Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

One-Way Mission to Mars: US Soldiers Will Go

Sergeant First Class William H. Ruth III contemplates his current duty in a barren landscape in Afghanistan, and says he’s willing to lead a human mission to Mars.

An article published on Universe Today back in March of this year detailing former NASA engineer Jim McLane’s idea for on a one-way, one-person mission to Mars generated a lot of interest. The many comments on the subject posted here on UT and numerous other websites such as ABC News ranged from full support to complete disbelief of the idea. McLane’s concept has literally gone around the world, and a journalist from Spain, Javier Yanes who writes for the newspaper Publico shared with me his correspondence with a US soldier stationed in Afghanistan, who says that battle-hardened soldiers would be the perfect choice to send on a mission of no return to a new world. SFC William H. Ruth III says he and the men in the 101st Airborne Division are ready and willing to go.

SFC Ruth wrote, “While reading Jim McLane and Nancy Atkinson’s thoughts on Space Colonization, I started to realize that we ALL have lost our way. We have become so consumed by petty differences and dislikes of others that we all have forgotten our pre destiny of something better.”

And what is the ‘something better’ that Ruth envisions? Military personnel from different countries joining together to make “the ultimate sacrifice” of forging the way to establish an outpost on another world, like Mars.

“Here is an ‘out of the box’ idea,” Ruth writes. “Let the heroes of all our countries, for once, risk the ultimate sacrifice for something greater than one man’s idea. Maybe once let these men and woman that rise every morning and say ‘today I will stand for something and say ‘evil will not prevail, not on my watch.’ For once let them volunteer for us all, you never know, mankind, the human race. It might just catch on if we let it.”

Ruth continues, “Will we falter at a hint of death or danger? Or will we do now what so many in all of the world’s history has done before us. NASA of all thinking societies should understand this. Would there even be an America or NASA if a man named Columbus had not pursued a dangerous and possibly deadly voyage to a new world? He certainly had to consider whether or not he would ever return home to see all those he loved so dearly. But what of those aboard his ships, those that left Spain knowing that they would never return. Those few that willingly risked all for the chance at a new world and a new future, could they have possibly known what effects they would have had on the future due to their sacrifices? Now can we have enough vision to see our destiny, can we, for a moment, see past our petty differences of race and religion to see peace, prosperity and possibly a new world.”

3rd Platoon at Fire Base Ter-Wa, April 2008. SFC Ruth is first on the left.

Ruth says 15 years in the military has prepared him for such a mission. “So I am no fool and I am no stranger to what some might call high risks,” he says. “Hundreds of thousands of fighting men and woman from around this world have walked, rode, swam and even jumped into what some would call a high risk situation. Some even considered suicide missions, ones with low probability of success. And why, what did they risk all for? Each and every one of us, even those throughout this earth that has made that choice, risk all for what we believed would make our world better.”

Ruth first began pondering such a mission after reading a quote by Stephen Hawking on Space.com: “The discovery of the New World made a profound difference on the old,” Hawking said. “Spreading out into space will have an even greater effect. It will completely change the future of the human race, and maybe determine whether we have any future at all.”

Ruth sent an email to Space.com’s Anthony Duignan-Cabrera, which was posted on the LiveScience blog: “Here is an idea: Send battle-hardened, strong-minded soldiers and marines on the long trips into space. We are conditioned to live with the bare minimal (of) life’s necessities and are trained to be prepared for the worst conditions that any environment could throw at us. Hell, me and my men will go, set up a colony somewhere and await colonists to arrive.”

Javier Yanes read Ruth’s proposition and contacted him, sending him the link to the Universe Today article with McLane’s idea.

Ruth responded by sending Yanes a written statement called “A Soldier’s Perspective;,” Yanes wrote an article about Ruth in Publico, and shared Ruth’s proposal and pictures with me.

Ruth doesn’t agree with McLane’s idea of a one-person mission to Mars, but supports the one-way idea.

