Mars's topics - tribe.net

Son of Battlestar Galactica

jason_s — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:08:24 GMT

Looks like NASA is reviving the basic battlestar design that didn't work 18 years ago:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7116834.stm

But it looks like they will be using some Mars Direct ideas, but no mention of producing return fuel on the surface.

So, Galactica Lite.

posted in Mars - 2 replies

colonization?

Sun, 05 Oct 2003 04:45:10 GMT

is colonization really a feasible option? where could i find information on this? (i looked at "case for mars" but there's so many files i don't know where to start)

posted in Mars - 27 replies

Mars Needs You!

Allen — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:42:29 GMT

Sign up to colonize NOW!

http://www.google.com/virgle/index.html

Naturally, a corporate effort has stepped forward before government...

posted in Mars - 1 reply

Amazing shot: CNN news - Man on mars

netnod — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:27:09 GMT

CNN's Anderson Cooper has the shot of the day -- an image that shows a figure resembling a man on Mars.

check the picture : http://www.alliedendeavours.com/curiosity/man_on_mars/Site/man_on_mars.html

posted in Mars - 2 replies

Onward to Mars: Photon Thruster

Allen — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:34:15 GMT

From: http://www.photonics.com/content/news/2007/September/7/88894.aspx

Thruster May Shorten Mars Trip

TUSTIN, Calif., Sept. 7, 2007 -- An amplified photon thruster that could potentially shorten the trip to Mars from six months to a week has reportedly attracted the attention of aerospace agencies and contractors.

Young Bae, founder of the Bae Institute in Tustin, Calif., first demonstrated his photonic laser thruster (PLT), which he built with off-the-shelf components, in December.

The demonstration produced a photon thrust of 35 µN and is scalable to achieve much greater thrust for future space missions, the institute said. Applications include highly precise satellite formation flying configurations for building large synthetic apertures in space for earth or space observation, precision contaminant-free spacecraft docking operations, and propelling spacecraft to unprecedented speeds -- faster than 100 km/sec.

“This is the tip of the iceberg," Bae said in a statement from the institute. "PLT has immense potential for the aerospace industry. For example, PLT-powered spacecraft could transit the 100 million km to Mars in less than a week.”

Bae founded the institute to develop space technologies and has pursued concepts such as photon, antimatter and fusion propulsion for more than 20 years at SRI International, Brookhaven National Lab and the Air Force Research Lab. He has a PhD in atomic and nuclear physics from UC Berkeley.

Several aerospace organizations have expressed interest in collaborating with the institute to further develop and integrate PLT into civilian, military and commercial space systems, Bae said, and he has recently been invited to present his work by NASA, JPL, DARPA and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

Franklin Mead, a senior aerospace engineer at AFRL, said in a Bae Institute statement that the PLT demonstration and measurement of photon thrust is "pretty incredible. I don’t think anyone has done this before. It has generated a lot of interest."
youngbae.gifYoung Bae, founder of the Bae Institute (Photo courtesy Bae Institute) The institute said Bae’s paper, “Photonic Laser Propulsion: Proof-of-Concept Demonstration,” was recently accepted for publication this year in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets. It documents how he overcame the inherent inefficiencies of traditional photon thrusters in generating thrust by amplification with the use of an innovative optical cavity concept.

"For decades, rocket scientists have tried to overcome the inefficiency of photon thrusters by amplification based on optical cavities separated from laser sources, but failed," the institute said. "In contrast, Bae’s PLT (patent pending) places the laser medium within a resonant optical cavity between two platforms to produce a very stable and reliable thrust that is unaffected by mirror movement and vibration -- ideal for spacecraft control or propulsion."

Bae will present at the AIAA SPACE 2007 Conference & Exposition, to be held Sept. 18-19 in Long Beach, at four sessions: Space Transportation Systems, Promising Space Concepts from the NASA Institute of Advanced Concepts (NIAC), Space Systems for the Next 50 Years, and Advanced Vehicle Systems.

The PLT research was partially funded by NIAC (NASA Institute of Advanced Concepts) as part of a spacecraft formation flight concept grant.

For more information, visit: www.baeinstitute.com

posted in Mars - 4 replies

Steve Fossett still MIA

Adam — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 05:46:22 GMT

So, still no sign of Steve Fossett. By this time I'm pretty sure he's dead. Odd thing, in the process of searching for his crash site they found 4 older crash sites.

Helluva way to go for a guy like Fossett.

posted in Mars - 0 replies

Phoenix Launch to Mars

slinted — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 10:41:08 GMT

NASA's Mars Phoenix mission launched successfully tonight, on its way to a landing site at Mars' north pole.

Here's some links to the mission webpages, for anyone wanting a little more info to chew on between now and the landing next May:

Main website: http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/index.php

Some beautiful video of what the mission will look like (from the same digi-gurus that made that incredible Mars Exploration Rover video) : http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/videos.php

imagery of the landing site
overview: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09944
landing ellipse: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09946
closeup of the surface: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09948

posted in Mars - 3 replies

New Company Sets Goal of Settling Mars

roger — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 02:54:04 GMT

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - All companies set goals, but newly formed 4Frontiers Corp. is eyeing some expansive horizons. The company's mission: to open a small human settlement on Mars within 20 years or so.
ADVERTISEMENT

Sure, it may sound far-fetched. And the company's initial plans are a lot more terrestrial than ethereal, like developing a 25,000-square-foot replica of a Mars settlement here on Earth, then charging tourists admission.

