A Mars Odyssey

Before we get started, I would like to personally thank Fraser Cain of Universe Today for allowing me to host the Carnival for the very first time EVER!! I hope I don’t misspell “teh” or something, but don’t count on it. I would also like to thank all the Carnival of Space bloggers for their excellent quality submissions of which I am so impressed with, hopefully giving their websites the credit they deserve with their articles. If I screw up anywhere, please let me know. Everyone else sure does but let us not go there, shall we?

There will be no designated theme this week for the Carnival of Space, as Space itself is the theme. And space does not involve just NASA or just ESA, or any one organization nor one person, successfully needing to become an international cooperative among all races and countries for the same goal–promoting a healthier Earth as we explore space for human exploration. An example is the International Space Station, which will soon be finished with the hard work and planning of many nations.

On a personal level, for myself as editor of “A Mars Odyssey” supports the National Space Agency’s recommendation of support for Space-Based Solar Power, or SBSP, on Earth for a healthier alternative to a new clean source of energy:

“The solar energy available in space is literally billions of times greater than we use today. The lifetime of the sun is an estimated 4-5 billion years, making space solar power a truly long-term energy solution. As Earth receives only one part in 2.3 billion of the Sun’s output, space solar power is by far the largest potential energy source available, dwarfing all others combined. Solar energy is routinely used on nearly all spacecraft today. This technology on a larger scale, combined with already demonstrated wireless power transmission (see 2-minute video of demo), can supply nearly all the electrical needs of our planet.”

Now that we have had our little say–ON WITH THE ONLINE SPACE SHOW!!

Matt Sullivan, online editor of “Popular Mechanics”, has sent us their latest article on “No Life of Mars“. Last week Popular Mechanics broke the story on NASA’s confirmation of water ice on Mars, with the space agency’s latest claim to “no life on Mars” providing the online magazine a first in-depth look at what the actual picture is on Mars:

“Less than a week after NASA announced that its Phoenix Lander has positively identified water on Mars, the agency today dampened enthusiasm for the search for Martian life by announcing the probe has found a toxic chemical that is not friendly to life. Although media leaks of today’s announcement started the buzz on indications that life could not exist on the planet, scientists inside and out of the Phoenix program hold out hope that Mars could still harbor organisms ….”

In Kenneth Murphy’s entry this week, he focuses on “Out of the Cradle: Chronicles of the New Space Age“. Anyone interested in reading books on the last generation of space stories for juveniles and those who are young at heart would more than enjoy the Summer Space Reading Camp Pt. IV: The Old High Frontier for space reading, such as the second in the Moonbeam series, “Moonbeam at the Rocket Port”. For interested readers, go to this website for good books to read:

Summer Space Reading Camp:
-The New Moon: relatively newer (and available) titles to directly appeal to today’s youth
-The Old Moon: classics from another time
-The New High Frontier: newer tales of the exploration of the Solar system
-The Old High Frontier: classic names which will never be forgotten

It seems that Stuart Atkinson of England and his “Cumbrian Sky” blog has written of the latest NASA decision to come forth to the public regarding the lack of life on Mars due to the find of perchlorate, after weeks of painstakingly testing and research. What he has also is the most recent media teleconference that was recently given by NASA on Tuesday evening, and put out a detailed press release too, giving their side of the story and facts. On his blog scroll down to the red, and there you will have it.

What is exciting here is the fact SO MANY people excitedly want to find life on Mars, and to be told different after such small hints of life on the magical red planet is almost devastating to those on Earth who desire such a find. So sad…and thank you Stuart for bringing NASA’s statement out in public for those who have not read heard it yet.

But if you are rather artsy and like beautiful things other than news, look at his “Midnight Sun” download of an artist’s view of the midnight sun, experienced by the Phoenix lander on the northern arctic plains of Mars. Not only beautiful but absolutely gorgeous music harmonizing with the movements of the planet and sun.

I also want to thank Australia’s Ian Musgrave & Peta O’Donohue for their weekly contribution, and personally congratulate Ian for his 10th anniversary last April of his website Southern Sky Watch 2008 in addition to countless weblogs. Excellent!!

This week’s article was titled, “Now That’s a Thin Crescent Moon” which quite obviously refers to not being able to see the moon on August 3 due to it’s crescent viewing. But where is the Moon? It’s below Venus! But you can’t see it!

“One thing I hadn’t counted on was the thinness of the Moon, at only 22 hours past new and 10 degrees from the Sun the crescent was only 1.2% illuminated and stuck deep in the twilight. Although this is not the most extreme crescent Moon, it made it dashed hard to see, and near impossible to photograph.”

