Monthly Archives: February 2021

Tamara Davis is a cosmologist who is is wildly excited by the NASA rover landing on Mars.

She says its only a matter of time until astronauts visit Mars and that before long there will also be a colony on the Red Planet.

Tamara also studies black holes, dark energy, dark matter and is helping manage the Dark Energy Survey, involving over 400 researchers on four continents.

And is leading a multi-million-dollar Laureate Fellowship to explore why the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

Over two episodes, Catalyst explores what it will take to get to and live on Mars and why scientists think life could once have existed there and may still do.

Mars: Our Second Home? Tuesday February 23 - 8:30pm

Mars: The Hunt for Life Tuesday March 2 - 8:30pm

Tamara is a presenter on ABC TV's Catalyst

See the rest here:

The race to live on Mars - Conversations - ABC News

February 12, 2021

PEMBROKE Art and music have ways of transcending lifes challenges, even during a pandemic.

Following that belief in part led the Givens Performing Arts Center and International Artists Foundation to win a highly regarded award for their recent collaborative project.

Givens Performing Arts Center, on the campus of The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and International Artists Foundation in Lumberton are the recipients of a 2020 Gold NYX Award for its collaborative video presentation of music by Lumberton composer Mark Andersen. The NYX Video Awards is an international competition open to marketing, communications and videography professionals whose creative expertise and proficiency are both celebrated and recognized.

This is an exciting honor, said James Bass, GPAC executive director. Im so proud, not only of the award, but for the story that led us to this humbling recognition.

The project began when Bass, who is credited with producing the project, reached out to Mark Andersen about performing a concert for GPACs Front Row Arts Series, which presents virtual performances by local and regional artists.

In August 2020, Andersen recorded Rhapsody for Piano in three movements for the series. The music was written by Andersen during the COVID-19 pandemic and debuted on the GPAC stage.

The concert was special not only because it was the first time the music was performed on stage, but Andersen feared it may be his last performance.

Mark is truly a gift to our community. He is an absolutely amazing musician, and I wanted his music to be a part of this series, Bass said. I had no idea at the time that Mark was facing a very daunting health challenge.

The health challenge was renal cancer, diagnosed about a year ago.

It was stage 3 and I did not know how that would turn out, Andersen said. There was a very strong possibility that that might have been my last performance.

Because Anderson was previously diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, his condition was inoperable at the time.

They needed to get me in some better shape before they could do the operation, Andersen said. It was kind of a waiting game to see if I could get in good enough shape to have the operation before the cancer began to spread and it was too late.

After witnessing the positive feedback from and the large viewership of the concert, International Artists Executive Producer Lynn Andersen felt compelled to submit the project for the prestigious NYX award. On Dec. 18, Andersen learned that the submission was selected after an intense judging period featuring 1,616 entries from 33 countries.

We were extremely pleased to have worked with GPAC Producer James Bass, and his staff, during the production of this important concert of original music, Lynn Andersen said.

Having a nice stage and a professional staff to work with made the process that much easier, he said.

We were able to have a very nice venue that was easy to work in and people that are easy to work with, Lynn Andersen said. They were all prepared for us. We filmed and came home and started editing.

Although based in Lumberton, Mark Andersen is an internationally known composer and concert artist. His education includes East Carolina University, The American Conservatory of Music, and the Paris Conservatory of music, where he studied organ with Marcel Dupr and composition with Nadia Boulanger. He has performed internationally at many venues, including Royal Albert Hall, London; Carnegie Hall, New York; Lincoln Center, New York; and The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

He has composed more than 200 pieces for organ, choir, symphony, and solo instruments in his career, including classical works and music for Broadway and opera stages.

Mark Andersen said he was grateful for the invitation to perform what he thought may be his final performance at GPAC.

I certainly would not have had the opportunity at that point to go back and perform at Carnegie Hall or any of the other major places, like the Kennedy Center or somewhere I had performed many times before in my life, but GPAC is here, Andersen said. Its my favorite performance space in Robeson County so I was very, very happy to have the opportunity to do it.

Shortly after Andersens concert debuted, he learned his prayers had been answered.

I relied on my faith, and the Lord was good to me and got me into good enough shape to where I got the kidney removed, Andersen said. It didnt spread and was contained in the kidney that was removed.

When Mark told me about his upcoming surgery and shared his fear that this might be his last performance and in the midst of a global pandemic in which live performances werent even an option I really knew what we were doing was something special, Bass said.

Andersens video, which has received more than 1,000 views, is a 30-minute performance of original music composed during the quarantine months of the pandemic, is titled Rhapsody for Piano.

Bass said that not only has it been shown on the GPAC webpage but through Carnegie Hall as well.

Im simply astounded by how popular it became in such a short time, Bass said.

We are proud of all the amazing individuals, agencies and companies who joined the NYX Awards this year, said Kenjo Ong, CEO of the International Awards Associate. This win by International Artists Foundation and Givens Performing Arts Center is not just a testament to their unbridled talent, but one that will inspire many for years to come.

