Basil Posted December 18, 2007 Report Share Posted December 18, 2007 http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071218.html Nearly-pure silica soil found on Mars. Useful material, silica. If that were all, I wouldn't have bothered posting this... But it's not all! Your scientist friends from the blue water planet say that such soil on Earth is usually created by either volcanic steam or a hot spring. More evidence for a wet past for Mars. Though if there were hot springs, does this mean the Martians had saunas? With hawt alien sauna babes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeropoint Posted December 18, 2007 Report Share Posted December 18, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars Martian hot springs episode!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted December 19, 2007 Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars Mars wants our women! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeropoint Posted December 19, 2007 Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars That's okay, I want me some hawt Martian women! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted December 19, 2007 Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars I assume you're talking about the red egg-laying Dejah Thoris types, and not the weird green long-headed Martian Manhunter type or the exposed-brain Mars Attacks type... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygoneyrs Posted December 19, 2007 Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars When is the manned landings on Mars planned for 2012-2015? Or did they push it back to 2020? Penn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted December 19, 2007 Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars When is the manned landings on Mars planned for 2012-2015? Or did they push it back to 2020? Penn I believe the Russians claim to have an active program. NASA's Design Reference Mission (DRM) could get humans to Mars within ten to twelve years from the time we get serious about doing it. We have the technology. What we need now is the ability to select a crew of six that can share what amounts to an efficency apartment they can't leave for two and a half years without getting homocidal. I believe NASA's current plan is a return to the Moon by 2020, and Mars "sometime" thereafter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygoneyrs Posted December 19, 2007 Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars Well either the engines tech needs to greatly improve, or they need to build and design a ship large enough to be able to support a staff/crew with enough entertainment to keep folks happy. I guess they would have to bring along a good RPG gaming system like Hero's System to pass the time. Penn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thia Halmades Posted December 19, 2007 Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars I believe the Russians claim to have an active program. NASA's Design Reference Mission (DRM) could get humans to Mars within ten to twelve years from the time we get serious about doing it. We have the technology. What we need now is the ability to select a crew of six that can share what amounts to an efficency apartment they can't leave for two and a half years without getting homocidal. I believe NASA's current plan is a return to the Moon by 2020, and Mars "sometime" thereafter. C'mon McCoy. College kids with large campuses and individual rooms can't manage this. I doubt six people and one bathroom (and heaven help you if someone has some sort of genetic problem that blows up half way between here and there) would actually work on any level. I'd go insane. Too few people? *snap* Too MANY people and no space? *pop* The difference is subtle, but it's there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygoneyrs Posted December 19, 2007 Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars Actually what they need is a slightly larger designed ship that can be reused for other trips to Mars as well. Maybe a central rotating hub that simulates gravity and where they can use the central corridor as a place to jog within the rotating hub to help keep them in shape. Maybe some rooms off of this central corridor on either side set up for labs and other uses and barrecks as well. The US Airforce has found having two service members per room works out nicely, and provides just enough privacy too. I would also hope that they send them with a whole bunch of games and etc, to help them pass the time. Penn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted December 19, 2007 Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars I'm sure I've posted this before, but I think Buzz Aldrin's plans are the most workable scenario in the foreseeable future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygoneyrs Posted December 19, 2007 Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars Well I just read the article and I just wonder when all this might happen, I would pay to donate 1% of my yearly salery to the space program to fund it! I think it is a program that is well worth the costs and funding! Penn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeropoint Posted December 20, 2007 Report Share Posted December 20, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars Fund the Mars mission! Sample and return! Hawt Martian babes for all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azato Posted December 20, 2007 Report Share Posted December 20, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars So that means there can't be more than one woman crew member. OOPS! Did I say that? We have the technology. What we need now is the ability to select a crew of six that can share what amounts to an efficency apartment they can't leave for two and a half years without getting homocidal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted December 20, 2007 Report Share Posted December 20, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars Well either the engines