participates of making this vision a reality.
Alex Michael Bonnici
The Moon Our Stepping Stone in Creating a Spacefaring Civilization
"If God wanted man to become a spacefaring species, He would have given man a moon." - Krafft Ehricke, space visionary
The Moon will play an important role in humanity’s future expansion into space. A return to the Moon is the only logical step if our planetary culture is to evolve into a spacefaring civilization.
In the 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a historic superpower Moon race, which culminated in 12 men exploring the surface of the Moon. The first era of lunar exploration reached a dramatic conclusion in December of 1972 as Apollo 17 Astronauts Captain Gene Cernan and Dr. Harrison Schmitt became the last men on the Moon.
Moon 2.0, is the second era of lunar exploration involving the partnership of the governments of many nations and private enterprise. It will not be a quest for “flags and footprints.” This time we will go to the Moon to stay. The Moon is a stepping stone to the rest of the solar system and a source of solutions to some of the most pressing environmental problems that we face on Earth – energy independence and climate change. Already, governments from around the world recognize the importance of lunar exploration, and national space agencies from the United States, Russia, China, India, Japan, and the nations of Europe have sent probes to the Moon to pave the way for humanity’s return there.
This second era of lunar exploration will be much more exciting and inspiring for it will help to create a new branch of human civilization out amongst the stars.
Today’s video selection takes a closer look at this brave new era of lunar exploration.
Moon 2.0: Join the Revolution
The Google Lunar X PRIZE is an unprecedented international competition that will challenge and inspire engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. The X PRIZE Foundation, best known for the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private suborbital spaceflight, is an educational nonprofit prize organization whose goal is to bring about radical breakthroughs to solve some of the greatest challenges facing the world today.
“The Google Lunar X PRIZE calls on entrepreneurs, engineers and visionaries from around the world to return us to the lunar surface and explore this environment for the benefit of all humanity,” said Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation. “We are confident that teams from around the world will help develop new robotic and virtual presence technology, which will dramatically reduce the cost of space exploration.”
“Having Google fund the purse and title the competition punctuates our desire for breakthrough approaches and global participation,” continued Diamandis. “By working with the Google team, we look forward to bringing this historic private space race into every home and classroom. We hope to ignite the imagination of children around the world.”
Base Camp Moon
The fruits of the previous moon expeditions have provided scientists with astounding information and insights. Over the years, this information has helped shape technological advancements in fields as diverse as biology, geology, astrophysics and chemistry. In 2018, astronauts will once again set foot on the lunar surface, with the goal being to ultimately establish a presence on Mars and beyond. Astronauts, scientists and engineers will use the moon as a training ground to develop and refine the technologies that such an ambitious vision demands.
NASA's Plans to Return to the Moon
This is an exciting and inspirational video highlighting some of the hardware that will return humanity to the Moon within the next decade.
The Moon will play an important role in humanity’s future expansion into space. A return to the Moon is the only logical step if our planetary culture is to evolve into a spacefaring civilization.
In the 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a historic superpower Moon race, which culminated in 12 men exploring the surface of the Moon. The first era of lunar exploration reached a dramatic conclusion in December of 1972 as Apollo 17 Astronauts Captain Gene Cernan and Dr. Harrison Schmitt became the last men on the Moon.
Moon 2.0, is the second era of lunar exploration involving the partnership of the governments of many nations and private enterprise. It will not be a quest for “flags and footprints.” This time we will go to the Moon to stay. The Moon is a stepping stone to the rest of the solar system and a source of solutions to some of the most pressing environmental problems that we face on Earth – energy independence and climate change. Already, governments from around the world recognize the importance of lunar exploration, and national space agencies from the United States, Russia, China, India, Japan, and the nations of Europe have sent probes to the Moon to pave the way for humanity’s return there.
This second era of lunar exploration will be much more exciting and inspiring for it will help to create a new branch of human civilization out amongst the stars.
