Blog #10

My Topic

                       Elon Musk, the founder of the first commercial space flight company, SpaceX, has announced, on November 16, that SpaceX will spend $500,000 (per trip) on sending a grand total of 80,000 men to the martian soil.  Obviously, all of those men won't be sent to Mars at one time.  The project includes sending men overtime, and with each trip to Mars, will include the ability to have man sustain itself.  Musk has said that the entire project will cost $16 billion, and some of it will have to be offset by government agencies.  Elon has also said out of the whole project, the majority of the money will be funding the beginning, which is sending large amounts of supplies so that the astronauts can begin to develop a base on Mars.  

                         Luckily,  SpaceX has already tested the, "Grasshopper"  rocket on 2 different occasions.  Both tests was sending a unmanned, reusable, rocket up into outer space and successfully retrieving back from space.  Along with successfully docking the Dragon rockets with the International Space Station,  I have no doubt that SpaceX is leading the world in space exploration, and could one day very well overtake government agencies in the involvement of space exploration!  To read on about SpaceX and their plan for the future, you can read an article at:   http://io9.com/5963349/spacex-founder-unveils-plan-to-send-80000-people-to-mars

Blog #9

My Topic:  Should Space Travel be Government or Public Funded

                   In my opinion, the journey to Mars as well as other space destinations should rely on the effort of both, but mainly the public.  Public figures like SpaceX, Mars One and Dennis Tito, (who claims he will be able to send a man and women to Mars and back to Earth by 2019), are the one's who should provide the actual rocket designs and the funding, when government agencies, mainly NASA, carries out the mission.  The bottom line is, as shown by the number of delays made by NASA, space travel should be up to the public.  Even right before the lunar landings happened, dreams of sending a man to Mars began sprouting among the public.  However that dream has been delayed for over 40 years now.  

                  With the arrival of SpaceX (who has recently docked their first unmanned supply spacecraft with the International Space Station) and Mars One (who has already collected some funds for every section of the entire Mars project), the progress of space travel will accelerate, and will one day, probably, be able to carry humans to Mars.  In conclusion,  the mission of travelling to Mars shouldn't be entirely held by the government.  If you wish to see more about what crazy things are going on in the race to Mars, here is a link: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/27/17120657-going-to-mars-in-2018-concept-is-so-crazy-and-simple-it-just-might-work?lite

Blog #8

My Topic

                Some of the difficulties of colonizing on the martian soil involved the sun, the surface temperature and the thinness of the martian atmosphere.  First of all, Mars is far too cold to be habitable for humans.  The surface temperature from about -87 Celsius in the early morning, to -20 Celsius in the afternoon.   Next, the atmosphere is too thin to block the surface from anything harmful that comes from outer space.  Harmful affects include, solar radiation,  solar winds and just about anything that comes from the sun that involves heat.  

                 How NASA plans on dealing with the inability of the martian atmosphere is by terraforming it.  The process of terraforming includes slowly melting the dry ice polar caps, that way carbon dioxide flows upward resulting in a thicker and more habitable atmosphere.  NASA plans on melting the polar caps by using a heat mirror from outer space to reflect the suns heat downwards. Once the atmosphere can protect the surface from the harmful effects, it will be time to start engulfing the surface with plants.  Since plant life takes in carbon dioxide, it exhales oxygen which is what we, humans, breathe in.  Humans exhale carbon dioxide and then it turns into a cycle making Mars habitable for humans to explore! 

Here we have one of the polar caps, which is dry ice. 

Blog #7

My Topic

                            Ever since the beginning of the space age, sending a man to Mars has been one of the main dreams.  At the same time, however, scientists and enthusiastic astronomers noticed how much such an event could cost, the risk and the worth.  The main fear is the landing system and how a probe (or manned spacecraft) could go from a velocity of 4 to 7 kilometers per second to 0 and still be in one piece.  Astronomers also noticed how the Martian atmosphere  is just big enough to be a worry for the touchdown phase of a mission to Mars.

                            Some of the different types of landing systems include, the legged system, which was used on the Apollo missions and the Viking missions.  There is the air-bag landing system which was utilized on the Spirit rover.  There was the sky-crane system which was just used on the curiosity mission and lastly there was touchdown sensing.  Both the sky-crane and touchdown systems was used on Curiosity's landing. The easiest to use was probably the air-bag system because it is okay if the probe hits the ground and is still moving.  The most complicated landing system is the sky-crane because if there's too much tension then the ropes could snap.

Blog #6

 My Topic

                    It seems that Dennis Tito, the founder of a private space organization called, "Inspiration Mars Foundation" is planning to work with SpaceX to send a flyby mission to Mars by 2018!  Apparently Dennis Tito was the first commercial astronaut who came aboard the International Space Station during 2001. Overall, he spent a total of $20 million on the voyage.  Dennis vows to the claim that he and SpaceX will only use existing technology for the sake of keeping everything cheap and reusable.  Another way in which he will keep the cost down is by only pursuing a brief fly-by of the red planet.  

                His main objective is to spark the planning of a manned mission to Mars into a spur of progress.  After the fly-by mission in 2018, he then plans on using reusable technology, designed by SpaceX, to send a man to Mars.  He does seem to get the fact that NASA is constantly sending mission to Mars, however they are run by robots, rather than humans.  Which is why he wants to send a man to Mars, because he believes sending a man will obtain the full potential of the mission, especially when it comes to finding either life itself or signs of life.   

Blog #5

My Topic

                             Even though it may not seem like NASA has done anything to plan for a series of manned missions to Mars, they have been planning for quite a while now.  For example, the whole reason why the government decided to fund the ISS (International Space Station) was to figure out how to live in space, for a set amount of time.  That amount of time could include 3 months to 5 - 10 years.  That is exactly why they ISS scientists have been at work for over 15 years now when the project was started in 1998.  However, construction for the ISS has many dates for its beginning because the station is made up of many different space stations from other nations.  Other nations who contributed in the construction of the International Space Station was USA, Russia, and many European nations. 

                              More recently speaking, on March 1st of 2013, a private space company called SpaceX, launched a space capsule called Dragon, aboard a Falcon 9 rocket,.  This capsule is meant to give the active space scientists supplies, such as food, water.  As it turns out, NASA is planning to make the ISS a permanent human outpost in space. If you wish to learn more about the ISS and NASA's effort to set a man on Mars, here is the link: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Blog #4

My Topic

                         The amount of time that Spirit and Opportunity was expected to live was about 90 days, however, those two exceeded the time frame by quite a lot. Spirit lasted multiple years before it lost one of its wheels, drove along Mars for a little while longer and got stuck again in an area now know as Troy.  During its escape of Troy was the highlight of its life, in which it found soil, rich with sulfates which is a component of Steam.  According to NASA, this means hot or boiling water could have once existed on Mars. Unfortunately, Spirit stopped sending signals back to Earth in 2010, but Opportunity was still roaming the martian soil. During the July of 2010, it sent back its 100,000th signal back to Earth. 

                         The next mission after Curiosity is MAVEN, Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission.  The reason for MAVEN is to use the different models of the Sun, and to estimate how much water Mars has lost due to solar winds filled with radiation that come from the sun. MAVEN is scheduled to launch later this year. "The instruments for it are already built." (Zurek par 44) However, at this moment, NASA is currently focused on a 2,000 pound project called, "Curiosity."