Monthly Archives: August 2022

ADAMS TWP Mars Area School District will begin the school year Wednesday, Aug. 24, with as close to pre-COVID-19 policies as possible after school board members approved changes to the districts health and safety plan at a special board meeting Tuesday.

Following recommendations from Superintendent Mark Gross and the districts health and safety committee, the district has removed most provisions of its health and safety plan, including mandatory quarantines for close contacts, any form of contact tracing and all social distancing requirements.

The move is in response to Aug. 11 changes to the national Centers for Disease Control and Preventions recommendations, which also rolled back much of the advice for COVID-19 prevention, including the 6-foot rule of social distancing.

If were given mandates, certainly, we will follow those mandates, but right now, there are no mandates, Gross said. What Im recommending, and the committee is recommending, is that we go to pre-COVID protocols, that COVID is treated just like any other illness If youre ill, you stay home; If youre healthy, you come; if you miss school, you can make that work up. Were not going to quarantine students any longer.

Students who are sick with any illness no longer will have access to Live Stream Interactive (LSI), the districts livestreaming remote platform, which previously was used by students who were quarantining. They instead will make up their work when they return to school.

Families will not need to send proof of testing negative or positive of COVID-19 to the school any longer, though Gross emphasized that any individual who is sick should remain home, as with any other illness.

The district will no longer track weekly levels COVID-19 positive cases or release them to the public on its website, as the state of Pennsylvania no longer requires those numbers to be submitted, Gross said.

Theres a whole lot of process that involves (administration) in doing that, so I recommended to the committee that we discontinue basically all things COVID, Gross said. Were not going to continue to keep that chart, and we are not going to make notifications regarding positive COVID cases. Theres no mandates. Were treating this like any other illness we arent reporting every child a time has stomach flu or any other type of illness.

Changes for paraprofessional substitutes

The board also approved a raise for paraprofessionals who are employed as long-term substitutes for the district. They will now be paid $120 per day immediately, instead of being paid $110 a day for the first 30 days and then being raised to $120 per day.

Business manager Debbie Brandstetter said the policy will help get district paraprofessionals into substitute roles.

It encourages them to (work as substitutes), she said. They are already our employees, and that also gets them teaching. If a teaching position comes up, that gives them an opportunity to hopefully move into a teaching position.

The district has 20 unfilled paraprofessional positions, she said.

If a paraprofessional working as a long-term substitute remains in the position for more than 60 workdays, they can be paid at 90% of a bachelor step 1 salary, like a teacher would receive. On a daily basis, this is approximately $231 per day, Brandstetter said. The pay is also retroactive from when they started.

Original post:

Mars Area ends COVID-19 policies Cranberry Eagle

Interplanetary mission by China to place an orbiter, lander and rover on Mars

Tianwen-1 (TW-1; simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; lit. Heavenly Questions) is an interplanetary mission by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) which sent a robotic spacecraft to Mars, consisting of 6 spacecrafts: an orbiter, two deployable cameras, lander, remote camera, and the Zhurong rover.[19] The spacecraft, with a total mass of nearly five tons, is one of the heaviest probes launched to Mars and carries 14 scientific instruments. It is the first in a series of planned missions undertaken by CNSA as part of its Planetary Exploration of China program.

The mission's scientific objectives include: investigation of Martian surface geology and internal structure, search for indications of current and past presence of water, and characterization of the space environment and the atmosphere of Mars.

The mission was launched from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on 23 July 2020[20] on a Long March 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle. After seven months of transit through the inner Solar System, the spacecraft entered Martian orbit on 10 February 2021.[21][7] For the next three months the probe studied the target landing sites from a reconnaissance orbit. On 14 May 2021, the lander/rover portion of the mission successfully touched down on Mars,[19] making China the third nation to make a soft landing on and establish communication from the Martian surface, after the Soviet Union and the United States.[22][23][a]

