2014 – The year of Mars Missions

#missiontomars #maven #mangalyaan #baslansdorp #methane 2014 was a year with its dose of plus and minuses, highs and lows and, as we near the last phase of 2014, we can look back on a few of these incidents that made us feel better while a few of these made us cry our hearts out praying to God Almighty that such incidents should never happen again.
On the bright side, the top of the list would naturally go to Mission Mars – Man is desperate to search out an alternate planet for migration because Planet Earth is saturated from all angles. Increase in population coupled with reduction in natural assets is forcing people to wonder what could be in store for us in another hundred years from now. Hence, focus is on the Red Planet Mars which is believed to have had life forms at some point of time in the past. MARS ONE Human Settlement on Mars –
The Netherlands-based non-profit organization Mars One of Bas Lansdorp has plans to send four people to the Red Planet in 2024 – these pioneers would set up human settlement on the Red Planet. It would be a one-way ticket and already over 200,000 have expressed their intention to sign up. As Bas Lansdorp, Mars One Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, has explained – water exists in the form of "water-ice" and the pioneers would have to generate oxygen and create a breathable environment. Nitrogen would come from the Martian atmosphere.
NASAs Curiosity rover – this robot is trudging along inch by inch on the rough terrain of Mars, it continues to send back to Earth exciting news once in a while – and, its latest one regarding the find of methane has made the expedition more interesting. Scientists believe that where there is methane, there should be life, it cannot be too far off.
MAVEN - early discoveries by NASA's newest Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission, has been revealing new facts – this Mars orbiter has found key features about the loss of the planet's atmosphere to space over time. MAVEN has entered its science phase on Nov. 16 and its findings indicate a new process by which the solar wind can penetrate deep into a planetary atmosphere.
MANGALYAAN - this is India’s entry into the Mars race. In September 2014, ISRO was on a high when it successfully launched the Mangalyaan or Mars Orbiter Mission or MOM. It is a low-cost Mars spacecraft in orbit around the red planet and it succeeded in its very first attempt thus entering into the elite club of three nations.
So far, European, American and Russian probes have either orbited or landed on the planet – that to. Not on the first tempt. The first Chinese Mars mission, called Yinghuo-1, failed in 2011 and, in 1998, the Japanese mission ran out of fuel and was lost.

US and Russian astronauts prepare for a joint venture of one-year stay in Space

#missiontomars At the ground level the United States and Russia do not see eye to eye on many matters but where Space fight is concerned, the two have teamed up in the name of science and are embarking on a joint mission. The Russian will carry out seven American experiments with his American counterpart and the American will take part in five Russian experiments.
This mission is touted as a first step towards #missiontomars and sending humans to the Red Planet Mars.
The two astronauts who have been selected for this important mission are Roscosmos' Mikhail Kornienko and NASA's Scott Kelly – they will take off on a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan in March and will not return for a year.
Several international space agencies have joined forces to preview the upcoming mission and set out their scientific goals at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
A long stay in Space is necessary to go into details of the effects of a prolonged stay in space on the human body, one of these is a wasting away of muscles due to the zero-gravity environment. Moreover, there could also be bone loss of around 1.5% a month, and the constant barrage of radiation can trigger cataracts and even cancer.
These two astronauts will, therefore, blast off for the longest ever space mission and the trip would be a stepping stone for possible future expeditions to the Moon, Mars and asteroids.