Space news topic and space related news

[Clarke]

Well, yeah, but we don't need to worry about that, considering humanity's only been around for 1/500th of that time. 

[Tsanten Eywa 'eveng]

3 days now till Curiosity lands on Mars

Here is a video of a conference NASA, possibly a few hours ago
Mission overview of the Mars Science Laboratory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP-IR0MkZfs

also Mission Engineering overview of Mars Science Laboratory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwXe_X4UKoM

[Tsanten Eywa 'eveng]

What if Curiosity finds life on Mars?


http://www.space.com/16885-mars-life-curiosity-rover.html


If all goes as planned, NASA's Curiosity rover will touch down on Mars late Sunday night. Then, after a few weeks' respite, it will begin probing the subsurface soils looking for organic molecules that could be the detritus of ancient Martian life.

A few billion years ago, vast oceans might have sloshed over the surface of the Red Planet, and a thick atmosphere probably enshrouded it. The liquids and gases have all but burned away by now, but any organisms Mars harbored in its ancient glory days would have left behind traces in the form of large, carbon-based molecules. "Organic molecules can last for billions of years," explained Alexander Pavlov, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.


We're not alone:
As for how the discovery of Martian microbes would impact the average human, "we've done this experiment before," Shostak said. In 1996, the headline on the front page of the New York Times exclaimed, "Clues in Meteorite Seem to Show Signs of Life on Mars Long Ago," after NASA scientists incorrectly concluded that they had found microscopic fossils in a meteorite denoted ALH84001, which originated on Mars.

So, how did people react to the news?

"The public was very interested, but I can't say there was a sudden outbreak of world peace, or people rioting in the streets," Shostak said. "I don't think it would change day-to-day behavior. The long-term consequences are a little less predictable, because it affects religious belief if Earth isn't all that special."

At the very least, alien life would resurrect the evolution versus creationism debate, said Jacob Haqq-Misra, a research scientist with the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, a nonprofit research institute. If Martian microbes contain DNA, a telltale sign that they're our ancestors, Christian fundamentalists' sentiment that we're far too special to have descended from monkeys might be repurposed toward denying the possibility of our descent from Martian microbes. "The philosophical and religious implications of microbial life are easy to ignore, because the discovery of microbes does not necessarily imply that human beings are any more or less rare," said Haqq-Misra, an astrobiologist formerly at Penn State.

[Clarke]

If Martian microbes contain DNA, a telltale sign that they're our ancestors, Christian fundamentalists' sentiment that we're far too special to have descended from monkeys might be repurposed toward denying the possibility of our descent from Martian microbes.

Did I read that right? Why would Martian microbes having DNA imply we that descended from them? I'd have thought the reverse argument would be easier: both forms of life use the same biochemistry because they've both been created by the same God.

[Tsanten Eywa 'eveng]

If Martian microbes contain DNA, a telltale sign that they're our ancestors, Christian fundamentalists' sentiment that we're far too special to have descended from monkeys might be repurposed toward denying the possibility of our descent from Martian microbes.

Did I read that right? Why would Martian microbes having DNA imply we that descended from them? I'd have thought the reverse argument would be easier: both forms of life use the same biochemistry because they've both been created by the same God.

Scientists, think that microbial life were transported to Earth, by a comet or meteorites/asteroid, that contained ice-crystals
Then it evolved more in the further years, and this was some few billion years ago. They think that an object impacted Mars, when it was warmer, had oceans, and a thick atmosphere. These rocks, or meteorites blasted off the martian surface, and travelled in the solar system, and then they impacted on Earth

Some think, it was a comet, coming from some place and then impacted Earth
I don't know which theory is right

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

Life as we know it is so unique and complex, that the chance that life arose independently on two worlds and ended up exactly the same, is about the same as the chance of winning ten different State lotteries in a week, five years in a row. Either Mars seeded Earth, Earth seeded Mars, or something else seeded both of our worlds.

It would be even more exciting to find life on Mars, but based on a very different biochemistry.

[Clarke]

If Martian microbes contain DNA, a telltale sign that they're our ancestors, Christian fundamentalists' sentiment that we're far too special to have descended from monkeys might be repurposed toward denying the possibility of our descent from Martian microbes.

