Mars mission very much on the cards - six scientists are getting ready in Hawaii

Mars mission is very much on the cards and a team of six scientists are getting ready in Hawaii to acclamatise themselves with the rigors of undertaking a journey to the Red Planet situated nearly 56 million kilometers from planet Earth.
These scientists have entered a dome that is perched on top of a remote volcano in Hawaii. The University of Hawaii has indicated that they will spend the next eight months in isolation to simulate life for astronauts traveling to Mars.
This has been reported in thehindu.com dated 21 January 2017.

The study has been designed to help NASA understand human behavior and performance during long space missions in anticipation of a manned mission to the red planet. The crew will perform geological fieldwork and basic daily tasks in the 1,200-sq.ft. dome that is located in an abandoned quarry 8,200 feet above sea level on the Mauna Loa volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island.
There is very little vegetation in the area and the scientists will have no contact with the outside world and communications with a mission control team will be time-delayed to match the 20-minute travel time of radio waves passing between the Earth and the Mars.
Their daily routine would include food preparation from only shelf-stable ingredients, exercise, research and fieldwork aligned with NASA’s planetary exploration expectations.
The mission is funded by NASA and is known as the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (Hi-SEAS). It is the fifth of its kind intended to create guidelines for journeys to Mars.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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NASA sends team to the bed of Atlantic Ocean to get a feel of Martian environment

Having set its eyes on Mars, NASA has sent a team of astronauts to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean on a 16-day mission - the objective is to prepare them for future deep space missions and the journey to Mars. These “aquanauts” have been sent to train undersea in simulated space mission because the bottom of a blue ocean has extreme environments similar to the surface of Mars, the Red Planet.
This has been reported in thehindu.com dated 24 July 2016.

The expedition has been named NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) 21. It will consist of an international crew and they will have to explore tools and techniques being tested for future space exploration by living in simulated spacecraft conditions and, simultaneously, conducting simulated spacewalks outside of their undersea habitat. This habitat is named Aquarius and the Aquarius Reef Base is located 62 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
The main purpose of isolating crew members at the bottom of the ocean is to simulate life and work for astronauts in microgravity environments like the International Space Station, or in spacecraft that will, in future, make journeys to asteroids and planets.


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Latest upgrade on Mars – it has enough ice on it to create a 1.1-meter high layer

#wateronmars #UniversityofCopenhagen #redplanet The Red planet Mars, supposedly the abode of green colored tiny men, is believed to be having thousands of glaciers buried below its dusty surface and, enough frozen water to blanket the planet with a 3.6-foot(1.1- metre) thick layer of ice.
This has been revealed by Nanna Bjornholt Karlsson, a researcher at the University of Copenhagen’s Neils Bohr Institute and reported in zeenews.india.com dated 9 April 2015.

The glaciers are in two bands in the mid-southern and mid-northern latitudes and this has been found from radar data that has been collected by Mars-orbiting satellites along with computer models of ice flows. These show that the planet has about 5.3 trillion cubic feet (150 billion cubic metres) of water locked in the ice.
The results have been published in the journal Geophysical Research Letter.
Scientists are trying to get to the bottom of the mystery of how Mars transformed from a warm, wet and presumably Earth-like planet early in its history into the cold, dry desert that it is today.
There are theories that billions of years ago, Mars, which lacks a protective, global magnetic field, lost much of its atmosphere. Therefore, scientists are trying to determine how much of the planet’s water was stripped away and how much still remains locked in ice in underground reservoirs.
In the opinion of scientists, the glaciers have remained more or less intact because they are protected under a thick layer of dust. They are searching for evidence of river beds, streams and hydrated minerals, and are also studying telltale molecules in the Martian atmosphere. Based on their preliminary studies, they have concluded that the planet probably had an ocean more than a mile deep covering almost half of its northern hemisphere.
Unfortunately, the planet Mars has lost about 87 percent of that water.

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NASAs Mars rover Opportunity completes a marathon on Mars in 11 years 2 months

#marsrover #NASA #Opportunity #space #redplanet A marathon means 26.2-miles and the reading on the odometer of Mars rover Opportunity now reads 26.2-miles – hence, one can safely say that Opportunity has completed a marathon. Only, it has taken 11-years and 2-months to complete this marathon – it had landed on Mars in 2004 for a three-month prime mission.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 25 March 2015.

In the course of its travel over the surface of the Red Planet, it yielded evidence of environments with liquid water soaking the ground and flowing on the surface of the planet. Both Opportunity and its twin Spirit, had succeeded in uncovering geologic signs of ancient water. But, Spirit's mission ended in 2011 soon after it got stuck in Martian sand.
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#InternationalSpaceStation #Soyuzspacecraft #NASA #redplanet On 27 March, a team of three would fly to the International Space Station and two of them will not return soon – they would remain on the ISS so that their fitness can be evaluated by specialists in preparation for sending humans to distant planets like Mars.
This has been reported in space.com dated 23 March 2015.

The three are American astronaut Scott Kelly of NASA and two cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka of Russia – they will blast off on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The first two namely Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko would stay on for a whole year and pave the way for future missions of longer durations. It will be the first time that an American would spend a continuous year in space.
Their stay in the ISS for a whole year would help to have a better understanding of how the human body would react and adapt to the harsh environment of space. Based on the findings, suitable decisions can be taken to work out how best to reduce the risks on future long-duration missions to some asteroid and, eventually, the Red Planet Mars.

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Bas Lansdorp has also commented on allegations of astrophysicist Joseph Roche, a former Mars One astronaut candidate. Joseph had alleged that the organization was selecting its astronauts based on their ability to donate to the cause. Joseph Roche had also indicated that the selection process of Mars One was flawed and slipshod.
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