Today’s video selection takes a closer look at this brave new era of lunar exploration.
Moon 2.0: Join the Revolution
The Google Lunar X PRIZE is an unprecedented international competition that will challenge and inspire engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. The X PRIZE Foundation, best known for the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private suborbital spaceflight, is an educational nonprofit prize organization whose goal is to bring about radical breakthroughs to solve some of the greatest challenges facing the world today.
“The Google Lunar X PRIZE calls on entrepreneurs, engineers and visionaries from around the world to return us to the lunar surface and explore this environment for the benefit of all humanity,” said Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation. “We are confident that teams from around the world will help develop new robotic and virtual presence technology, which will dramatically reduce the cost of space exploration.”
“Having Google fund the purse and title the competition punctuates our desire for breakthrough approaches and global participation,” continued Diamandis. “By working with the Google team, we look forward to bringing this historic private space race into every home and classroom. We hope to ignite the imagination of children around the world.”
Base Camp Moon
The fruits of the previous moon expeditions have provided scientists with astounding information and insights. Over the years, this information has helped shape technological advancements in fields as diverse as biology, geology, astrophysics and chemistry. In 2018, astronauts will once again set foot on the lunar surface, with the goal being to ultimately establish a presence on Mars and beyond. Astronauts, scientists and engineers will use the moon as a training ground to develop and refine the technologies that such an ambitious vision demands.
NASA's Plans to Return to the Moon
This is an exciting and inspirational video highlighting some of the hardware that will return humanity to the Moon within the next decade.
Exploring and Colonizing Mars - The Search For Life
Today on Discovery Enterprise we will explore one of the most enduring and tantalising questions connected to the red planet. In the sixth and final instalment of the Discovery Channel's landmark television series Mars Rising - The Search For Life.
Is there life on Mars? Scientists in North America and elsewhere are combing the most barren places on Earth to search out bacteria, amino acids or carbonates in the most inhospitable environments existing on our world in search of clues to help answer the age old question - Is there life on Mars and elsewhere in the cosmos? Did life on Mars arise independently in a separate act of biogenesis? Or, does life on Earth and Mars have a common ancestry? And finally does Martian life pose a potential threat to the humans who venture there and the human civilization left behind on Earth? Will the human species one day face the threat of a very real Andromeda Strain?
The search for past or existent life on Mars is perhaps one of the most compelling reasons why humanity will go there. And, if it can be proved that life once existed on Mars or still ekes out a tenacious hold there, then Mars may hold the potential of becoming the second abode of the human species.
Is there life on Mars? Scientists in North America and elsewhere are combing the most barren places on Earth to search out bacteria, amino acids or carbonates in the most inhospitable environments existing on our world in search of clues to help answer the age old question - Is there life on Mars and elsewhere in the cosmos? Did life on Mars arise independently in a separate act of biogenesis? Or, does life on Earth and Mars have a common ancestry? And finally does Martian life pose a potential threat to the humans who venture there and the human civilization left behind on Earth? Will the human species one day face the threat of a very real Andromeda Strain?
The search for past or existent life on Mars is perhaps one of the most compelling reasons why humanity will go there. And, if it can be proved that life once existed on Mars or still ekes out a tenacious hold there, then Mars may hold the potential of becoming the second abode of the human species.
Mars Rising - The Search For Life
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Exploring and Colonizing Mars - Six Minutes of Terror
Today on Discovery Enterprise we continue to celebrate humanity's enduring love affair with the planet Mars with the fifth instalment of the Discovery Channel's landmark television series Mars Rising - Six Minutes of Terror.
Mars is littered with the carcasses of crashed robotic landers and the Martian environment is very unforgiving. Historically there has been a fifty percent failure rate in all previous landings attempts.
