In Case You Missed It: More Trash, This Time on Mars

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Illustration of the Opportunity rover on Mars. The rover was declared dead in 2019. (NASA, JPL/ Cornell University)

In an earlier post, I noted the amount of poop as well as other trash left behind on the Moon from prior lunar missions. Well, Cagri Kilic, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at West Virginia University, also ventured a guess at the amount of human trash that has already accummulated on the surface of Mars.

In the article he authored for The Conversation back in September, “Mars is Littered with 15,694 Pounds of Human Trash from 50 Years of Robotic Exploration,” he provided a figure as well as his methodology:

When you add up the mass of all spacecraft that have ever been sent to Mars, you get about 22,000 pounds (9979 kilograms). Subtract the weight of the currently operational craft on the surface – 6,306 pounds (2,860 kilograms) – and you are left with 15,694 pounds (7,119 kilograms) of human debris on Mars.

That’s a fair amount of trash and defunct equipment. And we are still adding to this toll, with plans to eventually send humans and material for settlements to the Red Planet. The same goes for the Moon, with multiple bases planned by the US, China, and Russia.

I expect we will see some other estimates in the future on what has been left on other planets, moons, and asteroids. And let’s not forget the five spacecraft we have shot beyond Pluto.

We humans do tend to leave a mess where ever we go. We may be explorers, but Boy Scouts would take issue given their principle “Leave No Trace.”

Space Stories: Passing of Apollo Astronaut Walter Cunningham, Opal on Mars, and Juno Recovers

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Walter Cunningham adjusts his pressure suit before the Apollo 7 launch on October 11, 1968. (NASA)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—NASA: “Apollo Astronaut Walter Cunningham Dies at 90“

Former astronaut Walter Cunningham, who flew into space on Apollo 7, the first flight with crew in NASA’s Apollo Program, died early Tuesday morning in Houston. He was 90 years old. “Walt Cunningham was a fighter pilot, physicist, and an entrepreneur – but, above all, he was an explorer. On Apollo 7, the first launch of a crewed Apollo mission, Walt and his crewmates made history, paving the way for the Artemis Generation we see today,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “NASA will always remember his contributions to our nation’s space program and sends our condolences to the Cunningham family.”

—New Atlas: “Curiosity Finds Opal on Mars – a Possible Water Source for Astronauts“

NASA’s Curiosity rover has discovered opal on Mars. The deposits may prove to be valuable to future Martian explorers not as jewelry but as a potential source of water. Opal is formed when water weathers silica-rich rocks, forming a solution that settles into cracks and crevices in the rock. Over time, this solution hardens into a solid lump that can be cloudy and dull or a dazzling display of color. Most supplies come from either Australia or Ethiopia, but now a new source has been discovered – Mars.

—Space.com: “Juno Spacecraft Recovering its Memory After Mind-blowing Jupiter Flyby, NASA Says“

NASA’s Juno probe is continuing to recover its memory at Jupiter after a data disruption interrupted communications between the spacecraft and its operators on Earth following a flyby of the giant planet in December. The Juno spacecraft’s latest flyby of Jupiter, its 47th close pass of the planet, was completed on Dec. 14. But as its operators at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory were receiving science data from the flyby they found they could no longer directly access the spacecraft’s memory. The team successfully rebooted Juno’s computer and on Dec. 17 they placed the spacecraft into “safe mode” with only essential systems operating as a precaution. 

Podcast: Discussing Science Fiction and Astronomy with Andy Weir & Rob Manning

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Planetary Society

If you have not yet tapped into The Planetary Society’s podcast Planetary Radio, then now is the time to do so. Host Mat Kaplan and his guests had a great time on the recent podcast, One Last Blast: Author of ‘The Martian’ Andy Weir with JPL Chief Engineer Rob Manning.

Both Andy Weir (author of The Martian, Artemis, and Project Hail Mary) and Rob Manning (Chief Engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory) were shooting the you-know-what as they chatted about science fiction books they read as teenagers, the role of real science in fictional tales, astronomical conspiracy theories, and mankind’s need to expand into the unknown.

It was interesting to hear Andy Weir talk about curiosity being humanity’s survival mechanism. He pointed out that curiosity has allowed humanity to survive disasters here on Earth because we were all spread out rather than clustered on one flood plain. The same applies to expansion beyond the Earth.

Check it out for yourself. You may want to check out some of the earlier podcasts as well, such as:

Credit: Random House Publishing Group

Looking to Experience Mars? It is Possible Today

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Earlier FMARS participants. (Mars Society)

The Mars Society is looking for volunteers who want to experience what it would be like to live on Mars. Don’t worry, you do not need to spend months traveling to get there, but you can experience the cold and isolation of the Red Planet while never leaving the Blue Planet.

The Mars Society is looking for six volunteers who will help to reactivate its Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS), which is located on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic and has not operated since 2017. This location creates a Mars-like environment that can be used to anticipate some of the issues future astronauts will experience on Mars.

What will you do? The site notes:

The team will spend the first half of this period working to repair and upgrade the station. It will then spend the second half of the visit exercising the station with a Mars mission simulation during which it will attempt to conduct a program of sustained geological and microbiological exploration while operating under Mars mission constraints.

The mission will take place from June through August 2023, so you do not have a lot of time to get prepared. It will be challenging work. Not only will you face aggressive Martians (in this case local bears), but you will have to assist with the financing of the mission. Each of the six volunteers will need to arrive with $20,000 in sponsorship funding. That said, you will not need to bring your own sleeping bag, as “…all supplies, mission equipment, training, firearms, transportation to the Arctic and transportation and housing while on site.”

Interested? You can read more about it here and reach out to the Mars Society at arctic-mission@marssociety.org.

The Mars Society also runs the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. The site runs an eight month field season for professional scientists, engineers, and college students of all levels that trains participants for human activities on Mars.

Image (Credit): Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. (Mars Society)

Space Mission: The End of InSight Mars Lander

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Image (Credit): The final selfie taken by NASA’s InSight Mars lander on April 24, 2022. (NASA)

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is no longer able to contact the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) Mars lander, which has been hard at work on the Red Planet for the past four years detecting more than 1,300 marsquakes. However, the accumulation of dust on the lander’s solar panels has ended its ability to power itself. The last communication from InSight was December 15.

Philippe Lognonné of Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, principal investigator of InSight’s seismometer, stated:

With InSight, seismology was the focus of a mission beyond Earth for the first time since the Apollo missions, when astronauts brought seismometers to the Moon…We broke new ground, and our science team can be proud of all that we’ve learned along the way.

You can read more about the InSight Mar lander’s findings here.

Image (Credit): Artist’s concept of NASA’s InSight lander on Mars, showing layers of the planet’s subsurface below and dust devils on the surface. (IPGP/Nicolas Sarter)