“I fully agree with NASA and others that it is completely dangerous and potentially deadly for anyone who sets out on this voyage,” he wrote. “But since when has that ever stopped anyone? A one way trip is the way to go about this, it is a proven fact of human history that when the human species is thrown into a no alternative situation, that they will prevail and survive.

The military would never send someone out alone, and Ruth thinks a multiple ship mission is the way to proceed, with three to four smaller vessels, with four to six crew members each.

Ruth admits that other might see sending soldiers into space as more like an invasion or occupation than exploration. “To those who share this concern, consider this for a moment and ask yourself, who else?” Ruth asked. “Who else has the mentality to volunteer to face certain danger and possibly death, thousands of miles away from their homes? I could think of a few hundred thousand that do it everyday across this planet.”

Ruth says that getting the worlds militarys involved with something other than making war with each other could change humanity’s future for the better.

“I wonder who will be the first to extend the hand of complete partnership, representing the whole human species?” Ruth asks. “Could this be the answer that so many have searched for? Could this one thing unite humanity in a new era of global cooperation and a new planetary respect for human life, unlike we know it today? My answer is ask me again when I’ve reached the new world!”

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Phoenix’s First Views With Color

Here are a couple of colorized images of Phoenix’s first views of its landing site. They are a little more exciting than the black and white version, and the human eye can pick out more detail in color. This is an approximate-color image taken shortly after landing by the Phoenix’s Surface Stereo Imager, generated from two color filters, a violet and an infrared filter. It shows the vast plains of the northern polar region of Mars. The flat landscape is strewn with tiny pebbles and shows polygonal cracking, a pattern seen widely in Martian high latitudes and also observed in permafrost terrains on Earth. The polygonal cracking is believed to have resulted from seasonal freezing and thawing of surface ice.

Phoenix touched down on the Red Planet at 7:53 EDT yesterday in an arctic region called Vastitas Borealis, at 68 degrees north latitude, 234 degrees east longitude.

Polygonal cracks are visible in this close up image of the Mars arctic tundra. This color version was again generated using one of the first black and white image sent by Phoenix and processed with two color filters. The SSI camera on Phoenix will be calibrated with colors on the spacecraft itself in order to make sure the color images it sends back will show the “real” colors on Mars as close as possible. SSI has a 12-position color filter that ranges from optical to infrared.

Phoenix’s approximate position on Mars is shown here. The red circle on the far right of the blue landing elipse is where the spacecraft is estimated to be. At the time this post is written, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has probably already passed over this area on Mars and will attempt to image the lander on the surface of Mars. We’ll post that if the MRO team is successful in this difficult effort.

News Source: NASA

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

First Images from Phoenix

Phoenix sent its first images of itself and Mars’s surface, which indicate that all is well with the spacecraft. The lander is stable, the solar arrays have deployed, and Phoenix appears to be sitting on a smooth, landscape that is just what the scientists were hoping for. “It looks like a good place to start digging!” said Dan McCleese from JPL.


This image of Phoenix’s solar arrays indicates that the arrays have deployed fully. Data indicates the batteries are fully charged as well, meaning the solar arrays are working perfectly.


This image shows the lander’s footpad planted quite nicely, not sunk into the surface at all. This indicates great stability for Phoenix.


This is a second, and not quite complete landscape image that Phoenix sent back to Earth of its surroundings.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Welcome Back to Mars: Phoenix Lands Successfully!

The Phoenix spacecraft successfully made a soft touchdown on the northern polar region of Mars. The events of entry, descent and landing unfolded in textbook fashion, and according to telemetry sent back by the spacecraft, Phoenix sits almost perfectly level on Mars’ surface, tilted only a quarter of a degree, situated in an east to west orientation. “Everything went absolutely flawlessly,” said Doug McCuistion, NASA’s Mars exploration program director. “Things ticked off within seconds of when they should have, and the signal never went away completely even through peak heating. This spacecraft has been a flawless performer since launch. An unbelieveable performance.” NASA now has a record three operating spacecraft on the surface of Mars.