On 22 May 2021, the Zhurong rover drove onto the Martian surface via the descent ramps on its landing platform.[25][26] With the successful deployment of the rover, China became the second nation to accomplish this feat, after the United States.[4][27][28][29] In addition, China is the first nation to carry out an orbiting, landing and rovering mission on Mars successfully on its maiden attempt.[30] Tianwen-1 is also the second mission to capture audio recordings on the Martian surface, after United States' Perseverance rover. The "smallsat" deployed by the Zhurong rover on the Martian surface consists of a "drop camera" which photographed both the rover itself as well as the Tianwen-1 lander.[31] With a mass of less than 1kg, the Tianwen-1 remote camera is the lightest artificial object on Mars as of May 2021. On December 31, 2021, the Tianwen-1 orbiter deployed a second deployable camera (TDC-2) into Mars orbit which captured photographs of the Tianwen-1 in orbit to celebrate its achievement of the year[18] and a selfie stick payload was deployed to its working position on orbiter to take images of the orbiter's components and Chinese flag on 30 January 2022 to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

The Tianwen-1 mission was the second of three Martian exploration missions launched during the July 2020 window, after the United Arab Emirates Space Agency's Hope orbiter, and before NASA's Mars 2020 mission, which landed the Perseverance rover with the attached Ingenuity helicopter drone.

China's planetary exploration program is officially dubbed the "Tianwen Series". "Tianwen-1" (Chinese: ) is the program's first mission, and subsequent planetary missions will be numbered sequentially.[32] The name Tianwen means "questions to heaven" or "quest for heavenly truth", from the same classical poem written by Qu Yuan (c.340278 BC), an ancient Chinese poet.[33][34] Tianwen-1's rover is named Zhurong (Chinese: ), after a Chinese mytho-historical figure usually associated with fire and light.[35] The name was chosen through an online poll held from January to February 2021.[36]

China's Mars program started in partnership with Russia. In November 2011, the Russian spacecraft Fobos-Grunt, destined for Mars and Phobos, was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Russian spacecraft carried with it an attached secondary spacecraft, the Yinghuo-1, which was intended to become China's first Mars orbiter (Fobos-Grunt also carried experiments from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the American Planetary Society). However, Fobos-Grunt's main propulsion unit failed to boost the Mars-bound stack from its initial Earth parking orbit and the combined multinational spacecraft and experiments eventually reentered the atmosphere of Earth in January 2012.[37] China subsequently began an independent Mars project.[38]

The new Mars spacecraft, consisting of an orbiter and a lander with an attached rover, was developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and is managed by the National Space Science Centre (NSSC) in Beijing.[39] The mission was formally approved in 2016.[40]

On 14 November 2019, CNSA invited some foreign embassies and international organizations to witness hovering and obstacle avoidance test for the Mars Lander of China's first Mars exploration mission at the extraterrestrial celestial landing test site. It was the first public appearance of China's Mars exploration mission.[41]

As the mission preparation proceeded, in April 2020, the mission was formally named "Tianwen-1".[42]

On 23 July 2020, Tianwen-1 was launched from Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the island of Hainan atop a Long March 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle.[20]

In September 2020, the Tianwen-1 orbiter deployed the Tianwen-1 First Deployable Camera (TDC-1), a small satellite with two cameras that took photos of and tested a radio connection with Tianwen-1.[8] Its mission was to photograph the Tianwen-1 orbiter and the lander's heat shield.[8] Due to the time when it was deployed, it trajectory predicted to do a flyby of Mars with that happening around the orbit insertion date.

During its cruise to Mars, the spacecraft completed four trajectory correction maneuvers plus an additional maneuver to alter its heliocentric orbital inclination; it also performed self diagnostics on multiple payloads.[43][44] After payload checkouts, the spacecraft began scientific operations with the Mars Energetic Particle Analyzer, mounted on the orbiter, which transmitted initial data back to ground control.[45]

The lander/rover portion of the mission began its Martian landing attempt on 14 May 2021. About nine minutes after the aeroshell housing the lander/rover combination entered the Martian atmosphere, the lander (carrying the rover) safely touched down in the Utopia Planitia region on Mars.[46][47][48] After a period spent conducting system checkouts and other planning activities (including taking engineering images of itself), the lander deployed the Zhurong rover for independent surface operations.[49] This rover is powered by solar panels and will probe the Martian surface with radar and conduct chemical analyses on the soil; it will also look for biomolecules and biosignatures.[4]

This is the CNSA's first interplanetary mission, as well as its first independent probe to Mars. The primary goal is therefore to validate China's deep space communications and control technologies, as well as the Administration's ability to successfully orbit and land spacecraft.

