Mars methane

The planet Mars produces far more methane than the Earth.

In other news, Marvin is asked to go easy on the cabbage.

James Kirk, Call Your Service

Headline from Slashdot:

Mars Robot May Destroy Life It Was Sent To Find

Yep. It was only a question of time.

An Alternative

From a New York Times article on a Russian Mars mission simulation:

On Tuesday, six people will be voluntarily locked into a cloister of cramped, hermetically sealed tubes woven inside a Moscow research facility the size of a high school gymnasium. They will eat dehydrated food, breathe recycled air and be denied conversation with practically everyone else but one another. And they must stay inside for 105 days.

Interesting, but if the Russians wanted to save a bit of dosh, they'd just have their volunteers temp for Microsoft.

Mars "Colony"

I'm sure that the simulated Mars colony in Hanksville, Utah has its heart in the right place and it does look kind of cool from the outside.

Inside, however, it is less than impressive; looking more like the sort of site huts that I kicked around in during my archaeology days. Somehow, I doubt that plywood will be a major construction material on Mars, nor do I think that hammers and nails will be in great demand.

But my favourite is the fact that the "astronauts" don "spacesuits" before doing an "EVA", or as we call it on earth, putting on silly overalls before going outside. No doubt it's all jolly fun, but wake me when they relocate the camp to the top of Mount Everest or the bottom of Lake Superior and then I'll be more impressed.

Red Planet Rumours

There are rumours that a White House briefing indicates that a major announcement is going to be made about life on mars.

I don't see what more needs to be said. While the original BBC series was pretty good, it's pretty obvious that the American version on ABC will be a dry disappointment.

Garden Mars

I used to be less than convinced about the necessity for colonising Mars, but the latest results of the NASA Phoenix probe has me looking forward to the day when we can expect to see our skies dark with the annual return of the asparagus fleet from the red planet.

Green Slime

Okay, maybe that search for life on Mars wasn't such a good idea.

Mars Phoenix

Nasa JPL Phoenix Mars Lander HD Animation
by Darkflame

Nasa's Mars Phoenix Lander is due to touch down on the red planet at 5:00 PM PDT in the first fully-automatic soft-landing attempt since the disastrous Polar Lander mission in 1999.

Whether the crew at JPL still has any fingernails left by then is open to debate.

Update: Phoenix is down and working.

However, no word from Captain Black yet.

One-Way to Mars

Mr. Jim McLane, a former NASA engineer, claims that the most cost-effective way of carrying out a manned Mars mission is to send one man on a one-way trip.

That's "one way" as in "not planning on bringing him back," not "no guarantee of bringing him back." According to Mr. Lane,

When we eliminate the need to launch off Mars, we remove the mission’s most daunting obstacle.

Some aeroplane engineers had the same idea about landing gear, but that never proved very popular except with certain circles in the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Mr. McLane says that this approach is in keeping with the spirit of Charles Lindbergh or Captain Scott, who both took tremendous risks, but he overlooks the fact that Lindbergh was attempting to reach Paris, which had a good return liner service and was inhabited, albeit by Frenchmen, and Captain Scott and his men had no intention of taking up permanent residence at the South Pole. Even immigrants to the New World who had no plans to return home went with the tacit understanding that two-way trade was the point of the entire enterprise, not a dumping into a prison without hope of reprieve.

Counter proposals that just shooting the volunteer in the head is even more cost effective were not received gracefully.

Canada on Mars

From Canada.com:

B.C. robotics firm lands Martian contract

Now that is what I call an aggressive foreign trade policy.

Mars Plan Marred

Looks like there aren't any takers for ESA's simulated Mars mission.

Can't imagine why. Seventeen months locked up in a tin can with no booze, no fags, no showers, nothing but freeze-dried meals and sharing a berth with some nit who listens to the Moody Blues at two in the morning; what's not to love?

Sim Mars

The European Space Agency is calling for volunteers to be sealed inside a "spaceship" for 17 months to simulate a trip to Mars. According to the BBC,

With the exception of weightlessness and radiation, the crew will experience most other aspects of long-haul space travel, such as cramped conditions, a high workload, lack of privacy, and limited supplies.

I'm confused. Are they simulating space travel or working as a code writer at Microsoft?

Robinson Crusoe on Mars

Great movie; shame about the title.

Oddly, Mona the Wooly Monkey's career went pretty much nowhere after this.

Conquest of Space

We're on a roll here. Stand by for the second new section in less than a week. Last time it was the Moon, this time it's Mars. It's the 1954 classic: Conquest of Space.

Enjoy.