Anticipation of putting people on Mars is growing, especially because of all the hype from NASA and SpaceX to eventually have permanent human settlement there. On the other hand, such goals still feel like they are out of reach for numerous technical reasons. Regardless, the United States government is now stepping up to the plate and telling NASA that it’s time to begin considering our options for getting there as soon as possible. In a new bill that has been passed unanimously by Congress, NASA is being asked to realize this goal by the 2030s indefinitely. The bill provides the space agency with $19.5 billion worth of funding for the year of 2017. Image Credit: ahundt/Pixabay NASA originally revealed their rough draft plans for sending humans to Mars back in 2015 and submitted them to Congress, but ideas for making the trip possible have since evolved and Congress is calling for a more mature roadmap. What we do know is NASA would have to utilize their massive, heavy-lifting Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to send things to Mars. This will be the most powerful rocket NASA has ever made and said rocket isn’t quite ready for the events to come yet. This funding is expected to help make the rocket become a reality. The bill also covers some other important space-related initiatives, including sending a probe to Europa to study a possible subsurface ocean, sending the Mars 2020 rover to the red planet to help search for life, and searching for unknown near-earth objects (NEOs) that could potentially rip holes in our planet and pose safety risks in the future. Of course, the bill still needs to make it past President Trump. This likely won’t be much of a problem considering his outspoken support of space exploration previously, but at this point in time the bill is still just a bill. It’s worth noting that this is the first bill of its kind to be issued for NASA with completely new initiatives in more than six years, which is huge. Not only is this good for NASA, but it’s good for humanity as a whole because it helps to propel our scientific capabilities and understanding forward. There is a lot of work to be done if Mars habitation is to be made a reality. Not only do we need reliable transportation, but we need to set up a place where humans can safely live on the red planet despite how it lacks a protective atmosphere and we need to have a greater understanding of how space travel impacts human health. Dealing with the atmosphere problem, a recent concept for putting human visitors to Mars in ice domes would be perfect for repelling radiation from space and allowing astronauts to live safely. Human health is also being actively looked into thanks to the year-in-space mission that NASA astronaut Scott Kelly recently participated in with his identical twin brother. While much of this futuristic space science will probably take a lot of time to bring to fruition, the good news is that should this bill pass, NASA will get the funding it needs to ensure history-making space events happen in the foreseeable future. It should be very intriguing to see where this goes. Source: Space News

NASA’s Opportunity rover landed on the Martian surface on January 25th, 2004 to explore in the name of science, but mission scientists weren’t expecting the rover to survive more than 90 sols (Martian days) at the time. Fast-forward to now, and Opportunity has done nothing but continue to surprise us all. The Opportunity rover celebrated its 5,000-sol milestone in February 2018, but just a few months later, Opportunity would be in for a considerable challenge. Mars was brewing a wicked planet-wide dust storm, and the skies quickly became too dense for Opportunity’s solar panels to absorb any sunlight. Image Credit: NASA Shortly after the dust storm materialized in June, Opportunity delivered a status report to NASA scientists, and it wasn’t long after we received those radio signals from the distressed rover that it fell entirely silent. The Opportunity rover had entered a deep sleep known as hibernation mode, and despite several attempts to reestablish a connection, NASA hasn’t heard back since. Related: Martian dust storm clears, sparking hope for the Opportunity rover If anything’s certain, it’s that the American space agency hasn’t given up on the Opportunity rover just yet. While it’s entirely possible that the Opportunity rover has finally kicked the bucket, it’s also conceivable that residual sand from the dust storm has caked itself on top of Opportunity’s solar arrays, preventing the rover from waking up from its slumber. Assuming the latter is true, then passing winds or even another dust storm could potentially clear the debris from the rover’s solar panels. It’s still dust storm season on Mars, but unfortunately, there haven’t been any dust storms powerful enough to do so since last Summer’s monster storm came and went. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) continuously scans Mars’ surface as it orbits the red planet, and photographs returned by the MRO reveal where the Opportunity rover has become stuck. Unfortunately, those images aren’t sharp enough for scientists to discern whether the rover’s solar panels are covered in sand or not. Related: The Curiosity rover's wheels are starting to break down NASA continues to rely on the Deep Space Network (DSN), a radio dish array that can scan for signals from Mars’ Opportunity rover, but with the red planet’s Winter season closing in, NASA’s limited time window to hear from Opportunity and turn it back on is quickly closing. Despite what looks like precarious situation for NASA’s Opportunity rover, the space agency’s nuclear-powered Curiosity rover continues to operate at full capacity. Without solar arrays, Curiosity can function regardless of sunlight availability, and NASA’s upcoming Mars 2020 rover will follow in Curiosity’s solar-less footsteps. Whether the Opportunity rover makes it out or not, it seems NASA will have other rovers to explore the Martian surface with for many years to come. Source: Universe Today

NASA hasn’t sent any of its astronauts to the lunar surface for scientific exploration since the Apollo 17 mission launched from Earth’s surface on December 7th, 1972; but that could all change in the very near future. Image Credit: Pixabay Fast-forward to today, almost 46 years after the last crewed Apollo mission rose above the Earth’s atmosphere, and the American space agency is announcing new plans to put astronauts on the lunar surface yet again. NASA announced these plans by way of a public statement on Wednesday, in which the space agency describes its plans to transition away from low-Earth orbit (I.E., the International Space Station) and inch closer toward a Moon-centric future. As it would seem, NASA wants to kick things off with a Moon-orbiting space lab, one that may perhaps share similarities with the modern Earth-orbiting International Space Station. Astronauts would conduct similar research inside of this Moon-orbiting space lab no later than 2023, and NASA would try to put astronauts on the lunar surface again by the late 2020s. “This will be the first chance for the majority of people alive today to witness a Moon landing – a moment when, in awe and wonder, the world holds its breath,” the NASA statement said. “However, America will not stop there.” Image Credit: NASA The Moon-orbiting space lab, which NASA refers to as a “Gateway,” would serve as much more than just an International Space Station replacement, however. Instead, it would become the first step toward a multi-checkpoint deep space transit infrastructure. “The Gateway also will be assessed as a platform for the assembly of payloads and systems; a reusable command module for lunar vicinity and surface exploration; and a way station for the development of refueling depots, servicing platforms, and a sample return facility,” the space agency wrote. Related: International Space Station astronauts repair an air leak in the Earth-orbiting space lab The statement also reveals how many components for this so-called “Gateway” are already under construction, and how NASA will assemble it in space just like the original International Space Station. They’ll be ferried into space with NASA’s Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, in addition to space vehicles from commercial vendors such as SpaceX. But what about Mars? Doesn’t NASA still have the same ambitions to send astronauts to the red planet for scientific research? Absolutely! According to NASA, revisiting the lunar surface and establishing the Gateway to deep space is a vital first step in solidifying future missions to Mars. Admittedly, however, these missions probably won’t happen as soon as initially anticipated as challenges remain. “The first human landing on Mars – audacious in its complexity – will be an achievement recalled with awe far into humanity’s future,” NASA explained. “Key components of the Exploration Campaign already are underway and include long-duration human spaceflight on the space station, development of advanced life support systems, and continuing to lead and advance the world in deep space science missions.” Related: Russia wants to build a lunar base by the 2030's In the midst of NASA prepping its Gateway and putting astronauts on the Moon to better understand the mechanisms behind deep space missions, the space agency will continue to rely on robotic missions to Mars, including that of the InSight mission and the Mars 2020 rover. Given the complexities of getting human astronauts to Mars safely, taking these baby steps toward a brighter future filled with deep space missions is a great and very wise idea. It should be interesting to see everything come together in the future. Source: NASA