Phoenix will provide the first close-up glimpse of the Mars tundra, and with its robotic arm dig under the planet’s surface to give insight into the water and climate history of the Red Planet.

Phoenix’s fiery descent through the atmosphere and propulsive touchdown was the first non-airbag landing in since the Viking Landers in 1976. The spacecraft entered the Martian atmosphere traveling 21,000 km/hour (13,000 mph), and slowed to under 8 kph (5 mph) using aerobraking, a parachute and retro-rockets to softly touch down on the surface of Mars. The mission control center reported the helium on board the spacecraft has also successfully vented.

It was beautiful to watch the perfection and performance of the spacecraft and the reaction of the people involved with the mission. Project Manager Barry Goldstein was asked if he thought landing operations would go as well as it did. “Not in my dreams,” he said. “I’m in shock. We had all the signals, everything. We could have scripted it. We had rehearsed all the failure cases, and never in rehearsal did it go this well. This was by far the hardest part to get through. We have contingencies and multiple tries for opening the solar rays, but for EDL it has to go and it has to go on time. I’m speechless. But we have the best team in the world.”

Five years of building and testing the Phoenix spacecraft has seemingly paid off. The first telemetry returned from the spacecraft indicates that all systems are nominal. The team will make sure the solar arrays have deployed and by later this evening the first pictures should be returned. First pictures will be of the lander itself, of the solar arrays to make sure they have deployed.

Principal Investigator Peter Smith said the science team is ready. “We’ll start surface operations right away,” he said. “We’ll get that first picture to make sure the spacecraft is healthy. We’re looking forward to great science and maybe even an extended mission (past the expected 90 day mission)! This is a world mission. We are doing this for everybody.”

Posted on by Ian O'Neill

2012: No Planet X

Will Planet X cause mayhem in 2012? Nope.

Apparently, Planet X (a.k.a. Nibiru) was spotted by astronomers in the early 1980’s in the outermost reaches of the Solar System. It has been tracked by infrared observatories; seen lurking around in the Kuiper Belt and now it is speeding right toward us and will enter the inner Solar System in 2012. So what does this mean to us? Well, the effects of the approach of Planet X on our planet will be biblical, and what’s more the effects are being felt right now. Millions, even billions of people will die, global warming will increase; earthquakes, drought, famine, wars, social collapse, even killer solar flares will be caused by Nibiru blasting through the core of the Solar System. All of this will happen in 2012, and we must begin preparing for our demise right now…

As investigated in my previous article “No Doomsday in 2012“, a lot of weight had been placed on the end of an ancient Mayan calendar, the “Long Count”. According to this calendar and Mayan myth, something is going to happen on December 21st, 2012. Now the world’s Planet X supporters seem to have calculated that this hypothetical, deadly planet will arrive from a highly eccentric orbit to wreak gravitational havoc on Earth, sparking geological, social, economic and environmental damage, killing a high proportion of life… in 2012.

Related 2012 articles:

I’m sorry, but the “facts” behind the Planet X/Nibiru myth simply do not add up. Don’t worry, Planet X will not be knocking on our door in 2012 and here’s why…

Nibiru and Planet X
The planet Neptune - could its orbital deviations reveal Planet X (NASA)

In 1843, John Couch Adams (a British mathematician and astronomer) studied the orbital perturbations of Uranus and deduced that through gravitational interactions, there must be an eighth planet, tugging at the gas giant. This led to the discovery of Neptune, orbiting at a distance of 30AU from the Sun. There have been numerous occasions where this method has been used to deduce the existence of other bodies in the Solar System before they were directly observed.

