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Showing posts from 2007

How to Send Rovers and Various Equipment to Mars

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....

The Future of Mars After 3 Years

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...