Without a doubt it’s of high interest to land human beings on the red planet for the first time. Space agencies are talking about it every day, and so are the commercial rocket companies that want to help us get there. Boeing and SpaceX are both on-board with it, and NASA has a pretty good idea of how they’re going to make it happen, but it’s still not going to happen for another couple of decades or longer. Nevertheless, should we be considering the negative side effects that putting human beings on another planet besides Earth might have for them? According to a study published in Nature Scientific Reports, astronauts put on Mars may suffer from dementia and cognitive dysfunction as a result of being bombarded from the charged particles found in cosmic rays. Image Credit: Getty Images The effects were first seen in rodents that were subjected to charged particles at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory for long periods of time. Neuro scans revealed long-term brain damage to the parts of their brains that would deal specifically with memory. Even six months after, inflammation and other problems were present. “This is not positive news for astronauts deployed on a two-to-three-year round trip to Mars,” said Charles Limoli, the professor of radiation oncology in UCI’s School of Medicine. “The space environment poses unique hazards to astronauts. Exposure to these particles can lead to a range of potential central nervous system complications that can occur during and persist long after actual space travel – such as various performance decrements, memory deficits, anxiety, depression and impaired decision-making. Many of these adverse consequences to cognition may continue and progress throughout life.” Mars doesn’t have a very thick atmosphere like the Earth does, and as a result, anything on its surface is relatively vulnerable to the different kinds of harmful light rays that could harm human beings. Obviously, Mars-based astronauts will live inside of habitation modules with pressurized air and radiation protection, and will wear special space suits any time they venture outside of that module, but still it’s only going to protect them so much. But even then, that’s not where most of the risk is posed. Much of that comes from the space in between the Earth and Mars, where there’s no longer any magnetosphere to protect astronauts during transit. It would take a long time for a spacecraft to travel from Earth to Mars, and this is where most of the hazard occurs. Some of the things we can do include increasing the amount of shielding on parts of the spacecraft where astronauts will sleep or spend long periods of time, but other things are being explored as well. Preventative medicines that could help with astronauts’ immunity to these possible mental side effects are also being looked into. Source: University of California, Irvine

It’s been less than two weeks since NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander touched down on the Martian surface. Nonetheless, it’s already conveying valuable information about our red planetary neighbor back to scientists here on Earth. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech Soon after InSight began spreading its solar arrays and powering on certain scientific instruments, its onboard air pressure sensor and seismometer each captured subtle vibrations that could only be described as the wind on Mars. Perhaps more importantly, the recorded vibrations can be heard in the audible range of human hearing. "Capturing this audio was an unplanned treat," explained InSight principal investigator Bruce Banerdt. "But one of the things our mission is dedicated to is measuring motion on Mars, and naturally that includes motion caused by sound waves." Related: NASA is learning more about InSight's landing site post-landing Curious about what it sounded like? Well don’t think too hard about it – wind is wind, regardless of which planet it transpires on; nevertheless, you can listen to NASA’s audio full track below. Note: it’s best heard with headphones. Citing NASA’s official statement on the matter, InSight’s air pressure sensor captured these air vibrations directly, while the lander’s seismometer captured them indirectly by way of spacecraft vibrations that were caused by wind moving over the solar panels. Given the circumstances, one might say that each sensor validated the other’s findings. The recordings were captured on December 1st, and as it would seem from the data, the wind was blowing approximately 10-15 miles per hour from Northwest to Southeast. “The InSight lander acts like a giant ear,” said InSight science team member Tom Pike. "The solar panels on the lander's sides respond to pressure fluctuations of the wind. It's like InSight is cupping its ears and hearing the Mars wind beating on it. When we looked at the direction of the lander vibrations coming from the solar panels, it matches the expected wind direction at our landing site." Related: NASA reveals the landing site for its upcoming Mars 2020 rover While it’s undoubtedly remarkable to have heard the winds of Mars for the very first time, InSight’s seismometer has a significantly more critical task ahead: attempting to detect and study the mechanisms behind Marsquakes. With a little luck, perhaps InSight will give planetary scientists a better understanding of how Mars formed. Still, only time will tell. Source: NASA, YouTube

While NASA’s Perseverance rover has been tirelessly sending back images of Jezero Crater on Mars since it landed in February 2019, it recently sent back a video comprised of 21 images of a Martian dust devil that further demonstrates similarities between Earth and Mars, even though the latter is inhospitable for life as we know it. These images were taken with the rover’s Navcams on August 30, 2023, which is also the 899th Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission, and the resulting video was sped up 20 times. This particular dust devil has been estimated to be approximately 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) away and traversing east to west across the Martian surface at approximately 12 miles per hour (19 kilometers per hour). Despite the bottom 387 feet (118 meters) only being visible in the images, they were able to calculate its diameter to be approximately 200 feet (60 meters) across. “We don’t see the top of the dust devil, but the shadow it throws gives us a good indication of its height,” said Dr. Mark Lemmon, a planetary scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and a member of the Perseverance science team. “Most are vertical columns. If this dust devil were configured that way, its shadow would indicate it is about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) in height.” While this video helps captivate the varying Martian surface features, Mars missions have a long history of sending back videos of dust devils from the Red Planet. They were first identified by the NASA Viking orbiters in the 1980s and later imaged by NASA’s Pathfinder rover. Most recently, the Perseverance rover make the first-ever audio recording of a dust devil on September 27, 2021, or the 215th sol of the mission. While Martian dust devils form in the same manner as dust devils on Earth, the Martian dust devils are much larger, as depicted in this most recent video. This is possibly due to the one-third surface gravity and the Martian atmospheric pressure is a fraction of Earth’s. How many more Martian dust devils will future missions to the Red Planet reveal in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science! As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! Sources: NASA JPL, NASA, Sixth International Conference on Mars, NASA (1)