But the people behind the venture are quite serious — as serious as the $25 million they want to raise from investors.

http://www.marshome.org/

http://www.4frontiers.com/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050917/ap_on_bi_ge/red_planet_inc

posted in Mars - 10 replies

Nice Mars site

Arion — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 06:45:08 GMT

Just discovered a nice website about Mars. www.redcolony.com

posted in Mars - 0 replies

Best Pic Yet!!!

yoshispacebreaker — Sat, 23 Jul 2005 16:46:16 GMT

It's in the gallery, folks! I got this offa the APOD site a few days ago. They say it's WATER ice, and woah, there sure is a LOT of it! Logic would suggest that it wells up from below, perhaps from a aquifer. Hopefully, NASA will send probes there...

posted in Mars - 18 replies

Opportunity rover at Victoria Crater

slinted — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 02:45:57 GMT

Opportunity, the Mars Exploration Rover which began its life on Mars inside a 30 meter diameter crater and not long after visited a stunning 130 meter crater, is now nearing the rim of a 750 meter crater named Victoria. The trip has taken a year and a half to complete, spanning 7 kilometers of travel. Opportunity is currently 50 meters from the edge and has snapped it's first view of the upper rim.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20060922a.html

A full view into the crater should be forthcoming in the next few weeks. stay tuned...

posted in Mars - 9 replies

sci fi parables

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 03:48:14 GMT

What will the technology of the future really look like?
What will the civilizations of the future really look like?
What are our possible futures? The best and the worst
most likely outcomes?
Where are we headed? How might we get there?
How would we colonize our solar system in teh next 50 years? Nevermind how improbable that is or all of the things that won't let that happen politically. How would we colonize our Galaxy starting 100 years from
now whether or not we have faster than light propulsion? How could we get to the stars? Realistic
technology for realistic science fiction? I WANT MY SCIENCE FICTION TO BE BELIEVABLE!!!. (dangit)
So? how do we put the modern science back into science fiction? less
http://tribes.tribe.net/scifiparables
http://tribes.tribe.net/scifiparables#

posted in Mars - 3 replies

panspermia

earthmoverBrodie — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 08:41:11 GMT

does anyone in here have anything mckennesque to say about life from mars?
i've dreamed of marshrooms, spores buried in the ice on mars,
gypsy teleforming long ago on earth.
all i want is speculation, because the imagination holds more juice for me than any scientists speculation ;b

posted in Mars - 7 replies

Gemini 12 Arrives in Chicago...

chicagoastronomer — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 18:29:38 GMT

Fellow Astronomers and Space enthusiasts,

I recently had the grand opportunity to document the arrival of the
Gemini XII space capsule at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. A
bright morning found the capsule gleeming in the sunshine on a truck
bed as I arrived...and here was an actual piece of American history
presented right before me.

A full account of the event with detailed pictures can be found here
at the Chicago Astronomer:

http://astronomer.proboards23.com/index.cgi?board=geminixii

It is broken into three chronological threads for easier viewing.

As individuals of science and space exploration, I'm sure you will
enjoy this report.

Respectfully,

Chicago Astronomer Joe
Administrator
The Chicago Astronomer
http://astronomer.proboards23.com

30 most recent posts: http://astronomer.proboards23.com/index.cgi?action=recent

posted in Mars - 0 replies

The Chicago Astronomers Preview "Roving Mars"...

chicagoastronomer — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 11:28:59 GMT

The Chicago Astronomer crew were invited to preview the greatly
anticipated new IMAX film, "Roving Mars" on the 26th of January.

It proved to be a magnificent experience and it's telling of the
Martian Rovers and their long journey to the distant planet was exciting. The launch sequence alone makes the movie, but the intricate details of the prep is painstaking accomplished.

A full Chicago Astronomer review of the film can be be found here:

http://tinyurl.com/chh85

But, I highly recommend this film to any one interested in space
exploration and astronomy.

Respectfully submitted,

Joe Guzmán
Administrator
Chicago Astronomer
<http://astronomer.proboards23.com>

posted in Mars - 0 replies

Looking good!

gem_e — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 19:58:24 GMT

Mars is now relatively close to earth, and very bright. I've been watching it in the western predawn sky, where its brightness and golden hue can't be missed. Sirius is also very bright toward the south before dawn.

http://www.seds.org/~spider/spider/Mars/mars2005.html

I'm in the rural midwest where the skies have been very clear, so I get a good look most mornings. It's still fairly dark at 6:30am in my neck of the woods.

posted in Mars - 0 replies

MRO is aloft!!!

yoshispacebreaker — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 17:18:28 GMT

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/050812_mro_launch.html

The first step in what will hopefully be the most productive probe we've yet sent to Mars, happened today. Beginning in March, we should start seeing results...three cheers for NASA!!!

posted in Mars - 1 reply

Looking for water, finally...

yoshispacebreaker — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 22:09:05 GMT

It's been so long since this mishap on Mars Express, I completely forgot about it. Finally (maybe) we'll be able to get a sense of what lies deeper than the 2 meters underground that MGS can see:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4246221.stm

