Category Archives: Mars Colonization

When the International Space Station (ISS) runs low on basic supplies like food, water, and other necessities they can be resupplied from Earth in a matter of hours. But when astronauts go the Moon for extended periods of time in the coming years, resupply missions will take much longer to get there. The same holds true for Mars, which can take months to get there while also being far more expensive.

Its little wonder then why NASA and other space agencies are looking to develop methods and technologies that will ensure that their astronauts have a degree of self-sufficiency. According to NASA-supported research conducted by Daniel Tompkins of Grow Mars and Anthony Muscatello (formerly of the NASA Kennedy Space Center), ISRU methods will benefit immensely from some input from nature.

Tompkins and Dr. Muscatello began their collaborative relationship in 2018 shortly after the latter retired from NASA KSC, where he spent the previous two decades working on chemical systems for In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) applications. Later that year, Muscatello delivered a speech at the annual Mars Society Convention on the subject of how Mars could be terraformed using oxygen and self-replicating robots.

Shortly thereafter, Tompkins contacted Dr. Muscatello and the two began collaborating on a project designed to improve conventional ISRU techniques. With the support of researchers from NASA KSC, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Moon Village Association, and The Bionetics Corporation, Tompkins and Muscatello produced a joint study describing their approach.

This study was presented at the tenth joint meeting of the Planetary & Terrestrial Mining Sciences Symposium (June 11th-14th, 2019), which coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the Space Resources Roundtable (SRR). Here, the pair described how traditional ISRU techniques used to establish a lunar base could be vastly improved by incorporating growing and self-replicating living organisms (aka. the Green Moon concept).

As Dr. Muscatello described it to Universe Today via email:

GrowMars is based on biological processes to make oxygen from CO2 with chemical processing of the algae to convert it to the starting products to make polymers for structural applications. Conventional ISRU is based on physical and chemical processes only.

The pair detailed this concept further in a peer-reviewed study that addressed how these same biological and agricultural methods could be used to create vast greenhouses on Mars (aka. GrowMars). In this process, algae is grown in greenhouses that use locally-harvested water, atmospheric CO2 (on Mars), waste CO2 from human respiration and waste, or CO2 and carbon monoxide (CO) from lunar cold traps, and sunlight.

This biomass, which is rich in carbohydrates, is then fed into a conversion reactor to produce polyethylene furandicarboxylate (PEF), a bioplastic derived from carbohydrates (C8H6O). This bioplastic can be used as a bonding agent that is then combined with lunar or Martian regolith to create a polymer composite concrete, which in turn is used as feedstock for robotic 3D printers to create more greenhouses.

According to their greenhouse design, the composite building material is printed out to make transparent blocks that are rectangular (lengthwise) and trapezoidal (crosswise). This shape optimizes the absorption of solar energy by ensuring that the greenhouses can constantly be tilted towards the Sun and allows for the blocks to be tessellated (stacked with no space between them) to form larger structures.

As Tompkins explained the process to Universe Today via email:

Biomass to plastic conversion is well studied and practiced in an effort to make sustainable and petroleum independent plastics. Basically, the carbohydrate portion of biomass is processed into clear plastics at a high rate with low power and mass required. [The] key thing to note [is that] not all bioderived plastics are biodegradable.

In short, this bioplastic can be generated using sugars (rather than petrochemicals) and is durable enough for off-world use. Between that and the shape they are printed in, the blocks can be combined to create many different types of structures. This includes homes and parks for human settlers as well as additional greenhouses.

Over time, these new greenhouses could grow more algae to create more blocks, thus growing a colony over time. When placed over natural depressions, like craters or extended valleys (aka. fossae, which are common on Mars), they can work as both greenhouses and radiation shields. In fact, the ability to shield against harmful radiation is one of the most beneficial aspects of this system.

Traditionally, radiation shielding consists of metal panels (like lead) since they have a good weight-to-protection ratio. Whereas barriers made of other materials can also block cosmic and solar rays, they typically have to be very thick to do so. Unfortunately, metal panels do not protect crews from the secondary particles that result from collisions, which create secondary particles that will shower crews.

By comparison, water and plastic have been shown to be effective at blocking radiation while generating no secondary particles the same holds true of bioplastics. The only impediment is, natural barriers need to be up to 3 m (~10 ft) thick in order to reliably protect against solar and cosmic rays. But with a tessellated structure that also acts as a dome, a colony would have all the natural shielding it requires.

In addition, the conversion reactor also creates useful byproducts, like proteins, lipids (fat cells), and minerals that can be used in the manufacture of chemical fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, etc.) On top of that, says Tompkins, they can be used to manufacture other crucial resources like food, oxygen, biofuel, rocket fuel the list goes on.

As Dr. Muscatello summarized the process:

GrowMars generates more of the polymer blocks in which the algae grows, thereby expanding the oxygen and polymer production capacity exponentially with time, up to the limits of the algae-to-polymer process units, which can be over-sized in anticipation of this aspect if desired. The algae replicates itself as long as CO2, water, and a small amount of fertilizer are provided.

Conventional ISRU is always limited to the capacities of the as-built systems, i.e. to get more production, more units are required. Thus, the algae-based system could have mass and power advantages over conventional ISRU. The algae based systems can also be configured to provide radiation shielding with the water and polymer blocks.

When it comes to Project Artemis and NASAs long-term vision of creating a program of sustainable lunar exploration, one of the principal focuses is on how local resources can be leveraged to provide self-sufficiency. The same holds true for mission architectures to Mars and the outer Solar System. In all cases, the plan is to harvest water ice, regolith, and other local resources so that resupply missions can be few and far between.

Traditional ISRU techniques are focused primarily on harnessing locally-available resources, like water ice and regolith. In contrast, this new approach focuses on how harnessing local water and minerals, as well as energy from the Sun, and carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide from human waste, to multiply local resource potential.

As Tompkins put it, this technique would ensure the production of more food and better building materials:

We are leveraging these efforts in the space context with unique functionality of being carbon negative, (producing net oxygen), enabling more photosynthesis area, radiation protection, building material, all in an expanding loop system that is biologically and functionally integrated. All with the hope of self-sufficiency and outpacing entropy at a basic needs level.

