The Future of Mars

Well there has not been much activity on the NASA website since February 24th. Seems like Spirit is currently still in its last position. Stuck in the sandy soil. The solar panel is still collecting the suns rays and generating some needed power. Nasa has found an innovative use of Spirit while it is in its motionless state. The stationary radio signal is used to measure the Mars rotation and movements around the sun. This is certainly one creative use of Spirit that stilltrying to survive the Martian winter. It does not seem likely that the issues associated with the damaged wheel will allow Spirit to ever move beyond its current location. Once summer arrives on Mars and Spirit is still operational, it  will be interesting to see if Nasa has some tricks up its sleeve to get Spirit moving again. Source: Nasa

It will be 6 years on January 4th when the first rover landed on Mars followed by the second on the 25th of January. Spirt and Opportunity were originally slated for a 90 day operation each. I cannot believe and I am certain that all the engineers that worked on the original design probably cannot believe that these land rovers are still in operation after all these years. How does a remote vehicle designed for a maximum 90 day operation running on a temporary battery and solar panels still operate after all these years? Spirit has travelled 7.7 Kilometers and Opportunity has travelled 18.9 Kilometers. This does not seem like a long distance in almost 6 years but I can just imagine how much science has been completed within this short distance travelled. It was less than 2 months after the first landing that one of the rovers discovered that water was present on Mars at one point. After almost 6 years there has not been any evidence found of previously living organisms as far as I kno...

Well it has been almost 3 years again since I last posted on Blogger. Seems like every 3 years I post something here. At least I am posting on a regular basis even though it is only once every 3 years. Anyways, about water on the moon. This is a huge find and a large boost for NASA. Now that the US President has cut some of the space funding for now, NASA can push for more funding in the future to aid in the development of manned missions to the moon. Going to the moon and landing compared to Mars is a better proposition that needs to happen in my lifetime. These are my simple reasons for pushing for a manned moon mission. It is closer to us thus much cheaper to execute. The water discovered on the moon can be used to create fuel, oxygen and drinking water for future missions launched from the moon without the huge expense of transporting water from earth. A manned station on the moon can certainly be a great research test location for astronauts that will someday travel to Mars. Thoug...

Currently there has been over 40 different crafts sent to Mars by a number of space agencies around the world. Only a few have been successful with NASA leading the way currently with their Spirit and Opportunity rovers. The reason why I feel we have not had more attempts to survey Mars is due to the limited number of agencies involved in this adventure plus the limited resources and funding available. If we could commercialize this process in a manner that allows the average person like myself to invest $500 - $2000 USD in one aspect of the Mars mission, I could see thousands of individuals contributing to this process. Specially if the whole mission can involve 10's of 1,000's of individual modules that comprise the whole launch vehicle and landing capsule to be sent to Mars in one launch. These modules could have a cost factor for the individual of: $500.00 USD X 10000 units = $5,000,000.00 $1000.00 USD X 10000 units = $10,000,000.00 $1500.00 USD X 10000 units = $15,000,000....

Well, it's been 3 years since I have posted to this blog. Since that time, things have changed on Mars. Specially in regards to the activities of the Mars Spirit Rover which now has 1007 SOLS past the warranty date and the sister rover Opportunity has 987 SOLS past the warranty date. SOLS = none earth days According to this Nasa Site: http://observe.arc.nasa.gov/nasa/exhibits/mars/voyage/atmos.html This is the atmospheric compositions of Mars compared to Earth. Mars Earth Carbon dioxide 95% Nitrogen 78% Nitrogen 2.7% Oxygen 21% Argon 1.6% Carbon dioxide, Argon, and other trace gases 1% Oxygen 0.13% Looks like the numbers are totally off wack and we really need to boost the Oxygen and Nitrogen levels plus drastically reduce the level of Carbon dioxide. Extracting the Oxygen from the Carbon dioxide is not a good idea since it leaves you with Carbon monoxide which is poisonous to humans. Mother Nature has enzymes that takes Carbon dioxide and produces carbonate and Hydrogen gas. Th...

Lets say that no life is found with this current Mars mission and subsequent unmanned Mars missions. Nasa may decide to create a semi permanent settlement on Mars. This would involve creating our own air, water and food supplies. This would not be a simple task. Transporting the necessary equipment at this stage with the astronauts is not feasable due to cost and craft size limitations. We would have to send ships in advance. One to handle the creation of drinkable water from the frozen ice if H2O is discovered. Then the creation of oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for fuel, again from this water. Food will be another problem and if plants are to be send in the form of seeds, or plants, a greenhouse with the proper atmosphere will have to be created prior to mans arrival to ensure sufficient supplies. What if Nasa or some other organization decides to make Mars more permanent? Who's to say that this decision of who goes and what the long term purpose will be is all up to Nasa? Wha...

One scenerio with Mars is this IMHO. Mars has a rotation or a day that is similar to earth. 24 hours, 37 minutes, 23 seconds is a standard Mars day. Is it possible that Mars does not have life at all and that the longer Mars day has some bearing? Maybe the distance from the sun, and the slightly longer rotational day was not sufficient to create the right environment for the formation of life? Even if Mars does not have the building blocks for life to exist, will we use Mars as a stepping stone for future missions that takes man beyond our solar system? This is certainly a possibility. We can certainly use Mars to position observatories and high gain telescopes to aid in our search for earth like planets. What if we do eventually locate a planet around a distant star that is approximately the same in characteristics to our earth? The distance away from the star is approximately the same and with a 24 hour rotational day? Will there be life on this planet or can life be easily transp...

Let's presume that the "Mars Exploration Rover Spirit" sent by Nasa does discover water. What are the future considerations? Well, with liquid water, this would be the perfect breeding ground for a chemical reaction. Be it organic or inorganic. Anything organic would prove that life exists on Mars. Anything inorganic would indicate that there is a potential for future chemical reactions or that reactions have occured depending on the molecule(s) discovered. I am not convinced at this stage that we will discover any complex molecules or organisms on Mars yet that would have derived from the presence of water. We will have to keep our eyes open to see what the Rover Spirit uncovers.

Currently there has been over 40 attempts to land on Mars. Either by the Russians, Europeans, Japanese but only the United States have been successful. All are looking for the presence of liquid water at this stage. Water happens to be one of the key elements for the creation of life as we know it. If and when we do find water, this will certainly pose a question. Did Mars at some point have life or does life still exist on Mars in some primitive form? As for water, this will certainly increase humanities need and interest in sending a person to Mars. We will be able to use water for living and also assist in the creation of oxygen for breathing. Will we discover water in liquid form? The next few weeks and months will bring some interesting reports from the current Mars rover.

We are on the verge of setting a "FOOT on Mars" just like we did in the 70's with the lunar man missions. What is the "Future of Mars"? We are not sure yet but before we do actually send a person to Mars, I can suggest some ideas on what may transpire in the short and long term. Bob