Let us all hold our breaths and pray to whatever gods we see fit that these antennae do in fact deploy properly. It would be a HUGE boost to find some frozen underground aquifers!!!

posted in Mars - 12 replies

Phoenix Lander Rising

yoshispacebreaker — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 16:35:22 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4606251.stm

Let's hope they get their feet and meters worked out this time...

posted in Mars - 0 replies

If current trends continue

Yul — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 15:46:29 GMT

If current trends continue, the first person to set foot on Mars will never be born. That's because if current trends continue, a human Mars flight will never happen. If current trends continue, there may not be a space program by the end of the century. If current trends contune, the human trace will be forever trapped on Earth only to drown in their own waste. I hate the current trends. I prefer trends that virtually guarantee an accelerated and flurishing exploration of space for the near and far future. So how can that happem? I'm not sure. All I do know is that I want the current trends to stop.

posted in Mars - 20 replies

Mars Express finds recent volcanism

Aaron — Fri, 24 Dec 2004 06:32:47 GMT

http://tinyurl.com/3s5aj

posted in Mars - 2 replies

Lets investigate the NASA MARS MISSION.

zargon — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 18:35:41 GMT

Hello Earthlinks. Does anyone know the principal composition of the martian atmosphere?
Does anyone know the surface pressure of that atmosphere on the planet mars?
Does anyone know how the black and white transmitter originally sent on the mars bug mission is now transmitting images in colour?
Does anyone know that there is a levitating vehicle at Kirtland airforce base New Mexico that no-one can access or fly.except me.?
Does anyone know that the smile on the "face inside the crater" on the planet mars is a vegetation zone?
What else do you know?
Love to hear your story of what is really happening about that planet,which incidentally,I claim as mine.I bet you didn't know that!
Well? Wanna hear my version of the truth? Over.

posted in Mars - 0 replies

D&M pyramid

Adam — Wed, 11 May 2005 04:02:03 GMT

Someone posted a picture titled D&M pyramid. I've never seen this feature and it seems awfully regular. Anyone have any info on it?

posted in Mars - 11 replies

Efficient Chemical Processing?

yoshispacebreaker — Thu, 12 May 2005 05:08:15 GMT

Can't wait to see this on its test run on Mars!:

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/050511_microcats_050511.html

I'm not certain I understood this article completely, maybe not every single teeny tiny little syllable, but basically, I got it. It makes living in situ, off the chemical elements already on Mars, a heck of a lot easier.

posted in Mars - 0 replies

If "Get Your Ass to Mars" were real

Yul — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 14:37:37 GMT

If "Get Your Ass to Mars" were real, the Mars ship would be under construction in orbit nearly 95 percent complete, and the crew would be coming close to the end of their training. But since that's not really happening, there's now the "GYATM" web comic. Go to: http://www.100megsfree4.com/outorb/GYATMcovers/gyatm_covers.htm
to see what the deal is.

posted in Mars - 0 replies

New ESA Mars proposals...

yoshispacebreaker — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 13:36:28 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4423883.stm

posted in Mars - 3 replies

JPL Open House in Mid-May...

yoshispacebreaker — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 00:31:11 GMT

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pso/oh.cfm

If you're in the area, or within 300 miles, it is not to be missed!!!

posted in Mars - 0 replies

Ice plates?

yoshispacebreaker — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 17:57:58 GMT

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050228.html

I'll try and upload the pic for the photo archive...

...weird stuff, but hopefully they're right.

posted in Mars - 8 replies

More water every day!!!

yoshispacebreaker — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 21:18:33 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4285119.stm

Dig it, people. As in let's dig it up!!!

posted in Mars - 1 reply

Red Rovers Rock!!!

yoshispacebreaker — Fri, 17 Dec 2004 16:25:23 GMT

Top science award for their good water work on the Red Planet!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4098453.stm

posted in Mars - 1 reply

Mars Underground Documentary

yoshispacebreaker — Fri, 10 Dec 2004 03:34:01 GMT

http://www.ocule.com/show.cfm?action=detail&show_id=12

So, finally someone's giving Zubrin's work a serious look. This apparently has both supporters and detractors of his theories. Movie night in 2005 anyone?

posted in Mars - 0 replies

Jim Oberg's claim of a cheaper Mars flight

Yul — Sat, 04 Dec 2004 19:11:22 GMT

In his 1982 book Mission to Mars, Jim Oberg once made the claim that a human Mars flight is likely to cost less than the human moon flights. Here is exactly what he said:

"Highly credible cost analysis techniques show that the unique expense ot a man-to-Mars program would be far less than that of the Apollo man-on-the-Moon program of the 1960s, in terms of real dollars, federal budget percentage, or per capita cost. This is not fiscal finagling: the rationale for this pleasant surprise is that most technological capabilities required for a Mars expedition would already have been developed and funded for other concurrent space activities, whereas Apollo had to buy the entire spectrum ot space hardware all at once. This implies that a single major country, or a consortium of small countries, could indeed afford such a program."