Neptune was also experiencing orbital perturbations, and on the discovery of Pluto in 1930, it was thought that the aptly named “Planet X” had been discovered. Alas, Pluto’s mass was tiny, and once the orbit of Charon (Pluto’s moon) was analysed it was found that the mass of the Pluto-Charon system was far too small to affect the orbit of Neptune. The hunt for Planet X continued…

After years of speculation and historic research, it was believed that a huge body astronomers were looking for was a huge planet or a small star, possibly a companion to our Sun (making the Solar System a binary system). The name “Nibiru” was unearthed by the author Zecharia Sitchin, on researching the possible intervention of extraterrestrials in the early history of mankind. Nibiru is a hypothetical planet as taught in ancient Sumerian culture (the Sumerians existed from around 6,000BC to 3,000BC, predating Babylon, in the current geographic location of Iraq). There is very little archaeological evidence to suggest this mythical planet has anything to do with Planet X. But since this dubious connection, Planet X and Nibiru are now thought by doomsayers to be the same thing, an ancient astronomical body that has returned after a long orbit beyond the Solar System.

OK, so the Nibiru/Planet X connection might be a bit ropey already, but is there any solid evidence for the modern-day Planet X?

Infrared observations = Planet X
A popular image on Planet X websites. Is this Planet X, or is it simply a young galaxy? (NASA - possible source)
There is much emphasis placed on the 1983 “discovery” of a mysterious heavenly body by NASA’s Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) on the outskirts of the Solar system, some 50 billion miles (540 AU) away. Naturally the world’s media will have been very excited by such a discovery and began making noises that perhaps this was Planet X (the most popular accessible resources for Planet X advocates is the Washington Post article published on December 31st 1983 titled “Mystery Heavenly Body Discovered“). In actuality, astronomers weren’t sure what the infrared object was (the clue is in the word “mystery”). Initial media reports postulated that it could be a long-period comet, or a planet, or a far-off young galaxy or a protostar (i.e. a brown dwarf). As soon as the last possibility is mentioned, suddenly this became the “discovery” that Planet X was in fact a brown dwarf orbiting in the outer reaches of our Solar System.

“So mysterious is the object that astronomers do not know if it is a planet, a giant comet, a nearby “protostar” that never got hot enough to become a star, a distant galaxy so young that it is still in the process of forming its first stars or a galaxy so shrouded in dust that none of the light cast by its stars ever gets through.” – Thomas O’Toole, Washington Post Staff Writer, December 30th 1983 (from text on the Planet X and Pole Shift website)

So where did the Washington Post get its story? The story was published in response to the research printed a paper titled “Unidentified point sources in the IRAS minisurvey” (by Houck et al, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, 278:L63, 1984). Dr. Gerry Neugebauer, co-investigator in the IRAS project, was interviewed and strongly stated that what IRAS had seen was not “incoming mail” (i.e. the results did not suggest there was an object approaching Earth). On reading this interesting research, I was especially drawn to the paper’s conclusion:

“A number of candidate identifications have been considered including near-solar system, galactic, and extragalactic objects. Further observations at infrared and other wavelengths may provide additional information in support of one of these conjectures, or perhaps these objects will require entirely different interpretations.” – Houck et al, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 278:L63, 1984.

Although these IRAS observations were seeing mysterious objects, at this stage, there was no indication that there was an object (let alone a brown dwarf) powering its way toward us. But the rumours had already begun to flow. When follow-up papers were published in 1985 (Unidentified IRAS sources – Ultrahigh-luminosity galaxies, Houck et al., 1985) and 1987 (The IRAS View of the Extragalactic Sky, Soifer et al., 1987), there was little if any media interest in their findings. According to these publications, most of the IRAS observations in the 1984 paper were distant, ultra-luminous young galaxies and one was a filamentary structure known as “infrared cirrus” floating in intergalactic space. IRAS never observed any astronomical body in the outer reaches of the Solar System.