From a scientific point of view, the mission must meet five objectives:

The aims of the mission include searching for evidence of current and past life, producing surface maps, characterizing soil composition and water ice distribution, and examining the Martian atmosphere, particularly its ionosphere.[27]

The mission also serves as a technology demonstration that will be needed for an anticipated Mars sample-return mission proposed for the 2030s.[51] Zhurong will also cache rock and soil samples for retrieval by the later sample-return mission, and the orbiter will make it possible to locate a caching site.[52]

In late 2019, the Xi'an Aerospace Propulsion Institute, a subsidiary of CASC, stated that the performance and control of the future spacecraft's propulsion system has been verified and had passed all requisite pre-flight tests, including tests for hovering, hazard avoidance, deceleration and landing. The main component of the lander's propulsion system consists of a single engine that provides 7,500N (1,700lbf) of thrust. The spacecraft's supersonic parachute system had also been successfully tested.[40]

CNSA initially focused on the Chryse Planitia and Elysium Mons regions of Mars in its search for possible landing sites. However, in September 2019 during a joint meeting in Geneva, in Switzerland, of the European Planetary Science Congress-Division for Planetary Sciences, the presenters announced that two preliminary sites in the Utopia Planitia region of Mars have instead been chosen for the anticipated landing attempt, with each site having a landing ellipse of approximately 100 by 40 kilometres.[40]

In July 2020, CNSA provided landing coordinates of 110.318 East longitude and 24.748 North latitude, within the southern portion of Utopia Planitia, as the specific primary landing site. The area was chosen for being both of scientific interest and being safe enough for landing attempts.[12][14] Simulated landings have been performed as part of mission preparations by the Beijing Institute of Space Mechanics and Electricity.[53]

By 23 January 2020, the Long March 5 Y4 rocket's hydrogen-oxygen engine had completed a 100-seconds test, which was the last engine test prior to the final assembly of the launch vehicle. It successfully launched on 23 July 2020.[20]

The three Tianwen-1 spacecraft were launched by Long March 5 Heavy-lift launch vehicle on 23 July 2020. Having traveled for about seven months, it entered Mars orbit on 10 February 2021 by performing a burn of its engines to slow down just enough to be captured by Mars' gravitational pull. The orbiter spent several months scanning and imaging the surface of Mars to refine the target landing zone for the lander/rover.[54][55][34] It approached at about 265km (165mi) (periareion, or periapse) to Mars' surface, allowing a high-resolution camera to return images to Earth and to map the landing site in Utopia Planitia, and to prepare for landing.[44]

The landing area selection was based on two major criteria:[57]

Three initial areas were selected by the site selection team after a global survey of Mars; the three areas were: Amazonis Planitia, Chryse Planitia, and Utopia Planitia.[58] All three candidate landing areas were between five degrees North and thirty degrees North latitude.

According to the site selection team, Amazonis Planitia was dropped from consideration upon further analysis due to the area's small thermal inertias and the possible presence of thick dust in the region; Chryse Planitia was eliminated next due to its rough terrain in terms of elevations, slopes, crater densities, and rock abundances. Finally, a region measuring approximately 180km (110mi) x 70km (43mi) in Utopia Planitia and centered on 244453N 1101905E / 24.748N 110.318E / 24.748; 110.318 was selected as the primary target for further analysis (a backup target with about the same total area and centered on 262801N 1313734E / 26.467N 131.626E / 26.467; 131.626 was also selected at that time.)[58] The target landing regions in Utopia Planitia were favored by the selection team also because they present higher chances of finding evidence for the possible presence of ancient ocean on the northern lowlands of Mars.[57]

The primary target region was further constrained in extent using the high-resolution camera (HiRIC) on board the Tianwen-1 orbiter after it entered Martian orbit in February 2021. The HiRIC camera collected high resolution stereo images of the primary landing region; these images were built into mosaics of varying resolutions (e.g. digital elevation models with a resolution of 5 meters per pixel, and maps for automatic crater detection with a resolution of 0.7 meters per pixel.) The accuracy of some of the HiRIC image results were evaluated by comparing them with images generated by the cameras on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.[58]

Using the HiRIC mosaics, the selection team conducted various terrain analyses on potential candidate landing ellipses within the primary target region in an iterative manner; these analyses included the determination of the candidate ellipse's average slope, the percentage of slope with an angle greater than 8%, average rock abundance, the percentage of area within the candidate ellipse with a rock abundance greater than 10%, and the percentage of cratered area. A 'hazard index' is then distilled from the analyses for each candidate ellipse. Cadidate ellipse 16, with the lowest hazard index, emerged as the paimary target (candidate ellipse 128, with the next lowest hazard index, was the backup).[58] See the following figure produced by the landing selection team intended to illustrate the calculation of the hazard indices for candidate ellipses 16 and 128.