Bio-based systems have the potential to reduce the mass and power required to provide oxygen and polymers while having the ability to expand their production rates, thus reducing the costs of launch mass, the volume launched, and power requirements, added Dr. Muscatello. Such advantages can make exploration and settlement less expensive and faster.

Many of the ideas presented by Tompkins and Muscatello were also touched on by Dr. Robert Zubrin in a recent study that appeared on Centauri Dreams titled Sublake Settlements for Mars. In addition to being an aerospace engineer and the founder of the Mars Society, Dr. Zubrin is also a noted advocate for the exploration, colonization, and terraforming of Mars.

In this essay, Zubrin presents a variation on the paraterraforming concept, where sections of a planet are enclosed and ecologically engineered to be habitable. Specifically, he explored how settlements could be built within ice-filled craters on Mars, where the lower layers of ice could be melted to create a subglacial lake. Over time, the presence of warm water and organic molecules could allow for the formation of a biosphere.

Housing created within the lake would benefit from the fact that the external pressure would be similar to Earths atmosphere (100 kPa, or 1 bar). This is preferable in many ways to habitats built on the surface, where atmospheric pressure is (on average) about 0.5% what we experience here on Earth. On top of that, the thick ice and deep water would provide all the necessary radiation shielding for a settlement to survive.

Taken as a while, Tompkins and Muscatellos concept for growing settlement on the Moon and Mars represents a practical and scalable concept for off-world colonies. But perhaps some of the most exciting implications of this study is the impact it could have here on Earth. As Tompkins reminds us, the innovation that resulted from the Apollo Program resulted in countless applications here at home.

These applications were made possible thanks to NASAs Technology Transfer Program and have been cataloged since 1976 by NASA Spinoff. Whereas the Apollo Program resulted in commercial, medical, and industrial applications ranging from microwave ovens, heart monitors, and MRIs to GPS and Lidar. This time, NASAs goals call for innovations that can ensure self-sufficiency, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness.

Based on current UN projections, Earths population is expected to peak at 10 billion by the year 2050. Simultaneously, climate change will continue to disrupt the very systems humans depend upon for their very livelihood and survival. The only way to prevent the worst from happening (widespread famine, economic collapse, mass migrations, etc.) is to employ technologies that allow us to do more with less.

Its not hard to see how technologies that can leverage biomass to create petroleum-free plastics (as well as fertilizers and food) will be a boon for future generations. There are also parallels between this technology and the work of Stanford Professor Steven Chu, former Energy Secretary for the Obama administration and the man who proposed the Glucose Economy, an alternative to the current petroleum-based economy.

In the near future, Tompkins and Muscatello are hoping to secure additional funding so they can mount a full-cycle demonstration of the technology. If all goes well, this type of biomass-to-bioplastics and farming method could become a regular feature of lunar and Martian colonies. It could even become a regular feature of life here on Earth.

As always, our efforts to send humans into space are yielding tangible benefits here at home. And when the technology designed to address what is needed to survive out there also addresses some of our greatest needs down here, those benefits can be enormous.

Further Reading: GrowMars, Space Resources Roundtable study, Peer-reviewed study, Centauri Dreams

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Practical Ideas for Farming on the Moon and Mars - Universe Today

Protest journal: A Toxic Narrative on Cops

At City Journal, Rafael A. Mangual sees irony in gripes that attention paid to the relative handful of violent agitators distorts the image of an otherwise peaceful movement even as the violence by cops that sparked the protests similarly doesnt fairly characterize law enforcement. Police are not perfect, he admits, but to bridge the gap between protesters and cops, destructive hyperbole about police violence needs to be recognized for what it is. Data on police use of force predominantly reveal professionalism and restraint, suggesting, for instance, that in 2018, police in America applied deadly force with a firearm in just 0.003 percent of arrests. To prevent more destruction and anarchy, the debate needs to be grounded in data rather than hyperbole.

While President Trump rails against mail-in voting, many Republican election officials are expanding it anyway as well they should, argues RealClearPolitics A.B. Stoddard. For one thing, Trumps claim that vote-by-mail is rife with fraud is false: The conservative Heritage Foundation found only 204 cases of the fraudulent use of absentee ballots out of the 250 million ballots cast in the last 20 years. And mail-in voting can benefit Republicans in places like Florida, whose many senior citizens are a critical bloc of Trumps support and the most susceptible age group to COVID-19. Even though many Republicans back the change, though, any effort to scale up mail-in voting will be difficult especially without pressure from Trump and the Republican National Committee.

Reasons Matt Welch rolls his eyes at the The New York Times, supposedly the serious journalistic institution in the United States, which published an article claiming its own employees were scared that a Times op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) would threaten their very lives. Such a claim just shows how many in the media are noisily abandoning liberalism: Even outlets that once waved the flag of provocative viewpoint-diversity have long since become barely distinguishable enforcers of a joyless orthodoxy. If an editor dares to commit the sin of expressing a Wrongthink or publishing a Deplorable, he or she now has to make a full public confession or a cowed explanation. If that cramped cowardice is the future of journalism, warns Welch, journalism has no future.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has been telling protesters things they dont want to hear, applauds National Reviews Jim Geraghty: Theyre risking their lives by gathering in large numbers during the pandemic, and their violence and looting are tainting the cause they claim to stand for. Many elected leaders who keep insisting they stand with the protesters and support them are playing along with the fantasy that the protests are somehow less dangerous than other gatherings, even when we have direct evidence to the contrary. Geraghty wonders: Do our leaders really love the protesters, as they claim? If you love someone, after all, you do as Bottoms is doing: Tell him the truth especially when he doesnt want to hear it.

Mars is within reach, cheers Kevin Mooney at the Washington Examiner, and its thanks in no small part to the public-private partnership between NASA and SpaceX. The successful launch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and docking at the International Space Station mark a turning point. As aerospace engineer Robert Zubrin, who founded the Mars Society, explains in his book The Case for Space, breakthroughs in rocketry are opening new avenues for the commercialization of space and manned missions leading to the colonization of the Red Planet. Zubrin believes we can establish our first small outpost on Mars within a decade. Thats optimistic, concedes Mooney. But over the past days, the case for space has suddenly become more compelling, exciting and believable than since the Apollo program which was a while ago.