Scientists and astronauts-to-be alike use the MDRS (Mars Desert Research Station) habitat in the middle of the Utah desert to study what it’s like to live in solitude in a space-like environment. But now IKEA, the popular DIY furniture company, will be sending its own furniture designers there. They will be joining a collaboration between NASA and Lund University students to learn more about the struggles of saving space (in space) in order to find ways around several boundaries. Image Credit: IKEA It might seem like an incredibly odd mix: furniture designers going to a Mars learning facility. You might be thinking: FOR WHAT!? Well, it turns out there might actually be a host of underlying benefits to furniture engineering inspiration to be had from this unique, and somewhat questionably relevant, experience. Since astronauts are forced to live in cramped quarters on the International Space Station and will also be forced to do so in any possible future trips to another planet that we might have in store, IKEA hopes that sending its furniture designers to the MDRS habitat will inspire innovative new space-saving furniture designs that can help in cramped urban environments right here on Earth. Related: NASA needs to come up with a Mars habitation concept by 2018 As anyone from New York City and other densely-populated areas alike will tell you, having a ton of people living in one area yields smaller living quarters for everyone, but IKEA thinks it can help with space-savings in these small-space living situations by offering furniture that better-fits these kinds of cramped environments. “It’s a crazy, fun experience. We’re basically completely isolated for three days to get a taste of what astronauts go through for three years. It’s almost like that misery you feel when you’re out camping. But of course, it’s great to be able to sit down and really spend time with amazingly creative people. That in itself is a luxury,” IKEA Creative Leader, Michael Nikolic said in a statement. IKEA hopes that perhaps they'll be able to innovate something for when astronauts finally make the trek to Mars. There are, of course, still some other potentially game-changing benefits to possible innovations sparked by living in an astronaut-like environment at the MDRS habitat. After all, every rocket that launches needs to conserve space, and IKEA is great at making space-conserving DIY flat-pack furniture. It should be interesting to see if this collaboration yields any creative new designs that could change the way humans live in cramped environments; perhaps it might even spark new innovations for habitation in space and on Mars. If it doesn’t, at least the IKEA employees will have a chance to live like an astronaut for three days. Source: IKEA via Wired

The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced this week that it has made its first major rocket burn maneuver for the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter mission since its launch in March of this year. The mission is a joint effort between the ESA and Roscosmos. Image Credit: ESA The process was required to better align the spacecraft’s trajectory to ensure that it meets up with its target as smoothly as possible. This is because scientists can only guess the best possible launch trajectory based on math and our understanding of the solar system, but everything doesn't always add up, so adjustments may be necessary to get things going where they need to go. It took place in the space in between the Earth and Mars yesterday morning at 9:30 GMT and was carefully performed and monitored by engineers at the Darmstadt, Germany mission control center. Moreover, it wasn’t a surprise adjustment; rather, it was one that has been planned for some time. “Today’s burn was the biggest of the four planned that will enable ExoMars to intercept Mars and precisely deliver the Schiaparelli lander on 19 October onto Meridiani Planum, a large, flat region near the equator,” said Michel Denis, flight operations director. The spacecraft is currently traveling through empty space towards Mars, where it will tango with the planet in October. The spacecraft has already traveled more than half way through its 500 million kilometer journey. It’s carrying a special payload called the Schiaparelli entry, which will test landing technology that will hopefully be used in the future 2020 rover. If it can successfully land on the red planet's surface without any issues, it'll be the first time a European spacecraft lands on the Martian surface and relay information back to Earth. While the payload lands on Mars, the orbiter is going to remain in Mars’ atmosphere, continuing to orbit the planet. The orbit will take place some 400 kilometers above the planet’s surface, where it will take gas samples of the planet’s atmosphere along the way. Its goal will be to try and find some of the gasses that are known to be a byproduct of life, such as methane. Before it gets into orbit, however, there are two additional planned adjustments that will be made with the spacecraft’s onboard rockets. Those will help get the spacecraft into proper orbit around the planet, where it will stay for its entire scientific life, which should last through to 2022. Understanding how the Martian environment works is very important for future deep space missions, especially those that involve sending mankind there, which is on the to-do list of not only NASA, but also SpaceX. Source: Astronomy Now, European Space Agency

Of all the planets orbiting the Sun, perhaps Mars is one of the most interesting. Not only is it more like Earth than any other planet in the Solar System, but its close proximity has made it possible to explore the red planet up close with rovers. Curiosity is the most recent rover mission to partake in exploring Mars; rolling around on its surface ever since it landed there in 2012. One of the places Curiosity has been responsible for exploring is the Gale crater, which has a unique composition that NASA believes could paint a detailed picture about the red planet’s cloudy past; and indeed it has… Image Credit: NASA Two new studies – one published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters and the other published in Science – suggest that not only did the Gale Crater once have water in it and the potential for being habitable by microbial life, but it remained this way for much longer than we previously believed. The conclusion was reached by studying the chemical composition of sediments at different levels within the crater with Curiosity’s onboard instruments. Related: Curiosity takes a selfie after drilling at Buckskin The crater was once filled with surface water, but as the surface began to crack, that water then seeped into the cracks. As the water receded, it left behind several layers of sediment with different compositions, which depended on how long they were exposed to the air and ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. These factors impact the chemical composition of the rocky layers, and so we can use them to determine the conditions. The team looked for ratios of aluminum to calcium and sodium to find out what conditions the rocks were exposed to. These ratios can tell us whether the rock was exposed during a cooler or warmer climate, and for how long. Notably, layers at the top of the crater revealed hints of a cooler climate, while those near the bottom revealed hints of a warmer climate; this sequence pointed to Mars being much colder in the beginning and slowly warming up and drying out over time. During this time window of climate change on Mars, estimated to have occurred between 3.8 and 3.1 billion years ago, scientists believe the planet had the potential to be habitable. This 700-million-year gap is longer than any previously-estimated window of habitation on Mars yet. Worthy of note, these timeframes seem to correlate with the beginning of life on Earth. Related: Check out these dust devils that were spotted on Mars' surface by Curiosity Complete with not only water, a range of climate over a long period of time, and a smorgasbord of chemical compounds, scientists now think that Mars was once very Earth-like with habitable conditions and that the red planet tells a story about what happens when a planet’s habitability is slowly stripped away. “I don’t think we expected that we would be able to understand this much detail about the chemical conditions in the lake that existed 3.5 billion years ago. This was actually a very Earth-like environment,” study co-author Joel Hurowitz from Stony Brook University explained. While Curiosity has helped find the spots of the planet that may have once been potentially habitable, the Mars 2020 mission, scheduled to launch in the future, should help find actual traces of life. After all, all life forms leave behind some kind of trace evidence that’s just waiting to be sniffed out. There's still some debate about where it should land, but any of the possible landing sites are sure to offer a treasure trove of information that we need to tell Mars' hidden story. Related: Curiosity is getting old as its wheels begin to break down It should be interesting to see what all this advanced exploration technology can do given the time we’ve spent hand-picking the best places to explore for signs of life and developing the proper equipment to find what we’ve been looking for. Source: Ars Technica