Ellipse 16 was selected for the attempted landing in May 2021; it is centered on 250708N 1095550E / 25.1188N 109.9305E / 25.1188; 109.9305 with major and minor axes of 55km (34mi) and 22km (14mi) respectively (the boundary of the ellipse is defined by a landing probability uncertainty of 3 sigmas); also, the major axis of the landing ellipse is tilted with respect to the Martian north by 1.35 degrees to the west, this is a consequence of the planned orbital descent path. On 14 May 2021 (UTC), the Zhurong rover and its landing platform touched down at 250358N 1095530E / 25.066N 109.925E / 25.066; 109.925, at an elevation of 4,099.4m (13,449ft), about 3.1km (1.9mi) south of the center of landing ellipse 16.[58]

At 23:18 UTC, on 14 May 2021, the Tianwen-1 lander successfully landed in the preselected landing area in the southern part of the Mars Utopia Planitia.[9][59][60][61][62] The landing phase began with the release of the protective capsule containing the lander/rover. The capsule made an atmospheric entry followed by a descent phase under parachute, after which the lander used retro-propulsion to soft-land on Mars.[10][11][60]

On 19 May 2021, CNSA released for the first time images showing the preparation of the final transfer of the Zhurong rover from the platform of the lander to the Martian soil. The photographs show the solar panels of Zhurong already deployed while Zhurong is still perched on the lander along with two circular windows on the deck under which n-undecane wad stored in 10 containers that absorbs heat and melts during the daytime and solidifies and releases heat at night.[63][47][48] The long delay for the publication of the first images is explained by the short periods of time when the Zhurong rover and the orbiter are in radio contact and can effectively communicate and transfer data.[64]

On 11 June 2021, CNSA released the first batch of scientific images from the surface of Mars including a panoramic image taken by Zhurong and a group photo of Zhurong and the Tianwen-1 lander taken by the drop camera. The panoramic image is composed of 24 single shots taken by the NaTeCam before the rover was deployed to the Martian surface. The image reveals that the topography and rock abundance near the landing site was consistent with previous anticipations from the scientist on typical south Utopia Planitia features with small but widespread rocks, white wave patterns, and mud volcanoes.[17]

On 22 May 2021 (02:40 UTC), the Zhurong rover descended from its lander onto the Martian surface to begin its scientific mission. The first images received on Earth after the rover deployment showed the empty landing platform and the extended rover-descent ramps.[25][26] During its deployment, the Rover's instrument, Mars Climatic Station, recorded the sound, acting as the second martian sound instrument to record Martian sounds successfully after Mars 2020 Perseverance rover's microphones.

The Zhurong rover deployed a drop camera to the surface which was able to photograph both the Zhurong rover and the Tianwen-1 lander.[31]

The rover is designed to explore the surface for 90sols; its height is about 1.85m (6.1ft) and it has a mass of about 240kg (530lb). After the rover deployment, the orbiter would serve as a telecommunications relay for the rover while continuing to conduct its own orbital observations of Mars.[65]

On 12 July 2021, Zhurong visited the parachute and backshell dropped onto the Martian surface during its landing on 14 May.[66][67]

From mid-September to late October 2021, both the Tianwen-1 orbiter and Zhurong rover entered safe mode due to a communications blackout around solar conjunction.[68] Both devices were back to active mode after the ending of the blackout.[69]

To achieve the scientific objectives of the mission, the Tianwen-1 orbiter is equipped with eight scientific instruments, while the Zhurong rover is equipped with six, which include:[57]

The lander did not have a scientific payload, but carried a Mars Emergency Beacon designed to survive the force of a catastrophic crash. The beacon would have allowed critical engineering data to be collected to aid future design.[76] The lander also carried the Chinese flag and 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics mascots with it like the orbiter.

