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Saturday, January 1, 2005 | |
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Happy New Year |
 | Fireworks
Credit: Unknown |
From the Red Colony team to all, Happy New Year. We wish all of you the
best and we hope to have a good start to this New Year. To all in
school, good luck; to all who work, enjoy and don't stress too much;
and to all, carpe diem (responsibly, of course). The Red Colony team
has been busy for the past month writing both articles and code. Look
forward to new articles and features this month.
On the 3rd and 25th of this month, Spirit and Opportunity,
respectively, landed on Mars one Earth year ago. Congratulations to the
MER year and we wish them and the rovers many more months of operating
pleasure.
- posted by Jim @ 11:57 EST
(permanent link) |
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NASA Mars Science Laboratory to Coincide With ESA, Russia |
 | Artist's conception of the Mars Science Laboratory.
Credit: NASA/JPL |
NASA has announced that its next rover on Mars, the Mars Science
Laboratory, will launch in 2009 and arrive in 2010. This coincides
closely with NASA's Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, the ESA's ExoMars rover and Russia's Phobos probe.
This is largely due to both the increased interest in Mars as well as
the limited launch windows available (approximately every 2 years) to
get to Mars at a low cost. All of the missions on Mars are expected to
communicate with each other and the Earth through an "interplanetary
internet" system facilitated by the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter and
the older orbiters, which will relay messages to the Deep Space
Network. Although there are concerns over an extreme bandwidth problem,
as the data coming in exceeds the ability of the world's space agencies
to handle, there is much hope that the problem will be overcome by the
Mars Telecommunications Orbiter and new tracking stations coming
online.
The Mars Science Laboratory will probably be the most capable
mission ever launched. It will be much larger than even the MERs, and
will be powered by a radioisotope generator,
which will allow it to last much, much longer than any previous rover
and allow it much greater choice in landing sites, as it will no longer
be contrained in latitude by solar power concerns. Even more
incredibly, it will attempt a controlled descent to the surface, and
will try to choose its landing site with unparalleled accuracy. No more
bouncing across the rocky plains, hoping that a rock won't puncture the
airbags. The rover will be expressly designed to ferret out signs of
life, containing instrumentation that can detect hydrocarbons and other
complex molecules that may signify life, as well as tools to examine
the water cycle on Mars and other related areas.
(More info: New Kerala, JPL)
- posted by Brian @ 18:29 EST
(permanent link) |
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Better Solar Panels |
 | Solar panels at sunrise.
Credit: Unknown |
The University of Toronto has created a revolutionary new solar panel
(more of a solar "film") that is 5 times more efficient than
traditional panels. At 30% efficiency, it is about as efficient as our
cars are at turning gas into movement. The new film consists of quantum
dots (interesting arrangements of semiconductors) and plastic polymers. The
film can capture infrared light, which is why it is more efficient. The
film can be put anywhere: walls, roofs, hats, and even woven into fabrics.
This technology could pave the way for a truely wireless world, one in which we could
recharge our portable devices where we stand. Science labs in
remote locations could also benefit by not having to have a gas or
nuclear generator next to them. Speaking of remote, few things would be
as remote as a base on the surface of Mars. Solar power is another very
efficient, and most likely affordable, alternative to nuclear power on
Mars.
(More info: CTV.ca)
- posted by Jim @ 20:38 EST
(permanent link) |
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Wednesday, January 12, 2005 | |
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New Short Story: Teaching Jacob |
 | Lightning crashes in a desert.
Credit: Unknown |
We have received the first new submission of the year. Brunnen G has sent us a short story entitled, Teaching Jacob. This imaginative story of a man terraforming his own planet ends in his discovery of his own fate and the history of mankind. Here's a snippet:
This is the desert. From horizon to horizon it is flat hardpan, broken only by black sores of glass left by frequent blasts of lightning from the ceaseless storm overhead. The clouds are purple and heavy; they promise rain but never deliver. There is no sign of life here, and with good reason, there is no life here, not so much as a microbe.
Just a note to those of you who are unaware: Red Colony will accept your very own articles or short stories about colonization, terraforming, or anything related to Mars. Just visit the Submit Work page.
- posted by Alex @ 16:30 EST
(permanent link) |
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Thursday, January 13, 2005 | |
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Opportunity Finds a Weird Object |
 | The object.
Credit: NASA/JPL |
Roaming away from the debris field, Opportunity found a hunk of
something on Meridiani Planum. "We're curious about it too. We have
Mini-TES data on it now, and they suggest that it may actually be made
of metal," said Dr. Steve Squyres, principal investigator of the Mars
Exploration Rovers. "So we are beginning to suspect that it may be
a meteorite. I stress that this is very preliminary!" The next thing on
NASA's list is to test the object with Opportunity’s Instrument
Deployment Device (in laymen’s terms, the robot arm which has
scientific instruments, such as the Mössbauer Spectrometer, the Alpha
Particle X-Ray Spectrometer, and a Rock Abrasion Tool).
Huygens will land tomorrow. I will post something as soon as information comes in. Godspeed to the Huygens team.
(More info: Space.com)
- posted by Jim @ 20:53 EST
(permanent link) |
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Huygens Lands |
 | An artist's rendition of Huygens.