NASA’s InSight mission is designed to probe the red planet’s internal physical characteristics, including heat emanating from its core and Marsquake vibrations, among other things. One of InSight’s most imperative instruments is the Mole, a device integrated into the mission’s Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package that is designed to dig up to five meters below the surface to gauge subsurface temperature levels. When engineers designed the Mole, they kept Mars’ loose and sandy surface in mind. They ultimately decided that InSight would land in a boulder-lacking region on the planet’s surface and ‘pound’ the Mole through the loose surface material with a revolving hammer that taps on the Mole’s head approximately once every 3 seconds or so. The concept looked great on paper, but those calculations left some important variables out. Soon after InSight deployed its Mole, mission scientists quickly learned that the instrument was meeting unexpected resistance underneath the surface. As much as the hammer pounded on the Mole, it wouldn’t burrow any deeper. Initially, mission scientists thought this was due to a lack of friction in the Martian soil, so they used InSight’s robotic arm to apply force to the Mole as the hammer knocked it down. The aforementioned solution worked well for a while, but upon relieving the arm’s pressure from the Mole, it popped back up out of the surface. Mission scientists are preparing to assess the situation some more before moving on to alternative solutions. If all else fails, NASA will attempt to push down on the top of the Mole with InSight’s robotic arm, a risky procedure that could potentially damage fragile ribbon cables that supply power.

While space agencies may send astronauts to the International Space Station on a regular basis, it’s a bit more complicated to send astronauts on long-term missions to other planets in the solar system, such as Mars. Other planets have vastly-different environments than the one we’re used to here on Earth. That said, space agencies will need to develop specialized habitation modules for human visitors that embark on interplanetary missions. On the other hand, accomplishing such a feat is easier said than done. Some of the primary concerns encompassing such a task includes developing a habitat with enough room for multiple astronauts and ensuring that they can all get along with one another for an extended period. With that in mind, NASA often conducts habitation module tests right here on Earth to study how things might pan out on a real mission. While many are probably familiar with NASA’s MDRS (Mars Desert Research Station) in the middle of the desert in Utah, the space agency now appears to be partnering with the University of Massachusetts Amherst for its next chapter of experimentation. Image Credit: University of Massachusetts Amherst Meet HERA (Human Exploration Research Analog), a three-story mock-habitation module at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas where geoscientist Will Daniels will spend 45 days closed off from the real world with three other participants. “I’d love to be an astronaut, and for some, participating in a research analog mission like HERA is an important stepping stone to becoming an astronaut,” Daniels said in a statement. “In any case, I’m really happy to be able to contribute to the research on human adaptations during space travel and exploration. I’m really, really excited, and a little nervous.” Related: Infographic: How close are we to colonizing Mars? Like other similar experiments, HERA will help the space agency study human behavior and interaction during long-term space missions. The goal is to identify and resolve potential issues that could arise. The participants will spend all 45 days cooped up inside of the habitation module just as they would if they were actually on another planet. There, they’ll live in cramped quarters just like astronauts on the International Space Station; they’ll eat similar food, practice stringent hygiene procedures, and live with limited communication to the outside world, among other things. All the while, NASA will actively monitor the participants. “I’m nervous about getting along in confined space with the other crew members, and I wonder what it will be like not to be able to go outside for 45 days,” Daniels added. “I think Ground Control is going to keep us pretty busy, but I’m bringing books and board games in case there’s downtime. We won’t have email or any usual contact with the outside world, but I do get to call my mom in Minnesota for 15 minutes every other week.” Related: These are NASA's plans for sending humans to Mars Daniels and the other HERA participants will emerge from the habitation module on June 25th. If all goes well, then NASA should end up with a wealth of valuable data that could contribute to a more comfortable way of life for astronauts in the future. It should be interesting to see what we’ll learn from HERA and other related experiments as we inch closer toward a future where astronauts walk the red planet’s surface. Only time will tell… Source: University of Massachusetts Amherst

We all know by now that NASA wishes to create a habitable environment on Mars for humans, but the limited funds and lack of technology at this day and age marks the possibility for such a feat to happen some time decades from now. Congress recently told NASA that they needed to create a prototype of a Mars habitation by 2018, but such a prototype is just that, and still isn’t ready for the big time. NASA isn’t the only space agency interested in deep space travel and habitation. The European Space Agency is also interested in creating a similar scenario on the Moon. In fact, the ESA hopes that mankind could accomplish habitation on the Moon through a 3D-printed habitat some time in the decade of 2020-2030. The habitation attempt will have humans living on the Moon alongside their robotic partners to help learn more about the Lunar surface and the so-called resources that the Moon has that we continue not to take advantage of. Details about the plans were discussed at the December 15th two-day symposium held by the European Space Agency at the European Space Research and Technology Center in Noordwijk, Netherlands. The symposium, which was entitled “Moon 2020-2030 – A New Era of Coordinated Human and Robotic Exploration,” can be read about here. Such a lunar habitation environment might make a good upgrade from the International Space Station. For one, a lunar habitation environment would be far easier to transport goods to, as docking would be less difficult, but it also gives us a use for the modern reusable rocket technology that has been on the to-do lists of major space companies, such as SpaceX and Blue Origin. What’s more is with scientists and robots inhabiting the same land off Earth, data will be easier to collect, analyze, and share with the rest of the world. Humans would also have a greater presence in the event of robotic failure, mechanical upgrades, or sampling, which would reduce costs and improve reliability of systems. The ESA believes that starting with the Moon is a good first step for NASA’s vision to inhabit Mars, especially since the Moon is closer and it gives us a good learning ground for a deep-space mission. Source: Space.com