The crew attempting the first ever landing on this alien and desolate world will find the last six minutes of their journey to be the most terrifying. Only an inflatable aeroshell and the thin ceramic skin of their capsule will protect them during their blazing entry through the Martian atmosphere. The crew must face hellish temperatures reaching four thousand degrees Celsius and a death defying plunge towards the surface at speeds reaching sixteen thousand kilometres per hour. After the capsule's speed has been slowed, the astronauts have only a minute and a half to pinpoint a safe place to land. Yet, if the first crew survives these dangers they will open a brave new world for humans to explore and conquer.
Mars is littered with the carcasses of crashed robotic landers and the Martian environment is very unforgiving. Historically there has been a fifty percent failure rate in all previous landings attempts.
The crew attempting the first ever landing on this alien and desolate world will find the last six minutes of their journey to be the most terrifying. Only an inflatable aeroshell and the thin ceramic skin of their capsule will protect them during their blazing entry through the Martian atmosphere. The crew must face hellish temperatures reaching four thousand degrees Celsius and a death defying plunge towards the surface at speeds reaching sixteen thousand kilometres per hour. After the capsule's speed has been slowed, the astronauts have only a minute and a half to pinpoint a safe place to land. Yet, if the first crew survives these dangers they will open a brave new world for humans to explore and conquer.
Mars Rising - Six Minutes of Terror
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Evolution - red in tooth and claw
Today on Discovery Enterprise we continue our year long celebration of the life and work of the naturalist Charles Darwin with the fourth episode of the landmark PBS television series “Evolution” - Evolutionary Arms Race.
When we consider the evolutionary history of life on Earth, the following famous adage comes to mind:
“Nature, red in tooth and claw”
I always wondered if it was indeed Charles Darwin himself who penned this famous phrase. A little research through the pages of Wikipedia and The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 3rd edition provided the answer.
Man...
Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation's final law --
Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shrieked against his creed.
--Alfred, Lord Tennyson
These words were penned by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson in his poem “In Memoriam A.H.H.” and this quote comes from a group of cantos entitled, "In Memorium A.H.H." (1850). This quote comes from canto LVI, and the entire work written over a period of 17 years and completed in 1849. It is a requiem for the poet's Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died suddenly of a cerebral haemorrhage in Vienna in 1833, but it is also much more. It can be seen as reflective of Victorian society at the time, and the poem discusses many of the issues that were beginning to be questioned. It is the work in which Tennyson reaches his highest musical peaks and his poetic experience comes full circle. It is regarded as one of the greatest poems of the 19th century.
The original title of the poem was "The Way of the Soul", and this might give an idea of how the poem is an account of all Tennyson's thoughts and feelings as he copes with his grief over such a long period - including wrestling with the big scientific-philosophical questions of his day. It is perhaps because of this that the poem is still popular with and of interest to modern readers. Owing to its length and its arguable breadth of focus, the poem might not be thought an elegy or a dirge in the strictest formal sense.
In writing the poem, Tennyson was influenced by the ideas of evolution presented in Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation which had been published in 1844, and had caused a storm of controversy about the theological implications of impersonal nature functioning without direct divine intervention. The fundamentalist idea of unquestioning belief in revealed truth taken from a literal interpretation of the Bible was already in conflict with the findings of science, and Tennyson expressed the difficulties evolution raised for faith in "the truths that never can be proved".
Are God and Nature then at strife,
That Nature lends such evil dreams?
So careful of the type she seems,
So careless of the single life;
That I, considering everywhere
Her secret meaning in her deeds,
And finding that of fifty seeds
She often brings but one to bear,
I falter where I firmly trod,
And falling with my weight of cares
Upon the great world's altar-stairs
That slope thro' darkness up to God,
I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope,
And gather dust and chaff, and call
To what I feel is Lord of all,
And faintly trust the larger hope.
This poem was published before Charles Darwin made his theory public in 1859. However, the phrase "Nature, red in tooth and claw" in canto 56 quickly was adopted by others as a phrase that evokes the process of natural selection. It was and is used by both those opposed to and in favour of the theory of evolution.
