Mars Express Surpasses 5000 Orbit Milestone

On Christmas, 2003, the European Space Agency launched their first Mars explorer to the Red Planet. Four years later, Mars Express continues to send back images and other data. Today, the spacecraft surpassed another milestone as it completed its 5000th orbit of Mars. The orbiter has revolutionized our knowledge of the planet, probing every facet in unprecedented detail. The most astonishing visual results have been returned by the High-Resolution Stereo Camera, which has produced incredible, 3D color images of the Martian surface. Other instruments have been examining different aspects of the planet's environment. One of the most significant findings has been that of clay by the Visible and Infrared Mineralogical Mapping Spectrometer OMEGA. At the poles, OMEGA has measured the composition of the surface. The Martian poles have been further investigated using the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding, MARSIS. MARSIS has been revealing, for the first time, the secrets of Mars' subsurface. The Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) has formed the most complete map to date of the chemical composition of the atmosphere around Mars. The Ultraviolet and Infrared Atmospheric Spectrometer has provided the first complete vertical profile of the carbon dioxide density and temperature of the atmosphere. The Energetic Atoms Analyzer has confirmed that solar wind is slowly stripping atoms from the atmosphere. The mission has been extended to at least 2009 and there is a large possibility of further extensions into the next decade.

Article

Old and Dusty - But Still Moving

Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity were expected to live for only three-months, but more than four years later they are still "moving." NASA is still using the rovers and conducting scientific discoveries with them. The Opportunity is unable to use its infrared spectrometer because dust has obscured the instrument. The computer that runs the RAT and the mechanism that clears dust out of the RAT has also been damaged by prolonged dust exposure. The Spirit's front wheel has a broken motor and is now forced to move in reverse. 

NASA has now set its sites on finding a way to fix these problems and prolong the rovers mission. If NASA can find the ingenuity to fix these problems while on the surface of Mars it will be a decent gauge of how ready they are to deal with problems on the future manned mission to the planets surface. Opportunity and Spirit may be very old...but they are still moving. 

India Plans Mars Trip

According to one article, India is among the countries planning future missions to Mars. In a plan set for 2015 that would study the atmosphere as well as search for possibly signs of water. There is some controversy, however, because of the extreme poverty in India and it is suggested that the huge amounts of money that this will take could really improve the lives of a lot of people if put to another use. I would agree with this argument, although not to say that science and space exploration are not important. I just don't think that the millions of Indian citizens that are starving see Mars as their greatest priority, especially when they aren't sure where their next meal will come from.

EU Picks Rover Landing Spot

"In 2013 the European Space Agency will launch its mission to Mars - ExoMars. The multi-million-euro mission calls for a rover weighing just over 200kg that can trundle over the martian soil in search of past and present life. Now prime landing spots have been selected. The list includes two sites at Meridiani Planum, the flat expanse near Mars' equator where Nasa's Opportunity found possible evidence for an ancient sea. Early in Earth's history, all the primordial biochemistry took place in phyllosilicates, some kind of mineral that is a good matrix for preserving organic matter. Scientists are guessing that a similar site is the best place to start looking for fossil life on the Red Planet."

NSS Takes on the Fight

The National Space Society has now taken up the fight to ensure that NASA can continue with the human exploration of Mars. A bill is currently heading through Congress that will stop/bar NASA from doing anything related to the "Human Exploration of Mars." The bill increases NASA's overall funding, but bars them from investing any money in human exploration. NSS is currently looking for money to help with its fight... you can donate here. 

International MarsWatch

The International MarsWatch is a group founded by amateur and professional astronomers more than 30 years ago to facilitate better communication between the amateur and professional Mars observing communities. This network currently consists of over 150 professional and amateur astronomers who are interested in Mars or active in Mars research.

Website

Space Race

This article reivews of the past years in the space race and projects a questionable future. It address Mar's peak of exploration in the 70's. Mars has held the greatest popular interest because of the expectation that life might exist there. "Viking landers alit on different locations on that planet’s surface and the related experiments aboard the Vikings, which would have given clues to the existence of life on Mars, produced negative results. Therefore it seems that, despite the hopes of optimists, there is no life on Mars in the two locations of the Viking landers."

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.print.php?usrsess=1&id=175882&clid=24

Bush’s Space Boost

Our president George W. Bush Jr. has become increasingly interested in space. Some may call him a space cadet but whatever you call him I don’t care because I like it. If Bush is for space then I am for Bush… well maybe. But I really really like that he is pushing space. Members of Congress have urged for a new national vision for NASA because it has become depressed due to the loss of space shuttle Columbia and the nest of bureaucratic red tape clogging its mission plans. Bush’s new vision calls for a manned mission to Mars sometime near the year 2030. That would be AMAZING. I would be so happy if that were to occur in my lifetime. It would be the most exciting thing ever! Yea Bush You My Boy!

SORRY! You can't play the CTV Broadband Channel videos in your country.

Wow great... looks like the Canadians don’t want us to have access to their Martian Media. I was reading a weblog about some programming featuring special Mars documentaries and highlights of current Mars projects. I followed the link to Discovery Channel Canada which had a link to watch the episodes of "Daily Planet" a program featuring many scientific specials including those on Mars. When I opened the link I was greeted by "SORRY! You can't play the CTV Broadband Channel videos in your country." Wow… That’s a bummer, I guess we aren’t good enough to see the big Canadian guys footage about Mars. Maybe they’re up to something fishy. Are they planning a secret mission that they don’t want us to know about?...
here’s the link if your interested in getting rejected:
http://broadband.discoverychannel.ca/discovery/blocked.aspx

US Domestic Policy -- Save Mars

Over the last few months the "Save Mars" campaign by the Mars Society members has kicked into full gear. Apparently the society has been sending thousands of letters and faxes to members of the US government trying to block a proposed House amendment. The House is trying to change the language on the upcoming fiscal 2008 budget to prevent NASA from using any money on programs that exclusively are targeted at human exploration of Mars. Chris Carberry has written an interesting article on the negative impactions that such a change would have. If you are interested in reading it click here.