Orbiting the planet Earth, over and over, collecting data about outer space, microgravity, and their effects on the human body, is the International Space Station and its crew. The International Space Station has reached a huge milestone Monday of this week: it has orbited the planet Earth over 100,000 times since its launch 17 years ago. Of course, the International Space Station is much faster than you’d think. It actually orbits the planet once every 90 minutes because it travels a good 17,500 miles per hour (that’s 10 times faster than the average bullet leaving the barrel of a gun). Over the course of its 100,000 orbit journey, NASA notes that the International Space Station has travelled more than 2,643,342,240 miles, which is about the same distance to Neptune from Earth. It’s also the same as 10 trips back and forth between Earth and Mars, which is good to know because manned Mars trips are definitely in the future plans for NASA’s initiative team. If you’re in the mood for even more statistics about this massive milestone, then you’ve come to the right place, because there are tons more. During the 100,000 orbits it made around the Earth, the International Space Station has been home to 1,922 science experiments, which have led to over 1,200 publications in scientific journals. Throughout those 100,000 orbits around the Earth, there have been tons of different astronauts and cosmonauts from different countries on board; 222 of them to be exact. There are expected to be many more miles traveled, as well as many more astronauts on board, as the International Space Station has an expected service life that should last until around 2024. It’s possible that this may be extended, but still undecided. Space agencies are more interested in setting up bases on other planets, such as Mars. Source: NASA

Buzz Aldrin, the second American astronaut to walk on the Moon following Neil Armstrong, was recently medically evacuated from Antarctica, where he and other scientists were reportedly studying the region in ways that could help us learn more about habitation on Mars. Unfortunately, he became ill while he was there and needed to be medically evacuated to a medical facility in New Zealand. The synopsis was that he was short on breath due to a shortage of oxygen and congestion in his lungs, and so he wasn’t getting enough air. Aldrin appeared to be suffering from a common ailment known as altitude sickness. Image Credit: Buzz Aldrin/Twitter Fortunately, Aldrin appears to be making a recovery now that he’s away from Antarctica, and while Aldrin would have loved to stay to continue on with the research that’s going on there, he won’t be going back (at least for now). “I’m extremely grateful to the National Science Foundation (NSF) for their swift response and help in evacuating me from the Admunsen-Scott Science Station to McMurdo Station and on to New Zealand,” Aldrin said in a statement. “I didn’t get as much time to spend with the scientists as I would have liked to discuss the research they’re doing in relation to Mars. My visit was cut short and I had to leave after a couple of hours. I really enjoyed my short time in Antarctica and seeing what life could be like on Mars. On the other hand, Aldrin just set a world record for being the oldest man (at age 86) to visit Antarctica, so while his trip there was short, he just set another record. While there is still a little bit of congestion in his lungs at this point in time, he’s reportedly doing a lot better. In time, Aldrin will be back to normal. Source: Buzz Aldrin Blog

The European Space Agency plans to send its ExoMars rover to Mars in 2020 to explore the red planet’s surface for signs of past (or present) life. But before that can happen, engineers need to make sure that the rover’s critical internal components can endure the bumpy rocket ride and survive the harsh conditions imposed by the long trip through outer space. Image Credit: Airbus Defense and Space/ESA To do that, engineers placed an exact replica of the ExoMars rover’s core, known as the Structural Thermal Model (STM), on a vibration machine in a Toulouse, France-based facility that can simulate frequencies of up to 100Hz. In the video embedded below, you can see the vigorous vibration testing that the STM experiences before moving onto the next testing phases: Related: ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter is already exploring Mars Upon testing the replica, engineers can discern whether the final design will require any additional modifications before it gets sent to a world more than 33.9 million miles away from Earth on average. If everything checks out, they’ll eventually conduct the same tests on the final ‘flight-worthy’ model. But severe shaking isn’t the only test the ExoMars rover’s core needs to survive; it also needs to withstand space-like temperatures in a vacuum. Engineers can simulate these space-centric characteristics inside of a specially-designed vacuum chamber and ensure that everything operates as expected. Testing space equipment before launch can be a lengthy and expensive process, but it prevents potential mishaps that could have otherwise been avoided. After all, it’s much easier to diagnose and fix problems right here on Earth than it would be in outer space or on Mars. Related: Here are two potential landing sites for the ESA's ExoMars rover It should be interesting to see how the testing fares in the future and whether the ESA will meet its 2020 deadline to launch the ExoMars rover. Source: Airbus Defense and Space via BBC

Many different NASA-made landers, orbiters, and rovers have been sent to Mars over the years to study our red planetary neighbor, but perhaps one of the most exciting missions to be deployed in recent memory is the InSight lander, which teases to reveal Mars’ most profound secrets with the help of specialized instruments. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s InSight lander officially touched down on the Martian surface in November following a six-month journey through space, and it has already deployed most of its science instruments to accumulate data for planetary scientists. Among those was InSight’s SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) instrument, which was designed to detect marsquakes. Mission scientists weren’t entirely sure that SEIS would even detect anything, but their suspicions were purportedly validated on April 6th when the instrument identified an unusual blip in its data stream. Those same scientists now say that this is likely the first-ever detection of a marsquake and that it’s unlikely to be interference from anything on the Martian surface. “InSight’s first readings carry on the science that began with NASA’s Apollo missions,” said Bruce Banerdt, the InSight mission’s principal investigator. “We’ve been collecting background noise up until now, but this first event officially kicks off a new field: Martian seismology!” Related: The InSight lander's heat probe halts digging amid an unexpected obstacle Banerdt connects this discovery with the historic Moon-centric Apollo missions because part of those initiatives involved attempting to detect seismic activity on another world besides our own. NASA successfully distinguished moonquakes during the Apollo era, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the newfangled marsquake data resembles the moonquake data in terms of size and duration, among other things. NASA published the following sound bite on YouTube, annotating the difference between Martian wind, the likely marsquake, and the InSight lander’s robotic arm: NASA went on to explain that InSight’s SEIS instrument detected the likely marsquake 128 days after the lander touched down on the Martian surface (Sol 128). Moreover, SEIS allegedly detected three other signal disturbances on March 14 (Sol 105), April 10 (Sol 132) and April 11 (Sol 133) respectively, but these weren’t as discernible as the one detected on Sol 128. “We’ve been waiting months for a signal like this,” added Philippe Lognonné, the lead scientist behind the SEIS instrument. “It's so exciting to finally have proof that Mars is still seismically active. We're looking forward to sharing detailed results once we've had a chance to analyze them.” Related: Mars' environment is more hostile than initially thought Mars doesn’t exhibit shifting tectonic plates as the Earth does, and so scientists think the red planet’s quakes are caused by something entirely different. Planetary scientists are still trying to determine their source, as it could tell us more about how the planet formed. Fortunately, InSight comes equipped with all the instruments needed to study that department. It should be interesting to see if InSight continues to capture larger marsquake signals, and more importantly, what NASA will learn from them. Source: NASA