So how did that happen? Oberg said a human Mars flight is likely to be cheaper than the Apollo moon flights. Yet, all you here about human Mars flights these days is that it will be super-expensive -- as much as half-a-trillion dollars! Despite Robert Zubrin's claim that a privately-financed human Mars flight could be as cheap as $5 billion, most human Mars flight estimates are always on the high-end of things. Needless to say, I hate the sound of obsenely expensive human Mars missions. But at the same time, there's nothing I can do about it, so ti' estas viv'.

posted in Mars - 0 replies

2005: The Year of Get Your Ass to Mars

Yul — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 15:38:42 GMT

If Get your Ass to Mars were real, the Mars ship in the story would now be more than halfway complete. It's completion would be achieved in May of 2005 and its launch to Mars would take place in August of 2005. And becasuse of those things, I like to think of 2005 as being year of Get Your Ass to Mars. Thus GYATM takes place in an alternate reality (and a better reality) where rapid funding of a privatized human Mars flight was accomplished for the low, low cost of $10 billion.

Anyway, to get into the GYATM deal, try the web site: http://timeliketoons.tripod.com/cheapmarsflight.html
And everybody say, "Cheap Mars flight Yeah!"

posted in Mars - 0 replies

A terraformed Mars and its shifting axis

Yul — Sat, 23 Oct 2004 16:49:08 GMT

I know terraforming is mostly theoretical, but I can't help but to wonder about certain climatic circumstances on a terraformed Mars. That is, since Mars lacks a massive moon to significantly reduce the shifting of its axis, then Mars's axis shifts as much as 50 degrees every few million years (or at least that's how I remember it). Therefore, a Mars with an Earth-like environment would have dramatic climate changes over the centuries. With that being the case, have any terraformer theorists ever considered that possibility and offered an solutions to that problem (weather-control technology perhaps)?

posted in Mars - 21 replies

Titan - not Mars, but still pretty cool

Aaron — Wed, 24 Nov 2004 01:29:06 GMT

http://tinyurl.com/4kvs3

posted in Mars - 1 reply

Flying on Mars

Sun, 03 Oct 2004 17:13:21 GMT

Flying on Mars is different than flying in the Earth's atmosphere. The Mars atmosphere is 1/100th the density of Earth's, but is made up of carbon dioxide, which is non-flamible. Which makes it ideal for going back to the old dirigible with hydrogen as a lifting agent. There is ample water available in the ground to support splitting into water/hydrogen (H2O), so that's not a problem. And the dirigible can be rocket assisted to be maneuvered with, again, hydrogen rockets, since propellers would have to be inordinately long due to the thinness of the atmosphere. See "Dirigible Airships for Martian Surface Exploration," The Case For Mars, Vol. 62, August 1984.

Daniel Shiojima

posted in Mars - 6 replies

Why we can't get to Mars

Yul — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 21:30:36 GMT

It seems to me that the powers-that-be or whoever it is have decided that a human Mars flight shouldn't be done because it's too dangerous. Of course that goes without saying. Unfortuantely, it also seems like a human Mars flight must be made 100 percent-safe before it can be done. Holy specific impulse! A 100 percent-safe Mars flight would be impossible (or at least super-duper difficult). Since a 100 percent-safe human Mars flight can't be achieved, a human Mars flight will never happen. But wait! The first human moon flights weren't 100 percent safe yet they were done anyway. Why do human Mars flights have to be 100 percent safe? I obviously don't have all the answers, but my guess here is that it may have something to do with the considerble DISINTEREST in space technology that's been happening for the past 30 years or so. Of course if I persoally had the billions of dollars needed to fund a human Mars flight, I'd fund it in a New York nanosecond whether it's 100 percent-safe or not. Everybody say, "Cheap Mars flight, yeah!" ( http://timeliketoons.tripod.com/cheapmarsflight.html )

posted in Mars - 13 replies

People on mars in 20-30 years

Adam — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 01:25:52 GMT

People on mars in 20-30 years
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=585&e=3&u=/nm/20040915/sc_nm/space_mars_dc

posted in Mars - 0 replies

Flying on Mars

Adam — Sun, 12 Sep 2004 00:10:28 GMT

Has anyone flown on Mars using the X-Planes simulator?

posted in Mars - 2 replies

Mars Links

vadis — Mon, 22 Sep 2003 03:33:12 GMT

Mars Exploration: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/

Mars Colonzation: http://spot.colorado.edu/~marscase/Home.html

Mars Images: http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/welcome.htm

posted in Mars - 3 replies

Radiation

Greg — Wed, 21 Jan 2004 21:29:49 GMT

Greetings. I've also had the dreams of moving beyond our orb. However, I had observed that radiation levels on the Moon and Mars would have to be dealt with.

I've uploaded an image from NASA's radiation lab page. Would someone please post what levels would be considred safe or normal at earth sea-level at equator, etc.

Thanks -- Greg.

posted in Mars - 3 replies

The mysterious spheres...

Wed, 10 Mar 2004 08:18:21 GMT

Hi everyone,

Here's a theory as to what those little spheres are discovered by the opportunity rover. The following is a quote by Tom Van Flandern from the metaresearch.org website...

"It is hard to make perfect spherules at rest in a gravity field because gravity tends to flatten things. But it is easy to make spherules in free fall. We have massive evidence that half of Mars was altered by a major external explosion event. See 'The exploided planet hypothesis -- 2000' at http://metaresearch.org/solar%20system/eph/eph2000.asp
The spherules would be a natural by-product of impacts on Mars from this explosion -- zillions of melted droplets hurled for great distances, where they condensed and solidified before falling again to the ground."

