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

Posted on by onespaceman2000
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)

ChatGPT and Elon Musk

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): SpaceX’s Starship rocket to be used for travel to Mars. (SpaceX)

You have probably heard of the new artificial intelligence program ChatGPT, which can compose stories and articles. So what happens when you ask it to do a simple task? I asked the program to compose a poem to cover the following scenario:

Elon Musk has become frustrated with Twitter, so he takes a rocket to Mars to live there forever. 

Here is what I received from ChatGSP:

Elon Musk, oh how he tried

To make Twitter work for him,

But in the end, he sighed

Fed up with all the noise

The constant need for attention

He made a bold decision

He’d leave this world behind

And start anew on Mars

Where he could truly shine

With his rocket at the ready

He blasted off to the stars

Leaving Earth and its troubles steady

On the Red Planet he would live

Where he could truly be himself

And all his dreams he could fulfill

No more anger, no more frustration

Just peace and solitude at last

On Mars, he found his new destination.

Not a bad start. Maybe ChatGPS needs to get in touch with the SpaceX engineers working at Twitter to determine whether this adventure can be arranged.

Extra: Here is another poem ChatGTP put together on a 2025 moon landing. It was not perfect. For example, I don’t think we will need to worry about “lunar mud.”

In 2025 we took a trip to the moon
To see what secrets it held in its dune
We strapped on our suits and climbed in our ship
And blasted off into the endless abyss

The stars shone bright as we soared through the sky
And the moon grew larger as we drew nigh
We landed on the surface with a thud
And took our first steps on the lunar mud

We explored the craters and the rocky terrain
And marveled at the view of Earth again
We planted a flag and collected some rocks
And gazed at the stars from a lunar box

We took lots of pictures and had lots of fun
But soon it was time to return to Earth, our home
We climbed back in our ship and took off with a roar
Leaving the moon to shine bright once more

But the memories of our trip will never fade
And the experience will forever be engraved
In our hearts and minds as a wondrous feat
A trip to the moon, a dream complete.

Space Stories: Eruptions on Mars, World’s Largest Radio-Astronomy Observatory, and Saudi Space Hotels

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Image of the planet Mars. (NASA)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—University of Arizona: “Giant Mantle Plume Reveals Mars is More Active Than Previously Thought“

In a study published in Nature Astronomy, scientists from the University of Arizona challenge current views of Martian geodynamic evolution with a report on the discovery of an active mantle plume pushing the surface upward and causing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The finding suggests that the planet’s deceptively quiet surface may hide a more tumultuous interior than previously thought…Mantle plumes are large blobs of warm and buoyant rock that rise from deep inside a planet and push through its intermediate layer – the mantle – to reach the base of its crust, causing earthquakes, faulting and volcanic eruptions. The island chain of Hawaii, for example, formed as the Pacific plate slowly drifted over a mantle plume.

—Nature.com: “‘Great Scientific Step Forward’: Construction of World’s Largest Radio Observatory is Finally Under Way“

After 30 years of planning and negotiations, construction begins this week on the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the world’s largest radio-astronomy observatory. The giant instrument — to be built across sprawling sites in Australia and Africa — will collect the radio signals emitted by celestial objects and will hopefully shed light on some of the most enigmatic problems in astronomy, such as the nature of dark matter and how galaxies form.

—UAE in Space: “Saudi Arabia in Talks over Plans for Next-Generation Space Stations“

Saudi Arabia is in talks with other nations over plans for the next generation of space stations, which could one day serve as floating hotels among the stars. Mohammed bin Saud Al Tamimi, governor of the Communications, Space and Technology Commission, said he sees space commodities as a “huge opportunity”. He was speaking remotely on the first day of the Abu Dhabi Space Debate, a major conference that addressed the new geopolitics of space and emerging trends. Mr Al Tamimi said that the Kingdom would be announcing its national space strategy early next year.

Gift Ideas: Glowing Stars, Planets, and Moons

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image: Sample Moon lamp.

If you are looking for a fun gift that will encourage kids to learn more about the universe around them, then you cannot go wrong with a nightlight that illustrates the beauty of the nighttime objects above us. For instance, the Moon lamp shown above (there are many others like it on Amazon and elsewhere) allows an up-close view of this amazing orb. As with the Earth globes of old, seeing a world in three-dimensions and being able to touch it assists with understanding. Besides, in the case of the Moon, a youngster looking out the bedroom window will only see one side of the Moon, whereas the lamp provides the entire surface.

You can find similar lamps and nightlights showing Mars, Jupiter, and even the Milky Way (see below).

Or why not simply project the constellations onto the bedroom ceiling so kids can learn about the night sky even when it is cloudy outside? There is nothing like a personal planetarium.

Mind you, these gifts are not only for children, but it’s a good place to start. I may yet get one of those Moon lamps for my desk. Why should the kids have all the fun?

Image: Sample Milkyway lit orb.
Image: Sample constellation projector.