Posts tagged mars

ExoMars moves on (via https://www.flickr.com/photos/europeanspaceagency/50397911967/)

Closeup view of the 3D printed scalpel handle (right hand) and “claw” (left hand)

This is the first image ever taken from the surface of Mars of an overcast sky. Featured are stratus clouds coming from the northeast at about 15 miles per hour (6.7 meters/second) at an approximate height of ten miles (16 kilometers) above the surface. The “you are here” notation marks where Earth was situated in the sky at the time the image was taken. Scientists had hoped to see Earth in this image, but the cloudy conditions prevented a clear viewing. Similar images will be taken in the future with the hope of capturing a view of Earth. From Mars, Earth would appear as a tiny blue dot similar to how a star would appear to an earthbound observer. Pathfinders’ imaging system will not be able to resolve Earths’ moon. The clouds consist of water ice condensed on reddish dust particles suspended in the atmosphere. Clouds on Mars are sometimes localized and can sometimes cover entire regions, but have not yet been observed to cover the entire planet. The image was taken about an hour and forty minutes before sunrise by the Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) on Sol 16 at about ten degrees up from the eastern Martian horizon. (via http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/MPF/science/clouds.html )

Russell’s teapot, sometimes called the celestial teapot or cosmic teapot, is an analogy first coined by the philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) to illustrate that the philosophic burden of proof lies upon a person making scientifically unfalsifiable claims rather than shifting the burden of proof to others, specifically in the case of religion. Russell wrote that if he claims that a teapot orbits the Sun somewhere in space between the Earth and Mars, it is nonsensical for him to expect others to believe him on the grounds that they cannot prove him wrong.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_teapot

“Mars One respectfully requests GAIAE to cancel the Fatwa and make the greatest Rihla, or journey, of all times open for Muslims too. They can be the first Muslims to witness the signs of God’s creation in heaven, drawing upon the rich culture of travel and exploration of early Islam.”

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/02/20/mars-one-to-muslims-end-fatwa-and-come-fly-with-us/

The Mars simulation we’re setting up is called Hawaii Space Exploration Analog & Simulation or HI-SEAS. It’s primarily a food study. One of the main problems during long-term space travel is so-called menu fatigue. It’s basically astronauts getting tired of their food and losing appetite. By the way astronauts do not eat out of tubes and do not swallow food pills. That’s an old persistent cliché which is still in a lot of people’s minds. It’s almost an archetype of astronaut life. However this dates to the ’50s and ’60s, and has been long abandoned. The food that astronauts currently eat is pretty good, but it’s all pre-prepared. It’s add-water-and-heat, and you have your meal. But even those meals, even when they try to make variations, after a couple of months people get tired of that, and so they start to eat less. As a consequence they might also perform less, and jeopardize the mission.

http://blog.ted.com/2013/03/22/spatzle-in-space-fellows-friday-with-angelo-vermeulen/

Preliminary version of Curiosity sol 2 360-degree Navcam panorama, polar projection (via http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2012/08082211-curiosity-sol-2-navcam-full-frame-mardi.html)

Curiosity’s heat shield falling toward Mars (via http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2012/08072140-msl-mardi-first-full-res.html)