The winning entries were judged impartially by a group of esteemed marketing, communications and videography professionals. The IAA selected a panel of international judges in the adjudication process and adhered to a strict code of excellence. The NYX Awards embraces diversity and ingenuity that comes from all corners of the world. The 2020 panel was comprised of judges from 16 countries.

Among the submissions, some familiar global brands were represented, including World Vision Canada, Heineken USA, PETA, Ferrari, BMW, Audi, Player One Trailers, Ubisoft, Morris Animal Foundation, TikTok Canada, Canon Singapore, Ericson Group Inc, FabFitFun, Adidas, Paradox Interactive, King Art Games, Miami Ad School, American Migraine Foundation, BBC Studioworks/Shoot You Ltd, Dell EMC, Unilever, CGTN, Lexus, Western Digital and AARP, to list a few.

A NYX Award has never just been about the title. Its an affirmation for the hard work these individuals have given for their work, Ong said. Their phenomenal ideas and concepts are two big reasons why the NYX Awards will continue to honor proficiency and expertise that transcends beyond normalcy.

Andersen learned recently that his scans were clear, and he still remains cancer free.

It turned out that the operation that they did in Duke was a complete success, so I will be playing again, Andersen said.

He plays frequently for Trinity Episcopal Church in Lumberton. Videos of the performances can be viewed on the churchs YouTube channel.

Rhapsody for Piano can be viewed at the Givens Performing Arts Centers website.

Read more from the original source:

Perseverance goes to Mars with equipment needed to gather new information - The Robesonian

A successful space program could be a game changer both in terms of technological advancement and how the region imagines itself.

Turkey recently grabbed headlines as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed a 10-year space program that would see the country send a Turkish citizen to the moon by 2023.

This landing, part of Turkeys larger Vision 2023 program to mark the republics centennial, is however only the first phase.

The second phase would aim for Turkey to have a soft landing (when a spacecraft lands intact on the surface rather than intentionally crashing or hard landing) on the moon in 2028, and would also include a scientific research component.

The announcement comes after years of Turkey building up its space capabilities. President Erdogan mentioned that over the past 18 years, Turkey has invested 2.1 billion Turkish liras (around $300 million) for 56 projects related to satellites, launching systems, and space equipment.

Just last month Turkey, in cooperation with Elon Musks Space-X, launched the Turksat 5A satellite with significant communications and defense implications for the region. The satellite is expected to come into operation in the latter half of this year.

These huge expenses might seem hard to justify at first. Why invest all that money to go to space when theres so much suffering down here? This would seem even more pertinent in a region as conflict-ridden as the Middle East.

However, Turkeys drive to space is worth it, and could have profound implications not just for itself, but perhaps the entire region.

Technological advancement

One of the first reasons a country should aspire to go to space is the effect it has on spearheading technological advancement.

Firefighting equipment, water filtration, the computer mouse, as well as healthcare advances such as artificial limbs, insulin pumps and LASIK eye surgery are all technologies that were originally innovated or further advanced to meet the challenge of life in space.

This point is an especially relevant one for Turkey due to its focus on not just going to space, but to do so by building up its own indigenous capabilities.

Turkey is not the only Muslim country aiming to go to space. The UAE recently joined the US and China as recent countries with probes sent to Mars with its Amal (Hope) probe. The county even aims to establish a colony on Mars by 2117.

However, Turkeys space program looks more promising over the long term due not just to its longer past, but also its emphasis on domestic engineering and building up domestic capacity in phases.

Imagining a better future

An even more important reason for a country to go to space is the effect it can have on peoples imaginations.

Theres a reason so many children want to be astronauts when they grow up. There is something intrinsically frontier-breaking about going to space, it opens up children's minds.

Due to its recent history, much of the Muslim world, especially the Middle East, is struck with despondency and defeatism. Many, quite understandably, cant imagine a better future. Compare this with Americans, who have long been known even among other Western countries for having an annoying degree of optimism.

The example of a Middle Eastern and Muslim country using its own technological and engineering capabilities to go to space should be a sign that the region can hope that with time and effort, things may look very different in the future.

The ability to imagine a better future is crucial to creating a better present.

Todays geopolitics, tomorrows astropolitics?

Turkeys 10-year space program also includes a regional positioning system, controlled by a combination of satellites and ground systems. President Erdogan noted that by doing so, Turkey will end its foreign dependency.

That brings us to the third reason why going to space is important for a country: its potential security implications.

While both the Cold War space race and the current equally-cold US-China space race have mostly been about prestige, industries currently being developed could have massive effects on our future societies.

The first is if commercial space flights become a reality soon, with Morgan Stanley predicting that the space industry could generate more than a trillion dollars of revenue for the US in 2040.

Even more crucial though is space mining.

If the cost of going to space can continue to be reduced, it could one day be feasible to mine the moon or asteroids, which are rich not only in water (which can be used for hydrogen fuel) but also metals, including gold and rare-earth metals. Some asteroids are worth not just millions or billions, but quintillions, a number so large, it is nearly unfathomable.