tech needs to greatly improve, or they need to build and design a ship large enough to be able to support a staff/crew with enough entertainment to keep folks happy. I guess they would have to bring along a good RPG gaming system like Hero's System to pass the time. Penn Actually what they need is a slightly larger designed ship that can be reused for other trips to Mars as well. Maybe a central rotating hub that simulates gravity and where they can use the central corridor as a place to jog within the rotating hub to help keep them in shape. Maybe some rooms off of this central corridor on either side set up for labs and other uses and barrecks as well. The US Airforce has found having two service members per room works out nicely, and provides just enough privacy too. I would also hope that they send them with a whole bunch of games and etc, to help them pass the time. Penn The difference is the DRM can be done with no materials or engineering breaktrhoughs. You, and Aldrin, are talking about building something larger than the ISS then accelerating it toward Mars. Don't think a shared room is going to be an option. Think the crew is going to need a private space, someplace thay can shut the door and not see, hear, or smell anyone else. Unfortunately I suspect these will be like a Japanese Capsule Hotel, coffin-sized rooms, but a space within the ship they can be alone, select the movie or music they want without consulting anyone, turn the lights on or off as they chose, ect. PbP RPG's may be a very good idea. Real time communications will suffer from longer and longer speed of light lag as they get farther away from Earth. Fortunately with modern technology a good library of movies, music, and e-books takes very little mass, and new ones can be uploaded throughout the mission. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vestnik Posted December 20, 2007 Report Share Posted December 20, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars I believe the Russians claim to have an active program. NASA's Design Reference Mission (DRM) could get humans to Mars within ten to twelve years from the time we get serious about doing it. We have the technology. What we need now is the ability to select a crew of six that can share what amounts to an efficency apartment they can't leave for two and a half years without getting homocidal. Indeed: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,505617,00.html September 14, 2007 THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE COSMONAUT Russia Prepares for Mars Mission with 'Big Brother' Experiment How would humans react to a long and difficult trip to Mars? To research the effects of extended isolation, and prepare for a possible mission, Russian scientists will put six volunteers in a closed environment in Moscow for 520 days -- and then sit back and watch. Sergey Ryazanski, whose grandfather helped build an early Soviet rocket, will be a test crew member for a simulated trip to Mars. One ex-convict from Western Europe has applied to be locked up again, in Russia: He said he thought the space research mission in far-away Moscow was just the thing for him, since he's used to cramped spaces and isolation from his time in jail. He and others have written to the European Space Agency (ESA), which together with Moscow's Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) wants volunteers for a new experiment testing mankind's limits for an eventual mission to Mars. Within the next three decades, Russia wants to be the first to send humans to the red planet. In order to prepare for the arduous journey, four Russians and two people selected by ESA will participate in experiments to simulate long-distance space travel: They will be locked up in a model spacecraft for 520 days as human guinea pigs. No outside air and no daylight will penetrate the container's aluminum walls. In effect, it will be like the reality TV show Big Brother, only for science instead of cheap entertainment. Some 5,000 men and women from 45 countries have applied so far. "I see good chances especially for eastern Germans, since the participants have to speak fluent Russian as well as English," says ESA researcher Marc Heppener. The application deadline ends this month and finalists for the experiment starting in 2008 will be determined in December. Sergey Ryazanski has already passed all the necessary medical and psychological tests. The athletic, blue-eyed, 32-year-old Russian is testing one of the wooden cots in the mock spacecraft's sleeping module. His grandfather helped build one of the very first Soviet rockets and two years ago he managed to graduate from Russia's cosmonaut training program. A romantic attraction to outer space simply runs in the family blood. "My wife was the only one who couldn't understand that," Sergey sighs. She divorced him. >From his training, Ryazanski knows how extreme conditions can affect a person's psychological well-being. "In total isolation with five people, you're burdened by five times as many problems, and so are the others," he says. It's exactly that sort of group dynamic that the IBMP wants to examine. Eighteen cameras will record every move, every discussion and every argument of the earthbound spacecraft's occupants. Psychologists hope to pick candidates that will ensure the group works together as well as possible. A university degree in medicine, biology or engineering is a requirement. Once the 20-centimeter thick airtight hatch has closed, the six would-be cosmonauts will have to rely on each other. They will have to repair things like defective filters on their own. That's because the crew of a mission to Mars -- unlike the International Space Station (ISS) crew, in orbit 350 kilometers above the Earth -- would get little help from ground control. The further away they travel, the greater the delay in communication will be. At its farthest point in orbit around the sun, Mars is some 400 million kilometers away from the Earth. Any SOS call from the spaceship would take 20 minutes to reach mission