“Nature, red in tooth and claw”
This famous quote has come to symbolise the very essence of the evolutionary struggle as outlined by Darwin’s theory of evolution by means of Natural Selection. But, is that all evolution is? Is it just an unending struggle for survival? How about cooperation? Does this play a role in evolution? Has the entire biosphere of our planet evolved into a super-organism as James Edward Lovelock outlined in his GAIA hypothesis?
Both survival of the fittest and cooperation are essential interactions between and within species and are both amongst the most powerful evolutionary forces on Earth, and understanding them may be a key to our own survival. Which aspect of our own human innate nature, raw competition or cooperation, prevails may determine our planet’s and our own long term future.
Evolution - Evolutionary Arms Race
When we consider the evolutionary history of life on Earth, the following famous adage comes to mind:
“Nature, red in tooth and claw”
I always wondered if it was indeed Charles Darwin himself who penned this famous phrase. A little research through the pages of Wikipedia and The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 3rd edition provided the answer.
Man...
Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation's final law --
Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shrieked against his creed.
--Alfred, Lord Tennyson
These words were penned by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson in his poem “In Memoriam A.H.H.” and this quote comes from a group of cantos entitled, "In Memorium A.H.H." (1850). This quote comes from canto LVI, and the entire work written over a period of 17 years and completed in 1849. It is a requiem for the poet's Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died suddenly of a cerebral haemorrhage in Vienna in 1833, but it is also much more. It can be seen as reflective of Victorian society at the time, and the poem discusses many of the issues that were beginning to be questioned. It is the work in which Tennyson reaches his highest musical peaks and his poetic experience comes full circle. It is regarded as one of the greatest poems of the 19th century.
The original title of the poem was "The Way of the Soul", and this might give an idea of how the poem is an account of all Tennyson's thoughts and feelings as he copes with his grief over such a long period - including wrestling with the big scientific-philosophical questions of his day. It is perhaps because of this that the poem is still popular with and of interest to modern readers. Owing to its length and its arguable breadth of focus, the poem might not be thought an elegy or a dirge in the strictest formal sense.
In writing the poem, Tennyson was influenced by the ideas of evolution presented in Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation which had been published in 1844, and had caused a storm of controversy about the theological implications of impersonal nature functioning without direct divine intervention. The fundamentalist idea of unquestioning belief in revealed truth taken from a literal interpretation of the Bible was already in conflict with the findings of science, and Tennyson expressed the difficulties evolution raised for faith in "the truths that never can be proved".
Are God and Nature then at strife,
That Nature lends such evil dreams?
So careful of the type she seems,
So careless of the single life;
That I, considering everywhere
Her secret meaning in her deeds,
And finding that of fifty seeds
She often brings but one to bear,
I falter where I firmly trod,
And falling with my weight of cares
Upon the great world's altar-stairs
That slope thro' darkness up to God,
I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope,
And gather dust and chaff, and call
To what I feel is Lord of all,
And faintly trust the larger hope.
This poem was published before Charles Darwin made his theory public in 1859. However, the phrase "Nature, red in tooth and claw" in canto 56 quickly was adopted by others as a phrase that evokes the process of natural selection. It was and is used by both those opposed to and in favour of the theory of evolution.
“Nature, red in tooth and claw”
This famous quote has come to symbolise the very essence of the evolutionary struggle as outlined by Darwin’s theory of evolution by means of Natural Selection. But, is that all evolution is? Is it just an unending struggle for survival? How about cooperation? Does this play a role in evolution? Has the entire biosphere of our planet evolved into a super-organism as James Edward Lovelock outlined in his GAIA hypothesis?
Both survival of the fittest and cooperation are essential interactions between and within species and are both amongst the most powerful evolutionary forces on Earth, and understanding them may be a key to our own survival. Which aspect of our own human innate nature, raw competition or cooperation, prevails may determine our planet’s and our own long term future.