Credit: Universe Today |
After 7 years of space flight with Cassini and a half-month of flight
by itself (since Dec. 25), the Huygens probe has landed on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan.
Since 5:25 AM EST, the probe has been sending back a carrier signal
that
was picked up by the Green Bank radio telescope in West Virginia, US.
This signal was the probe's way of telling us that it was alive. It
contained no scientific data (by design). The probe descended through
Titan's thick
atmosphere as it told us that its back cover was off as planned. It
then released a large parachute, and later, a smaller one to
help slow it down before it landed.
At approximately 11:19 AM the ESA received scientific data from the
probe. This was humankind's first attempt at landing on anything in the
outer solar system. It is worthy of note that Huygens has already
outlived its expected lifetime, as many had predicted that Huygens
would land on a hydrocarbon sea and sink immediately. The ESA is
analyzing the data being forwarded by Cassini, from which we hope to
gain a greater understanding of this planet-sized moon with such a high
content of hydrocarbons. If the mission is successful, it may lead to
further attempts in quests for life on Titan, where there are more of
the right chemicals for life than perhaps any other place in the Solar
System except Earth, and perhaps Mars.
As more news and pictures arrive, we will post updates. Our congratulations to the ESA for a job well done.
(More info: Universe Today)
- posted by Jim @ 13:15 EST
(permanent link) |
First Image Arrives from Huygens |
 | First image from Huygens.
Credit: ESA/NASA/Univ. of Arizona |
The first image ever taken of Titan's surface has arrived to Earth. The
picture shows a possibly active riverbed network and to its right a
solid featureless area which some analysts claim to be a lake of
turpentine. While all of the data Huygens transmitted has been received,
the ESA and NASA have yet to interpret it all or release any pictures
other than this one.
- posted by Alex @ 15:31 EST
(permanent link) |
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New Article: Terraforming Mars: An Economic Requirement |
 | The economic need.
Credit: concilium.de |
Giorgio Gaviraghi has written an article entitled Terraforming Mars: An Economic Requirement. In it he outlines some ideas for colonizing and terraforming Mars that, he claims, have rarely been discussed. He focuses on development of the Martian economy as a separate and distinct entity from that of Earth. Here's a snippet:
The overall plan for a first mission to Mars consist of a total of four missions, two unmanned and two manned, following Buzz Aldrin cycler theories, reutilizing, where possible, the same equipment. The general schedule consists of a total of 12 years from the go ahead to the return to Earth of the first manned crew. This schedule includes preliminary studies and tests for site selection and other support infrastructures for the first manned mission generally not considered in most reference plans.
- posted by Alex @ 0:18 EST
(permanent link) |
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Paypal Founder Close to Cheap Rockets |
 | A Falcon rocket by SpaceX.
Credit: Florida Today |
Within a year, the cost of launching payloads into space may drop dramatically.
Or so says Elon Musk, founder of PayPal, and more recently, SpaceX. His
company plans on launching commercial payloads with their two new
rockets for as little as $6 million for light payloads to $18 million
for payloads equivalent to a Delta II or Delta IV-Medium. That's about
a 70% in reduction of cost.
The reasons why he is doing it are even better. The company,
if it succeeds, will make money. That's not the issue for the
philantropist, though. His goal is not only to make space launches
inexpensive, but to make them inexpensive for his original goal: a
biosphere to land on Mars, at a tiny price tag of $20 million. This is
in conjunction with his cooperation with the Mars Society to launch a
spacecraft to test long-term human adjustment to low gravity
situations, and his dream of eventually colonizing--and
terraforming--Mars. Musk may just represent the private interest that
Mars enthusiasts have been hoping for for decades.
(More info: Florida Today, Space.com, SpaceX)
- posted by Brian @ 14:34 EST
(permanent link) |
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Super Light Sail Could Shorten Mars Trip to One Month |
 | Artist's depiction of the Planetary Society's solar sail.
Credit: The Planetary Society |
Forum member tricky1992000
has let us know of a fantastic new method of interplanetary propulsion
based on a new type of light sail. Traditional light sails rely on
light from the sun or a laser striking the surface of a huge, thin
material connected to a spacecraft for propulsion. This method results
in good flight times for long duration flights, but that isn't enough
for normal interplanetary travel. Other methods of propulsion either
are expensive, take too long, or are controversial.
Now we may have the answer. Famous author-physicist Gregory Benford
and his brother have developed a revolutionary new type of light sail
that relies on gas particles trapped in the fabric of the sail. As the
source of light (Benford suggests an upgraded Deep Space Network) strikes the target,
the gas heats up and is expelled out the back, providing propulsion. As
the gas is depleted, the sail becomes an ordinary light sail, still
capable of propulsion.
With flight times reduced to one month, down from the six of a
conventional rocket, trips to Mars can be made safer and cheaper, with
more ability to do science. If the method works out, our solar system
could be filled with light sail craft, with propulsion stations placed
around the system to provide quick and cheap transportation to all of
Earth's colonies.
(More info: New Scientist)
- posted by Brian @ 14:59 EST
(permanent link) |
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