Astronomer and physics professor Tyler Nordgren of the University of Redlands in southern California has sent in the latest posting in the Astronomy in the National Parks series in the Planetary Society website, referring to astronomy taking place at the Glacier National Park in Montana. His second trip up to the park in Montana, Professor Nordgren sounds as if this is his world to be in. Read and you will wonder why you are not there also, as he travels to twelve parks in twelve months, a journey across the American landscape, exploring the connections between the parks and the wonders of the night sky.

“I just returned from two nights at the back-country Granite Park Chalet just beneath the Continental Divide (where guests must hike in and hike out over some of the most beautiful country I’ve yet crossed). During a gorgeous, clear first night, we had nearly a dozen campers spread out on picnic tables and benches watching for the first traces of the Perseid Meteor shower due to peak during the second week of August. The manager of the chalet informs me that she is looking to begin educational workshops at the remote chalet devoted to areas of flora, fauna and eventually astronomy.”

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Louise Riofrio, from her blog A Babe in the Universe, has sent in a fascinating article that is entitled “Water and Life” — excellent reading, but I found her entire blog not only enjoyable but enlightening. A full-time researcher in cosmology, Louise’s article for the week refers to water found on both Mars and Titan, in addition to thinking that “the centres of Earth, Titan, Enceladus and even mighty Saturn could be locations of Black Holes.”

“When NASA someday announces that the speed of light is slowing or that a Black Hole exists in Earth’s core, it will be because of overwhelming evidence from multiple sources.“

Thank you, Louise, for the kind words in the contribution email and you are very welcome.

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Another excellent submission was sent in by Darnell Clayton who does the Colony World’s blog, with his article titled “Moon Base Plus Amor Asteroids Equals Solar Powered Satellites?”, inspired by Ken Murphy’s “Out of the Cradle“. I have seen this around the Internet and have enjoyed it immensely. Excellent. The minute I read this blog contribution it fascinated me entirely, not only because of the subject matter but how it was portrayed. I enjoy unique thinking and “out of the ordinary” processes.

Darnell’s summary of his article was that in order to build solar powered satellites to fuel our future economy, humanity may have to turn towards Earth nearest neighbor–not to mention a few nearby space rocks. That ought to entice many to read his article!!

“If extraterrestrials were (un)fortunate enough to visit our rowdy planet, they would realize that our civilization is powered by death. For our civilization to survive, to expand, and to literally keep the lights on our species must harvest the compressed liquid of billions of dead things–also known as fossil fuels.”

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Dr. Ian O’Neill of England is the owner, editor and writer of Astroengine.com and also writes for Fraser Crain’s Universe Today, writing about Fraser Crain’s invitation for him to go to the Directors Guild of America on Sunset Blvd. (LA) for the “Fly Me to the Moon” movie premier.

How very exciting it must have been to meet legendary ex-astronaut Buzz Aldrin and legendary British actor Tim Curry, all in one spot–and what a spot it was! I and many others anxiously await your write-up of “Fly Me to the Moon” after August 15th when it hits the streets. Congratulations!!

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Last but not least is Will Gater who has sent in something a little bit different, with his promotion of the video Episode 17 of the Hubble Telescope and its history. He runs his blog “WillGater.com” and is a full-time science writer, in addition to being an astronomer.

He summarizes this first part of a series about the Hubble with, “This first episode introduces the great players in the telescope’s design and invention - including Galilei, Lipperhay and the pioneers of early observational astronomy like Huygens, Herschel (whose house is just down the road from where I am writing this!) and the Earl of Rosse.”

“One of the legacies of next year’s International Year of Astronomy will be the education of people from around the world about the history of the telescope and astronomy. As part of this, the team at ESA Hubble has just released a great new vodcast/mini-documentary about the history of the telescope’s invention, in preparation for next year. This first episode introduces the great players in the telescope’s design and invention - including Galilei, Lipperhay and the pioneers of early observational astronomy like Huygens, Herschel (whose house is just down the road from where I am writing this!) and the Earl of Rosse. This vodcast is actually part of a series that the ESA Hubble team are making so look out for the next few episodes. It’s a perfect introduction to the history of the telescope if you’re learning astronomy, or if you’re simply interested in the halcyon days of leviathan telescopes and the great discoveries of those brilliant early astronomers.”

This is something to see and hear, as the world has never been the same since the development of the first telescope by Galileo. Galileo? WRONG!!! Check it out.