Compiled by Karl Salzmann & Adam Brodsky

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Toxic narrative on cops is false and other commentary - New York Post

Theyre throwing a lot at us lately almost too much to know what to make of it or how to deal with it. Were dealing with fear and worry over the coronavirus; elation and excitement with the SpaceX launch; and more recently, despair and disappointment with the police killing of a black man in Minneapolis and the reaction of protest and rioting.

The protests should have been expected. They are a protected and legitimate avenue to join others in addressing grievances and demanding change. But their cause is considerably weakened when the protests turned into rioting, vandalism, arson and looting. One bright spot was the attempt by some of the protesters to try to prevent some of the illegal activity and in one case even form a barricade around a business to curtail the looting. The governors and mayors of the hardest hit areas are blaming, without proof, non-local extremists for the worst of the incidents.

Then there is the extremist in the White House, who asked the governors to crack down hard on the protesters, but has been sadly lacking in any leadership role, like trying to bring the nation together during a volatile time.

The most bizarre image was the presidents meaningless, ridiculous stroll from the White House to St. Johns Episcopal Church on Monday, surrounded by security, after the streets had been cleared by police. He stood in front of the church, held up a Bible and gave a short speech before posing for photos with some White House officials. Not sure what the purpose of that was.

Regardless of the outcome, most of the damage has been done to our comfortable assurance that we are making so much progress in race relations. We may think weve come a long way, but recent events havent proven that to be the case. Its hard to imagine that after years of similar incidents, followed by this can never happen again, extensive training and education by law enforcement, it does happen again. No doubt, this is not the last time we will see a similar incident, followed by rage and protests. You have to wonder what it will take to bring about meaningful change.

These painful incidents of peaceful protests getting out of hand, of the threat of military intervention and a vacuum at the leadership position, is only compounded by the late and uneven response to the coronavirus pandemic. Its hard to imagine that this previously unknown virus has managed to kill more than 100,000 of us, and were still struggling to find ways to effectively deal with it until a vaccine is developed.

In the middle of all this we got a temporary lift. At any other time, a successful launch of a private/public mission to the International Space Station would be an uplifting event, a positive step in our quest to advance science and reach beyond the bounds of Earth. One of the commentators at the liftoff called it a triumph over fear when we need it. Its possible that we could have found a cheaper triumph over fear than this overall $2.5 billion project. And our reaction to the pandemic is probably more like a determination to deal with it effectively and contain it before a predicted return in the fall.

The money spent on our revived space program, supposedly designed to return to the moon do we really need another moon trip? or to explore other planets, could be better spent on exploring solutions to some of our problems here on the ground.

Some that come to mind are ensuring that all our citizens have enough to eat; have affordable and safe housing; that all of us rich or poor, of whatever age have access to the best medical care available; that our children have equal access to education; that our seniors are not warehoused in inadequate nursing homes; that we are prepared medically for the next pandemic; that our bridges, roads, tunnels, dams, railroads, utilities and whatever else is considered infrastructure, are safe and maintained on a regular basis.

Thats probably a short list. But a lot of this could be accomplished by trading the money spent on one or more whiz-bang space shots for some down-to-earth fixes. In place of colonizing Mars we could work on colonizing our planet with some vision, hope and leadership.

Bill Pritchard, who worked in community journalism for 40 years, writes from Frederick. Reach him at billpritchard.1@gmail.com

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Dealing with a wild swing of emotions | Columns - Frederick News Post

Mars is within reach of Americas manned space program, thanks in no small part to the public-private partnership between NASA and SpaceX that was on display this weekend.

In fact, the founder and president of a nonprofit group devoted to the exploration and settlement of the Red Planet is convinced that a manned mission could take place much sooner than is commonly thought.

An aerospace engineer by trade, Robert Zubrin has gained notoriety by urging mission planners to embrace a vision for interplanetary travel that makes it possible for NASA to lighten the load through space by exploiting the natural resources available on Mars. Zubrin founded the Colorado-based Mars Society in 1998 for the purpose of galvanizing public interest in establishing a permanent human presence on the planet.

The successful launch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule from the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, and its subsequent docking with the International Space Station about 19 hours later, marks a critical turning point in the American space program for sure. (The video for the SpaceX docking with the space station is available here.)

As Zubrin makes clear in his latest book, recent breakthroughs in rocket technology are opening up new avenues for the commercialization of space and for manned missions to the moon and Mars in the not-too-distant future.

The Case for Space: How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens Up a Future of Limitless Possibility is, in some respects, as much about economics as it is about space. Zubrin credits Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, for the role he has played in engineering reusable rockets that can open the way to affordable, routine access to space. In his book, Zubrin describes SpaceX as the most remarkable aerospace company ever. He also discusses the technological and bureaucratic impediments that have prevented space launches from becoming more economical up until now.

The central institutional impediment to space progress is the system of cost-plus contracting the government has put into place in the very foolish belief that the price of hardware could best be kept under control by regulating contractors to charge their documented costs plus a modest set profit rate, Zubrin said. The private sector is needed, he argues, to create the right set of incentives. In the free enterprise world, manufacturers increase profit by cutting costs, he tells readers. In the cost-plus contractor world, manufacturers increase profit by increasing costs.

With the United States now back in the launch business, there is ample room for private entrepreneurs to step in with more advanced reusable space vehicles that will continue to lower the cost of entering space.

So, what about the future?

Zubrin is a proponent of what he calls a Mars Direct strategy for space travel he first outlined in 1989 that relies on relatively small spacecraft that can be launched directly from Earth to Mars. His plan has become even more feasible in recent years with the development of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy booster and the discovery of large quantities of water on Mars.

Instead of lugging fuel supplies through space in large, cumbersome vehicles, Zubrin would make use of the carbon dioxide, water, and other key ingredients already available in substantial supplies in the Martian atmosphere and environment to create the fuel needed for the return voyage. Thats the short version of how such a strategy would be executed.

Zubrin goes into detail about what kind of payload would be included in the Earth return vehicle and how the chemical process creating the fuel would work. He anticipates that the astronauts would explore the surface for 1.5 years before returning home. But the ultimate goal is to colonize Mars permanently. The raw materials available on the planet suggest this is an achievable goal. Zubrin points to experiments that show plants can grow in greenhouses with CO2 at Martian pressures to suggest that enough food could be produced to sustain human populations.