Emanuel

posted in Mars - 2 replies

Cydonia

AlbionMoonlite — Wed, 12 Nov 2003 05:43:07 GMT

NASA naturally denies the possibility of Mars having sustained sapient life and denounces the artificiality of Cydonia. Yet it is imaged secretly by NASA and they refuse to share this data in real time. When data is shared it is often modified to distort Cydonia and again diminish the case for artificiality. If Cydonia is not artificial it is an extremely unique feature of Martian geology, found nowhere else in the Solar System-even on Earth. Given the culture of secrecy at NASA is it so outlandish to suggest that any evidence for ancient space voyaging is not okay?

posted in Mars - 31 replies

Kim Stanley Robinson

Mon, 02 Feb 2004 00:37:57 GMT

Anybody here read the Kim Stanley Robinson Mars Trilogy. It's filled with great ideas about the coloniztion of Mars and how the planet itself would shape human habitation. Great, brainy shit that's really, really fun to read, especially for geologists and the people who love them. Jeez, that makes it sound boring, eh?

posted in Mars - 12 replies

RoverBlogs

Brucifer — Mon, 08 Mar 2004 02:49:12 GMT

http://www.livejournal.com/users/spiritrover/

http://www.livejournal.com/users/opportunitygrrl/

posted in Mars - 0 replies

AVATARS 04: AvaMars competition & conference, 3D Mars Visions

bdamer — Fri, 20 Feb 2004 19:28:36 GMT

Hello Mars Tribe, you might be interested in the following competition and conference we are holding...

AVATARS 2004: AvaMars Design Competition
Fantastic 3D Visions of Mars Past and Future

Deadline: March 8, 2004
Entries will be shown and judged at CONTACT 2004, March 12-14, NASA Ames Research Center
Contact: Bernard Farkin (be@eden-hms.com)
Competition and Conference homepage: http://www.ccon.org/conf04/AvaMars.html

From H.G. Wells to Kim Stanley Robinson, from the Martian Chronicles to Moving Mars, the planet Mars has had many visitors of the imagination. This year with the dual NASA rovers exploring the surface of the Red Planet, CONTACT and the Contact Consortium will be holding joint events at NASA's Ames Research Center in California and on the Internet on March 12-14th with the theme "The Challenge of Mars: Past, Present, and Future". The Consortium will hold its 9th annual online cyber-conference, AVATARS2004: AvaMars inside the newly released Adobe Atmosphere web-based multi-user virtual environments platform. Digital Space has partnered with the Consortium to produce the AvaMars event through its projects and contacts at NASA and created a special project site www.DriveOnMars.com which allows web visitors to drive a virtual mars rover through traverses on a digitally re-created Red Planet.

The AvaMars Design Competion: Fantastic 3D Visions of Mars Past and Future

We are inviting 3D artists to populate the virtual landscapes with their animated rovers at www.DriveOnMars.com with visions of Mars past and future from CONTACT science fiction authors including Greg Bear, G. David Nordley, Kim Stanley Robinson and others. Did you love reading about Martian oceans and giant diatoms in Greg Bear's "Moving Mars"? Realize it in Cyberspace by designing creatures in Adobe Atmosphere and Viewpoint 3D formats. So you loved Kim Stanley Robinson's Red, Green and Blue Mars books and want to realize some of the human habitation depicted there? Author a great 3D recreation of a settlement and submit it to our competition. Any visions of Martian landscapes, creatures or structures are fair game for the competition (even your own creations).

At the CONTACT conference on March 12-14th, 2004 a VIP team of science fiction authors, space scientists and anthropologists will judge the entries and nominate the ones deemed "most fantastic", "most plausible scientifically", "most true to their fictional counterpart" and "goshdarned most funy". On Saturday March 13th (11:30am US Pacific Time) we will present www.DriveOnMars.com to the CONTACT conference attendees and feature the winning entries which will be placed into those worlds and "discovered" by our dual virtual MER rovers.

Contact Bernard Farkin at be@eden-hms.com to register for the competition and receive any additional guidance. Find more information on the event home page at:
http://www.ccon.org/conf04/AvaMars.html

Thank you and let the creativity begin,

The AVATARS2004: AvaMars! Team

About CONTACT

CONTACT is a unique interdisciplinary conference which brings together some of the foremost international social and space scientists, science fiction writers and artists to exchange ideas, stimulate new perspectives and encourage serious, creative speculation about humanity's future ... onworld and offworld. Each year we meet to promote the integration of human factors into space age research and policy, emphasize the interaction of the Arts and Sciences and their technologies, and develop ethical approaches in cross-cultural contact, whenever and wherever it occurs. Read about CONTACT and its conferences at:
http://www.contact-conference.com/

About the Contact Consortium

The Contact Consortium was created at CONTACT in 1995 with a core group of volunteers to explore issues of contact, culture and community in virtual communities and virtual worlds in Cyberspace. The Consortium has held a variety of conferences since 1996 on topics ranging from Avatars, emergent biological properties of computer systems, arts and technology, and learning through 3D virtual spaces. The Consortium continues to push the envelope through its experimentation in the medium of virtual worlds and communities in Cyberspace by bringing the 9th annual AVATARS event "AvaMars" back to the CONTACT conference in 2004. Read more about the not-for-profit Contact Consortium at:
http://www.ccon.org/