Whichever countries or corporations arrive there first could utilise that abundance of resources to create industries we cant even presently imagine.

How does the money and politics work?

Two potential obstacles for the Turkish space program rest in money and politics.

One component of Turkeys 10-step program is the building of a Turkish spaceport. However, Turkey is too far from the equator to be cost-competitive for launching rockets, meaning it will have to turn to an ally.

It is much cheaper to launch from the equator, due to the Earths greater rotational speed there reducing the amount of rocket fuel needed. This effect can be compounded if you launch from an eastern coast, as you gain extra velocity from the Earths west-to-east spin. (Hence, why NASA mostly launches from Florida).

The nearest Turkish ally located on an eastern coast near to the equator? Somalia.

Somalia as a close Turkish ally already hosts Turkeys largest military base outside of the country and the two countries cooperate on a wide range of issues.

Another potential roadblock could be the costs.

A Middle East Eyereport quoted the governments draft calculations for building and maintaining the spaceport in Somalia at more than $350 million, with another $150 million for increasing qualified personnel, including sending doctoral students abroad and increasing funding for Turkish universities.

However, while the politics and money may not be easy, the impacts it could have on Turkeys technological capabilities, the imagination of its population and the region's, as well as long-term security implications, means that Turkeys race to space is a potentially game-changing move for Turkey and the wider region.

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of TRT World.

We welcome all pitches and submissions to TRT World Opinion please send them via email, to opinion.editorial@trtworld.com

The rest is here:

Why Turkey's race to space is a good thing - TRT World

NASA successfully landed its most complex Mars rover yet on Thursday, sparking cheers of joy at the space agency's HQ in California.

The Perseverance robot will scan Martian rock for signs of alien life and carry out tests that are key to future manned missions to the Red Planet.

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In an interview ahead of the landing this week, Nasa Chief Scientist James Green laid out the primary goal of the interplanetary mission.

"We want to search the past from the rock record to see if Mars could have supported life," he said on Neil DeGrasse Tyson's podcast, StarTalk.

"My secret wish is that we find it. We dont anticipate getting fossils, but there are potential cells or microbial indications that life could have survived on Mars in its early history."

The nuclear battery-powered rover has landed at the edge of an ancient, long-vanished river delta and lake bed called the Jezero crater.

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Its thought that the basin was once filled with water and may have been home to alien microbes billions of years ago.

If thats the case, traces of those microbes should still be present deep within the soil at Jezero a bit like how dinosaur bones remain in Earths soil today.

The primary objective of Perseverances two-year mission - dubbed Mars 2020 - is to dig up soil samples that could contain all the proof we need that life grows on other planets.

Advanced power tools will drill samples from Martian rock and seal them into dozens of cigar-sized tubes for eventual return to Earth for further analysis.

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Provided all goes to plan, they will be the first such specimens ever collected by humankind from the surface of another planet.

Two future missions to retrieve those samples and fly them back to Earth are in the planning stages by Nasa, in collaboration with the European Space Agency.

Another of the Mars missions headline experiments involves a small, drone helicopter named Ingenuity.

Strapped to the bottom of Perseverance, the lightweight craft will attempt the first ever powered flight on Mars in the coming months.

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Ingenuitys body is barely larger than a shoebox but it sports two rotary blades measuring a metre long.

Those bonkers proportions are necessary to generate lift in the thin Martian atmosphere.

Ingenuity will test surface-to-surface powered flight on another world for the first time.

Each flight is planned to be at altitudes ranging from 35 metres (1016 ft) above the ground.

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If successful, the four-pound (1.8-kg) whirlybird could pave the way for low-altitude aerial surveillance of Mars during later missions.

Other key equipment on board the $2.2billion rover include two microphones that will capture the first audio recordings from the Martian surface, as well as a potentially groundbreaking experiment called Moxie.

Moxie (Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment) is a small contraption housed in the belly of the rover that will convert a small amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide into oxygen.

Its a 1/200 scale test model of a design that may be used on Mars to provide future colonists with breathable air.

Perseverance - What's on board?

Perseverance boasts a total of 19 cameras and two microphones, and carries seven scientific instruments.

An X-ray ray gun that will help scientists investigate the composition of Martian rock.

2. Radar Imager for Mars' subsurface experiment (RIMFAX)

A ground-penetrating radar that will image buried rocks, meteorites, and even possible underground water sources up to a depth of 10 metres (33ft).

3. Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA)

A bunch of sensors that will take readings of temperature, wind speed and direction, pressure, and other atmospheric conditions.

4. Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE)

An experiment that will convert Martian carbon dioxide into oxygen. A scaled-up version could be used in future to provide Martian colonists with breathable air.

5. SuperCam

A suite of instruments for measuring the makeup of rocks and regolith at a distance

6. Mastcam-Z

A camera system capable of taking 3D images by combining two or more photos into one.

7. Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC)

From Baker Street to Mars: Sherloc contains an ultraviolet laser that will investigate Martian rock for organic compounds.