Mars is endowed with all the resources needed to support not only life but the development of a technological civilization, Zubrin writes. "Mars can be settled. For our generation and many that will follow, Mars is the New World.

Back on the space station, NASA officials view extended stays as a primer for missions to Mars. How long astronauts must remain in space depends on where Earth and Mars are in orbit when a mission is launched and on the power of the propulsion system. NASA documents estimate the trip could take as long as nine months.

But with SpaceX in mind, Zubrin entertains scenarios where the trip could be shorter.

Exploring Mars requires no miraculous new technologies, no orbiting spaceports and no gigantic interplanetary space cruisers, he writes. We can establish our first small outpost on Mars within a decade.

Thats optimistic, but the past few days demonstrate that the case for space has suddenly become more compelling, exciting, and believable than it has been at any other time since the Apollo program. That was a while ago.

Kevin Mooney (@KevinMooneyDC) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. He is an investigative reporter in Washington, D.C., who writes for several national publications.

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Rejuvenated space program puts Mars within reach - Washington Examiner

After decades of the U.S. government successfully leading the nation's space aspirations and activities, why go private?There are really two reasons for launching astronauts commercially. One, it saves money. Two, it lets NASA focus on bigger things. Much bigger things. NASA wants to head to the moon and Mars, and, by the way, so does SpaceX. Let's look at the possibility of getting to the moon in four years.You couldn't blame Christina Koch for asking directions. After all, she hadn't been on Earth for almost a year -- 328 days, to be exact. Her record-breaking flight, ending in February, is counted as another step toward NASA's goal of returning to the moon to stay, and moving on to Mars. That's the real purpose of the space station, which has been occupied for about 20 years now. This is how the human species is learning to live off the planet, and this is how the United States will get them there. It's called the Space Launch System, or SLS.Its unprecedented power and capabilities will send American astronauts farther than ever before. It's the largest rocket ever built by the agency and a monumental engineering feat in its own right, said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine.It is a testament to American ingenuity with small and large businesses in 44 states contributing to its design and assembly. The SLS is in fact America's rocket.It is 21 stories tall and fitted with four engines harvested from the old space shuttles. The SLS first stage will be equipped with booster rockets modified from space shuttle days. It'll be topped with a brand-new Orion spacecraft for trips to the moon and, someday, Mars. It will launch from a former space shuttle launch pad, 39B, where the breaking dawn was recently shattered by a rumble of a different kind.The water deluge is a test of the system that absorbs the powerful sound waves of a launching rocket so they don't damage the rocket on the way up. Just this month, NASA has declared the launch pad complete and ready for flights to the moon. Even the swing-arms on the launch tower have been tested.The first SLS rocket is at a NASA center in Mississippi for a test of its rocket engines. After that, it will come to Kennedy Space Center for a test flight, without astronauts, next year. When astronauts do fly, they'll head for a mini space station NASA wants to build near the moon. From there, they'll board one of two landers that are on the drawing boards now. One would be a tall, three-stage affair, dwarfing the Apollo 11 landers. Another would be more low-slung, allowing the astronauts to easily step out, closer to the ground. Teams designing and building these landers were spun up in just six months, a quarter of the time it would normally take. The Trump Administration is promising so much money to get them finished on time that even the NASA administrator can't believe it.One of the most noteworthy features of the 2021 fiscal budget this is crazy one of the most noteworthy features of the 2021 fiscal budget, is the $3.3 billion President Trump has directed for the human landing system, Bridenstine said.But the five-year moon-landing plan announced last year is already bogging down. Congress did not fully fund it last fall, and the coronavirus crisis has stopped work on the SLS, delaying its first launch. But the Administration is suggesting it will have no patience with problems like these; it is holding fast to the timeline, which now shows only four years until boots on the moon.Let me be clear. The president's made it clear that we're going to accomplish this goal by any means necessary. In order to succeed, we are going to focus on the mission over the means. In four years' time, we return astronauts to the moon and make sure that the next man and the first woman on the moon are Americans. Our administration is absolutely committed to this goal, Vice President Mike Pence said.That could open the door for guess who? SpaceX is not only about to try to become the first in nine years to fly astronauts from the Space Coast; it wants a piece of the moon and Mars business, too. SpaceX's proposal for a moon lander would be to fly its planned Starship all the way from the Earth to the moon, with no expensive space station needed along the way. The company is building Starships in Texas, and has built Starship parts or prototypes in Cocoa, in Brevard County. SpaceX could even attempt a mission to the moon and Mars by itself, as a private concern.I think we should do our best to become a multi-planet species and to extend consciousness beyond Earth, and we should do it now, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said.Musk is using all the billions he's pocketing from NASA to build his gigantic Starships. The Starship would be the most ambitious space vehicle ever built, far outdistancing anything NASA has done. A hundred people could fly and live on a Starship, he says, and the fuel and supplies they'd need could be rapidly supplied by multiple launches of its first stage, the Falcon Super Heavy.You could fly the booster 20 times a day; you could fly the ship three times a day. That's what I mean by rapid reusability, Musk said.And that's the real purpose of SpaceX. The upstart, visionary company has come out of nowhere to beat the aerospace giants, and become the organization that returns astronaut launches to American soil. But its plans are much bigger than that. Starships are intended not only to fly to Mars, but to colonize it something that has never been possible in all of human history, until right now.The window has been opened. Only now, after 4.5 billion years, has that window opened. That's a long time to wait, and it might not stay open for long. I think we should do our best to become a multi-planet species and to extend consciousness beyond Earth, and we should do it now, Musk said.

After decades of the U.S. government successfully leading the nation's space aspirations and activities, why go private?

There are really two reasons for launching astronauts commercially.

One, it saves money.

Two, it lets NASA focus on bigger things.

Much bigger things.

NASA wants to head to the moon and Mars, and, by the way, so does SpaceX.

Let's look at the possibility of getting to the moon in four years.

You couldn't blame Christina Koch for asking directions. After all, she hadn't been on Earth for almost a year -- 328 days, to be exact.

Her record-breaking flight, ending in February, is counted as another step toward NASA's goal of returning to the moon to stay, and moving on to Mars.

That's the real purpose of the space station, which has been occupied for about 20 years now.