Argentina's Comisin Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE) is collaborating on Tianwen-1 by way of the Espacio Lejano tracking station installed in Las Lajas, Neuqun. The facility played a previous role in China's landing of the Chang'e 4 spacecraft on the far side of the Moon in January 2019.[78]

France's Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Plantologie (IRAP) in Toulouse, in France, is collaborating on the Zhurong rover. Sylvestre Maurice[fr] of IRAP said:

For their Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument, we have delivered a calibration target that is a French duplicate of a target which is on [NASA's] Curiosity [Mars rover]. The idea is to see how the two datasets compare.[78]

The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) aided in the development of a magnetometer installed on the Tianwen-1 orbiter. The Space Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Graz has confirmed the group's contribution to the Tianwen-1 magnetometer and helped with the calibration of the flight instrument.[78]

While the Tianwen-1 orbiter will dispense commands to the Zhurong rover, the Mars Express orbiter of the European Space Agency could serve as a backup.[79]

Chinese President and General Secretary of the Communist Party Xi Jinping stated in response to the landing:

You were brave enough for the challenge, pursued excellence and placed our country in the advanced ranks of planetary exploration. Your outstanding achievement will forever be etched in the memories of the motherland and the people.[29]

In the US, NASA Associate Administrator Thomas Zurbuchen tweeted his congratulations:

Together with the global science community, I look forward to the important contributions this mission will make to humanity's understanding of the Red Planet.[80]

Dmitry Rogozin, Director General of Roscosmos of Russia, praised China's successful mission:

The landing of China's spacecraft on the surface of Mars is "a great success" of China's fundamental space research program [and] welcome[d] the resumption of exploration of the planets of the solar system by the leading space powers.[81]

Links to related articles

Read more from the original source:

Tianwen-1 - Wikipedia

A new map of mineral deposits on Mars could not only change our understanding of past water distribution on the Red Planet but also help create a roadmap for future Mars exploration including crewed missions.

The new map has revealed an unexpected abundance of minerals created by the interaction of rock and water, with hundreds of thousands formerly water-rich areas discovered in some of Mars' most ancient regions.

The map could lead to a more detailed investigation of Martian geology that could reveal what happened when Mars changed from a planet quite like Earth to the dry and arid world we see today, and whether the planet was ever capable of supporting life.

"I think we have collectively oversimplified Mars," John Carter, assistant professor of planetary science at Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, Paris-Saclay University, who was part of the team behind the map,said in a statement. (opens in new tab) "The evolution from lots of water to no water is not as clear cut as we thought, the water didn't just stop overnight."

Related: Mars was always too small to hold onto its oceans, rivers and lakes

Carter also explained that Mars' more complex geology may be more similar to that of our planet than previously thought.

"We see a huge diversity of geological contexts so that no one process or simple timeline can explain the evolution of the mineralogy of Mars," the researcher continued. "If you exclude life processes on Earth, Mars exhibits a diversity of mineralogy in geological settings just as Earth does."

The map has been created using over a decade worth of data collected by the European Space Agency's (ESA) OMEGA (Mars Express Observatoire pour la Mineralogie, l'Eau, les Glaces et l'Activit) instrument on the Mars Express spacecraft, and the CRISM (Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars) instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Of particular interest on the map are the traces of water-rich minerals and rocks that were changed into clays and salts through interactions with water in the Red Planet's distant past.

Different water-rich clays and minerals are created when water interacts with rocks in a variety of conditions.

When small amounts of water interact with volcanic rock, clay minerals such as smectite and vermiculite form. These retain many of the same chemical elements particularly iron and magnesium as the volcanic rocks that birthed them.

When large amounts of water interact with rocks, however, the clays that are formed are less like the progenitor rocks as soluble elements are washed away. This leaves aluminum-rich clays like kaolin in their wake.

Up to a decade ago, researchers were only aware of around 1,000 such clay-rich outcrops on Mars. This meant aqueous clays were considered geological oddities and suggested that there were limitations to how much water had been on Mars in the past and for how long it had been preserved.

The new map shows that, surprisingly, these minerals are more prevalent than scientists thought, indicating that water played a much bigger role in shaping the geology of Mars.

"This work has now established that when you are studying the ancient terrains in detail, not seeing these minerals is actually the oddity," Carter added.