Evolution - Evolutionary Arms Race
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Evolution - Extinction
Today on Discovery Enterprise we continue our year long celebration of the life and work of the naturalist Charles Darwin with the third episode of the landmark PBS television series “Evolution” - Extinction.
Far more life forms have existed on Earth than grace the skies, oceans and land masses of our beautiful blue and green planet in our current epoch. Ninety-nine percent of all the creatures that have ever existed have gone extinct. What does fate have in store for the human species? What are our own evolutionary prospects?
As Carl Sagan wrote in his monumental book "Cosmos":
"The fossil record speaks to us unambiguously of creatures that once were present in enormous numbers and that have now vanished utterly.* Far more species have become extinct in the history of the Earth than exist today; they are the terminated experiments of evolution".
Natural selection has shaped and sculpted an incredible life form that appears to be able to adapt to life in every conceivable ecological niche. A life form that is on the verge in directing the course of its own evolutionary future and that of the other life forms that share this planet with us. And, that life form is us – Homo sapiens.
We are the pioneers of a whole new form of evolution which is distinctly non-biological. This new realm of evolution is Cultural Evolution. It is this new dominion of evolution that has made us the most dominant life form on this planet and has set us on a trajectory that will one day take us out amongst the stars or lead to our own demise.
Five mass extinctions have occurred since life began on Earth. Are humans causing the next mass extinction? And what does evolutionary theory predict for the world we will leave to our descendants?
We will explore these and further questions in future editions of Discovery-Enterprise.
Far more life forms have existed on Earth than grace the skies, oceans and land masses of our beautiful blue and green planet in our current epoch. Ninety-nine percent of all the creatures that have ever existed have gone extinct. What does fate have in store for the human species? What are our own evolutionary prospects?
As Carl Sagan wrote in his monumental book "Cosmos":
"The fossil record speaks to us unambiguously of creatures that once were present in enormous numbers and that have now vanished utterly.* Far more species have become extinct in the history of the Earth than exist today; they are the terminated experiments of evolution".
Natural selection has shaped and sculpted an incredible life form that appears to be able to adapt to life in every conceivable ecological niche. A life form that is on the verge in directing the course of its own evolutionary future and that of the other life forms that share this planet with us. And, that life form is us – Homo sapiens.
We are the pioneers of a whole new form of evolution which is distinctly non-biological. This new realm of evolution is Cultural Evolution. It is this new dominion of evolution that has made us the most dominant life form on this planet and has set us on a trajectory that will one day take us out amongst the stars or lead to our own demise.
Five mass extinctions have occurred since life began on Earth. Are humans causing the next mass extinction? And what does evolutionary theory predict for the world we will leave to our descendants?
We will explore these and further questions in future editions of Discovery-Enterprise.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
NASA Hunts for Remains of an Ancient Planet Near Earth
Four and a half billion years ago two planets were set on a collision course with destiny. One world was utterly destroyed and another was to be reborn and rise like a Phoenix out of the ashes of this titanic conflagration to be sent on an evolutionary trajectory that would lead to non living matter evolving into life and consciousness. One day these sentient creatures that inhabit this world began to ask serious question concerning the origins of their planet and its natural satellite. So four and a half eons after the birth of their world they begin searching for the remnants of the world that gave birth to their own.The Earth and the life that graces its skies, oceans and landmasses owe their existence to the cataclysmic event described above. If this collision did not occur and the Earth had no Moon, the evolutionary history of our world would be very different and perhaps life and humankind may have never come into existence.
NASA has begun the search for the world that created our moon. The name of this world is Theia.
The "Theia hypothesis" is a brainchild of Princeton theorists Edward Belbruno and Richard Gott. It starts with the popular Great Impact theory of the Moon's origin. Many astronomers hold that in the formative years of the solar system, a Mars-sized proto-planet crashed into Earth. Debris from the collision, a mixture of material from both bodies, spun out into Earth orbit and coalesced into the Moon. This scenario explains many aspects of lunar geology including the size of the Moon's core and the density and isotopic composition of moon rocks.
