Great Image: The Curiosity Rover From Above

In the image above from earlier this month, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is looking down on Mars' surface and caught a shot of the Curiosity Rover as it explored the surface of the planet.  Here is the story from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory: 

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover and tracks from its driving are visible in this view from orbit, acquired on April 11, 2014, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The rover is near the largest butte in the lower left quadrant of the image, at about a two o'clock position relative to the butte. It appears bright blue in the exaggerated color of this image.

The multi-layered location filling much of the left half of this image is called "the Kimberley." Curiosity's science team chose it, based on other HiRISE images, as a potential gold mine for the rover mission. Black gold, that is, as organic material that, if found at the Kimberley could be a biomarker (sign of past life) -- the holy grail of Mars exploration.

Curiosity entered the area included in this image on March 12, along the tracks visible near the upper left corner. The distance between parallel wheel tracks is about 9 feet (2.7 meters). The area included in the image is about 1,200 feet (about 365 meters) wide. This view is an enhanced-color product from HiRISE observation ESP_036128_1755, available at the HiRISE website at http://uahirise.org/releases/msl-kimberley.php. The exaggerated color, to make differences in Mars surface materials more apparent, makes Curiosity appear bluer than the rover really looks. A stereo view combining information from this observation with topography derived from earlier HiRISE observations, for a three-dimensional appearance, is at PIA18082.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Kepler-186f: Finding the Needle in a Haystack of Data

The recent announcement that Kepler located an Earth-like planet 500 light years away was the product of detailed research on a trove of data collected during Kepler's lifetime.  Kepler-186f is similar to the size of Earth and within its star's habitable zone. The planet's sun is a dwarf star located in the constellation Cygnus.  The star is smaller than our sun and provides only about 1/3 the heat of our sun. A year on Kepler-186f, which is about 1.1 times the radius of the Earth, is about 130 days.

The full story can be found in Science magazine in a report titled "An Earth-Sized Planet in the Habitable Zone of a Cool Star."  Pretty straight forward like those all blue paintings titled "Blue."  The report abstract is a little more detailed:

The quest for Earth-like planets is a major focus of current exoplanet research. Although planets that are Earth-sized and smaller have been detected, these planets reside in orbits that are too close to their host star to allow liquid water on their surfaces. We present the detection of Kepler-186f, a 1.11 ± 0.14 Earth-radius planet that is the outermost of five planets, all roughly Earth-sized, that transit a 0.47 ± 0.05 solar-radius star. The intensity and spectrum of the star’s radiation place Kepler-186f in the stellar habitable zone, implying that if Kepler-186f has an Earth-like atmosphere and water at its surface, then some of this water is likely to be in liquid form.

It is possible that more such exoplanets may emerge from Kepler's archived data as scientists sift through the information.  While Kepler's original mission may have ended last year, the scientific community has plenty of data to play with for years to come.  It reminds me of archaeology, where digging can be the easy part while cataloging the find an putting together the various pieces takes many more years as association with other artifacts takes place and theories are confirmed.  

In a press release, NASA noted that we are not necessarily looking at a twin Earth but more likely a distant cousin:

 "Being in the habitable zone does not mean we know this planet is habitable. The temperature on the planet is strongly dependent on what kind of atmosphere the planet has," said Thomas Barclay, research scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute at Ames, and co-author of the paper. "Kepler-186f can be thought of as an Earth-cousin rather than an Earth-twin. It has many properties that resemble Earth."

Of course Kepler-186f is not the most interesting name.  Late night host Craig Ferguson had his own ideas recently, noting "I think we have to be more creative...This planet is big and old and surrounded by stars a fraction of its age.  Why don't we call it George Clooney."  Okay, maybe Mr. Ferguson can work on his astronomy and we can keep trying on the name.

Image Credit:  NASA Ames/SETI Institute/JPL-CalTech

More Great Television on the Cosmos

So far I am enjoying the Fox/National Geographic update on Carl Sagan's Cosmos, though the commercials can be somewhat annoying when you are in the middle of an interesting discussion.  For instance, during the first episode, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson was telling the story about the Roman Catholic Church's persecution of Giordano Bruno when a commercial break pops up to sell the movie Noah.  That is not something you would see on PBS.  I think I would rather download the program and watch it without such interuptions.

That said, Dr. Tyson has done a good job updating the old Cosmos and paying respect to Carl Sagan in the first few episodes, even noting his meeting with Dr. Sagan and revisiting some of the same iconic locations made famous in the first series. 

What surprised me when I re-watched the first episode of the original Cosmos was how it was at the very edge of new discoveries in 1981.  Dr. Sagan discussed the Viking rovers on Mars in 1976, the discovery of rings surrounding Uranus in 1977, the discovery of Pluto's moon Charon in 1978, and the sighting of lightening on the dark side of Jupiter in 1979.  The solar system was just opening up to us when the show was first broadcast. 