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Briony Horgan has just sent in his article from his blog The Martian Chronicles, titled “Phoenix Update: Pondering perchlorates“. Like most space bloggers, the word perchlorates has eveyone in a tizzy. Unlike most space blogs, The Martian Chronicles goes even further to do a detailed article on what perchlorates are, and what they mean to Mars and life.

DID Phoenix detect perchlorates?
At this point, the results are too inconclusive for the team to make a concrete statement about the presence or abundance of perchlorates in martian soils. So, the answer is: we don’t know. All we can say is that some of the results are consistent with perchlorates.

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With Dave Mosher of Discovery Space getting his weekly Carnival contributions lost in space before their arrival, it is a miracle they are here “alive and kicking” and ready to go–BUT here they are in the niche of time. His first contribution is Jennifer Ouellette’s blog “Cocktail Party Physics” where she approaches humor through the post of Tim McSweeney’s “Physical Theories as Women“. When she analogizes the works of science as men as a rebuttal, she looks at humor as basically something that comes around/goes around which after looking at Timothy McSweeney’s website causes more than a humorous response while poking fun at men in a rather–shall we say–scientific way?

Another of Dave’s contributions was Chris Lintott’s blog, “Space Across the Pond” and his article “Surprisingly Stars Steer Seals“. Fascinating is his writing of a new experiment which shows harbor seals that use the star Sirius to migrate, an article which will obviously need to be followed up for the migrating seals:

“All of this was rattling around my brain when I found a remarkable story on the BBC this morning. It’s based on this paper by a team of researchers in Denmark and Germany who have been studying the behavior of harbor seals (hence the picture above). Remarkably, we didn’t know how marine mammals like seals navigate at night, and it was this problem that Bjorn Mauck and colleagues set out to solve.”

Canadian Alan Dyer’s blog “What’s Up Astronomy?” offers us his excellent astronomy article on “Total Eclipse-Success in the Arctic”. The first individuals to view the total eclipse was those of Alan Dyer’s group:

“I’ve never seen a eclipse from as close to the start of the path as we did this time. This meant we intercepted the shadow where it first hit the Earth, where the shadow was long and narrow. We saw it coming at us from behind, looking like ominous dark sky rushing toward us. As it hit the Sun, the last bit of sunlight disappeared behind the Moon in a spectacular diamond ring.”

How beautiful this writing is as if poetry had taken hold of our blogger and gave his fingertips wings instead of a keyboard. Very, very nice, Mr. Dyer.

David Mosher’s Discovery News: Space Disco is his final contribution with the total eclipse story, “Total Solar Eclipse: The Vicarious Experience.” Of course I had to look up the word vicarious to see what kind of experience I had missed out on–which I had, I am ashamed to say! SO I personally found his blog quite interesting to say the least and so will others who missed out or need more detailed information on the eclipse. Thank you Dave for going the extra mile and contacting me for the article submission. I appreciate it and hope it is to your liking.

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I am afraid to say several blogs have not been received until today, OF WHICH I am adding as I speak. My apologies to all of you, and hopefully all those lost articles have now been found.

To start with is is Emily Lakdawalla’s “The Planetary Society Weblog“, an organization I thoroughly enjoy when researching for my blog. Her article for the week is “The Phoenix Flap” where she discusses the issue of NASA providing no special briefing about what happened regarding the “discovery concerning the potential for life,” which makes the entire problem of what has recently happened on Mars a whole less interesting for the majority. It kind of lets the air out of the balloon–so to speak.

Another thing Emily brings up is the fact that maybe this brings into focus the scientific aspect of life:

“In the end, I believe that this whole flap will teach us little about the past habitability of Mars. But there’s a chance to use it to teach people about how the scientific process works, and what happens when scientists are confronted with apparently contradictory data.”

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Brian Wang shares his article on a very interesting subject–near and dear to us all. Space has radiation and a new anti-radiation damage drug that is about to complete human testing now. The carbon nanotube based drug is 5000 times more effective against radiation damage than current drugs when tested on mice. The work is being done by James Tour at Rice University. This drug is part of a larger plan to re-invent civil defence and make nuclear bombs ten to hundreds of times less deadly.

Advanced radiation shielding has applications in space colonization. Making to tougher to kill people and destroy civilization would allow more time to develop space. Vastly reducing the dangers and perhaps fears of radiation and nuclear weapons may eventually allow the use of better nuclear space propulsion like nuclear bomb powered Orion ships or gaseous core nuclear ships.

http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/08/simple-and-affordable-defences-against.html

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Chuck Magee has sent in a good write-up on the newly discovered signs of perchlorate salts in the Martian soil. It is a word that has taken hold of everyone who is even “slightly” interested in Mars and life on another planet, to be sure.