control and their response would take another 20 minutes on the way back. Fresh Vegetables, but Reprocessed Urine Food is another major topic. Each gram of prepackaged food will be closely calculated and stored in the Mars enclosure. If someone wants to drink two cups of coffee in a day, someone else will have to go without. They will also grow their own vegetables in real soil in a greenhouse. Those vegetables, along with freshly baked bread, will be the only non-packaged food onboard. The pretend cosmonauts will receive €120 per day for spending a year and a half breathing chemically treated "spaceship air," drinking reprocessed urine, and eating freeze-dried food. Workers for the IBMP are still hammering and bolting the four windowless modules together, which will be connected by airlocks. But the wood-paneled sleeping cabins are already done, and they've installed the ventilation system. The project will simulate the first manned mission to Mars under realistic conditions. The trip to Earth's red neighbor takes 250 days. Thirty days will be spent on approach, landing and a brief stay on the sandy rocky surface. Only at this point will participants be allowed to leave their enclosure -- in a complete spacesuit. After that, they will begin the "trip home," which will take another 240 days. The psychological selection process is extremely important, stresses IBMP director Anatoly Grigoryev. He knows what he's talking about: Eight years ago, the Russians attempted a much shorter experiment simulating six months in space. It wasn't pretty. A Japanese participant dropped out because he couldn't stand the drama. At an alcohol-fueled New Year's celebration, a Russian punched his colleague and gave him a bloody nose. The team leader also tried to kiss a female participant from Canada. "After that I only went to bed with a knife," she said later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted December 26, 2007 Report Share Posted December 26, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars When is the manned landings on Mars planned for 2012-2015? Or did they push it back to 2020? Penn 2030, IIRC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygoneyrs Posted December 26, 2007 Report Share Posted December 26, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars Well all I can hope fore in my lifetime, is that I live long enough (I'm currently 43) to see mankind return to the moon and mankind walk on Mars. If that all happens in lets say the next 30 yrs, I will be 73 by then. They say your lifespan is a average of your mother's and father's. Mom was 88 and dad was 76 when they both passed away, so I can only hope I make it to at least 76 yrs old! Penn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawnmower Boy Posted December 27, 2007 Report Share Posted December 27, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars I'm 43, too, and perhaps because I have longer to wait than Bygoneyrs (my parents haven't died yet, so logically I'm going to live forever!), I just ask that no-one rushes into this. I do not want to hear about the first voyagers to Mars dying miserably halfway there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygoneyrs Posted December 27, 2007 Report Share Posted December 27, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars I too can only hope that I am able to influence my own children whom are 8 and 13, and interested in math/science and space, to maybe guide them toward careers in the direction of the space program. It would be a dream if they could be apart of the space program and etc, but I will be happy with what ever they do regardless. Yes I hope too, that the flights to Mars are a total success! Penn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted December 27, 2007 Report Share Posted December 27, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars I too can only hope that I am able to influence my own children whom are 8 and 13, and interested in math/science and space, to maybe guide them toward careers in the direction of the space program. It would be a dream if they could be apart of the space program and etc, but I will be happy with what ever they do regardless. Yes I hope too, that the flights to Mars are a total success! Penn If you want anything NASA related, let me know and I'll see what I can do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemming Posted December 28, 2007 Report Share Posted December 28, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars Oooo. The NASA Brainwashing kit would be nifty! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygoneyrs Posted December 28, 2007 Report Share Posted December 28, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars I tell ya...my thoughts on NASA and the space program are slightly different that my older sons views. I would advised my sons to do well in school, get involved in all sorts of activities and get into either the Naval or Air Force Academy. Then study to become some engineer and become a pilot. Then try for the Astronaught program. Something tells me that might be the way for my younger son, but my older son ( the 13 yr old that plays Hero's) is more of a true scientist egg. His approach will be the scholar one I can see now. I will support what ever they want to do, but am glad that they at least share my interest in space and what is "Out There". Space is mankind's future and I believe we will be out there one day! Penn:dyn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeropoint Posted December 28, 2007 Report Share Posted December 28, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars Alas, I must live with the knowledge that I will never contribute to nor participate in the exploration of space. Or anything else significant, for that matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vestnik Posted December 29, 2007 Report Share Posted December 29, 2007 Re: Glassy Mars Man, Zeropoint. Man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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