It's a good theory, but it leaves one awkward question unanswered: Where did the enormous proto-planet come from?
Belbruno and Gott believe it came from a Sun-Earth Lagrange point.
NASA's twin STEREO probes are entering a mysterious region of space to look for remains of an ancient planet which once orbited the Sun not far from Earth. If they find anything, it could solve a major puzzle--the origin of the Moon.
"The name of the planet is Theia," says Mike Kaiser, STEREO project scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center. "It's a hypothetical world. We've never actually seen it, but some researchers believe it existed 4.5 billion years ago—and that it collided with Earth to form the Moon."
If this idea is correct, Theia itself is long gone, but some of the ancient planetesimals that failed to join Theia may still be lingering at L4 or L5.
"The STEREO probes are entering these regions of space now," says Kaiser. "This puts us in a good position to search for Theia's asteroid-sized leftovers."
Just call them "Theiasteroids."
Hunting for Theiasteroids is not STEREO's primary mission, he points out. "STEREO is a solar observatory. The two probes are flanking the sun on opposite sides to gain a 3D view of solar activity. We just happen to be passing through the L4 and L5 Lagrange points en route. This is purely bonus science."
As of yet the remnants of Theia have not been found. This may lead us to a new hypothesis concerning the Moon’s origin. That will be the subject of another article on Discovery Enterprise. So stay tuned.
A Voyage to Mars as Envisioned by Stephen Baxter
My co-blogger Ralph Buttigieg posted a wonderful article earlier today concerning past studies of possible manned orbital expeditions to Venus using Apollo technology. Ralph’s article brings to mind Stephen Baxter’s alternate-history novel “Voyage” in which he envisions a possible manned mission to Mars employing Apollo–Skylab technology. Written back in 1996 Voyage is a wonderful read and takes a detailed look at a possible Post-Apollo Space Program.
Baxter’s novel is epic in scope and spans a period of time from 1963 to 1986 interweaving real history with his alternate timeline. In this alternate history John F. Kennedy survives the assassin’s bullet in 1963 (although Jackie was killed) and steps down from office. Vice president Lyndon B. Johnson serves out the rest of Kennedy’s term of office and wins the 1964 presidential election and remains in office until 1968. On the day of the Apollo 11 Moon landing former president Kennedy sets into motion a series of events that will culminate with humans setting foot on Mars on March 28th, 1986.
Voyage is a thoroughly enjoyable novel and a very realistic depiction of a doable but very risky Mars mission scenario utilising Apollo technology to its limits.
Yet, one wonders if all the time, money and effort invested in such a mission would have been worth it. Baxter himself tacitly and obliquely makes a reference to this in “Voyage”. The money invested in such a mission would have squandered funds that would have gone to the Voyager missions that explored the outer planets and detailed exploration of the planet Mars using robotic spacecraft.
As Steven Silver mentioned in his review of “Voyage”:
"One interesting aspect of Baxter's Mars Program is that it points out that we have a pretty good and thorough space program even without having landed a man on Mars. We probably know more about Mars than Baxter's astronauts did before they began their mission. Unlike the real world, Baxter's NASA had to scrap most of their unmanned missions, including Mariners, Voyagers, Hubble and the Space Shuttle. In return, they gained Moonlab (in orbit, Apollo 14 was the last lunar mission), and a single shot Mars program".
So in a sense, even though we may have lost an earlier opportunity to gain a small and very brief foothold on Mars we have gained a detailed look at the rest of our solar system and the rest of the Cosmos. Thus paving the way for humanity’s permanent presence in Space when we return to the Moon and eventually set our sights towards the Near Earth Asteroids and then onwards to Mars.
