TAKE ACTION ALERT! Tell the White House to Let NASA Explore Mars

Humanity’s exploration of Mars will be put on hold for the foreseeable future. We can’t let that happen! ACT NOW!

TAKE ACTION ALERT! Tell the White House to Let NASA Explore Mars The October 12 deadline can not be moved. If you want to see Mars explored, please take action now. The future of NASA’s – and the world’s -- exploration of Mars is hanging by a thread. And that thread may soon be cut by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB.) I am writing you to ask that you take immediate action to prevent what could be a fatal blow to Mars exploration for the foreseeable future. Please write to John Holdren, the President’s Science Advisor, and ask him to support NASA’s Mars exploration program. Right now, the OMB is considering whether to let NASA accept an offer of partnership -- and more than $1 billion dollars -- from the European Space Agency (ESA) so that the two space agencies can work together to launch a mission to Mars in 2016 and to follow it with a 2018 mission that would lay the groundwork for the long-sought Mars Sample Return. To transfer the money, ESA is asking NASA for a letter committing the U.S. space agency to a solid partnership with the European agency. But NASA is an agency of the U.S. Administration and must do as it is told by powers like OMB–and it appears that that White House office is reluctant to let NASA make that commitment. Scott Hubbard, former “Mars Czar” for NASA, summarizes the situation: “The European Space Agency is willing to put €850 million ($1.16 billion) to collaborate with us. But for reasons unknown, somewhere in the administration somebody is refusing to release the letter that would allow the head of ESA to collaborate with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. Why on Earth would you refuse to allow over $1 billion of funding? It borders on the irresponsible.” Mars exploration is expensive – we all understand that. It has reached the point where no one nation – not even the United States -- can afford to do it alone. That’s exactly why ESA has made this offer to share the cost. If that offer is rejected, it will cause chaos in Mars exploration programs around the world. All the careful plans so painstakingly developed between NASA and ESA will come to naught. Humanity’s exploration of Mars will be put on hold for the foreseeable future. We can’t let that happen! And we have to act now! Please, today, contact John Holdren at the Office of Science and Technology Policy and ask him to intervene and let NASA send that letter to ESA. The ESA Ministerial Council is meeting on October 12 and, if they don’t see that letter from NASA by then, they may order ESA to back out of is collaboration with NASA to explore Mars. If you want to see Mars explored, please take action now. Thank you. Bill Nye Executive Director

Planetary Society
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A Tour of the Exoplanets in Celestia

Celestia is a freeware program that

doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy.

Some folk have written Celestia scripts which will show you what the night sky would look like from an exoplanet (including where in the sky is our sun). For example, Ian Musgrave of Australia has written a script that takes you on a tour of three exoplanets (including showing you what the night sky would look like in the direction of our sun). It can be found in his Astroblog: A Tour of the Exoplanets in Celestia post.

If We Are Alone

It's Full of Planets!

Over 400 exoplanets discovered so far. Finding more expolantes is almost becoming normal - and its not just "hot Jupiters" that are being found. Increasingly, as our techniques and equipment improve and more telescopes are brought online to join the hunt, smaller terrestrial planets are being found. Everywhere we look, it seems, we find planets. It is looking like the universe is full of planets.

Think abut that. Full of planets. Maybe in 2001: A Space Odyssey astronaut David Bowman should've exclaimed "The thing's hollow—it goes on forever—and—oh my God—it's full of planets!"

Apply the Drake Equation, and it's looking like the universe is also full of life, including intelligent life.

However...

This does not automatically mean we are not alone. If the universe is infinite, and life arose in one spot of it, it does seem incredibly unlikely we would be the only ones. Even if the universe is not infinite - it still contains at least 100 billion galaxies, each with many stars (our own contains an estimated 100 billion stars), many of which may contain planets. The number of possible planets is astounding. However, while it may seem rather implausible, just because the universe may be populated with planets is not a Q.E.D. proof that we are not alone, despite, as Jodi Foster's character in the movie Contact propositions, that "if we are the only ones, it would be an awful waste of space, wouldn't it?"

If We Are Alone

What would that mean, if we were alone? That we are given, or by chance have, all this space in which to  explore, expand, and evolve in? If we are given all of the immense space filled with stars and planets, but no other life - what is the purpose of that gift? What are our responsibilities? Should we go forth, multiply and replenish not only the Earth but the universe? Or should we leave other planets alone and not contaminate them with Earth probes and the Earth microbes that may be on them?

And does it even have to have a meaning? The universe does not know it is immense, or teeming with planets. A star does not know that it exists. It does not feel itself traveling through space, circled by planets. Gravity acts upon it without it knowing that anything at all is happening. A planet does not know that it is barren, or that it has life on it. It is barren, or life-filled, only to us (if any of this has an echo of familiarity to it, it may be because you've read Nobel Prize winning Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska's thought provoking poem "View with a Grain of Sand"). Meaning is arbitrary, maybe illusory.

What is Meant

But even if that meaning is arbitrary, and only has meaning to us - that may be enough. It may be up to us to give beauty to the universe, to create meaning, even if it is only for our benefit, our pleasure, our peace of mind.

I have no answers. I would be stunned if there were no other life forms outside the Earth. But, I also realize that true absolutes rarely exist, and to say it is impossible is wrong. It may be astronomically (if you'll excuse the pun) improbable, but not impossible.

What do you think?


Image Credits: 1. Warner Bros. 2. Chris Butler.

To Mars in 39 Days?