About the Digital Space Commons

Digital Space was founded as a privately held California corporation in Summer 1995 to take advantage of commercial and R&D projects that would emerge around the invention of 3D cyber-spaces hosted on the Internet. Today Digital Space is a premier global community of members organized around a "commons" model who deliver on a wide range of projects for clients such as Adobe and NASA, support universities in distance learning and collaboration and acquire and develop a repository of leading edge technologies to extend the experience of online communications, collaboration and community. Read about Digital Space's projects and innovations at:
http://www.digitalspace.com

###

posted in Mars - 0 replies

Ethical Mars

Brucifer — Fri, 13 Feb 2004 13:49:03 GMT

Let's say Spirit is chugging along and flips over a rock and finds the Martian version of a potato bug? Or even some microbes clinging to the underside? What then? Do millions of Star Trek fans all over the world have heart attacks screaming 'Prime Directive!', or do we say we need to study those things up close and personal? Besides, Viking screwed up the whole thing 30 years ago.

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Cold Times On Mars

jason_s — Wed, 11 Feb 2004 21:49:28 GMT

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/02/11/state1352EST0079.DTL&type=science

::imitates Jeremy Irons from "Reversal of Fortune"::

What you must understand is that the Spirit Rover *detested* the very ide-uh of going to Mahs in the first place. All those rocks and that dreadful dust? Terrible place.

::takes long, thoughtful drag on cigarette::

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How to save the mars rover?

Aaron — Fri, 23 Jan 2004 05:41:07 GMT

Ctrl + Alt + Delete

posted in Mars - 4 replies

The 'road' to Mars

Fred — Sun, 18 Jan 2004 04:46:46 GMT

I am no fan of our present president, but I am glad he put the moon back on the road to Mars. Now I don't know what methods or sequence of events will be used to get us to mars, but I do know we need a place to practice. Generally speaking, if 'it' can't be done on the moon, it may also be impossible to do on Mars. The availability of CO2 and H2O on mars but not the moon is different issue. Much of the infrustructure needed for frequent trips to the moon....or from LEO to NLO(near lunar orbit) will likely apply to the Mars missions as well. One thing we need to know, is what is the minimum we have to transport(either to the moon or to mars) to make that mission fully successful. For example, what is needed to 'mine' the moon? To do smelting? Build large structures? Generate power?etc etc. If a forgotten item is needed on the moon, earth is only 3 days away. In other words, make your 'mistakes' locally.
Discussion? Comments?
FredDeTucson

posted in Mars - 8 replies

Correcting picture uploads

Fred — Tue, 20 Jan 2004 02:57:41 GMT

Help!
I uploaded some pictures, but with errors. I duplicated one picture and left the caption off another(Olympus Mons).
Is this correctable? How do I correct or change-out the pics
I upload? Is it even possible?
Fred T

posted in Mars - 0 replies

Making friends

Fred — Tue, 20 Jan 2004 01:48:05 GMT

To all members of the MARs tribe~
I have been a Mars nut or Aries-o-phile for as long as I can remember....and that's a long long time. I am happy for the presidents endorsement, but am disappointed at hubbles abandon-
ment. Ah well, ther may still be time before '08 to save it.
As much as I like Mars, I like making friends even more. Tribes.net has a built in catch 22. I join a tribe to be with like minded people. But! I cannot contact any other members of
the tribe, nor they me. Why? Because we are not yet friends. Huh? Am I missing something here? Just how DO We become friends?
For anyone interested, I have numerous pictures of Mars - both real and 'what-if'. All are from the 'net', but their in a simple to access collection.

My email is: t58fred@hotmail.com

I await your E-mails . . . . Fred - in Tucson Az

posted in Mars - 1 reply

Drive On Mars!

bdamer — Sat, 10 Jan 2004 07:16:48 GMT

Our group created a cool 3D driveable Mars Exploration Rover that you can drive thru the Adobe Atmosphere web plugin. Please take a look if you have a moment:
http://www.driveonmars.com

posted in Mars - 0 replies

NASA attempts a return to Mars tonight

spam — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 22:33:02 GMT

Robot ship readies for 'six minutes from hell'
By Richard Stenger
CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/01/03/mars.rovers/

PASADENA, California (CNN) -- The countdown was on Saturday for the possible arrival on Mars of a new form of life from Earth -- one with chips and circuits slated to conduct unprecedented scientific and photographic surveys of the red planet.

Whether the NASA's solar-powered, six-wheeled craft survives the dangerous trip, or becomes scrap like many of its predecessors, will not be known until it sends a radio signal home -- and that could take hours or days.

Despite the complexity of the landing, scheduled for 11:30 ET, NASA scientists were upbeat and optimistic at a midafternoon press briefing.

They noted the probe has a 99 percent chance of landing within its optimal drop zone and that conditions on Mars look good for landing.

Mission manager Mark Adler said the "spacecraft health is excellent."

There is a slight chance that the $400 million rover, named Spirit, could contact Earth minutes after it undertakes the most complicated part of its seven-month journey -- going from 12,000 mph through space, entering the martian atmosphere, the coming to a complete rest on the surface.

"It's going to be high anxiety," said Ed Weiler, NASA associate administrator of space science. "It's going to be six minutes from hell."