“The understatement of the week belongs to Michael Hecht of the Mars Phoenix lander mission, who said, “different types of perchlorate salts have interesting properties that may bear on the way things work on Mars.”

Several other statements are to be found on his website article, “Perchlorates are dangerous!” from his blog, Lounge of the Lab Lemming, and of a wide variety of truth variations such as NONTRUTHS– ““It is an oxidant, that is, it can release oxygen, but it is not a powerful one…. The compounds are quite stable and do not destroy organic material under normal circumstances.” It really makes one wonder what the media was reading or not reading at that point?!

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Phil Plait, of The Bad Astronomer and now on Discovery, has sent in an article illuminating a subject NOBODY has touched on yet–politics. Good job, Phil. His article is of course, “Obama and McCain on space exploration” which is something most of us have kept an eye on for obvious reasons. Money, money, money. Obama gave a speech, which he does so well, and McCain gave a simple press statement, which he also does so well.

What I enjoy is this “small smidget” in Phil’s blog, which I feel everyone should really read as he represents both sides in a fair comparison:

” … either candidate, upon taking the White House, may cut or increase funding for NASA. We know for a fact that promises made in the campaign — especially ones done in the shortening months before the election — have little likelihood to be transubstantiated into reality after the inauguration (look up the phrase, ‘Read my lips: no new taxes’ as a prime example). So take whatever either man says with a few moles of salt.”

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For those of us who enjoy astrology but need a little brushing up, or simply know ‘nada about it and want it, this week’s entry by Wilson Afonso of “Astronomy Down Under” is a joy for those who like to learn. A little bit of “Astronomy 101″ can be found in his Carnival of Space contribution, focusing on ” … the fact that astrology has been repeatedly proven to be bunk has not caused it to be abandoned. This has many people in “our” camp feeling somewhat depressed at the apparent futility of trying to educate people who don’t want to be educated.” Not everyone wants to learn, and that is a fact. But learning about science is almost a must in the world of today, at least to some degree.

“…why is it that we have so much trouble getting the general population to accept and believe in scientific information (properly researched and reviewed), while the purveyors of “alternative” information find such a receptive public? I don’t have an answer to that; I wish I did. “

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~~~~~~ And the highlight of the Carnival of Space is ~~~~~~

Ed Minchau’s

“Space Feeds:Space Video of the Day”

This week’s space video of the week at his Space Feeds is

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

Enjoy the video and also the comics on his website!!

If you want popcorn, drinks and candy–stock up at the local grocery before the show!!

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Paul Scott Anderson has three blog contributions this week from his blog “the meridiani journal“–a chronicle of planetary explosion. The first entry is about the developing situation with the Phoenix since the morning of the media teleconference on August 5th, explaining the presence of perchlorate salts in the Martian soil. Titled “phoenix results explained” it also contains the download of the actual media conference by NASA if any of you missed it.

According to Paul in his second blog contribution that is titled “ethane lake on titan“, confirmation has occurred of a liquid ethane on Titan’s south pole at Ontario Lacus by the Cassini spacecraft in what appears as some form of a lake. This is unique in the fact it is the first to be measured by Cassini’s instruments.

The Cassini spacecraft has confirmed that the lake-like feature near Titan’s south pole is indeed a lake of liquid ethane. Ontario Lacus is slightly larger than Lake Ontario on Earth, and just one of hundreds of similar lakes found near the north and south poles of Titan, but is the first to have its composition measured directly by instruments on Cassini. A beach-like shoreline can also be seen in the images.

The third blog article is simple titled “water world“–enhanced by an image so beautiful it appears to be a work of watercolor art of an ancient delta in Jezero Crater. Focusing on the most recent developments of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, it appears that Mars was once a very wet world with lots of images to prove it, along with highly technical data.

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Dr. Bruce Cordell has brought into the Carnival of Space the thought that both the U.S. and China are on a trajectory — maybe a collision course — as described in his article the “U.S. and China Prep for the Next Race to Space” in his blog “21st Century Waves” under the Wave Guide 5: International Space, Wave Guide 7: NASA Programs.

“On July 29, NASA announced a new, groundbreaking multinational agreement with 8 countries — India, Japan, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and South Korea — to cooperatively explore the Moon using the International Lunar Network (ILN).“

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Sean Welton has sent us his blog “Visual Astronomy” with the article “Visual Astronomy: Perseid Meteor Shower 2008. The Perseid Meteor Shower is an annual event, and Sean does an excellent job in describing what is considered the most popular meteor shower there is. According to his calculations, from August 8th to the 12th is when this meteor shower will develop in the north - northeast anytime after 2 am, with its peak Monday (August 11th) to Tuesday (August 12th). A spectacular display, around 100 meteors an hour will be seen as the moon will fade the rest away. Read the article, enjoy the historical meteor showers. It will be worth the time spent.