(PhysOrg.com) -- Last Wednesday, the Ad Astra Rocket Company tested what is currently the most powerful plasma rocket in the world. As the Webster, Texas, company announced, the VASIMR VX-200 engine ran at 201 kilowatts in a vacuum chamber, passing the 200-kilowatt mark for the first time. The test also marks the first time that a small-scale prototype of the company's VASIMR (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket) rocket engine has been demonstrated at full power.

If they succeed on large scale tests, this will be a quantum leap in space exploration - opening the door to greatly speed up, and increase the range of, exploration of our solar system, including places that may harbor some form of life.

Plasma rockets (or electric rockets) are less expensive to launch than conventional chemical rockets. They need to use much less fuel to push the same weight as conventional rocket engines, and have longer engine life. In addition, the costs for human exploration are less as well: shorter trips mean less supplies are required. Another important bonus for human explorers is that a much shorter trip means they will receive far less cosmic radiation, and will have less bone loss.

References:

"VASIMR page." Ad Astra Rocket Company. Ad Astra Rocket Company. n.d. Web. 16 October 2009. <http://www.adastrarocket.com/VASIMR.html>

Zyga, Lisa. "Plasma Rocket Could Travel to Mars in 39 Days." PhysOrg.com. PhysOrg.com. 6 October 2009. Web. 16 October 2009. <http://www.physorg.com/news174031552.html>


Image credits: Ad Astra Rocket Company

We Choose the Moon

Source: wechoosethemoon.org

Wechoosethemoon.org is an interactive experience recreating the historic Apollo 11 mission to the Moon in real time. Once where only three men made the trip, now millions can. Live event begins 9:32 AM EDT July 16, 2009. Exactly 40 years after Apollo 11 lifted off.

STS-125 Launch Webcast - 11 May 2009

The Coalition for Space Exploration invites you to participate in a live six-hour video Web cast of the STS-125 launch, the final shuttle mission to the Hubble Telescope, this Monday, May 11, from Spaceflight Now's Mission Status Center at the Kennedy Space Center. The Web cast will begin at 8:30 a.m. and liftoff is scheduled for 2:01 p.m. EDT.

During this last Hubble mission, the seven astronauts will renew, revive and restore the Hubble telescope. They will conduct five spacewalks to install and repair instruments and perform component replacements - all designed to keep this high-performance telescope functioning through 2014. Click here to view NASA's video on how they will accomplish this technical feat.

The live Web cast brings up-to-the-minute coverage to your computer or hand-held device, featuring veteran space broadcasters Miles O'Brien and David Waters. Special guest appearances include:

- Robert "Bob" Crippen, Coalition board member and former astronaut who served as pilot of first space shuttle mission and commanded three other flights

- Dean Acosta, 2009 Chairman, Coalition for Space Exploration

Tune in at www.spaceflightnow.org between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Follow the broadcasters and ask questions live via Twitter during the Web cast!

Reference:

"STS 125 Launch Webcast." Nasa News. Coalition for Space Exploration. 8 May 2009. Web. 10 May 2009. <http://www.spacecoalition.com/sts125_mail.cfm>

Cyborgs (Re: Robot Aliens)

In this month's Discover magazine is an interesting article, "Rise of the Cyborgs," which examines the present state of cyborg development. After reading it, I find myself believing that the earlier estimates for the arrival of the technological singularity may be correct (the predicted arrival varies between years 2040 and 3000). We are well on our way to making the lame walk, the blind man see, and the mute to talk - we are freeing minds that are trapped in bodies that have quit (or never did) responding.

There already has been dramatic successes with cyborg experiments with primates (including monkeys able to control robot arms with their thoughts, like the Duke University experiments by Dr. Nicolelis experiments involving an owl monkey named Belle). A few human trials are already underway. Humans and machines are merging.

In a previous posts on postbiologic / robotic sentience, I've discussed some reasons why postbiologic creatures make pragmatic sense in regards to space travel: postbiologic, or sentient robots, will have greatly improved abilities to survive cosmic radiation, alien atmospheres, alien germs, and the long travel times. This includes having improved reaction times to unexpected space phenomenon or events - a blessing for travelers far from home and thus rescue.

But while reading the Discover article, I realized there is an additional advantage: the ability of those postbiologic sentient space explorers to more efficiently and effectively control both large and microscopic equipment and tools by using just their minds. This could include controlling the space craft to microsurgery to communicating with their comrades.

The likelihood that aliens are cyborgs or robots is, I would think, rather high. And the likelihood that we are headed in that same direction, whether some of us like it or not, is likewise rather high.

Resistance is futile. Or maybe even irrelevant.

Reference:

Baker, Sherry. "Rise of the Cyborgs." Discover. October 2008, 50 -57. Print.

Exploring artificial gravity

© Mars Society

The Mars Society has chosen an new project to fund: TEMPO³. For the long trip to, and back, from Mars (around 6 months), there will be a need to produce artificial gravity. However, very little research has been done in this area (NASA abandoned such research after project GEMINI). NASA's plate is rather full, and its budget strapped, so the Mars Society has stepped in with TEMPO³ , an experimental satellite that will help fill the gap in artificial gravity research. In the future, when the technology singularity allows cyborgs to explore space, maybe being able to produce artificial gravity for space explorers won't be a concern. But for now, it is.


References:

Hill, Tom. "Tethered Experiment for Mars interPlanetary Operations Cubed (TEMPO³)." Mars Society. 27 Aug. 2008. Web. 2 Sept. 2008. <http://www.marssociety.org/portal/c/TEMPO3>.