Category Archives: Mars

Video: “The history of the Martian South Polar Cap”

UC Santa Cruz grad student Carver Bierson gives an interesting SETI Institute talk about how the southern polar cap of Mars came to consist of multiple alternating layers of water ice and frozen CO2. He also addresses the question of whether the storehouse of earth’s nuclear weapons could be used to melt the ice cap and provide a dense atmosphere for terraformers living there.

Videos: First episode of Nat. Geo. Mars mini-series + A backstory short film

The National Geographic Channel‘s Mars mini-series directed by Ron Howard debuts on TV on November 14th. However, the first episode is now available for online streaming for free: Novo Mundo – MARS Video – National Geographic Channel.

We watched the episode last night and it was quite good. (Recommend watching it on a big screen.) The program is structured as a high production value fictional drama of a Mars mission in 2033, interspersed with documentary segments about what is happening in 2016 to make a Mars mission feasible and affordable. There is an emphasis in particular on what SpaceX is doing but they also include inputs from NASA and a variety of other sources.

Here is a nicely made short film that gives a backstory to two of the characters – Hana & Joon Seung – in the Mars series:

The ham radio station on the ISS plays a role in the story: A Guide to Ham Radio – MARS Article – National Geographic Channel.

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ExoMars: New images of the ExoMars Schiaparelli crash site

The European Space Agency‘s Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) spacecraft went into orbit around Mars successfully last week. However, TGO’s companion on the ExoMars mission, the Schiaparelli lander demonstrator, went permanently silent when it neared the surface of the Red Planet. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken pictures of the landing site and the mission team will use the images to try to understand what happened in the final seconds of Schiaparelli’s fatal fall:

Here is NASA’s statement on the MRO images:

Further Clues to Fate of Mars Lander, Seen From Orbit

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This Oct. 25, 2016, image from the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the area where the Europe’s Schiaparelli test lander struck Mars, with magnified insets of three sites where spacecraft components hit the ground. It adds detail not seen in earlier imaging of the site. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

The most powerful telescope orbiting Mars is providing new details of the scene near the Martian equator where Europe’s Schiaparelli test lander hit the surface last week.

An Oct. 25 observation using the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows three impact locations within about 0.9 mile (1.5 kilometers) of each other.

The scene shown by HiRISE includes three locations where hardware reached the ground. A dark, roughly circular feature is interpreted as where the lander itself struck. A pattern of rays extending from the circle suggests that a shallow crater was excavated by the impact, as expected given the premature engine shutdown. About 0.8 mile (1.4 kilometers) eastward, an object with several bright spots surrounded by darkened ground is likely the heat shield. About 0.8 mile (1.4 kilometers) south of the lander impact site, two features side-by-side are interpreted as the spacecraft’s parachute and the back shell to which the parachute was attached. Additional images to be taken from different angles are planned and will aid interpretation of these early results.

The test lander is part of the European Space Agency’s ExoMars 2016 mission, which placed the Trace Gas Orbiter into orbit around Mars on Oct. 19. The orbiter will investigate the atmosphere and surface of Mars and provide relay communications capability for landers and rovers on Mars.

Data transmitted by Schiaparelli during its descent through Mars’ atmosphere is enabling analysis of why the lander’s thrusters switched off prematurely. The new HiRISE imaging provides additional information, with more detail than visible in an earlier view with the Context Camera (CTX) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

With HiRISE, CTX and four other instruments, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been investigating Mars since 2006.

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the orbiter and collaborates with JPL to operate it. For additional information about the project, visit: mars.nasa.gov/mro

More about Nat Geo’s ‘Mission to Mars’ documentary + Video: Elon Musk lays out the SpaceX Mars plan

Here are more details about the upcoming docudrama series from National Geographic and Ron Howard about the first missions to start the settlement of Mars: Inside Nat Geo’s Incredible Documentary Mission to Mars | WIRED

(See also the earlier posting here with the first two trailers.)

In this video, Andy Weir (author of The Martian) and others talk about the challenges of just getting to Mars:

The mission architecture as described in the TV program shares many aspects of the architecture for Mars settlement laid out recently by Elon Musk of SpaceX:

Webcast coverage of the ExoMars arrival at the Red Planet

The European/Russian ExoMars mission is nearing the Red Planet. The spacecraft consists of two parts: the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and the Schiaparelli lander. On Sunday, Oct. 16th the two will separate and on Wednesday, Oct. 19th the TGO will go into orbit and Schiaparelli will make its landing.

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Artist’s impression visualising the separation of the ExoMars entry, descent and landing demonstrator module, Schiaparelli, from the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO). The separation is scheduled to occur on 16 October 2016, about seven months after launch. Schiaparelli is set to enter the martian atmosphere on 19 October, while TGO will enter orbit around Mars.

Webcasts reports will cover the events on both days:

The Live coverage overview

16 October – spacecraft separation

In addition to text updates here and via our twitter channels, a short statement confirming the outcome of the separation will be streamed live from the main control room of ESA’s Spacecraft Operations Centre starting at 14:30 GMT / 16:30 CEST.

19 October – landing and arriving at Mars

Live coverage of ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter arrival and Schiaparelli landing on Mars will begin with our Social TV programme via ESA’s Facebook page and Livestream 13:00–15:15 GMT / 15:00–17:15 CEST on 19 October.

The ESA TV programme will be broadcast on this page in two parts on 19 October:

15:44–16:59 GMT / 17:44–18:59 CEST
18:25–20:03 GMT / 20:25–22:03 CEST

20 October – status report and first images

A press conference is scheduled for 20 October at 08:00 GMT / 10:00 CEST, when a mission status update is expected, along with the first images from the Schiaparelli descent camera. This will also be streamed live via the player above.

For additional mission status text updates starting 14 October, see here.

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