How can long-term space flight influence astronaut health, and specifically their organs? This is what a recent study published in Nature Communications hopes to address as a large team of international researchers conducted the most comprehensive study regarding astronaut kidney health and how it’s affected from both microgravity and galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) during long-term space missions. This study holds the potential to help astronauts, space agencies, medical professionals, and the public better understand the health risks associated with sending humans to other worlds, specifically to Mars. “We know what has happened to astronauts on the relatively short space missions conducted so far, in terms of an increase in health issues such as kidney stones,” said Dr. Keith Siew, who is a Research Fellow in the Department of Renal Medicine at the University of College London (UCL) and lead author of the study. “What we don’t know is why these issues occur, nor what is going to happen to astronauts on longer flights such as the proposed mission to Mars.” Aside from the 24 Apollo astronauts who traveled to the Moon, with 12 of them walking on the surface, nearly all human space travel has been limited to low-Earth orbit (LEO), totaling almost 700 people having traveled to space. During this time, they are protected by the Earth’s magnetic field, which shields them from harmful solar and cosmic radiation that could cause potentially irreparable harm to their health. However, with NASA and other space agencies planning to return humans to the Moon in the next few years, and Mars within the next decade, questions have arisen regarding how traveling outside the Earth’s magnetic field could have on the long-term health of the astronauts, specifically pertaining to their kidneys. For the study, the researchers analyzed data from 20 subjects comprised of humans and mice who had been to space, with some of the mice participating in simulated trials on Earth while most traveled to the International Space Station. The goal of the study was to ascertain how microgravity and GCR influenced kidney function over long periods of time, simulating long-term space missions to the Moon and Mars. In the end, the researchers found that the kidneys in both humans and mice were not only physically altered but also alarming results indicating kidney function could experience irreparable damage or entire loss of its functions from a potential 2.5-year trip to Mars and back to Earth. “Our study highlights the fact that if you’re planning a space mission, kidneys really matter,” said Dr. Stephen B. Walsh, who is a clinician scientist in the Department of Renal Medicine at UCL and a co-author on the study. “You can’t protect them from galactic radiation using shielding, but as we learn more about renal biology it may be possible to develop technological or pharmaceutical measures to facilitate extended space travel. Any drugs developed for astronauts may also be beneficial here on Earth, for example by enabling cancer patients’ kidneys to tolerate higher doses of radiotherapy, the kidneys being one of the limiting factors in this regard.” How will long-term space flight impact kidney function in the coming years and decades, and what steps can be taken to mitigate these impacts? Only time will tell, and this is why we science! As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! Sources: Nature Communications, EurekAlert!, NASA, NASA (1) Featured Image Credit: NASA

NASA’s long-lived Opportunity rover mission came to an unfortunate end last month after nearly 15 years’ worth of scientific exploration on Mars. Despite being silenced by a planet-wide dust storm just last year, the Opportunity rover’s impressive legacy lives on. Existing and upcoming Martian rovers will continue to explore the red planet’s surface with the hope of some significant scientific discovery. Image Credit: NASA To commemorate Opportunity’s breathtaking service to planetary scientists everywhere, NASA just this week published what appears to be the rover’s final 360-degree panoramic image, which was allegedly captured last Spring just before Mars’ massive dust storm materialized and threw a wrench in NASA’s Opportunity-centric plans. That image has been embedded below for your viewing pleasure: Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU "This final panorama embodies what made our Opportunity rover such a remarkable mission of exploration and discovery," elucidated John Callas, the Opportunity rover mission’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Callas continued by describing the contents of the panoramic image in an attempt to give us all a better idea of what we’re actually looking at: "To the right of center, you can see the rim of Endeavor Crater rising in the distance. Just to the left of that, rover tracks begin their descent from over the horizon and weave their way down to geologic features that our scientists wanted to examine up close. And to the far right and left are the bottom of Perseverance Valley and the floor of Endeavour crater, pristine and unexplored, waiting for visits from future explorers." Related: Say hello to the future landing site of the Mars 2020 rover According to NASA, this particular panorama was stitched together out of 354 individual images snapped by Opportunity’s Pancam (panoramic camera), and they were purportedly captured during 29 days between May 10th and June 13th. NASA also explains that the bottom-left region of the panorama remains black and white because Opportunity didn’t have enough time to resolve the true colors before Mars’ dust storm ensued, blocking the view and hindering progress (evidently for good). Although captivating, the panorama indeed invokes some slightly bittersweet feelings. For example, this is the last place Opportunity saw before meeting its untimely doom last Spring. Put another way, we’re actually looking at the surroundings of the Opportunity rover’s final resting place, and it sure is beautiful to say the least. The space agency also shared the following incomplete image, adding that this was the last piece of data Opportunity sent to Earth before becoming permanently unreachable. As we can tell, it’s somewhat noisy, which speaks to the rather harsh conditions that fell upon Opportunity: Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU Related: The Curiosity rover's wheels are starting to break While it’s certainly unfortunate that the Opportunity rover mission couldn’t be revived, it’s still somewhat remarkable that the rover managed to complete this beautiful panorama before kicking the bucket. After all, it’s a view to behold. And for those of you that like Martian panoramas... stay tuned; that's something that the fully-operational Curiosity rover can still do; and same with the upcoming Mars 2020 rover. Source: NASA

Images snapped by the Curiosity Rover’s onboard imaging system earlier this year indicated that its aluminum wheels were breaking down. As it would seem, nearly 10 miles of roving on the red planet’s harsh terrain was taking its toll on Curiosity’s CNC-machined aluminum wheels. NASA isn’t in the market to send replacement wheels to Mars anytime soon, but scientists can still use what they’ve learned from Curiosity’s wheel longevity to improve the design and reliability of autonomous rovers’ wheels in the future. Image Credit: NASA/JPL via Universe Today One design that caught NASA’s attention recently was the Shape Memory Alloy Tire, which does away with the rigid structure round on modern Martian rovers in place of a more flexible design that looks almost like a spring-loaded sheet of chain mail compressed between a set of rim-shaped clamps. Testing of the Shape Memory Alloy Tire at the Slope lab at NASA’s Glenn Research Center under Mars-like conditions underscored the promising capabilities and characteristics of the new metallic tire design. Interested in how the new tire performed compared to a Curiosity-like counterpart? Look no further than the demonstration video below: The problem with aluminum wheels, like those on Curiosity, is that the soft and malleable metal is much more susceptible to tread or wheel damage whenever the SUV-sized rover rolls over a steep or sharp rock. The Shape Memory Alloy Tire, on the other hand, compresses and decompresses whenever it runs over a comparable obstacle, so it doesn’t sustain the kinds of damage that a rigid aluminum wheel would. Related: NASA's Curiosity Rover takes a selfie after drilling into Mars' surface Unlike traditional spring tires that use a spring steel material, the Shape Memory Alloy Tire uses a stoichiometric nickel-titanium alloy. Engineers say the alloy’s atomic structure tolerates tremendous amounts of deformation while maintaining its shape better than traditional materials: You could compress the Shape Memory Alloy Tire all the way to the axle, and it would still return to its original shape and size once you relieve the pressure. These durable properties make it more practical for rolling around on the harsh and rocky terrain of Mars because they would last significantly longer given the lack of smooth, paved roads for the rover to roll on. There’s no telling when NASA might employ the new tire design for an official mission, but the upcoming Mars 2020 rover could serve as a viable test subject. With a launch expected by 2020, NASA should have plenty of time to ready the wheel as standard equipment. It should be interesting to see if the Shape Memory Alloy Tire makes any headway or not, especially considering that studying the Martian surface is high on the list of interests for planetary scientists. Source: Universe Today