This is how the human species is learning to live off the planet, and this is how the United States will get them there. It's called the Space Launch System, or SLS.

Its unprecedented power and capabilities will send American astronauts farther than ever before. It's the largest rocket ever built by the agency and a monumental engineering feat in its own right, said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine.

It is a testament to American ingenuity with small and large businesses in 44 states contributing to its design and assembly. The SLS is in fact America's rocket.

It is 21 stories tall and fitted with four engines harvested from the old space shuttles. The SLS first stage will be equipped with booster rockets modified from space shuttle days. It'll be topped with a brand-new Orion spacecraft for trips to the moon and, someday, Mars. It will launch from a former space shuttle launch pad, 39B, where the breaking dawn was recently shattered by a rumble of a different kind.

The water deluge is a test of the system that absorbs the powerful sound waves of a launching rocket so they don't damage the rocket on the way up.

Just this month, NASA has declared the launch pad complete and ready for flights to the moon.

Even the swing-arms on the launch tower have been tested.

The first SLS rocket is at a NASA center in Mississippi for a test of its rocket engines. After that, it will come to Kennedy Space Center for a test flight, without astronauts, next year.

When astronauts do fly, they'll head for a mini space station NASA wants to build near the moon. From there, they'll board one of two landers that are on the drawing boards now. One would be a tall, three-stage affair, dwarfing the Apollo 11 landers. Another would be more low-slung, allowing the astronauts to easily step out, closer to the ground.

Teams designing and building these landers were spun up in just six months, a quarter of the time it would normally take.

The Trump Administration is promising so much money to get them finished on time that even the NASA administrator can't believe it.

One of the most noteworthy features of the 2021 fiscal budget this is crazy one of the most noteworthy features of the 2021 fiscal budget, is the $3.3 billion President Trump has directed for the human landing system, Bridenstine said.

But the five-year moon-landing plan announced last year is already bogging down. Congress did not fully fund it last fall, and the coronavirus crisis has stopped work on the SLS, delaying its first launch. But the Administration is suggesting it will have no patience with problems like these; it is holding fast to the timeline, which now shows only four years until boots on the moon.

Let me be clear. The president's made it clear that we're going to accomplish this goal by any means necessary. In order to succeed, we are going to focus on the mission over the means. In four years' time, we return astronauts to the moon and make sure that the next man and the first woman on the moon are Americans. Our administration is absolutely committed to this goal, Vice President Mike Pence said.

That could open the door for guess who?

SpaceX is not only about to try to become the first in nine years to fly astronauts from the Space Coast; it wants a piece of the moon and Mars business, too.

SpaceX's proposal for a moon lander would be to fly its planned Starship all the way from the Earth to the moon, with no expensive space station needed along the way.

The company is building Starships in Texas, and has built Starship parts or prototypes in Cocoa, in Brevard County.

SpaceX could even attempt a mission to the moon and Mars by itself, as a private concern.

I think we should do our best to become a multi-planet species and to extend consciousness beyond Earth, and we should do it now, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said.

Musk is using all the billions he's pocketing from NASA to build his gigantic Starships.

The Starship would be the most ambitious space vehicle ever built, far outdistancing anything NASA has done.

A hundred people could fly and live on a Starship, he says, and the fuel and supplies they'd need could be rapidly supplied by multiple launches of its first stage, the Falcon Super Heavy.

You could fly the booster 20 times a day; you could fly the ship three times a day. That's what I mean by rapid reusability, Musk said.

And that's the real purpose of SpaceX. The upstart, visionary company has come out of nowhere to beat the aerospace giants, and become the organization that returns astronaut launches to American soil.

But its plans are much bigger than that.

Starships are intended not only to fly to Mars, but to colonize it something that has never been possible in all of human history, until right now.

The window has been opened. Only now, after 4.5 billion years, has that window opened. That's a long time to wait, and it might not stay open for long. I think we should do our best to become a multi-planet species and to extend consciousness beyond Earth, and we should do it now, Musk said.

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The moon, Mars and the next frontier for space exploration - WESH 2 Orlando

RUSH: Here is Trey in Fort Worth, Texas. Great to have you with us, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Its such an honor and privilege to talk to you, and mega dittos, thoughts and prayers from Texas.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: Yesterday you mentioned colonizing Mars to escape climate change, and that made me think of something. When this corona stay-at-home order had been put in place, after a couple of weeks we started to see how pristine the Earth had become. Well, I thought that we had passed the point of no return. It seems to me like the planet recovered in a couple of weeks. So does that mean we dont have to colonize Mars now?

RUSH: You know, its a great observation youre making out there. Im very flattered at the way youre thinking. Because, you know, one of the most vibrant conspiracy theories out there, Trey, is that the coronavirus is the product of a bunch of mad scientist-type rich guys who think there are too many people on Earth, and that thats causing climate change, and they need to thin the herd.

Like, get rid of a couple billion people and the conspiracy theory is the coronavirus was designed to do that. I dont subscribe to that. Im just reporting it to you. The joke was that this is SpaceX launch, and it was supposed to go yesterday but didnt because of bad weather, and I pointed out that this is not just a John Glenn suborbital flight.

These guys are actually gonna go into orbit. For the first time in 10 years, America has launched astronauts into orbits and then I jokingly said, And theyre not gonna stop there. Theyre gonna head on to Mars, colonize it, and come back and get the rest of us, just to see how many people might believe me.

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Do We Still Have to Colonize Mars? - RushLimbaugh.com

Hoverboards never really made it out of Back to the Future Part II.

By now, we should all be riding hoverboards (the real ones, not the impostors with wheels) around town. We should have flying cars parked in our garages and the ability to just teleport when we need to get somewhere in a hurry.

At least, these are all things science fiction movies and novels from the previous century (and a handful of bold inventors) promised would be our reality. According to them, by 2020, our lives should be so technologically advanced that just about every surface we touch is digitized, including our coffee tables.

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Alas (or perhaps for the best), that hasn't been the case. Sure, tech is ingrained in just about everything we do, from how we communicate to the ways we get around. Cars are much more advanced than they were even 10 years ago, with the advent of partially automated systems like Tesla's Autopilot and General Motors' Super Cruise, but they're certainly nowhere near flying. Heck, who knows when we'll even own actual self-driving cars, let alone flying ones.

