Mars

Transforming Mars into a second Earth – a simple trick Life

Transforming Mars into a second Earth – a simple trick

In the journal Nature Astronomy, researchers have presented an exciting method for transforming Mars into a fertile planet: they want to cover our neighbor with a thin layer made of silicate aerogels. How is that supposed to work? The Red Planet has two properties that make the existence of life on its surface more difficult. First, it is significantly too cold there, and second, life can be destroyed by the cosmic radiation that is incident on the Mars surface in much higher amounts than on the Earth due to Mars’s thin atmosphere. If we wanted to create Earth-like conditions, for…
Fly to Mars with NASA – on board the next Mars rover Mars

Fly to Mars with NASA – on board the next Mars rover

Right now, not only can you send a postcard into space, but you can also send your name to Mars – on board NASA’s Mars 2020 rover. All you need to need is enter your name and e-mail address at go.nasa.gov/Mars2020Pass. Your name will then be etched onto a microchip that is mounted on the rover. Your name will be arranged on a line that is 75 micrometers high. This will allow NASA to etch a million names on the chip. 2 million names flew along with the Insight probe. As a reward you’ll get a virtual boarding pass…
Is it possible to fly on Mars? Mars

Is it possible to fly on Mars?

Of course, it’s possible to fly to Mars – but how about on Mars? The red planet’s atmosphere is significantly thinner than Earth’s. Atmospheric pressure at Mars’s surface is 0.00636 bar, which is one-hundred-fiftieth of the pressure at Earth’s surface. For a heavier-than-air aircraft to take off, it needs lift. It’s difficult to generate enough lift in such a thin atmosphere – but engineers at NASA’s JPL have apparently done it. In any case, on NASA’s Mars 2020 rover mission, they want to include a small helicopter that could fly autonomously there at a height of up to five…
Where does the dust on Mars come from? Mars

Where does the dust on Mars come from?

The movie “The Martian” begins with the hero being separated from his crew by a dust storm and then being left behind, presumed dead, alone on Mars. In fact, because of its very thin atmosphere, a storm on Mars would feel like a light breeze on Earth and would definitely not have the force to knock over a spaceship. But Martian storms could certainly produce problems, because they would darken the sky, and this would make generating energy from sunlight no longer possible. But where does the dust come from that is currently covering almost all of Mars? (más…)
Terraforming Mars: There’s not enough carbon dioxide Life

Terraforming Mars: There’s not enough carbon dioxide

The atmosphere of the red planet not only lacks enough oxygen, it is also very thin. Instead of a surface pressure of one bar on Earth, the surface pressure in Mars’s atmosphere reaches only 6 millibars, thus, less than one-hundredth of the Earth’s surface pressure. Consequently, to work on Mars, astronauts would have to wear pressurized suits. The atmosphere would have to be considerably denser for a respiratory mask to be sufficient. If the density were even higher, carbon dioxide, the main component of Mars’s atmosphere, could play its same role that is so dreaded on Earth, that of…
Organic matter on Mars – and a seasonal methane cycle Life

Organic matter on Mars – and a seasonal methane cycle

Researchers estimate that every year, 100 to 300 tons of organic matter from space must land on the Mars surface. If one considers that this process has been going on for billions of years, then there must be abundant organic deposits (which, to be clear, were produced from abiotic processes and thus have nothing to do with organic life) to be found on Mars. However, the first probes, which analyzed Mars’s soil with a gas chromatography, Viking-1 and Viking-2, found absolutely no traces of organic materials in the regolith samples that they analyzed. This was a source of astonishment…
Project KRUSTY: NASA wants to operate low-power nuclear reactors on the Moon and Mars Space

Project KRUSTY: NASA wants to operate low-power nuclear reactors on the Moon and Mars

In the television show “The Simpsons,” Krusty is the name of a clown who usually treats everyone any way but nice. The US space agency NASA is using this name for its project for making exploration on the moon and other planets easier with the help of nuclear reactors (laymen would say “nuclear power plants”). KRUSTY stands for “Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology” and has already proven reliable and safe in every way in various tests. (más…)
How the InSight probe will explore the interior of Mars Space

How the InSight probe will explore the interior of Mars

As background research for my up-coming novel “Mars Nation,” I’ve been following live the start of the new Mars “InSight” satellite. For the first time, an interplanetary NASA mission will begin on the west coast of the USA. The launch site is the Vandenberg Air Force Base, home of the US Air Force’s 30th Space Wing. Military and civil missions to Earth orbit have started from here, but the Insight probe is so lightweight that it does not need to take advantage of being close to the equator. In addition, in the available launch window (there is one only…