It’s on the to-do list of space agencies and major commercial space companies to try and put mankind on Mars sometime in the next few decades, but there remains a crisis that needs to be solved first: where will we get the energy to propel a loaded spacecraft to the red planet? As we know, we sent mankind to the moon with chemical reaction rockets, and still, those remain the modern form of transportation in space, but they are expensive to keep fueled and they only last so long before the fuel runs out. Because Mars is about a year away from the Earth, and because we need to be able to send a whole lot of supplies to Mars with any astronauts we send so they can survive the journey and set up habitation on the red planet, we need something that is efficient, and yet powerful and enduring enough to keep a spacecraft on course for its target. Image Credit: NASA One possible solution could be electric plasma rockets, which can take over to get the spacecraft to the red planet once a chemical reaction rocket gets the spacecraft out of the Earth’s atmosphere. Although they're incredibly more efficient at generating thrust, they come with a side-effect that isn't so much. The concept describes a process where particles from the reaction in the electric plasma rocket are slammed against the walls of the rocket engine itself and eventually break it down. On the other hand, through processes known as ballistic redeposition and plasma redeposition, those walls could actually rebuild themselves as they are deteriorated by the reaction. "This is similar to how a baseball tossed straight up into the air turns around and drops back to your hand. With the baseball, gravity stops the ball from going up any higher and pulls it back down to the ground. In a thruster, it’s the electric force between the negatively charged wall and the wall particle itself," Gary Li explains on The Conversation. "It comes off neutrally charged, but can lose its electron in the plasma, becoming positively charged. The result is that the particle is pulled back toward the wall, in a phenomenon known as plasma redeposition. This process can be controlled by changing the density and temperature of the plasma." Current testing of this kind of technology has reportedly aided in discovering new materials that are capable of reducing damage from these electric plasma thrusters by up to 50%. Of course, addition research in the future may help us to learn of better materials that are even more resistant to these kinds of degradation and may last through the future missions we seek to take. Currently, the technology is in very early stages, but if a feasible solution can be discovered to slow down this degradation process long enough to last us as many as 10 trips between Earth and Mars, electric plasma rockets could become a reliable way to get us to Mars and back on a budget with all of our necessary supplies. Although the concept behind electric plasma rockets isn’t necessarily new, the latest research dives deeply into finding a solution to the aspect of inevitable rocket chamber degradation. If it can be slowed down as much as humanly possible, we might just have the future of space travel at our fingertips. Li gives a speech in the following video: Source: The Conversation

NASA’s InSight lander touched down on the Martian surface less than a month ago, and it’s already gearing up for scientific data collection and analysis. In an official statement released by NASA last week, we learn that the American space agency sent commands to InSight on Tuesday, December 18th to activate its robotic arm and place its SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) instrument five feet away on the ground. The lander reportedly acted on these commands the very next day. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech One of InSight’s onboard cameras captured the image above after the robotic arm placed the copper-colored SEIS instrument in the Martian soil. At the top, you can see the claw that the robotic arm used to hoist the SEIS instrument and place it down on the ground. As you probably gathered already from the name, InSight’s SEIS instrument is a seismometer, and it will help planetary scientists better understand Mars’ formation. "Seismometer deployment is as important as landing InSight on Mars," explained InSight Principal Investigator Bruce Banerdt at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "The seismometer is the highest-priority instrument on InSight: We need it in order to complete about three-quarters of our science objectives." Related: NASA's learning more about InSight's landing site post-landing The seismometer’s primary objective is to help planetary scientists study the red planet’s internal motions and vibrations, known as ‘marsquakes.’ As it would seem, these tiny movements can speak for Mars’ internal structure. As each of the movements transpires, each layer of the planet responds differently, giving scientists data that can be used to discern each layer’s composition and depth, among other things. With data of this nature, scientists can speculate more accurately about Mars’ past. "Having the seismometer on the ground is like holding a phone up to your ear," added Philippe Lognonné, the SEIS principal investigator. "We're thrilled that we're now in the best position to listen to all the seismic waves from below Mars' surface and from its deep interior." Related: Listen to the sound of Martian wind, captured with NASA's InSight lander With the most stressful part of the maneuver over with, NASA engineers will soon move forward with leveling attempts to eliminate the 2-3-degree tilt that the seismometer exhibits. Afterward, engineers will place the Wind and Thermal Shield over the instrument to prevent any unwanted interference from soiling its data before it reaches scientists on Earth. "We look forward to popping some Champagne when we start to get data from InSight's seismometer on the ground," Banerdt concluded. "I have a bottle ready for the occasion." It will undoubtedly be interesting to see what we’ll learn from InSight’s SEIS instrument, especially considering just how many questions the mission seeks to answer. Source: NASA

Image Credit: NASA Certainly one of the things we will need to get very good at if we’re ever to send humans to Mars to live and study there is learn how to plant food in Martian “soil.” The challenge comes from the fact that Mars doesn’t really have “soil.” Mars has a surface of crushed rock that’s almost sand-like, but its properties are an awful lot like the volcanic dust and debris. It lacks any nutrients or organic matter, which soil on Earth has, making it a potentially terrible planting platform for fruits and vegetables. NASA just doesn’t know yet how that’s going to fare, so they’re beginning to experiment with planting by using Mars-like simulated dirt from Hawaii. This kind of dirt lacks the nutrients that typical soil has, so it should provide some real-world results. “Soil, by definition, contains organics; it has held plant life, insects, worms. Mars doesn’t really have soil,” said Ralph Fritsche, the senior project manager for food production at Kennedy Space Center. In NASA’s experimentation, 30 plant seeds were planted in Martian surface dirt simulant from Hawaii, and nothing else. At least half of those plants didn’t succeed to grow, and while they tasted the same as their nutrient-enriched counterparts that grow in Earthly soil, they had weaker and smaller roots and weren’t preforming too hot. To compare, NASA is also planting their test subjects in nutrient-enriched simulant and Earth soil to have a control variable, as well as a catalyst. It’s hoped that the catalyst, which would be the nutrient additives in this case, might help make the simulant more habitable by the plants. If the nutrient boost helps plant growth any, then it could be feasible for astronauts to utilize Martian surface dirt, fortified with nutrients, to plant their own food. If not, then we’ll have to figure something else out. There is, however, an additional challenge. Martian surface dirt is believed to not only lack the necessary nutrients, but it may also have contaminants that could degrade the food quality of anything we grow there. This is certainly a challenge that would need to be overcome, but first we have the preliminary hump of ensuring we can actually grow in nutrient-less dirt to begin with before we can start coming up with ways to clear the contaminants. The testing hasn’t been completed yet, as the test program aims to try growing all kinds of foods that NASA astronauts may attempt to grow and eat while they’re on the red planet, including but not limited to Chinese cabbage, dwarf peppers, kale, snow peas, and tomatoes. Source: NASA