There are countless futuristic gadgets and advancements that Hollywood and big dreamers alike have enthusiastically touted, but which never came to fruition or were quickly reduced to collector's items. Here are some notable examples.

You can't call it a hoverboard if it doesn't hover, right? Or so you'd think. While several companies have sold self-balancing scooters with wheels labeled as hoverboards, we never got truly levitating boards as seen in Back to the Future Part II.

The wheel-equipped iterations were once a hot commodity before they began literally bursting into flames, though you do still see them around. Electric scooters are what have really taken over city streets, despite safety concerns and complaints about them being littered all over sidewalks.

And then there's the Segway, which got plenty of hype during its launch in the early 2000s and was pegged as the trendiest new way to get around. It's since been reduced to a dorky staple for mall cops and tourists.

Today, Surface is known as a line of tablets and laptops by Microsoft, but it was once the name of a table-sized tablet created by the company.

With a price tag starting at more than $8,000, the giant tablet with legs, called the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface, was geared toward businesses and large organizations. It began shipping to customers in 2012, and was eventually rebranded as Microsoft PixelSense, but it never really took off and the project was soon killed.

Budget Firefox OS phones, such as Orange's Klif, weren't enough to sustain the alternative software.

Here's another innovation that saw the light of day but ultimately didn't last. Mozilla killed off its Firefox phones in 2016, just two and a half years after the first of those devices launched. The termination served as proof that it's virtually impossible to successfully compete against dominating forces Apple and Google. The phones join other once-promising handsets that have fallen from grace, such as the BlackBerry and Windows Phone.

That isn't a typo for Razr. One innovative company came up with the idea for a phone that doubles as an actual razor, for when you need to take that call but also really need to shave right now.

Tondemoketai China manufactured the phone, which featured a curved foil electric shaver head at the base. Not surprisingly, most people didn't find the need to own this multifunctional device, so we've had to resort to phones that can't be used for grooming. What a loss.

People are always looking for ways to tinker with our eating habits, and they should stop because food is awesome. Anyway, futurists have long floated the idea of creating a single pill containing all the nutrients you'd need in a day. Thankfully, that pill hasn't been invented, so we have no choice but to continue chowing down.

Ah, the sci-fi staple. What if you could go forward or backward in time to mend a relationship or get a second chance at a golden opportunity? The concept of time travel was popularized by HG Wells' novel The Time Machine, and has since been referenced in countless books and movies like A Wrinkle in Timeand Back to the Future. Unfortunately, this is an unrealistic concept that will have to live on solely in our imaginations. Perhaps it's for the best.

We may never see flying cars like this, but urban air taxis are starting to take flight.

If vehicles can't take you forward or backward in time, could they at least help you take to the skies more efficiently? Sure, we have planes, but going to the airport is such a hassle, and most of us aren't millionaires with private jets that we can just hop on when we please.

Flying cars would help solve that problem, and would allow us to dodge traffic on the roads -- though we'd need to figure out how to manage traffic in the sky, if we're all flying. But we're getting ahead of ourselves, because we probably won't be seeing these contraptions anytime soon. Still, urban air taxis from the likes of Uber are inching toward becoming more mainstream, so we at least have that to hope for.

When it comes to efficient travel, it doesn't get better than teleporting. Imagine if we had transporters like in Star Trek. We'd never have to worry about transit delays or traffic. Instead, we could just be sent anywhere instantly.

It's fun to dream of such a scenario, but the laws of physics don't paint such an optimistic picture. If you'd like to remain in one piece, perhaps it's in your best interest to just use conventional transportation.

Humans have long dreamed of colonizing Mars, but we have yet to even set foot on the red planet. Despite all the challenges associated with creating a human settlement there, such as radiation exposure and cold temperatures, a handful of nations and space agencies are aiming to create inhabitable colonies in the next century.

Another classic sci-fi device, shrink rays would be helpful for honestly who knows, but it would definitely be fun to make things tiny. Just think of all the adventures (and turmoil) in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Ant-Man and Downsizing. The trouble is science won't really allow it, since atoms can't shrink. We'll just have to rely on Hollywood special effects for this one.

Wouldn't this be nice?

I'd argue that the best invention is one that will put away your laundry and clean your house. Unfortunately, there hasn't been a real-life equivalent ofRosey the wise-cracking robot maid from The Jetsons, thoughsmart home technologieslike theAmazon EchoandGoogle Nest Hubdo try to simplify certain tasks. We also haverobot vacuums,therapy robotsand one thatbrings you toilet paper, but we've yet to see anything that's a packaged deal.

In the 1930s, inventor WGH Finch created a device allowing people to not just hear the news, but also get a printout of the day's top stories from home. The device, essentially an early iteration of the fax machine, used radio transmission to send the newspaper to the machine for printout. You'd eventually have the top stories in your hands -- as long as you had a few hours to spare. I'm gonna say this one doesn't feel like a major loss, though it helped pave the way for future inventions like the color fax machine.

Yeah, I'm not exactly sure when this will become a mainstream reality, but unlike other inventions listed here, it'll likely happen in the near future, given several companies are continuously developing their autonomous driving technologies. 5G could also play a critical role in allowing self-driving cars to communicate wirelessly with each other, ultimately making commutes safer. We're going to sit tight until they've officially worked out all the kinks.

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This tech had us dreaming big. Then it flopped spectacularly - CNET

LOS ANGELES, CA, June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE US Nuclear Corp. (OTC: UCLE) announces that NASA has just released Artemis Accords - Guidelines For Humans to Abide by in Space which also covers protection of the astronauts basic infrastructure, including their major assets: spaceships and the Moon and Mars base power plants. Ideally, these will all be fusion powered.

NASA and the new US Space Force need a clean, high-powered, compact, and safe energy source for spacecraft propulsion and to establish operations on the Moon and colonizing Mars. Since there is little spare oxygen on space ships, the Moon, and Mars, most conventional energy sources (such as fossil fuels) will not burn and are not useful. Nuclear fission is not safe, and solar cells do not generate adequate power.

That leaves fusion energy as the most desirable energy source because it is safe, it is the most powerful energy source known, and it is not subject to runaway meltdown like fission reactors.