Did I read that right? Why would Martian microbes having DNA imply we that descended from them? I'd have thought the reverse argument would be easier: both forms of life use the same biochemistry because they've both been created by the same God.

Scientists, think that microbial life were transported to Earth, by a comet or meteorites/asteroid, that contained ice-crystals
Then it evolved more in the further years, and this was some few billion years ago. They think that an object impacted Mars, when it was warmer, had oceans, and a thick atmosphere. These rocks, or meteorites blasted off the martian surface, and travelled in the solar system, and then they impacted on Earth

Some think, it was a comet, coming from some place and then impacted Earth
I don't know which theory is right

I don't really see how the bacteria could get up onto a comet, really. It takes a very, very large amount of energy to get stuff out of a planet/moon's gravity well, and the sorts of events that turn planets or moons into comets have a tendency to vaporize any life in the way. (Life arising without an ocean is very difficult, and there are no oceans on comets.)

[Tsanten Eywa 'eveng]

Mars Science Laboratory is just 30 hours away for landing at the Gale Crater on Mars
it will touchdown 1:31 am Eastern Daylight Time

Curiosity misson stauts and entry, descent and landing overview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yB9-oMj2ew

[Tsanten Eywa 'eveng]

you can follow the landing on NASA TV

Curiosity is 14 and a half hours away from touchdown on the red planet
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

[Taronyu Leleioae]

I'm really curious to see if this "sky-crane" cable lowering system to land Curiosity on Mars is going to work.

And hopefully some day we'll actually go there and pick up all the pieces we've littered across the surface.

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

Kosman nang nang nang nang!!! Curiosity just performed an utterly flawless landing on Mars! Within a couple minutes, it sent images confirming that it is sitting as it should, and is ready to go!

Some statistics:
Touchdown velocity: -.607398 m/sec V, .044365 m/sec H
Vehicle attitude: 4.37° from local gravitational vertical
Location on Mars: Lat -4.591815, Lon 137.440247 (Lat may be slightly in error)
Sky crane fuel left at flyaway: 140.6 kg (quite a bit, a good thing)

[Tsa'räni]

I don't really see how the bacteria could get up onto a comet, really. It takes a very, very large amount of energy to get stuff out of a planet/moon's gravity well, and the sorts of events that turn planets or moons into comets have a tendency to vaporize any life in the way. (Life arising without an ocean is very difficult, and there are no oceans on comets.)

Some research suggests it might be possible, especially with larger impact events, for something to survive.  All of that is treading on extremely theoretical ground, though.  Still, it doesn't appear beyond the realm of possibility.  There are certainly a lot more barriers and questions than just that aspect, but getting something alive out of the gravity well may be possible (and is one of the biggest challenges to explain).

Wild 2 is also thought to have contained liquid water, which while not an ocean, is intriguing.  One thing is certain - every time we claim to know how things out there work, we're very often proven wrong in relatively short order.  Considering some of the tidbits we've glimpsed so far, I think it's too soon to close the book on such transference.  But I would say it's far more likely organic building blocks may have been deposited, rather than life itself.

Also, welcome to Mars, Curiosity.  The coverage was fantastic to watch.

[Seze Mune]

I don't really see how the bacteria could get up onto a comet, really. It takes a very, very large amount of energy to get stuff out of a planet/moon's gravity well, and the sorts of events that turn planets or moons into comets have a tendency to vaporize any life in the way. (Life arising without an ocean is very difficult, and there are no oceans on comets.)

Some research suggests it might be possible, especially with larger impact events, for something to survive.  All of that is treading on extremely theoretical ground, though.  Still, it doesn't appear beyond the realm of possibility.  There are certainly a lot more barriers and questions than just that aspect, but getting something alive out of the gravity well may be possible (and is one of the biggest challenges to explain).

Wild 2 is also thought to have contained liquid water, which while not an ocean, is intriguing. One thing is certain - every time we claim to know how things out there work, we're very often proven wrong in relatively short order.  Considering some of the tidbits we've glimpsed so far, I think it's too soon to close the book on such transference.  But I would say it's far more likely organic building blocks may have been deposited, rather than life itself.