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The Martian atmosphere is 95 per cent carbon dioxide, which is toxic to humans, and future colonists will need a way to produce oxygen to survive on the planet for long periods.

Other tools onboardinvolve characterising weather and other environmental conditions that could affect future astronauts living and working on Mars.

Following Thursday's landing, Steve Jurczyk, Nasa's acting administrator, said: "It's amazing to have Perseverance join Curiosity on Mars and what a credit to the team.

"Just what an amazing team to work through all the adversity and all the challenges that go with landing a rover on Mars, plus the challenges of Covid. "And just an amazing accomplishment."

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WISH YOU WERE HERENasa to reveal 1st footage of Mars rover touching down on Red Planet

SPACED OUTRare conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury won't happen again for five YEARS

Live Blog

LIFE ON MARS?Nasa awestruck by Perseverance mission as Rover sends first colour pics

MAGNETIC MADNESSMagnetic disaster 'killed Neanderthals' and will happen AGAIN, say experts

WORLDS APARTEverything you need to know about Mars after historic Nasa rover landing

RED PLANETStunning 4K footage of MARS captured by Nasa's Curiosity rover revealed

In other news, you can catch up with all the latest on the Mars 2020 mission on ourPerseverance liveblog.

Space geekshave revealedstunning 4K footage of Mars captured by Nasas Curiosity rover.

And, Elon Musk has warned that humanitymay "self-extinguish"before we can colonise Mars.

What do you make of Nasa's Mars mission? Let us know in the comments!

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk

More:

How will Nasa rover look for aliens on Mars? Cameras, helicopter and more revealed - The Sun

This week, Americans celebrated the successful delivery of NASA's Perseverance rover to its destination on the Martian surface, marking the dawn of a new era of interplanetary exploration. However, when it comes to searching the solar system around us, the US has not always led from the front. During the Reagan administration, for example, the agency saw its budget pared down in favor of building up arms ahead of an anticipated Cold War faceoff with the Soviet Union, as we see in this excerpt from David W Brown's latest work, The Mission.

Harper Collins

Excerpted from the book THE MISSION: or: How a Disciple of Carl Sagan, an Ex-Motocross Racer, a Texas Tea Party Congressman, the World's Worst Typewriter Saleswoman, California Mountain People, and an Anonymous NASA Functionary Went to War with Mars, Survived an Insurgency at Saturn, Traded Blows with Washington, and Stole a Ride on an Alabama Moon Rocket to Send a Space Robot to Jupiter in Search of the Second Garden of Eden at the Bottom of an Alien Ocean Inside of an Ice World Called Europa (A True Story) 2021 by David W. Brown. From Custom House, a line of books from William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers. Reprinted by permission.

For planetary scientists, the Jimmy CarterRonald Reagan years were in retrospect like the Dark Ages, and they, the monks tending in enclaves to the embers of civilization. For a solid decade starting in late 1978, NASA launched no planetary science missions, and pretty much the only space science data trickling back to Earth came from the Voyager 1 and 2 flybys of the farthest planets of the solar system, where youd get three weeks of data and then three to five years of silencehardly enough to sustain an entire field of scientific inquiry. The Voyager findings at Jupiter fueled a desire by the careworn planetary science community to return there, but that required Reagan to fund the spacecraft Galileosomething his administration worked diligently to avoid doing upon assuming power in 1981. The new president believed he had a mandate to slash nondefense spending, and he was following through, and if you werent building bombs, battleships, or Black Hawk helicopters, your budget was up for grabsand grab they did. While NASAs top line fared well overall, that money was directed largely to the space shuttle program, which had become something of a flying Statue of Liberty in the public imagination. Anyway, the shuttle had military applications, including the deployment of spy satellites and, on paper at least, stealing satellites from foreign governments. The supply-side marauders would still get their squeeze from the agency, however, and that meant science. Before the toner was dry on new presidential letterhead, the White House told NASA that of Galileo, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the joint NASAEuropean Space Agency International Solar Polar Mission to study the sun, it could keep two (for now). And just like that, Solar Polar was gone. The Europeans had invested in it more than one hundred million dollars, and America thanked them for the trouble by withdrawing without warning, leaving the Europeans seething. The slaughter continued with the spacecraft VOIR, the Venus Orbiting Imaging Radar: vaporized. This cancelation, too, went over poorly. If the Solar Polar abandonment was an uninvited concupiscence thrust upon Americas allies abroad, the Venus cancelation was at least a rude gesture suggesting the same to planetary scientists at home.

But that Galileo missionhow it vexed and annoyed the White House. How the administration wanted this half-billion-dollar monstrosity slain! This expedition to Jupiter . . . wewed just been there with Voyager! Why were we even talking about this? So the Office of Management and Budget zeroed out Galileo in its tentative plan for the agency. As for those twin spacecraft Voyager: What, exactly, was there to learn about planets past Saturn, anyway? Uranus! Neptune! Did it matter? I mean, come on! Just issue the shutdown command, and we could also switch off this devil-begotten Deep Space Network as well, those gigantic, twenty-story radio dishes required to talk to them. Thats two hundred twenty-two million dollars saved overnight. Between Galileo and Voyager, we could cut costs by a half billion.