US Nuclear has strong confidence in a new type of fusion energy being developed by our partners, Magneto Inertial Fusion Technologies, Inc. (MIFTI) and MIFTEC Laboratories, Inc. Last year, MIFTIs Z-Pinch system demonstrated its capabilities when it achieved a major milestone at the University of Nevada, Reno National 1 million ampere, Terawatt Facility. MIFTI broke all records and repeatedly generated over 10 billion neutrons from each pulse of their stage Z-Pinch fusion generator.

There is only one measure of success or failure in fusion: the production of neutrons. Not just extreme temperatures which many have previously accomplished, but actual neutrons that contain the exceptionally powerful energy that is produced in our sun and all the stars. MIFTI is poised to build compact fusion generators that could be a reality in under 5 years. Results were so compelling that MIFTI quickly moved forward with the detailed design plans for their new 10 million ampere machine, projected to deliver 1,000 trillion neutrons per pulse, which may be enough to power hypervelocity space ships, and to provide all the power that is needed to build colonies on the Moon and on Mars.

Safe Harbor Act

This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ from expectations, estimates and projections and, consequently, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Words such as "expect," "estimate," "project," "budget," "forecast," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "may," "will," "could," "should," "believes," "predicts," "potential," "continue," and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the expected results.

Investors may find additional information regarding US Nuclear Corp. at the SEC website at http://www.sec.gov, or the companys website at http://www.usnuclearcorp.com.

CONTACT:US Nuclear Corp. (OTC: UCLE)Robert I. Goldstein, President, CEO, and ChairmanRachel Boulds, Chief Financial Officer(818) 883 7043Email: info@usnuclearcorp.com

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NASA and US Space Force Are Considering Fusion Energy to Power Our Moon and Mars Bases and Ships That Will Take US Into Space - GlobeNewswire

Editors note: Four NAU students were selected for the National Science Foundations Graduate Research Fellowship Program. NAU News will profile them over the coming weeks.

Meltwater springs in Antarctica may contain the best Earth-bound answers for life on Mars. As to what that answer iswell, Schuyler Borges is looking for it.

Borges, a doctoral student in the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science at Northern Arizona University, is leading a project comparing rock coating structures in Antarctica that look similar to structures in hot springs all over the world and are comparable to features on Mars. Researchers have argued that the Martian features may be evidence for life on the Red Planet since microorganisms facilitate the production of similar hot spring structures on Earth.

I think its pretty cool work because it shows we are still trying to understand the relationship between biology and geology on Earth and whether relationships between the two indicate anything about potential life on other planets, Borges said.

This project got a huge boost in April when Borges received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP), a program designed to support graduate students research in STEM disciplines. They are one of four NAU graduate students selected for the GRFP this year.

Borges came to NAU for graduate school after reaching out to professors Mark Salvatore and Christopher Edwards, both of whom are participating scientists on NASAs Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover. They didnt go to college with the plan of grad school, though; Borges spent a summer doing Martian research with several women in STEM fields who encouraged them to go to grad school, suggesting Salvatore and Edwards as initial contacts.

Two years later, here they are.

Schuyler is one of the hardest working students I know, said Salvatore, now Borges mentor.They are enthusiastic and always eager to take on new challenges.Im perhaps most impressed by Schuylers willingness to step out of their comfort zone and to work with experts in different fields.They are quick to recognize the applicability of their work to a wide range of other scientific topics and to collaborate with folks who they think might benefit from our work.

Borges is working on two major research projects. Their dissertation work focuses on using Antarctic life to understand how to identify life on cold, rocky planets, including Mars but also exoplanets with a similar geologic makeup. Last year, they went to Antarctica with Salvatore to study how communities of microbial organisms that live in glacier-fed streams can be detected from spaceno small feat, given the size of microbes.

They used satellite imagery to differentiate between the communities and remotely detect them from orbit, which is uniquely possible in Antarctica. Other parts of the world have too much vegetation to make such research possible. This enables scientists to test the efficacy of tools and processes on Earth before applying them to other planets.

The environment in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica is similar to Mars as it is really dry, exposed to lots of UV radiation and is extremely cold, Borges said. The life that exists in Antarctica are some of the most extreme organisms on Earth. This makes them good candidates for potential life that could exist on other planets.

In addition to Borges work with Salvatore, they are collaborating with astrobiologist Tyler Robinson, an assistant professor in the department. His work focuses on finding life on exoplanets, which orbit stars outside of our solar system.

But, as interesting as that research is, its not all Borges is doing at NAU, nor is it what caught the NSFs attention. The research into rock coating structures, which they discovered in Antarctica with Salvatore, focuses on understanding the biogeochemical formation of these Antarctic structures and comparing them with those found at hot springs throughout the world.

This work has implications for the field of geobiology as well as astrobiology because if these Antarctic structures are forming the same way as those in hot springs, they will be the first of their kind to be identified in a cold, non-hydrothermal environment on Earth, they said. This would indicate that we dont entirely know everything about the environment, both biological and abiological, that favors the existence and preservation of these structures on Earth.

Its not just that. So far, these types of structures have been interpreted to be present within a Martian hot spring. If the Antarctic structures form the same as others in hot springs, a cold environmental analog for the features found on Mars would be discovered. This work could mean that, in addition to hot springs, cold environments could be habitable for life and potentially form these structures on Mars.

Or, Borges could find that the Antarctic features arent associated with life, in which case they argue the Antarctic structures are a false positive analog for life on Mars. As such, they would change the conversation about the potential for life on Earths nearest neighbor.

Their first semester at NAU, Borges enrolled in Robinsons Writing a Fellowship Proposal course. Its Robinsons fourth year teaching it, and three of his students have received the GRFP and two have received honorable mentions. Both the course material and the feedback they got from classmates helped Borges as they applied for the fellowship, which is a drawn-out, labor intensive process.

Despite that, Borges enjoyed the processsort of.

Youre devoting a ridiculous amount of time to these proposals that are so selective youre like, This is a waste of time because theres no way Im going to get this. But youre also spending a lot of time showing yourself how far youve come and what huge things youve already accomplished as youre developing and owning your dissertation, they said. The GRFP is challenging to write because you have to spend a significant portion of the proposal writing about yourself and how youve overcome obstacles that make you uniquely qualified to conduct the research youre proposing.