A Tale of Two Moons

This past week the First International Conference on the Exploration of Phobos and Deimos: The Science, Robotic Reconnaissance, and Human Exploration of the Two Moons of Mars was held. The conference discussed and debated various theories on the origins and properties of Mars' two moons. The launch of Phobos Soil by the Russians in 2009 was discussed. This mission is set to bring back a soil sample from Phobos and to test the survival of microorganisms in space over a three-year time period. Human missions to Mars were also brought up. It was argued that this would be a great vantage point to observe Mars and it would be easier to go the moons than to land on Mars.
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001225/

Awesome New Collaborative Mission to Mars

The successor to the Spirit and Opportunity missions to Mars will be the MARS SCIENCE LABORITORY (MSL). It will prove to be the most capable and internationally diverse mission to Mars yet. The projected 2009 launch date for the MSL will be sending technology contributed by the Russian Federal Space Agency, Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, and the Canadian Space Agency along with American technology to the red planet. The MSL will be twice as long as the rovers and three times as heavy. A major addition to MSL’s scientific capabilities is the laser system which vaporizes the top layers of Martian rock and allows for the study of the geologic composition and history of Mars. Also the mission will be powered by a new technology never previously employed on Mars. The MSL will use radioactive isotope power from decaying plutonium atoms which will free the mission from dependence on the sun for solar power.

Ladies In Space

As we get to having longer and longer stays in space, we're going to need it to feel more and more comfortable and like home. And one thing about earth is that there are nearly equal parts men and women (slightly more women, but that's not really noticlable). So it's more and more important that all of the women space fore-runners, make their pressence known.

Like Eileen Collins, who commanded two shuttle flights. Along with

"Kathryn Sullivan, NASA's first female spacewalker; Iran-born businesswoman Anousheh Ansari, who paid a reported $20 million for a Russian rocket ride to the space station last year; the first female pilot for the Air Force Thunderbirds and the first female solo pilot for the air-demonstration squadron; and a high-ranking Federal Aviation Administration official."

As we are planning to start living on the moon (let alone mars) we'll be wanting to have people in permanent residence in these place and the best way to do that is to have both genders.

Full article at: Female space pioneers tell girls to aim high

Failed State of Exploration

I was doing research for my Mars paper and came across an incredibly interesting article. It is not entirely "news" worthy but it is a well written piece on the failed state of space exploration. The author argues that humanity is not doing enough to explore space and our surrounding planets. If you are interested in reading it click here. 

Chinese Orbiter Reaches Moon Today

China's first lunar orbiter, which was discussed in Robert's post from last week, reached the moon today and has entered the moon's orbit successfully. The mission has four primary objectives, according to the linked article:

1.) Take a 3D survey of the moon
2.) Examine the "abundance and distribution" of the moon's resources and elements
3.) Study the "regolith" - essentially the dusty, powdery rock and "soil"
4.) Study the "circumstance between the Earth and the moon" - whatever that means....

There has been a lot of chatter of a "space race" and possible fierce competition between Japan, India, and China because of the explosion in the number of moon-exploring missions that have sprung up over the last year among the countries. It is comforting to see that China has now made it clear that their space agency is not interested in aggressive competition, but explicitly supports international cooperation and sharing of knowledge that comes about from space exploration. China's chief commander of the current lunar mission, Luan Enjie, was quoted in the article as saying that "China will not be involved in moon race with any other country and in any form. China will, in pursuing its policy of peaceful use of airspace, share the achievements of the lunar exploration with the whole world". While important for lunar missions, this will probably be even more important as the possibilities of manned Mars missions become more realistic. The scientific breakthroughs and economic costs will be tremendous and international cooperation will be essential.

New Phase of Space Exploration

According to Nicolas Peter, a research fellow at the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), space exploration is about to enter a new age of exploration. Peter's argued at a recent meeting in Vienna that the days of nations using exploration as a way of bolstering national pride are over. Since the Cold War ended many countries have started cooperating on missions and sharing information. Peter's contests that this trend will continue in the coming decades. Many have dubbed this new type of space policy "Space Exploration 3.0."

"Peter said there had been two phases of space exploration since the first Sputnik satellite was launched 50 years ago. The first phase, up to the early 1990s, was driven by Cold War rivalry between the US and the former USSR with cooperation extended to political allies of the two principal space powers. The second phase, up to the present, has seen the emphasis shift to scientific and practical applications of space with many new countries developing space programmes."

I would highly recommend reading this article, it is both interesting and thought provoking.

World Shooting for the Moon

The United States announcement in 2004 over its new vision for space exploration has inspired several other countries to take action. The US intends to first send a manned mission to the moon and then to Mars. This ambitious plan has caused other countries to turn their attention to moon exploration. 

In September Japan launched a lunar orbit explorer named Kaguya. This action was quickly followed by China launching its own lunar orbiter in October. Russia has plans to build a base on the moon and Europe announced plans to investigate exploration of the moon. 

With all this activity one needs to wonder if we are heading towards another race to the moon. Keiko Chino has written an interesting article on this issue.