Orbital perturbations = Planet X
The bodies in the Kuiper Belt (Don Dixon)
In addition to the 1983 “discovery” of the Planet X brown dwarf, the 1992 Planet X claim goes something like this: “Unexplained deviations in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune point to a large outer solar system body of 4 to 8 Earth masses, on a highly tilted orbit, beyond 7 billion miles from the sun,” – text from an un-cited NASA source on the “Planet X Forecast and 2012 Survival Guide” video.

Pulling up the discovery of planets using orbital perturbation measurements, Planet X advocates point to a NASA announcement that in 1992, there were indirect measurements of a planet some 7 billion miles from Earth. Alas, I cannot find the original source for this claim. The only huge discovery NASA announced along these lines was the discovery of the first major trans-Neptunian object (TNO) called 1992 QB1 (full details of the discovery of this “cubewano-class” object can be found in the original announcement transcript). It has a diameter of 200km and is confined to the Kuiper Belt, a zone of minor planets (where Pluto lives) and asteroids from 30AU to 55AU, just outside Neptune’s orbit. Some of these bodies (like Pluto) cross the path of Neptune’s orbit and there therefore designated as a TNO. These TNO’s pose no threat to the Earth (in as much as they wont be leaving the Kuiper Belt to pay us a visit in 2012).

Since then, any Neptune orbital perturbations have been put down to observational error and have since not been observed… so there doesn’t appear to be any obvious object any bigger than the largest Kuiper Belt objects out there. Still, to keep an open mind, there could be more large bodies to be discovered (that might explain why there is such a steep drop-off of Kuiper Belt objects at the “Kuiper Cliff”, the jury is out on that idea), but there is no evidence for a massive body approaching from the vicinity of the Kuiper Belt. Even the strange Pioneer anomaly that the Pioneer and Voyager probes are experiencing cannot be attributed to Planet X. This anomaly appears to be a Sun-ward acceleration, if there was a massive planet out there, there should be some gravitational effect beyond what has been predicted by the other known objects in the Solar System.

4-8 Earth masses = a brown dwarf? It must be Planet X.
Brown dwarfs are 15-80 times the mass of Jupiter (NASA)
Probably the most glaring inconsistency in the Planet X hypothesis is the Planet X advocates assertion that the 1984 IRAS object and the 1992 body are one of the same thing. As announced on many websites and online videos about Planet X, the 1984 IRAS observation saw Planet X at 50 billion miles from Earth. The 1992 NASA “announcement” put Planet X at a distance of about 7 billion miles from Earth. Therefore, the logic goes, Planet X had travelled 43 billion miles in the course of only eight years (from 1984 to 1992). After some dubious mathematics, Planet X is therefore expected to reach the core of the Solar System in 2012. (Although many believed it should arrive in 2003… they were obviously wrong about that prediction.)

Well, I think we might be clutching at straws here. For starters, for the 1984 object to be the same as the 1992 object, surely they should be the same mass? If Planet X was a brown dwarf (as we are led to believe in the IRAS observations), how can it possibly weigh in at only 4 to 8 Earth masses eight years later? Brown dwarfs have a mass of around 15-80 Jupiter masses. As Jupiter is about 318 Earth masses, surely the object hurtling toward us should have a mass of somewhere between 4,770 and 25,440 Earth masses? So I am going to go out on a limb here and say that I reckon the 1984 object and the 1992 object (if either object actually existed that is) are not the same thing. Not by a very long shot.

If there is no evidence supporting Planet X, it must be a conspiracy
If it can be this easy to cast the fundamental “scientific” theory behind Planet X into doubt, I see little point in discussing the historical reasons (mass extinctions, volcanic activity, earthquakes etc.) as to why the doomsayers believe Planet X should exist. If there is no renegade planet out there of significant mass, how can Nibiru be a threat to us in 2012?