Four-story bounce
In those six minutes, Spirit will slam into the atmosphere, briefly enduring 2,600-degree Fahrenheit temperatures, deploy parachutes and fire retro rockets to decelerate further. Seconds before impact, it will inflate a protective cocoon of airbags.

A series of bounces and rolls could send the golf cart-sized robot more than a mile from its landing spot, according to mission control scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"It will bounce about a four-story building [in] height, we believe, and roll somewhere between one and two kilometers," said Peter Theisinger, the rover mission project manager.

"It sounds like a crazy way to land on Mars, but it's actually tried and tested," said Steven Squyres, a Cornell University geologist in charge of the scientific instruments on Spirit and its identical twin, Opportunity, which will complete the 3 million-mile trip to Mars in three weeks.

The airbag bounce method worked well with Pathfinder, NASA's last success on martian soil.

The 1997 mission included a lander, which beamed back thousands of images, and Sojourner, a toy-sized test rover that scurried around the rocks and boulders littering the landing site.

Stunning panoramas
The new 400-pound rovers like Spirit and Opportunity, packed with a slew of geology instruments and cameras, have much more mobility and capability than previous missions.

Each is built to explore nearly as much territory in one day as Sojourner covered in three months, about 100 yards.

Their eight cameras should provide stunning panoramas of the martian surface, with resolutions so sharp they retain crisp detail when blown up to the size of a movie screen, according to NASA. And their microscopes, spectrometers and drills could uncover history from long, long ago.

"It's a cold, dry miserable place today. But we have got these tantalizing clues that, in the past, it used to be warmer and wetter," said Squyres, who exudes a passion for planets like his one-time teacher at Cornell, the late astronomer Carl Sagan.

"You can think of these vehicles as being robot field geologists. A field geologist is like a detective at the scene of a crime. They go to a place where something happened long ago and they try to read the clues," he told CNN.

But this scene of the crime could easily include Spirit's corpse, NASA scientists acknowledge.

'Death planet'
Mars has proven a deadly place to visit. Two-thirds of the more than 30 spacecraft that have attempted to reach or orbit Mars have met with disaster, including two NASA attempts in 1999.

The most recent casualties include Japan's Nozomi, a satellite zapped by lethal solar radiation during its four-year odyssey to Mars. Mission engineers abandoned their attempts to steer the ailing craft as it neared the red planet last month.

Another possible victim is the Beagle 2, an ambitious life-searching lander from Britain, which has remained silent since its presumed touchdown December 25.

"A lot of people have had bad days on Mars," Weiler quipped last year. "They don't call it the death planet for nothing."

CNN's Miles O'Brien and David Santucci contributed to this report.

posted in Mars - 2 replies

Landing on Mars Tomorrow

Aaron — Fri, 02 Jan 2004 21:47:53 GMT

Can someone tell me what's the best way to keep track of the landing tomorrow night in real time? I can't find any reference to streaming coverage on the net. I also don't see it listed on NPR's program schedule. Let's hope we have more luck than that British!

Thanks

posted in Mars - 0 replies

Godspeed, Beagle

jason_s — Thu, 25 Dec 2003 09:14:07 GMT

Let's all hope for a Merry Martian Xmas.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/12/24/international2353EST0756.DTL&type=science

posted in Mars - 1 reply

Mars' next decade

vadis — Tue, 16 Sep 2003 06:13:25 GMT

The Future of Mars: Plans for NASA's Next Decade of Red Planet Probing
Wed Sep 10,10:55 AM ET
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer, SPACE.com

NASA is formulating a Mars exploration plan for the next decade, receiving advice from all quarters, from outside academic circles to internal NASA working groups, as well as from the White House.

And if all goes according to plan, Mars will speak for itself, giving up surface and subsurface secrets as ever-more capable spacecraft -- like the two rovers currently en route -- survey that mysterious world. How to respond to the expected fast-paced rush of new discoveries, enough so that outgoing missions can take advantage of just-in findings, is a challenge.

One scenario has been advocated by the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) -- a study arm of the National Research Council (news - web sites). It calls for a legion of robotic return-sample craft that are needed to truly unravel the history of Mars and reveal whether life existed in the planets past or is present today.

The National Research Council of the National Academies -- a prestigious group that advises the government on scientific and technical matters, has issued the new COMPLEX report: Assessment of Mars Science and Mission Priorities.

Beginning in 2011, the COMPLEX study states, the first in a series of perhaps ten automated Mars return-sample missions would be launched to dot the red planet. This robotic search and seize campaign of hauling back to Earth Mars specimens might stretch out for three or four decades, to as much as a century.

Cash and carry

Rocketing back to Earth samples of Martian soil and rock via automated means has been on NASAs to-do list for decades. But its a difficult task, with cost being the lead impediment.

Over the years, NASA as well as industry teams have sketched out details for such an undertaking. So too have European Space Agency engineers, as well as independent groups in France and Russia.

Those grappling with ways to land, pick up, and then safely haul back the goods to Earth from Mars -- all by robotic hardware -- wind up with an acute case of Space Age sticker shock.

Typically, at a minimum, the price tag escalates to a billion dollar-plus mission -- and can skyrocket to many billions of dollars. To date, a "cash and carry" Mars return-sample concept has remained little more than a hazy, hoped-for project.