To somehow save what was becoming even to outsiders a sinking ship, the public started pitching in. In one instance, Stan Kent, a California engineer, created what he called the Viking Funda private, pass-the-hat effort to cover costs for Deep Space Network downlink time for Viking 1, the last surviving spacecraft on the surface of Mars. Donate now to feed a starving robotsend checks to 3033 Moore Park Ave. #27, San Jose, CA 95128. The Viking program had once been the zenith of NASA space science, the most ambitious agency endeavor since the Apollo program, and, when conceived, a prospective precursor to Apollos obvious heir: human missions to planet Mars.

Between 1965 and 1976, NASA had sustained a steady sequence of sophisticated Mars probes. Mariner 4, a flyby in 1965, was humanitys first successful encounter with the Red Planet. Mariners 6 and 7 followed four years later, imaging up close the entire Martian disc, and those images, stitched together, revealed a real rotating planetjust like Earth. Mariner 9 in 1971 was the first spacecraft to enter orbit around another planet, mapping Mars in high resolution and capturing dust storms and weather patterns. Like elapsing lines in the book of Genesis, each spacecraft in succession made Mars a world as real as our own. By the time the Viking landers left launch pads at Cape Canaveral in 1975, no hope remained for extant alien civilizations, but flora and fauna of some form were still on the table. And the question remainedthe ultimate questionthe same that had fueled fiction and stirred scientists for centuries: What did that Martian wildlife look like?

The American space program has always marched inexorably toward Mars. Before the Eagle landedbefore even the first nautcosmo, taiko, or astrobefore Sputnikbefore even the formation of NASA itselfthere was Das Marsprojekt, a work of speculative fiction by Wernher von Braun, the German rocket scientist relocated to the United States immediately after World War II. No mere thought experiment or flight of fancyno ray guns, no saucermenthe plot was a thin veneer over How to Do It, and the author was the person most likely to make it happen. Von Braun wrote Das Marsprojekt in 1948 after finishing work reconstructing for his new American hosts the V-2 rocket, a ballistic missile he helped develop during the war. The book was later stripped of its fictional elements and repurposed as a nine-page article in the April 30, 1954, issue of Colliers Weekly, then one of the most popular and prestigious magazines in the United States. The first serious study of how to get to Mars, von Brauns plan involved a space station and a flotilla of reusable rockets and shuttles, and necessitated a crew of seventy strong for a Martian stay exceeding one Earth year. Upon arrival, astronauts (well, spacemenastronauts had not yet been invented) would enter orbit and scout suitable set-down sites for the human beachhead. (He didnt discuss robotic exploration because digital, programmable robots had not yet been invented, either.)

For von Braun, Mars was always the plan, the moon merely a waypoint, and fourteen years later, when Armstrong leapt from that bottom rung of the lunar lander ladder, it was von Brauns Saturn V rocket that got him there. He (i.e., von Braun) was by then director of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, de facto father of the American space program, and a minor celebrity. He had made multiple appearances years earlier on a 1950s television show called Disneylandhosted by Walt himselfselling to forty million Americans the notion of robust, reliable rockets, moon shots, and Mars colonies. When the shows aired, Yuri Gagarin was still an obscure pilot in the Soviet air force, and Alan Shepard a test pilot in Maryland. To the extent that Americans were even aware of U.S. space ambitions, it was von Braun soft selling Mars missions with Walt Disney. He had been working toward this for a very long time.

It was thus unsurprising that two weeks after American silicon soles pressed prints into fresh moondust, von Braun stepped into Spiro Agnews office and slapped onto the vice presidents desk the next natural frontier for American exploration: the Red Planet. The fifty-page presentationthe definitive plan to make mankind multiplanetaryrepresented the culmination of von Brauns lifes work. His prescription involved many of the elements he had proposed decades earlier: the rockets, the shuttles, the stationeven a nuclear-powered spaceship.

Unfortunately for von Braun, prevailing forces in Congress and the White House came quickly to see the Apollo program as the goal, rather than, as he had hoped, an early milestone of something much larger. You didnt build Hoover Dam and then build more Hoover Dams downriver, said the politicians. We set a goal, and by God we did it. Why even have a NASA? wondered the White House aloud. By Apollo 15 in 1971, opinion polls pegged public support of space spending at about twenty-three percent, with sixty-six percent saying that spending was too high. There would be no national political price for closing Cape Canaveral completely. Really, what were we doing up there?

Nevertheless, von Brauns sequence of space missions culminating in Mars exploration had so defined NASA that it was almost hardwired into the system. Nixon, having zero interest in the space program but even zeroer interest in being the one who ended it, entertained only the space shuttle element as viable because it 1. had those spy satellite applications and 2. Could be a major construction project in Palmdale, California, keeping his home state in his column during the next presidential campaign. So the California-made, satellite-stealing space shuttle it was! NASA lived to flight another day.