Not only do these results suggest that water was prevalent and important in shaping Mars, but that the formation of clays and salts on the Red Planet is more complicated than previously suspected.

In the past scientists thought that just a few clay types were formed when Mars was in its wet period estimated to have been as long as 4 billion years ago and when the water dried up, the planet transitioned to the dry and arid world we see today, and salts were left behind.

The newly created map shows that while salts did form after clays in many areas, in some locations across the Martian surface there is a mixing of salts and clays, and there are also salts that predate the production of clay.

The team behind the Mars mineral map didn't stop at the basic detection of minerals. They also quantified the concentrations of these aqueous minerals present in a variety of locations.

Because these minerals still contain water molecules, they could be used by future crewed missions to extract water for both astronauts and for the production of fuel, lightening the load future space missions need to haul to the Red Planet as well as the cost of such missions.

The clays and salts could even be utilized as building materials to establish bases and other facilities on the Martian surface.

Even before crewed missions head to Mars, areas rich in aqueous minerals could prove excellent locations for robotic Mars missions to conduct geological research.

As a prime example of this, the Oxia Planum a clay-rich site discovered during the creation of this map has been suggested as a potential landing site for the ESA-operated Rosalind Franklin rover.

"If we know where, and in which percentage each mineral is present, it gives us a better idea of how those minerals could have been formed," Lucie Riu, an ESA research fellow and co-author of the study, said in the statement. "This is what I am interested in, and I think this kind of mapping work will help open up those studies going forward."

Two papers (opens in new tab) detailing the creation of this new Mars map are published in the journal Icarus. (opens in new tab)

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Excerpt from:

New Mars water map reveals history of Red Planet - Space.com

A decades worth of data has been used to create the most detailed and up-to-date map of the mineral deposits across Mars surface.

Mars history, and the role water plays in it, have always been somewhat unclear. But new research comes to show that even what we assumed we knew may not, in fact, be true.

The map was created using data from ESAs Mars Express Observatoire pour la Minralogie, lEau, les Glaces et lActivit (OMEGA) instrument and NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiters Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM). One of its most important features is that it shows the location and abundance of aqueous mineral deposits on the planet. Aqueous minerals typically consist of salts or clays and are formed through the action of water in other words, the location and nature of these deposits can tell us a lot about the history of Mars liquid water.

This work has now established that when you are studying the ancient terrains in detail, not seeing these minerals is actually the oddity, says John Carter, Assistant Astronomer at the Institut dAstrophysique Spatiale (IAS) and Laboratoire dAstrophysique de Marseille (LAM), France, and lead author of the paper describing the findings.

On Earth, clays form when water interacts with preexisting rocks. Different types of clay form based on the mineral composition of these rocks, and on the environmental conditions where the interaction takes place. Two types in particular, smectite and vermiculite, form when only small quantities of water react with a base of volcanic rock; due to the limited amount of water involved, the clays retain mainly the same chemical compounds as the rock they derive from. As such, both smectite and vermiculite are characterized by high levels of iron and magnesium.

However, when more water goes into the reaction, the initial volcanic rock can be altered to a much higher degree. Soluble elements are drained away, which leads to the creation of aluminum-rich minerals such as kaolin clay.

So, judging by the disposition of these clays and salt deposits, researchers can map the history of liquid water on the surface of Mars.

One of the most surprising elements highlighted by the finished map was just how prevalent these minerals seem to be across the face of the planet. While these were considered to mostly be geological oddities, the current map reveals that they are far from such. Previously known only in around 1000 outcrops on Mars, the map shows that there are upwards of hundreds of thousands of such areas strewn all over Mars. A large number of these deposits are found on some of the oldest areas of the planets surface.

These findings rewrite our current assumptions regarding Mars lost water. The previous train of thought was that, since aqueous minerals are rare on the Martian surface, it was likely that the planet only harbored limited amounts of the liquid and for a relatively short period of time. The main hypothesis was that the limited amounts of clay on Mars were formed during this short window of time before water gradually dried up across the planet. Its deposit of salts formed during this drying period.

Faced with the current data, it is obvious and beyond a shadow of a doubt that water had a central role to play in shaping Martian geology. The only question remaining now is whether this greater quantity of water had a constant, long-term presence, or if it was only found on Mars surface for shorter periods of time.