They will have us believe there is a global conspiracy of international governments hiding the facts from us. NASA is involved in the cover-up, hence the lack of evidence. In my opinion, simply because there is no evidence, doesn’t mean there is a conspiracy to hide the truth from the public. So why would governments want to hide a “discovery” as historic as a doomsday planet approaching the inner Solar System anyway? To avoid mass panic and pursue their own, greedy agendas (obviously).

As it turns out, this is the only strength behind the Planet X myth. When confronted with scientific facts, the Planet X advocates reply with “…governments are sending out disinformation and covering up the true observations of Nibiru.” Although I enjoy a good conspiracy theory, I will not support anything in the name of Planet X. If the basic science behind what we are led to believe are the foundation of Planet X existing is wrong, it seems a poor argument to say “the government did it”.

Therefore, the story that Planet X will arrive in 2012-21-December is, in my view, total bunkum (but it helps to sell doomsday books and DVDs by scaring people). Nibiru will remain in the realms of Sumerian myth.

Sources: No Tenth Planet Yet From IRAS, Surviving 2012 and Planet X (Video), The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System, New Scientist, IRAS, Planet X and Pole Shift

Here’s information on the 2012 comet, 2012 doomsday

Leading image credits: MIT (supernova simulation), NASA/JPL (extrasolar planet). Effects and editing: myself.

Posted on by Jerry Coffey

How Far is Jupiter from Earth

The answer to “how far is Jupiter from Earth” can have a different answer every day of the year. The planets both travel in their elliptical orbits getting closer then farther apart. When Earth and Jupiter are at their closest to each other they are 628,743,036 km apart. At their most distant from each other they are 928,081,020 km apart. In astronomical units the distance varies from 4.2 AU to 6.2 AU.

All of the planets follow an elliptical orbit. When the planet is closest to the Sun it is called perihelion. When it is farthest it is called aphelion. The difference between perihelion and aphelion determines how eccentric an orbit is. Jupiter and Earth have two of the least eccentric orbits in our Solar System.

Earth and Jupiter are closest to each other when Earth is at aphelion and Jupiter is at perihelion. They are the most distant when they are on opposite sides of the Sun and both are at aphelion.

Jupiter is frequently the third brightest object in the night sky behind the Moon and Venus. When Earth and Jupiter are at their closest approach to each other, only the Moon can outshine the planet. Jupiter is so massive that it creates many effects throughout the Solar System. Some scientist believe that the tidal effects of Jupiter as it reaches perihelion could cause sunspots to increase in frequency. It is easy to understand how Jupiter could cause tidal effects when you consider that it is 318 times more massive than the Earth.

Despite its size, Jupiter rotates faster than any other planet in our Solar System. The speed of its rotation has flattened it more than some other planets. On Jupiter the poles are 4,600 km closer to the planet’s center than the equator is.

Jupiter’s mass and other aspects allow it to have a strong gravitational pull. That strong gravity has allowed the planet to capture many satellites. Currently, Jupiter is acknowledged to have 50 moons and 14 provisional moons. Many of those are thought to have been asteroids that were captured when they wandered too close to Jupiter’s influence.

The answer to ”how far is Jupiter from Earth” does not have a single clear cut answer. It varies day to day depending on the position of each planet in their respective orbits. There are many concrete answers about the planet to be had. All you have to do is a little research.

We have written many articles about Jupiter for Universe Today. Here are some interesting facts about Jupiter, and here’s an article about the color of Jupiter.

If you’d like more information on Jupiter, check out Hubblesite’s News Releases about Jupiter, and here’s a link to NASA’s Solar System Exploration Guide to Jupiter.

We’ve also recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast just about Jupiter. Listen here, Episode 56: Jupiter.

Sources:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/jupiter_encounter.html
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/jupiterfact.html
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php/115427-Jupiter-drives-the-sunspots-and-here-s-how.?s=2ad4544667757a173842582ce0c49304
http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=564

Posted on by Fraser Cain

The Coldest Place on Earth

Lake Vostok, Antarctica, indicated in red. Credit:

The confirmed coldest temperature on Earth was recorded in Vostok, Antarctica at a brisk -89.2 degrees Celsius (183 Kelvin). There is an unconfirmed report of the temperature reaching -91 degrees Celsius (181 Kelvin); either way you look at it; you are still freezing your butt off.