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Hitting the Books: How NASA survived the Reagan era 'Dark Ages' - Engadget

NASA's Perseverance rover lands on Mars

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NASA's rover touched down on Mars this Thursday, February 18, after a seven-month trip through space and an even more terrifying seven-minute descent through the planet's atmosphere. Perseverance's primary goal is to search for evidence of alien life from a time when Mars resembled a young Earth - about 4 billion years ago. But the rover will also test new technology that could one day help Mars colonists terraform the planet's environment to our advantage.

NASA's Perseverance is armed with the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment or MOXIE.

The instrument will demonstrate the ability to extract oxygen from Mars's carbon dioxide (CO2) heavy atmosphere much like a tree transforms CO2 into O2.

Pulling oxygen directly from the Martian atmosphere will not only give future colonists air to breathe but can also be used to make rocket fuel.

About 96 percent of the Martian atmosphere is made up of CO2 whereas oxygen only accounts for about 0.13 percent.

READ MORE: NASA Mars rover landing: ESA shares stunning video of landing site

And according to NASA, homemade liquid oxygen production on Mars could supply three-quarters of the propellant humans would need for exploration.

Michael Hecht, Principal Investigator, said: "When we send humans to Mars, we will want them to return safely, and to do that they need a rocket to lift off the planet.

"Liquid oxygen propellant is something we could make there and not have to bring with us.

"One idea would be to bring an empty oxygen tank and fill it up on Mars."

It might take a while before humans put boots on Mars but it is looking increasingly likely humans will get there in the next 10 to 20 years.

NASA is working towards this goal through its Artemis programme, aiming first to conquer the Moon before going deeper into the Solar System.

Private ventures like SpaceX are also hell-bent on getting to Mars te extend our civilisation's reach into the stars.

But this does not mean the time of rovers and uncrewed mission is nigh.

According to Hannah Barnyard, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich in London, quite the opposite is true.

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The astronomer told Express.co.uk: "There is still a long way to go until human missions to Mars could be possible so it is likely there will be more robotic explorers before that happens.

"Rovers tell us more about the Martian environment which is essential if we are to put humans on the planet.

"Even once human missions begin, robotic explorers will be the companions of Martian astronauts scouting out areas of interest and performing tasks in potentially dangerous areas just as they do on Earth."

Perseverance is expected to spend at least one Martian year (687 days) exploring an ancient lakebed known as Jezero Crater.

Scientists are certain the site once flowed with water and that means life may have once existed there.

The Mars rover will collect and analyse rock samples but will also safely store away samples for a future retrieval mission.

Ms Barnyard said: "Perseverance will help to characterise the Martian environment, telling us more about the planet's weather patterns including its infamous dust storms.

"We will learn if Jezero Crater ever was and perhaps if it still is an ideal location for life to exist along with further details of the planet's geological history."

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Mars landing 'essential' if we want to send humans to the Red Planet 'Robotic companions' - MSN UK

Stromatolites at Shark Bay, Western Australia. Credit: UNSW Sydney/Brendan Burns

As the Mars Rover sets out to look for evidence of life on another planet, scientists back on Earth suggest viruses played a key role in creating stromatolites, our planets earliest lifeforms.

It may pain us to hear this during a deadly viral pandemic, but life as we know it on this planet may never have occurred if it werent for viruses, scientists studying billion-year-old living rocks say.

In a paper published in the March issue of Trends in Microbiology, a team of scientists from UNSW Sydney and the US looked at evidence of the worlds oldest lifeforms in fossils known as stromatolites, layered limestone rocks often found in shallow waters around the globe. They wanted to understand the mechanism that led colonies of single-celled organisms known as microbial mats to create these intriguing rock structures.

And they believe viruses may be the missing piece of the puzzle that could help explain how a soft microbial mat transitions or lithifies into the hard stromatolite features that are prevalent in such places as Shark Bay and the Pilbara, Western Australia.

Co-author on the paper, Associate Professor Brendan Burns from UNSWs Australian Centre for Astrobiology, says stromatolites are one of the oldest known microbial ecosystems, dating back some 3.7 billion years.

Stromatolites are pervasive in the fossil record and are some of our earliest examples of life on Earth, he says.

The microbial mats that created them were predominantly made up of cyanobacteria, which used photosynthesis like plants do to turn sunlight into energy, while producing so much oxygen over time they changed the early Earths atmosphere to make it habitable for complex life.

You could say we owe our very existence to these living rocks.

A shard of stromatolite rock found at Shark Bay showing layered sediments that was produced by microbial mats billions of years ago. Credit: UNSW/Brendan Burns

A/Prof. Burns and his colleagues wanted to understand the mechanism behind the microbial mats lithifying into stromatolites, not only because so little is known about the process, but because of what this could add to our knowledge about life on Earth and possibly other planets.

If we understand the mechanisms of stromatolite formation, we will have a better handle on the impact these ecosystems had on evolution of complex life, he says.