Now that's a scientific way to look at it! Once we decide we know it all and that no more discoveries remain to be found, we've foreclosed our entire scientific process.

[Tsanten Eywa 'eveng]

What a beautiful picture of the surface on Mars what Curiosity has taken

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia16032.html

[Tsanten Eywa 'eveng]

As I can say, this will never gonna happen
India is not a big space-nation


India is set to launch an unmanned mission to Mars next year, the country's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced this week.

The Mars Orbiter Mission will mark India's first mission aimed at the Red Planet and has been approved by India's Cabinet, Singh said during a speech Wednesday (Aug. 15) to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the country's independence from the British.

"Under this mission, our spaceship will go near Mars and collect important scientific information," Singh said, according to an official transcript. "This spaceship to Mars will be a huge step for us in the area of science and technology."

The Mars mission is slated to launch in November 2013 and cost about 4.5 billion rupee ($82 million), according to the Associated Press.

India's Mars mission announcement comes on the heels of the landing of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, which touched down on the Red Planet on Aug. 5. The $2.5 billion Curiosity rover weighs a ton and is the size of a Mini Cooper car. NASA expects the rover to spend at least two years exploring its landing site, Gale Crater, to determine if the region could have ever supported microbial life.

India has been working to expand its space program in stages and successfully launched an unmanned orbiter to the moon in 2008. That spacecraft, called Chandrayaan-1, was instrumental in proving that water ice exists on the lunar surface.

read more: http://www.space.com/17159-india-mars-mission-2013.html

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

Interesting. If too many more Mars probes are launched, we are going to have to send a robot there to clean up space junk in orbit there...

'Mars is hard', if any of you remember that from the Curiosity mission. Russia tried to launch a very challenging probe to Mars last year that was to land on the moon Phobos, collect a sample and return it. It never made it out of earth orbit (They are not sure what failed, but are blaming it on the launch vehicle. The spacecraft went dead just after making it to orbit.). The probe reentered uncontrollably, and was a significant hazard because of how much fuel was on board.

But if India can put a spacecraft in orbit around Mars for just $82 million USD, they will embarrass the rest of the world. $82 million in the US wouldn't even pay for the launch vehicle.

[Niri Te]

I want to see how far it gets before something goes RADICALLY wrong.

[Tsanten Eywa 'eveng]

Scientists have found out what materials is needed that planets can form

Planets may not be able to form without a heaping helping of heavy elements such as silicon, titanium and magnesium, a new study suggests.

Stars that host planets have higher concentrations of such "metals" — astronomer-speak for elements heavier than hydrogen and helium — compared to iron than do planetless stars, the study found.   

"To form planets, one needs heavy elements," said lead author Vardan Adibekyan, of the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto in Portugal.

Planets coalesce from the disk of dust and gas left over after the birth of their parent star. According to the leading theory of planet formation, the core accretion model, small particles clump together, growing larger and larger until they produce protoplanets.

Scientists have long suspected that stars with higher metallicities are more likely to have planets orbiting them. Iron has long been a primary indicator.

Read more: http://www.space.com/17265-planet-formation-heavy-elements.html

[Clarke]

I want to see how far it gets before something goes RADICALLY wrong.

It's very unlikely something will go wrong with Curiosity, since it's arrived on Mars safely. NASA are very meticulous about their engineering. 

[Tsanten Eywa 'eveng]

I want to see how far it gets before something goes RADICALLY wrong.

It's very unlikely something will go wrong with Curiosity, since it's arrived on Mars safely. NASA are very meticulous about their engineering. 

I definitely trust NASA. They do most of their projects succsessfully, in case some goes wrong
We can name for an example, the Colombia and Challenger Space Shuttle disasters
Also, the European Space Agency, they too, I haven't heard they have had some failures in their projects

Have you heard about the project Mars One?
Dutch scientists are planning manned Mars mission in 2023. I do believe they will succsess. Dutch people are really professional
in engineering

Uuuuh, maybe that was a little... off-topic