The high velocity winds at the South Pole don’t make enduring the cold any easier by the dedicated scientists that work there. Winds can reach a velocity of 90 m/s. These temperatures were recorded during the Antarctic winter in June and July, during the period when the sun never actually rises. Even at its balmiest, Vostok only reaches temperatures of around -25 degrees Celsius (248 Kelvin). When we are looking at temperatures that cold, the Kelvin scale helps make the picture look less bleak; no ominous negative sign out front to make you lose all hope of getting warm. Incidentally, the warmest recorded temperature at Vostok was -19 degrees Celsius (254 Kelvin).

Vostok’s elevation is almost 3500 meters above sea level, and due to the density of oxygen being less towards the poles, the scientists are working at an effective height of 5000 meters above sea level.

Why would we journey to such an inviting place you might wonder? Vostok is located 1300 kilometers from the true South Pole, but is very near the Magnetic South Pole. Scientists study actinometry; the measure of solar radiation in photons, geophysics; the study of the physical properties of the Earth, mainly electrical, gravitational and magnetic forces which also includes seismology, and climatology; the study of weather systems.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Dear Phoenix: All Our Hopes

Dear Phoenix lander,

As I write this you are still tucked safely inside your spacecraft, speeding towards your destination on Mars. The engineers watching over you during this journey tell us you are healthy, doing well, and are so zeroed in on your target that they may not need to adjust your trajectory. However, they’ll provide a gentle nudge to alter your course if they deem it necessary.

It looks like you’ll have good weather for your arrival, with no significant dust storms predicted at the northern polar region of Mars. It’s always nice to have good weather for a landing.

Just to let you know, when you reach the Red Planet, your descent through the atmosphere might be a little scary. In fact, people back on Earth are calling it “7 Minutes of Terror.” But, to be upfront with you, it’s actually closer to 8 minutes that you’ll have to slow from your incoming speed of about 21,000 kph (13,000 mph) to about 8 kph ( 5 mph) just before you touch down on the surface. I know, I know – you’re probably wondering why the Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity only had 6 minutes of terror to endure, and you have almost 8. You’re landing at a lower site on Mars surface, and so you’ll have a longer ride down.


But in fact, it might be scarier for all of us back on Earth who will be aching to know of your progress, than it will be for you. Your ablator heat shield will keep you room-temperature cool, even though the outside temperatures may reach 3,000 degrees Celsius.

You’ll also have a little longer ride on your parachute than the MER — 2 minutes versus 1 minute, although you won’t be traveling anywhere near a leisurely speed. And don’t worry about the parachute design. It’s the same type of parachute that was used for the Viking Landers back in the 1970’s and for MER. It’s tried and tested.

You have 12 thrusters to slow you down just before you land. May they serve you well.

But don’t worry about being alone during these 7-plus minutes. People from all around Earth will be watching and waiting to hear how your journey is progressing. More significantly, scientists and engineers from many different countries will be monitoring your journey with large telescopes and antennas from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the Deep Space Network, listening for the signals and tracking your progress, to keep an eye on how you’re doing.

However, to be honest with you, all of us back on Earth will only receive your transmissions 15 minutes after the fact of whatever occurs. But so many people have put a tremendous amount of time and effort into ensuring that your systems will perform flawlessly. We have great faith in their efforts and tremendous confidence in your capabilities.

But you definitely won’t be alone because there are other spacecraft at Mars that will be ready to welcome you on your arrival, by scanning for your transmissions. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Mars Odyssey and Mars Express, will all be searching for your signals, and MRO will even try to take a picture of you as you descend with your parachute.