2011 liftoff date

The new report by COMPLEX calls return-sample missions to Mars the most effective way to enhance our view of Mars history and its surface environment. "No other single strategy can answer so many of the questions about martian chemistry, geology, climatology, and the presence of or potential for life, past or present," the study observes.

To this end, the 14-person COMPLEX study group urges Mars returned samples be given high priority at NASA. It recommends that a sample return mission be launched at the 2011 launch opportunity.

Furthermore, COMPLEX estimates that roughly 10 sample return missions should be carried out over a protracted period of time. That length of time, the group suggests, might stretch out over "three or four decades to as much as a century", to learn the most important things researchers want to know about Mars.

Labs on Earth

The COMPLEX report points out -- like other study groups before it -- the science-gathering capabilities of robotic instruments dispatched to Mars are dwarfed by highly sensitive gear stuffed inside laboratories here on Earth.

As for picking the initial landing sites for return-sample spacecraft, the report contends no new data is necessary.

"The committee believes that enough information is at hand alreadyto chose the first sites to be sampled intelligently, and that sample return need not wait on additional reconnaissance missions." There is enough information already in hand to define a half-dozen or more sites that would be excellent starting points for a Mars return-sample program, the report states.

Even a "grab sample" of soil from a randomly chosen spot on Mars, the report adds, will yield a treasure-trove of data about the character of martian surface material.

Punch down deep

In endorsing a 2011 liftoff for NASAs first return-sample mission to Mars, COMPLEX stresses that "this date should not be allowed to slip", unless, of course, the prospective mission runs into some extraordinary technological problem. Given that 2011 liftoff date, the first specimens of Mars brought back by a robotic vehicle would land on Earth in 2014.

The first Mars return-sample mission will be modest in its surface duties. But lessons learned can be applied to follow-on craft, with later missions becoming far more elaborate.

Sampling technology is likely to mature whereby Mars robot landers can haul drilling equipment to punch down deep below the planets surface. Also, sampling operations might be expanded to include exploration of the red planets polar caps, with the collection and return to Earth of ice and dust cores, the report suggests.

"The only thing we can be absolutely sure of finding on Mars is something not expected now," the COMPLEX report explains.

Start now on quarantine facility

The new study emphasizes the need for a special Mars Quarantine Facility. It will serve in many capacities, including checkout of Mars rock and soil to guard against any virulent "bugs" being released that are harmful to we Earthlings and our biosphere.

Within this facility, Mars samples would be processed, stored, and released for scientific study. It is estimated that seven years will be required to design, construct, and staff the facility.

Clearly, therefore, COMPLEX suggests that time needed to ready the facility is running out.

On this score, the message from COMPLEX is plain: "Preparations for sample return should not be delayed any longer than they already have been."

NASA reaction

The COMPLEX message to NASA regarding Mars return-sample strikes a chord, said James Garvin, NASA Lead Scientist for Mars Exploration within the agencys Office of Space Science in Washington, D.C. It is reflective of science community inputs NASA has received on and off for the past 20 years, he said.

"Namely, that returning samples from Mars is a type of scientific holy grail, likely to provide the context within which we can sharpen our approaches for exploring the habitability of Mars and ultimately fashion an optimized methodology for searching for evidence of life," Garvin told SPACE.com.

NASA has been busy, Garvin explained, outlining its approach for incorporating nuclear power into Solar System exploration via a new generation of radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). Also, there has been focus on technology investments for future fission-based propulsion and power systems to enable new classes of missions to the outer planets and, someday, to Mars too, he said.

White House request

Another active factor, Garvin said, is a Bush Administration request to re-look at NASA's plans for Mars Exploration beyond 2009, zeroing out all funds for next decade missions until an "options-driven approach" was outlined.

NASA has complied with this direction, Garvin said, and spent much of 2002 and the first half of 2003 developing a "pathways-driven" plan for Mars exploration beyond 2009, "with emphasis on a discovery-responsive strategy and with attention to the search for evidence of life," he said.

"It must be noted that the [Bush] Administration direction given NASA in February 2002 specifically stated that NASA must examine options for Mars exploration that do not all include sample return as an inevitable mission, at least in the upcoming decade," Garvin said.

Next decade Mars plan

NASA is shaping a "Next Decade Plan for Mars Exploration". This 2009-2020 strategy has benefited by the COMPLEX report, as well as from the rapid-paced work of NASAs Mars Exploration Program Assessment Group (MEPAG) -- a confab of key Mars scientists, engineers and planners.

This plan includes four pathways, better tagged as lines of science inquiry.

Garvin said that three of those pathways suggest a precision-targeted, but limited mobility "ground-breaking Mars sample return" mission. It must occur as early as conceivable in the upcoming decade of Mars exploration, if scientific progress is to be made, he said.

Another pathway, as required by the Bush Administration directive, Garvin noted, delays sample returns until 2020 or beyond, instead focusing on revolutionary on-the-spot astrobiological investigations, some of which require advanced technologies that can access the subsurface of Mars to many meters of depth.

The COMPLEX report, in combination with the outputs from the grassroots MEPAG, Garvin said, have strengthened the science focus of the current NASA Mars Exploration Program. There is "full recognition of the essential nature of sample returns as a necessary element in any science-based strategy of Mars exploration," he concluded.

posted in Mars - 1 reply