While many grant applications focus primarily on the research, only asking the researchers about their qualifications to do that research, the GRFP focuses on the researcher, asking for a three-page personal statement and only a two-page research statement. Writing the personal statement was empowering, even cathartic, Borges said. Theyd spent several months prior struggling through a number of challenges, and writing, editing and rewriting that personal statement was a regular reminder of how resilient they were and just how much they were accomplishing every day.

It also required them to briefly but fully explain their research, which is great practice for writing a prospectus, a necessary part of every doctorate. Being able to concisely explain their research is a critical skill, and Borges was grateful for the opportunity to do so.

Because of the skills gained just from applying, Borges recommended every grad student apply for a fellowship, even those who think getting it is a long shot. They offered some advice as well.

Start planning early. This allows applicants to become familiar with the proposal and good proposal writing, as well as plenty of time to revise, rewrite and seek help and feedback.

Attend mock review panels. Professors and graduate students from the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science volunteer as grant readers to simulate the fellowship review process for applicants, including inviting students to sit in on the mock review panels themselves. This experience helped Borges to see trends in proposals and identify strengths and weaknesses in their and others work.

Talk with professors about the proposal review process. Many professors have served on proposal review committees and can explain how the process works and what types of proposals get funded. Students also can ask for samples of successful proposals as a guide.

Seek out and incorporate as much feedback as possible. Committee members may respond differently to data presentation, proposal structure and explanations. Proposals where most of the committee agrees that the applicant successfully addresses important questions are more likely to get funded. Thus, asking for as much feedback from a diverse group, and incorporating that feedback, significantly helps.

Borges is fascinated with Mars, but they have another, concurrent plan for their future in science: making it a more open and encouraging field for diverse groups. After facing gender discrimination, they set a goal to continually discuss social inequities within STEM and work to overcome those for current and future scientists.

Scientists often think we dont need to be talking or focusing on social issues because thats unrelated to the subjects we teach or the work we do, and thats fundamentally untrue, they said. The science we teach is taught from a colonized lens, and we often neglect to mention any of the contributions people of color have made to our fields.

I want to be able to create safe STEM learning environments and be a face of change in academia by supporting the success of those with marginalized identities, Borges said. Also, as a queer person, I havent had very many people to look up to in science, as my gender identity is often excluded in women in [insert STEM field here] spaces. I want to be a voice and advocate for LGBTQ+ people in STEM and create systemic changes to enable those least privileged within our community to be able to become the doctors, health care providers and researchers we so desperately need for our community.

In addition to that advocacy, Borges would like to do a postdoc at NASA and eventually become a professor, but theyre open to different possibilities when that time comes. Right now, the focus is on research. The GRFP offers researchers a lot of flexibility in their work; while most grants have a specific timeline in which investigators have to get results, this one allows researchers who face major obstacleslike, say, a global pandemic that upsets travel, education and many of the factors that go into researchto adjust their projects and go in a new direction as needed. It also allows them to search for more answers beyond the initial research questions.

Borges isnt there yet, but its nice to have the option.

This flexibility is quite nice, as this is often not the case for others whose funding goes toward the project and not the scientist, they said. In other instances, your research path is more laid out for you, and you dont always get to be able to influence it as easily.

Learn more about Borges work at their blog.

Heidi Toth | NAU Communications(928) 523-8737 | heidi.toth@nau.edu

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With prestigious NSF fellowship, NAU grad student tackling the question of life on Mars by way of Antarctica - NAU News

Iwas disappointed on Wednesday when the Falcon 9 rocket launch was postponed. This was to be the first time since the last space shuttle launch in 2011 that the U.S. would be sending astronauts to the international Space Station (ISS) in our own rocket.

I spent about an hour watching the NASA TV program on the launch that didnt make it.I can understand why, I was also watching the weather at Cape Canaveral and it was stormy.In my wonderful hindsight, I would have scrubbed it much earlier.

At least this was some news besides the COVID-19 virus news.

I was surprised that the astronauts were loaded and ready to fly before the rocket was fueled. From a safety standpoint, it seems reasonable.

If the fuel was already on board before they started to load and there was a fire, they would not stand a chance. When they are already on board and if there would be a fire, they have a rocket to carry them out of harms way with a parachute to lower them back to the ground.

Ill be watching again today when there is another opportunity to launch.

I thought there would be a window of time for the launch, but they claim that it has to be very precise to launch at the correct time to catch up with the ISS.

Another privately-funded space project was a failure this past week.

Virgin Orbit attempted to send a rocket into orbit after it was launched from a 747 airplane.

It seemed like a good idea to me, since it would already be traveling in excess of 400 mph and be above most of the atmosphere when it is deployed.

Orbit is a 70-foot-long rocket mounted on a pylon under the wing of the Boeing 747.

It was pointed up at about 27 degrees when it was released out over the Pacific Ocean.

Unfortunately, it suffered an anomaly, which means they dont know why at this point that it failed. Evidently Richard Branson has deep pockets, since they have six other Orbits on the assembly line.

The Perseverance Rover, which is scheduled to start to Mars on July 17, has arrived at Cape Canaveral aboard a Ukrainian cargo plane called Antonov An-124.

The An-124 is a big plane with 20 percent more cargo space than our C-5a.

The rover is a very sophisticated machine. It has a helicopter to look for sites to investigate. The rover will also collect rock samples and package them in cigar-sized cylinders to be returned to earth.

Perseverance is a rather big wheeled vehicle weighing in at 2,260 pounds. It has 23 cameras and two microphones. It will use a radioactive heat source made of 11 pounds of plutonium dioxide which will be used to generate electricity to power the instruments.

The helicopter will have solar cells for power.

One of the experiments planned will be to produce oxygen from the sparse amount of carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere. Of course, the oxygen would be needed if we try to colonize Mars. They hope to use a ground penetrating radar to look for subsurface water, also.

The scheduled date for arrival on Mars is Feb. 18, 2021.

Don Lee, a pilot flying out of Lawrence County Airport since 1970, has been in charge of equipment and grounds maintenance for several years. He can be reached at eelnod22@gmail.com

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Failure to launch, another rover set to explore the red planet - The Tribune - Ironton Tribune