This knowledge may help us better interpret biosignatures which you could call chemical or molecular fossils that provide clues to the activities of early life, billions of years ago.

It also has the potential to help us look for life on other planets one of the jobs of the Mars 2020 mission is to look for evidence of biosignatures in Martian rock samples.

In the paper, the authors postulate that microbial mat transition from soft cells to rock is enhanced by interactions with viruses.

We propose viruses may have a direct or indirect impact on microbial metabolisms that govern the transition from microbial mat to stromatolite, he says.

In the direct impact scenario, viruses infiltrate the nucleus of the cyanobacteria and influence the host metabolism, inserting and removing genes that increase the fitness of the virus and the host at the same time.

This, in turn, increases survival of the microbial mat and selects for genes that potentially influence carbonate precipitation basically the process of microbes pouring the concrete to make their stromatolite apartment blocks, A/Prof. Burns says.

In the indirect scenario, the scientists talk about a process known as viral lysis, where viruses invade living cells and trigger the disintegration of their membranes and release of contents effectively bringing about cell death.

We think viral lysis may release material that promotes metabolism of organisms which results in mineral precipitation and eventual stromatolite formation.

Whether viruses cause the microbial mats to harden into stromatolites directly or indirectly, or a combination of both, A/Prof. Burns says more research is needed.

Were hoping to do more studies in the lab to test this.

We want to be able to identify what viruses are actually involved and see if we can then manipulate potential virus-host interaction to find out whether or not they can, in fact, change some of the metabolisms that might result in stromatolite formation, A/Prof. Burns says.

Reference: Between a Rock and a Soft Place: The Role of Viruses in Lithification of Modern Microbial Mats by Richard Allen White III, Pieter T. Visscher and Brendan P. Burns, 9 July 2020, Trends in Microbiology.DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2020.06.004

Continued here:

Stromatolites Fossils of Earliest Life on Earth May Owe Their Very Existence to Viruses - SciTechDaily

The artistic enclave at the Manship Artists Residency + Studios continues to be a fountainhead of inspiration, even duringthe global COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020, the nonprofit, based on the historic property of an artistic family, served nearly 100 artists with a creative infusion as they worked outside on the 15 wooded acres, nestled between two quarries, in Gloucester's Lanesville neighborhood.

The idyllic setting was the home of sculptor Paul Manship (1885-1966) who may be best known for the golden Prometheus fountain at New York Citys Rockefeller Center.

The work of many of these artists is now part ofthevirtual exhibition "Outside @ Manship," which grew from the organization's response to the pandemic.

"The idea was to provide a place for artists living and working on Cape Ann and allow them to work on the beautiful grounds during the summer and fall of 2020," said Rebecca Reynolds,Manship's executive director.The artists followed the necessary protocols to ensure their safety.

"We are launching this exhibition to honor the past and the present in spite of uncertainty, to honor the constancy of the work made by artists on Cape Ann and beyond, who create memory and beauty,"Reynolds said.

The virtual exhibition features 57 of the 82 artists.

Artists in the show

Vanessa Michalak early on found creative refuge on the property. An essential worker as a nurse, she craved the opportunity to paint in such a welcoming environment.The Maine native lived in the Boston area until she moved to Gloucester in 2017.

"I've done residencies in other states but it's nice that the (Manship residencies) included artists from their own community," Michalak said. "The property is visually inspiring and it feels different even coming from downtown Gloucester. I like that quiet space and being in nature. I also love the history of the property and knowing it's been a home and an inspiration for many other artists."

Michalak's new project focusing on doing portraits of nurses and getting narratives of their experience working during the pandemic.

Another artist in the exhibition is 80-year-old Peter Herbert, a New York City lawyer who retired to Annisquam with his wife, a Gloucester native.

His experience during the pandemic became a family affair.

"I went there with my son, Ben, and it was the two of us painting 15 yards apart," said Hebert. "We had the best time, and apart from the inspiration that the space itself gives you, just being together, the two of us, was such a gift. We actually paint better when we paint together and it is a magnificent space to paint."

He explained that being a lawyer for 40 years, he was desperate to do something creative. He gave up playing piano as an outlet, and around the age of 40, began painting and took classes at the Art Students League of New York and later a found a teacher in Brooklyn.

How the residencies worked

Reflecting on the activity at the Manship Artists Residency + Studios (MARS), Reynolds noted that its board is thankful that the organization has been able to quietly continue its work.

"We are so grateful to have been able to provide a meaningful purpose during this difficult time. Despite the fact that many artist residencies and cultural organizations had to shutter themselves during the pandemic, MARS was able to remain open," she said. "We realized that we had an asset that could be utilized during COVID. If we were careful, we could provide solitude in a tranquil place to artists living and working on Cape Ann for a little while. We want to shine a special light on our local artists as they continue to provide inspiration and hope to our community in the face of all the hardship this global crisis has wrought."

The work for "Outside @ Manship" began on June 15, 2020 when four artist members of Rockport Art Association & Museum arrived at the pristine setting.