Author’s Note: For a detailed look at various mission scenarios employing Apollo technology as envision in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I suggest your read the report published by NASA in September, 1969 entitled “The Post-Apollo Space Program: Directions for the Future” and take a close look at David S. F. Portree’s very informative “Beyond Apollo” blogsite.
On April 4th, 2009 my good friend Ed Minchau posted a video on his landmark Space Video of the Day blogsite that depicts Baxter’s mission scenario in wonderful cinematic detail. It was made using the very versatile Orbiter Space Simulator package that I wrote about in my article "For All You Armchair Astronauts". Here it is for your viewing pleasure:
Mission to Mars: Stephen Baxter’s Voyage - Orbiter Space Flight Simulator
Baxter’s novel is epic in scope and spans a period of time from 1963 to 1986 interweaving real history with his alternate timeline. In this alternate history John F. Kennedy survives the assassin’s bullet in 1963 (although Jackie was killed) and steps down from office. Vice president Lyndon B. Johnson serves out the rest of Kennedy’s term of office and wins the 1964 presidential election and remains in office until 1968. On the day of the Apollo 11 Moon landing former president Kennedy sets into motion a series of events that will culminate with humans setting foot on Mars on March 28th, 1986.
Voyage is a thoroughly enjoyable novel and a very realistic depiction of a doable but very risky Mars mission scenario utilising Apollo technology to its limits.
Yet, one wonders if all the time, money and effort invested in such a mission would have been worth it. Baxter himself tacitly and obliquely makes a reference to this in “Voyage”. The money invested in such a mission would have squandered funds that would have gone to the Voyager missions that explored the outer planets and detailed exploration of the planet Mars using robotic spacecraft.
As Steven Silver mentioned in his review of “Voyage”:
"One interesting aspect of Baxter's Mars Program is that it points out that we have a pretty good and thorough space program even without having landed a man on Mars. We probably know more about Mars than Baxter's astronauts did before they began their mission. Unlike the real world, Baxter's NASA had to scrap most of their unmanned missions, including Mariners, Voyagers, Hubble and the Space Shuttle. In return, they gained Moonlab (in orbit, Apollo 14 was the last lunar mission), and a single shot Mars program".
So in a sense, even though we may have lost an earlier opportunity to gain a small and very brief foothold on Mars we have gained a detailed look at the rest of our solar system and the rest of the Cosmos. Thus paving the way for humanity’s permanent presence in Space when we return to the Moon and eventually set our sights towards the Near Earth Asteroids and then onwards to Mars.
Author’s Note: For a detailed look at various mission scenarios employing Apollo technology as envision in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I suggest your read the report published by NASA in September, 1969 entitled “The Post-Apollo Space Program: Directions for the Future” and take a close look at David S. F. Portree’s very informative “Beyond Apollo” blogsite.
On April 4th, 2009 my good friend Ed Minchau posted a video on his landmark Space Video of the Day blogsite that depicts Baxter’s mission scenario in wonderful cinematic detail. It was made using the very versatile Orbiter Space Simulator package that I wrote about in my article "For All You Armchair Astronauts". Here it is for your viewing pleasure:
Mission to Mars: Stephen Baxter’s Voyage - Orbiter Space Flight Simulator
Venus, not Mars, first
credit NASAPeople have been debating whether the next goal for human space exploration should be a return to the Moon or an expedition to Mars for decades. In more recent times there has been serious consideration of another destination, the Near Earth Asteroids. In my view we are forgetting another alternative: Venus.
Suggestions of crewed missions to Venus are usually greeted with disbelieve. The surface of Venus is far too hot, the atmospheric pressure too high and the atmosphere contains sulphuric acid. But paradoxically, its for these very reasons that a Venus mission prior to a Mars mission makes sense.