You are undertaking a new adventure of exploration and discovery. We anticipate all that you will help us learn about Mars and its climate history by digging down through the arctic ice.

Please know we are all thinking of you and wishing you every success in your journey and subsequent scientific investigations.

Take care, Phoenix, and please call after you land to let us know if you’ve arrived safely.

All our hopes,
Your friends back on Earth

Real-time video of Phoenix’s descent and landing.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Channels, Craters and Phoenix’s Landing Site From MRO

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had a busy week, and here are just a few of the images released from the spacecraft’s HiRISE camera. First up is this false color image of a water-carved channel in the Nili Fossae region on Mars. Billions of years ago sediments were transported across the Martian surface via this channel. MRO’s spectrometer, CRISM has detected water-bearing clay minerals in these plains, which were eroded by flows down the channel. Clays are also seen in the sediments deposited on the floor of Jezero Crater, which you can see in the image below.


The sediments deposited form a delta-like mound on the crater floor, which suggests that the crater may have contained a lake at one time. Planetary scientists use these clues found in the form and composition of the Martian surface to provide insights into an ancient era when liquid water may have been more common at the surface.


This image taken on a spring afternoon on Mars shows a young impact crater in the northern part of Isidis Planitia. The crater is fresh enough that some interesting features are visible, where in older craters these features have been eroded.

The ejecta blanket of material thrown out of the crater is distinctly dark and rough, with many small boulders and rugged texture. To the south of the crater there is a wedge-shaped area with little ejected material. This may indicate that the impactor which formed this crater came from the south, since at moderate impact angles ejecta is preferentially thrown in the direction of motion of the impactor. But some erosion has already begun, as seen in the wind-blown ripples on the crater floor.

Of great interest this week is the region on Mars where the Phoenix spacecraft will land on Sunday, May 25. One of the reasons this specific area of Mars was selected for the landing site is based on the overall lack of rocks that could prove hazardous to the lander. Phoenix will analyze the surface dust as well as dig into an ice-rich layer which is predicted to lie within inches of the Martian surface. The polygon-like shapes on the surface here are most likely the result of temperature oscillations which cause the ice to crack. Here’s hoping for a successful landing for Phoenix, with lots of great science returns.

Source: HiRISE

Posted on by Fraser Cain

End of the Earth

Artist's impression of a red giant star.

Humanity may end in many different ways. We might kill ourselves through nuclear war, or die from a global disease epidemic. Like all the species on Earth, we’ll eventually be gone. But life will survive and continue to evolve into new and interesting forms. But even the Earth won’t last forever. Eventually, our planet too will end.

So, how will the Earth end? It all depends on how the Sun ends.

The Sun is a happy main sequence star right now, but as it nears the end of its life in about 7.5 billion years, it will begin to swell up as a red giant star. Its size will get so large that it will encompass the orbits of the inner planets. Mercury and Venus will be consumed within the Sun.

As the Sun grows, it will let off ferocious solar winds that dwarf its current winds. These winds will cause the Sun to lose a tremendous amount of mass, and this mass loss will cause the orbit of the planets to start spiraling outward. Scientists used to think that this spiraling outward might actually save Earth. Instead of being consumed by the Sun, it would keep spiraling, always keeping one step away from the expanding Sun.

The current thinking is that it’s not going to be fast enough. Although Earth’s orbit will be spiraling outward, it won’t be fast enough to keep pace with the expansion of the Sun as it becomes a red giant. At some point, roughly 7.5 billion years from now, Earth will end; it’ll be gobbled up just like Mercury and Venus before it.

By that time, let’s hope that future humans have relocated to the outer Solar System. By that time, the habitability zone around the Sun will have expanded to the point that water can be a liquid around Kuiper belt objects, like the dwarf planet Pluto. Can you imagine sitting on a beach on Pluto?

You can read more about the end of the Earth in this article. And you can read about the end of the entire Universe in this article.