While its probable that many of the salt deposits on Mars were formed after the clays, the map suggests that there were many exceptions to this rule and that the two types of minerals often formed and mixed together.

I think we have collectively oversimplified Mars, Carter concludes.

The evolution from lots of water to no water is not as clear cut as we thought, the water didnt just stop overnight. We see a huge diversity of geological contexts, so that no one process or simple timeline can explain the evolution of the mineralogy of Mars. Thats the first result of our study. The second is that if you exclude life processes on Earth, Mars exhibits a diversity of mineralogy in geological settings just as Earth does.

The paper A Mars Orbital Catalog of Aqueous Alteration Signatures (MOCAAS) has been published in the journal Icarus.

Continue reading here:

Stunning new map of Mars geology shows that it harbored much more water than previously assumed - ZME Science

NASA next week plans to launch the first of several Artemis missions, which collectively aim to land astronauts on the Moon again for the first time in more than half a century, explore the lunar surface more extensively, and establish a long-term presence on the Moon. Controversy lingers over both the launch system selected for these missions and the next step of human spaceflight to Mars.

David Priess spoke with science journalist Fraser Cain, publisher of Universe Today and co-host of Astronomy Cast, about why exploring the moon matters, what to expect from the launch and voyage of Artemis-I, and the challenges of missions to Mars. They also chatted about international space competition vs. cooperation during the Cold War and now, NASA's rollout of initial images from the James Webb Space Telescope, space-based threats ranging from gamma ray bursts and rogue black holes to near-Earth objects and coronal mass ejections, Cain's evolution in communicating science both online and through podcasts, the downward spiral of engaging conspiracy theorists, frustrations with popular culture's association of unidentified aerial phenomena with "aliens," and the interaction of science fiction and real-world space exploration.

Chatter is a production of Lawfare and Goat Rodeo. This episode was produced and edited by Cara Shillenn of Goat Rodeo. Podcast theme by David Priess, featuring music created using Groovepad. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Among the works mentioned in this episode:

The book The Martian by Andy Weir

The movie The Martian

The movie Don't Look Up

The Alien film franchise

The movie Avatar

The book Death by Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson

The book Death from the Skies by Phil Plait

The podcast The Skeptics Guide to the Universe

The TV show For All Mankind

The Foundation book series by Issac Asimov

Read more here:

The Chatter Podcast: The Moon, Mars, and National Security with Fraser Cain - Lawfare

Once we've overcome all the challenges involved in getting to Mars, we'll then have to figure out how to make life sustainable there and growing and cultivating crops is going to be a major part of that.

As you'll know if you've seen Matt Damon's struggles in the movie The Martian, the landscape of the red planet could in theory grow crops, a possibility backed by NASA experiments.

But it would be far from straightforward. Not only is the grit and dust devoid of organic matter and helpful microbes, it's also full of salts and minerals that make most plants struggle for survival.

Now a new study suggests a way forward: alfalfa plants. This forage crop would be capable of surviving in tough volcanic soil like that which covers Mars, researchers have determined, and could be then used as fertilizer to grow food like turnips, radishes and lettuce.

"The low nutrient content of Martian soil and high salinity of water render them unfit for direct use for propagating food crops on Mars," write the researchers in their published paper.

"It is therefore essential to develop strategies to enhance nutrient content in Mars soil and to desalinate briny water for long-term missions."

Previous research has indicated that plants are going to have a real struggle growing on the Martian surface without extra nutrients being added to the soil (or regolith) they're placed in. That's where alfalfa plays a part.

Getting an exact match for the regolith on Mars is tricky, but the researchers put together the best approximation they could, before testing different seeds in it.

They found that alfalfa was able to grow as healthily as it does in Earth soil, without any additional fertilizer.

Simulated Martian regolith was then tested with alfalfa added as a fertilizer. Turnips, radishes and lettuces three plants that require little in the way of maintenance, grow quickly, and don't need much water were all grown successfully.

There is a catch though: fresh water was also needed. Based on further experiments, the team thinks the briny water available on Mars could be treated with a type of marine bacteria and then filtered through volcanic rock in order to produce the fresh water needed for crop growth.