It will be a very long time before a human landing on Venus can be contemplated. The only realistic mission that can be done in the foreseeable future is an orbital mission. NASA studied a Venus orbital mission using Apollo technology back in 1967. Edward Willis compared a Venus orbital mission with a Mars orbital mission. The result was even the easiest Mars mission required 70% more mass then the hardest Venus mission. A Mars landing would be more difficult still. So in terms of difficulty and therefore cost the choices are:
a) A Venus orbital mission
b) A Mars orbital mission (at least 70% more difficult)
c) A Mars landing (the most difficult)
Venus is the low hanging fruit.
Now critics well say Venus is more difficult because its closer to the Sun. Certainly the solar radiation will be greater at Venusian orbit then at Mars. However making the spacecraft reflective should handle the heat problem. A greater concern is ionizing radiation. Cosmic rays are not linked to the Sun, they are a concern to explorers no matter were they go in the Solar System. So the shorter mission times of a Venus mission reduce the dangers compared to a Mars mission. However solar flares are a real concern, as they are for Mars missions. They can be countered by having a radiation storm shelter. Admittedly the shelter will need to be more massive for Venus but you still have the mass advantage.
A Venus orbital mission would be scientifically rewarding. The astronauts would be spend some 40 days at Venus in a highly elliptical orbit. Combined with Venus's slow rotation, they would be able to keep in contact with robotic probes for days. They could teleoperate robots without a lengthly time delay allowing for rapid exploration of the Venusian atmosphere by aircraft and the surface.
As to what to look for on Venus, how about life? The surface may be inhospitable but at the 50 km altitude level the temperature is cool enough for liquid water and atmospheric pressure is similar to Earth. In fact , trace gases provide evidence of possible life. In the thick Venusian atmosphere ordinary air becomes a lifting gas which has lead Geoffrey Landis to seriously propose Venusian colonization by aerostat.
So onward to Venus!
Suggestions of crewed missions to Venus are usually greeted with disbelieve. The surface of Venus is far too hot, the atmospheric pressure too high and the atmosphere contains sulphuric acid. But paradoxically, its for these very reasons that a Venus mission prior to a Mars mission makes sense.
It will be a very long time before a human landing on Venus can be contemplated. The only realistic mission that can be done in the foreseeable future is an orbital mission. NASA studied a Venus orbital mission using Apollo technology back in 1967. Edward Willis compared a Venus orbital mission with a Mars orbital mission. The result was even the easiest Mars mission required 70% more mass then the hardest Venus mission. A Mars landing would be more difficult still. So in terms of difficulty and therefore cost the choices are:
a) A Venus orbital mission
b) A Mars orbital mission (at least 70% more difficult)
c) A Mars landing (the most difficult)
Venus is the low hanging fruit.
Now critics well say Venus is more difficult because its closer to the Sun. Certainly the solar radiation will be greater at Venusian orbit then at Mars. However making the spacecraft reflective should handle the heat problem. A greater concern is ionizing radiation. Cosmic rays are not linked to the Sun, they are a concern to explorers no matter were they go in the Solar System. So the shorter mission times of a Venus mission reduce the dangers compared to a Mars mission. However solar flares are a real concern, as they are for Mars missions. They can be countered by having a radiation storm shelter. Admittedly the shelter will need to be more massive for Venus but you still have the mass advantage.
A Venus orbital mission would be scientifically rewarding. The astronauts would be spend some 40 days at Venus in a highly elliptical orbit. Combined with Venus's slow rotation, they would be able to keep in contact with robotic probes for days. They could teleoperate robots without a lengthly time delay allowing for rapid exploration of the Venusian atmosphere by aircraft and the surface.
As to what to look for on Venus, how about life? The surface may be inhospitable but at the 50 km altitude level the temperature is cool enough for liquid water and atmospheric pressure is similar to Earth. In fact , trace gases provide evidence of possible life. In the thick Venusian atmosphere ordinary air becomes a lifting gas which has lead Geoffrey Landis to seriously propose Venusian colonization by aerostat.
So onward to Venus!
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