"Over the course of the summer and fall, members of Rocky Neck Artist Colony and the North Shore Arts Association also came to Manship. The artists showed up, masked, carrying in everything they needed to work. They were greeted, confirmed that they understood the program guidelines, and then left alone to spend time away from everyday concerns. Manship has been a place where artists have gathered for more than eight decades. It is a place where the past and the present are very much alive," according to Meri Jenkins, a Manship Artists advisor who suggested the idea for this program.

Initially, a morning and afternoon session with four artists were organized with ample room to be socially distant on the sprawling grounds.

"We were thrilled when registrations began to appear in late May. Based on feedback from the first two sessions in June and August, we increased the duration to a full day's visit and provided for six artists in the October session," noted Reynolds. "Additionally, there was an artist from Washington, D.C., who planned to paint in France last summer, but who found herself in Gloucester instead. Through a friend, she learned about MARS and asked to come and paint on site. She's now plans to come back to Cape Ann next summer even if she is able to travel abroad."

Prior to the pandemic, the property became a haven for those in the film industry. The locationwash a staging area in August and September of 2019 for the crew of the recent Sundance award-winning film "CODA."

"What was especially rewarding about having over 100 crew members on the Manship 'set' was having one of them express how they felt appreciated by us and how they felt that we were treating them as artists he said that this normally didn't happen. We recognize that just about everyone on a film set is an artist of some sort, whether they work on makeup, lighting, sound, videography, or acting. As a significant working-class artist community, supporting working artists is deep in our roots and heritage. And no doubt the film crew bonded and felt equally supported by our fishing community," said Jo-Ann Castano, Manship Artists Board chair.

Another initiative during the pandemicserved another 12 artist "residents," all who were local or Massachusettsartists staying in the state due to safety concerns and travel restrictions, bringing the number of artists served by MARS in 2020 to 94, noted Reynolds.

Two out-of-state artists who were scheduled to visit MARS and could not do so, were able to take part in a virtual residency. The first is Erika Senft Miller of Vermont, who is developing a process of inquiry and collaboration for a future multi-sensory public art project in Gloucester thanks to a grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts. The second is Marc Zegans of California who was scheduled to launch his new book of poetry with public programming while in residence. Instead, he has been working with local photographer Tsar Fedorsky. Reynolds said they are exploring ways to share the mystical photographic essay that has evolved from this innovative collaboration.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

What: Manship Artists Residency + Studios in Gloucester presentsthe newvirtual exhibition, "Outside @ Manship," featuring the work of nearly 60 artists, which can be viewed at http://www.manshipartists.org.

Related media: "Outside @ Manship Artists Salon," avirtual Zoom series, highlights Manship's support of 94 artists during the pandemic and the resulting online exhibition. The conversations featuring artists and those familiar with the Manship story will take place from 7 to 8 p.m. Thursdays in March and April. Registration required. Zoom space is limited so it is advised to sign-up in advance to secure a spot at ManshipArtists.org. The series is as follows:

March 4: The Inside Scoop: Paul Manships story

What brought him to Cape Ann? What did he createhere? Many Cape Ann locals are surprised to learn that the artist who modeled one of the most recognizable sculptures in the world New York Citys Prometheus Fountain at Rockefeller Center was sculpted by an artist whose summer residence and work studio is in Gloucester. Join Paul Manships grandson Erik Natti, Manships neighbor and local historian Pru Fish, and Manship Artists founder and American sculpture specialist Rebecca Reynolds for this conversation.

March 18: Do you see the world inside out?

A delightful happenstance of having artists come to Manship was that some chose to paint in the same place on the grounds on different days. They worked in the exact same locations where their painter friends had painted on other occasions unbeknownst to themselves. The work they each produced is remarkably different. Join Janet Sutherland, Patricia McCarthy, and John Caggiano as they talk about their time at Manship, their work, and how they developed as artists in their unique way.

April 1: Alone with words or what is Manship Artists?

Residencies provide artists uninterrupted time to reflect, dive deep into questions that may have been puzzling them, and to produce work in a supportive environmentoutside of their usual surroundings and away from the concerns of their everyday lives. Come celebrate the first day of National Poetry Month. Meet two poets who benefited from time at Manship as they share what happened while they were there. Meet Charles Coe, the author of three books of poetry and an adjunct English professor at Salve Regina University, and poet Monica Manoski, who is an artist, community organizer, Reiki practitioner, and executive director of the Essex Art Center in Lawrence. Her first book, a collection of poems and black and white film photography, is titled "sisters in this ritual."

April 22: I know what I like!

Artists give us an opportunity to see things differently, in ways that areengaging, unexpected and perplexing. Our view of the world can be turned upside down and inside out by looking at artwork of a place that we may recognize, but which is rendered in such a way as to invite us to look again. Join Outside @ Manship artistsHeidi Caswell Zander, Andrew Fish and Donna Caseldenas they talk about the way they see the world.

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Originally posted here:

100 artists find inspiration at Manship during the pandemic - Gloucester Daily Times