"For the first time, we report an integrated use of a biofertilizer and microbe for effective treatment of basaltic regolith soil and briny water simulants, respectively, for suitable resources that sustain plant growth," write the researchers.

There are lots of questions still to answer, not least how accurately we can mimic the Martian soil down here on Earth. It's likely that when we do finally make it to the red planet, the surface regolith won't be exactly as we supposed it to be.

The simulated soil was also missing some of the toxic perchlorate salts, which would need to be somehow washed out of Martian soil by the desalinated water.

However, the experiments outlined in this study give scientists and astronauts some more promising options to explore. The approaches the researchers have described are simple to put into practice and efficient in operation.

Growing alfalfa on Mars to use as a fertilizer would certainly cost less than transporting vast refrigerators of food across millions of kilometers to the red planet and it's not the only source of nutrients we might be able to produce away from Earth.

"This study signifies that for long-term purposes, it is possible to treat in situ soil and water resources for farming on Mars to sustain human missions and permanent settlements," write the researchers.

The research has been published in PLOS One.

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This Is The First Plant We Should Grow on Mars, New Study Finds - ScienceAlert

In a recent study published in Space Physics, an international team of researchers discuss an in-depth study examining the long-term physiological effects of solar radiation on astronauts with emphasis on future astronauts traveling to Mars, to include steps we can take to help mitigate the risk of such solar radiation exposure. The researchers hailed from the United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, India, United States, Italy, Greece, and Germany, and their study helps us better understand the in-depth, long-term health impacts of astronauts during long-term space missions, specifically to Mars and beyond.

Exposure to ionizing radiation is one of the main health risks to astronauts in crewed missions to Mars, said Dr. Dimitra Atri, a Research Scientist at New York University Abu Dhabi, and lead author of the study. Going to Mars is going to be humanitys ultimate adventure in the 21st century it would be unfortunate if the mission is successful, but astronauts suffer major health issues or even die because of radiation exposure. So, we need to estimate radiation exposure in a very careful way and study its overall impact on human health. It will also help us develop mitigation strategies to keep our astronauts safe.

To conduct their study, the researchers utilized a computer simulation known as Geant4 with a model human phantom to calculate how each organ of the human body is affected by radiation doses from exposure to energetic charged particles for prolonged periods. These include impacts on an astronauts health such as Acute Radiation Syndrome, nervous system damage, and a higher risk of cancer. The CDC defines Acute Radiation Syndrome, also known as radiation sickness or radiation toxicity, as an acute illness caused by irradiation of the entire human body (or most of the body) by a high dose of penetrating radiation in a very short period of time (usually a matter of minutes).

Combining their data from the model human phantom with dozens of past medical studies, the researchers discuss the underlying impacts of ionizing radiation on physiological systems, to include the nervous, immune, and skeletal systems, and behavioral effects, along with impacts on genetic material and risk of cancer. They considered a crewed mission to Mars comprising of 600 days in cruise phase to and from the Red Planet and spending 400 days on the Martian surface. While they noted a knowledge gap regarding past medical studies and their own study, they stated radiation limits set by the European Space Agency, Roscosmos, Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, and NASA would be surpassed during a crewed mission to Mars.

It is a comprehensive study modeling the impact of charged particles protons, alpha particles, heavier species on a human phantom by using CERNs chargedparticle interaction code, said Dr. Atri. We were able to calculate radiation dose deposited in various organs of the human body. We then compared our calculations with medical literature to assess the health risks to astronauts. We also discussed various mitigation strategies which will enable us to reduce this risk.

The mitigation strategies include medicine and dietary strategies, along with active and passive shielding and potential types of Martian habitats to help further mitigate solar radiation exposure. Such habitats include using the Martian regolith as shielding material, along with the potential for habitats inside lava tubes and caves that currently exist on Mars. One previous study discussed a candidate lava tube southwest of Hadriacus Mons on Mars that could constitute an ~82% decrease in a crews radiation exposure.

Dr. Atri considers the best strategy to maintain cumulative low doses of radiation on the crew would be to send astronauts to Mars who have received the least amount of radiation exposure throughout their careers to reduce the chances of long-term health effects.

What kinds of long-term health effects could future astronauts to Mars experience during their time in space? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

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Astronauts Going to Mars Will Receive Many Lifetimes Worth of Radiation - Universe Today