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In Jim Plaxco’s blog Artsnova Digital and Space, his article of this week’s Carnival of Space is about “A Space Election Year“. The article pertains to Jim receiving his National Space Society Board of Directors election ballot, chosen as one of the candidates to be chosen for the At Large seat on the NSS board. An interesting article to read, there is quite a bit that goes into this position and its process, more than the average person could ever know.

Rest assured, it looks like all 17 candidates are well chosen for the running, with Jim Plaxco a high contender:

“And just what does the National Space Society’s Board do? According to the NSS Bylaws, the Board is … responsible for the overall supervision, control, direction and governance of the property, activities, and affairs of the Society, its committees and publications; shall determine its policies or changes therein; shall actively prosecute its objectives and supervise the disbursement of its funds;… and the list goes on.”

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Bruce Irving’s blog, Music of the Spheres brings us another excellent article on being “Stuck on the blue marble?” A kindly yet intelligent retort to a remark made by one of his readers, Bruce Irving handled it quite well, I think. Better than I would have, as I do not consider anyone “stuck” on the blue marble–referring to being stuck on Earth. Stuck on a way of narrow thinking by some, but space vision is well accepted for one reason or another as it benefits the “blue marble” in more ways than one, as described in the article. Nice piece of work that addresses the human race who live on the blue marble. Everyone should read this article:

“It’s easy to be cynical and pessimistic, but I believe optimism is a better strategy. Maybe nothing much will happen in the next 8 or 15 years, but I’m optimistic that space will open up vast new opportunities for mankind, and that new discoveries and developments will come along that will again make it exciting to more people.

This blue marble isn’t so bad. We can still do a lot with it and we should. But “bound here forever” is a lot like those predictions of respected physicists and others who confidently said in 1902 that heavier than air flight was essentially impossible. It’s a very shortsighted view, unless your “forever” only extends through an administration or two.”

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David Portree has sent in two blog articles from his Altair VI blog, “Altair VI: Quick-to the escape pods!” and “Altair VI: Merits of a locality sample“. The first one refers to the aftermath designs of an escape pod after the destruction of the 1986 Challenger incident. The images were arranged by David to demonstrate the process of what the designers went through for a rapid evacuation of astronauts from the ISS in case one was need. The article touches an important area that most do not consider for the safety of those who are dedicating their lives to science–a LONG ways from Earth!

The second article is about the Mars Sample Returns mission and its many faces of change since its first baby-steps prior to the 1980s. “Beginning in the 1980s, MSR plans increasingly called for a highly capable automated rover that would wander far over the martian surface collecting a diverse suite of samples. By the 1990s, this came to be widely viewed as an MSR mission requirement.” What I like is–as heavy as the article is–it is ran clean and simple so it is easy to understand. The comments are handled immediately and well with respect and decency. I really enjoyed this blog, David. Good job.

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Offered by Paul Gilster is Centauri Dreams with Larry Klaes. The article, “Two Telescopic Anniversaries” by Larry, looks back in history as a kind of rest spot for the mind. It begins with the Hale Telescope and continues into one of the nicest pieces of historical work I have seen in a long time. In this one, Larry looks not only at the Mt. Palomar instrument but also the beginnings of the telescope at the hands of Dutch oculist Hans Lippershey, with side remarks on Galileo.

Well-written and thought out, it appears anything but “dry.” I especially enjoyed reading about Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo Galilei to name a few quite tremendously, but I enjoy history!!

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Ethan Siegel, Astrophysicist, sent in his article “How to Block Out the Sun“, referring to the properties of an eclipse and how they work. He also looks at solar eclipses in depth with full images to assist in the understanding of the process, which helps readers understand it much better.

“But sometimes, even when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, it doesn’t make a shadow on the Earth! This is because the Moon has a huge variety in its distance from the Earth. When it’s closest to the Earth (perigee), it’s 220,000 miles away. But when it’s farthest from the Earth (apogee), it’s 252,000 miles away, which means it appears about 15% smaller in diameter in the sky”

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Original Art work by Nancy Houser — pencil

Well, that is all for this week. Fine articles and lots of information for everyone to read in one area–how good can it get? I thank everyone who contributed because without you this would not be possible. thank you.

Editor: Nancy Houser

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 11:23 pm and is filed under Mission History, Mission Objectives, Public Relations, Space Agency News, Technical Concerns, The Gear to Get There, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.