The Artemis Sr Rover could become the next big thing in space exploration. With its eight wheels and unique frame-lifting suspension system, the rover exhibits authoritative off-road capabilities unlike any other rover in its class. The Artemis Sr Rover's eight wheels move in such a way that the vehicle maintains excellent traction in any terrain. Notably, it performs well in rugged environments with loose gravel and hills, such as those found on Mars or the Moon. Citing the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Artemis Sr Rover weighs approximately 1,100 pounds and can carry an additional 600 pounds. That said, there's enough wiggle room to mount critical planetary science equipment on the rover's versatile frame. It should be interesting to see if the Artemis Sr Rover ever graduates from the testing stages and moves on to real-world use. After all, it looks like a capable exploration machine.

Our atmosphere has a lot of gas in it - nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and carbon dioxide, but it hasn't always had these gasses. Is it possible that we may one day not have enough oxygen in our atmosphere to survive on our own planet? Everything that happens from our magnetic field to space rocks impacting our Earth can have an impact on our atmosphere. As matter from space comes crashing down to Earth, it creates a massive shockwave that displaces a ton of gas into the vacuum of space. The magnetic field has a lot to do with why we have the atmosphere we have today. Mars, for example, has almost no magnetic activity left, and this is why solar winds have stripped the red planet of most of its atmosphere. Our magnetic field, fortunately, continues to be strong enough to hold solar winds back. Will we one day not have enough oxygen to support life? - Very possibly, but not for a long time.

At the end of September, SpaceX test-fired their Raptor engine, which fires using a chemical combustion process between liquid methane and liquid oxygen rather than the traditional mix of kerosene and liquid oxygen that is found in the Falcon 9 rockets. The Raptor engine can be used by the Interplanetary Transport System to help human beings get from planet to planet with all of the newfound interest in interplanetary space travel, such as to Mars or the Moon. The engine was under development from 2009-2015, and this is the first actual test fire of the rocket, which shows off a beautiful display of what SpaceX CEO Elon Musk calls "Mach Diamonds" in the exhaust stream. A sight to behold, this is the future of space travel and space exploration that might get mankind on another planet besides Earth within the next decade or two.

The cold and unforgiving environment in outer space presents a lot of challenges, with one of those being power generation. Solar arrays can be capable enough for some missions, but others venture out so far into the solar system that they can’t generate enough power from solar energy alone. That’s where nuclear fission comes into play. Nuclear fission has been used in many of NASA’s space missions over the decades, including Voyager 1, Cassini, and the Martian Curiosity rover, to name a few. More importantly, that nuclear power has proven instrumental in a plethora of circumstances, allowing Voyager 1 to become the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space and permitting Curiosity to maintain operations during Mars’ recent planet-wide dust storm. As you might come to expect, spacecraft-centric nuclear powering techniques have come a long way over the years, and while we’re hardly any closer to developing and containing a nuclear fusion process as a sustainable power source for future space missions, nuclear fission continues to prove its unmatched capabilities. With interest in putting humankind on the Moon, Mars, and beyond, it will be necessary to generate large amounts of power, and nuclear fission offers that capability. With that in mind, it seems very likely that nuclear fission-based reactors will play a significant role in that sector, along with future spacecraft missions that explore the solar system in the name of science.

During a project sponsored by Space India and NASA, two schoolgirls aged 14 in the 10th grade discovered an asteroid near Mars that appears to be heading towards Earth. Scientists scour space in search of asteroids, ultimately finding thousands per year, as they pose a significant potential threat to Earth. In 2013, for example, an asteroid heavier than the Eiffel Tower broke apt over central Russia, injuring over 1000 people in its aftermath. Looking at images from the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii, the girls used specialized software to analyze the images. They noted that the asteroid is slowly shifting in its orbit close to Mars and is moving towards Earth. From their analyses, it appears that the asteroid won’t come near to Earth for another million years, however. Moreover, even at that point, according to current calculations, it will still be ten times as far as the moon from Earth. “Asteroids have been discovered by a lot of students but what makes it more important is this asteroid is changing its classification and over a period of time, it will change its course,” says Akash Dwivedi, senior eductaor and astronomer at Space India. Radhika Lahkani, one of the two girls who discovered the asteroid, said that later on in the program, two other people also came across the object. She added that until now, there have only been around 63 discoveries of similar asteroids and that the asteroid she found with classmate Vaideshi Vekarya is the first such discovery from Gujarat, India, in the last four years. Although currently called HLV2514, the girls look forward to giving it another name. The opportunity to do so will come after NASA confirms its orbit. Both girls say that they want to pursue studies in astronomy ad space research. Sources: Indian Express, Reuters, USA Today

NASA is planning an Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) with the purpose of giving our moon its own moon in order to study and practice for future Mars missions. While NASA has yet to choose a target from the asteroid belt, there is one asteroid in particular which we have our eye on. 2008EV5, as it is named, mostly orbits between Earth and Venus and is a type C asteroid, which means it is carbonaceous, rocky, and metallic. But how would we actually kidnap this giant hulking space rock to become our moon's sidekick? NASA would send a robot to land on and analyze the asteroid's surface. Next the robot would take its chances playing that awful arcade crane game in order to grab a huge bolder and bring it back into the moon's orbit around the Earth. Sure, there's a few more complicated steps involved in this heist, but watch the video to find out! The significance of bringing an asteroid into our moon's orbit may not seem huge - but it is. All of our current space missions are Earth-reliant, meaning they can only survive for a matter of days or months without returning to Earth to resupply. If we could use an asteroid as a base for Mars and deeper missions into outer space, we would be able to save a lot of fuel and time. Exploring an asteroid could also help us better understand the conditions in which our universe formed, and potentially provide a commercial outlet for mining certain minerals without ripping up our own planet. But the most important aspect of ARM is that it gives us a practice run for how to redirect an asteroid's orbit - something which will be imperative within the next undecipherable yet inevitable amount of time when an asteroid is statistically scheduled to cross paths with Earth!