And another part of the show was his concern for humanity's future that ran through the original Cosmos, which made sense then with the Cold War and could be mentioned again with the Russians acting up again.  Dr. Sagan also mourns the loss of the great library of Alexandria, noting the lost knowledge and thousands of years it took us to regain this knowledge.  Of course, I also saw some hopeful items that were not part of the first episode of the new series.  For instance, the program gives us a view of potential civilizations on other planets in the Milky Way, which as before we even discovered the existence of any planets around other suns.

And I would like to make a plug for another terrific series that covers the Cosmos - Wonders of the Universe with Dr. Brian Cox.  Similar to his earlier Wonders of the Solar System, Dr. Cox is a great story-teller that makes science come alive.  And he too discusses our place in this vast cosmos and notes in the first episode that we are at the very beginning of a universe that will last for trillions of years.  All of it is awe-inspiring.  And one interesting bit of information:  at the age of 12, Dr. Cox read Carl Sagan's book Cosmos and this inspired him to become a physicist.  I expect his own program will do the same for other young viewers. 

Away from the Politics II: Discoveries in the Solar System

The past few weeks have been full of announcements on discoveries within our solar system.  Here are some of the highlights:

• Subsurface Lake on Enceladus:  NASA's Cassini probe has identified a reservoir of water on Saturn's moon (shown above in comparison to our own Moon) that is 19 to 25 miles thick, or equivalent to the water in one of the Great Lakes (I have read comparisons to either Lake Erie or Lake Superior).  What does this mean?  NASA stated: "The subsurface ocean evidence supports the inclusion of Enceladus among the most likely places in our solar system to host microbial life."  Interesting indeed.

• An Asteroid with Rings:  Rings were found around an asteroid named Chariklo, which orbits in the outer solar system between Saturn and Uranus.  Chariklo is one of the larger objects in that region being about 155 miles across. This is the first non-planetary body in our solar system we have identified with its own rings.

• New Icy Object Beyond the Kuiper Belt:  Astronomers have spotted a new object now labeled 2012VP113 (not very dramatic) that orbits outside the Kuiper Belt, which contains Pluto.  We already know that dwarf planet Sedna is out in those reaches.  This raises some interesting questions.  The Sydney Morning Herald reports this could indicate something is pulling these ice objects out that far, such as undiscovered giant planet or maybe a passing star from long ago. 

Away from the Politics: More on the Big Bang

While the U.S. and Russia have been tussling on a variety of issues, some solid science has been going on unabated.  For instance, last month the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced the discovery of gravitational waves formed when the universe was a trillionth of a trillionth of a second old.  While I cannot really wrap my head around the particulars, this discovery (if successfully duplicated by others) could further confirm the theory of cosmic inflation, or the idea of rapid expansion of the universe in the first 380,000 years of its existence.  I found a nice scientific cartoon (really) that walks us through these ideas at PhD Comics.  And here is the March 17th video from the Center with the scientific announcement.

The research itself involved scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), Stanford University, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and the University of Minnesota, while the observations themselves were made at the BICEP2 telescope near the South Pole. 

NASA Ends Connections with Russia

It was only a matter of time.  NASA has decided to end contact with the Russians on most space ventures with the exception of the International Space Station (ISS), which makes sense since they are our only ride to the station at the moment.  We may want to make a point, but we are not foolish enough to jeopardize a $100 billion station.

According to MSN News, the leaked NASA memo stated:

NASA employees can't travel to Russia or host visitors until further notice. They're also barred from emailing or holding teleconferences with their Russian counterparts because of Russia's actions in Ukraine...

The picture above may be the last American-Russian family photo for awhile.  The current ISSExpedition 39 crew members pictured on the front row are Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata (right), commander; and NASA astronaut Steve Swanson, flight engineer. Pictured from the left (back row) are Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Alexander Skvortsov, Mikhail Tyurin and NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio, all flight engineers.

Photo credit: NASA

Elon Musk on 60 Minutes - More Than Rockets

Sunday night's 60 Minutes had a nice piece on Elon Musk's efforts as a carmaker and rocket builder.  The uncertain nature of his initial ventures and astounding success in the face of critics is impressive.  We have all heard of the success of SpaceX, but his efforts with Telsa are also impressive.  It is amazing that $60,000 to $100,000 electric cars are selling so well, but the real story is his attempts to do something new, change perceptions, and then bring down the price for the average American.

Here is part of the conversation on Sunday night, which shows Mr. Musk's willingness to learn but may make investors wary:

Scott Pelley: How did you figure you were going to start a car company and be successful at it?

Elon Musk: Well, I didn't really think Tesla would be successful. I thought we would most likely fail. But I thought that we at least could address the false perception that people have that an electric car had to be ugly and slow and boring like a golf cart.

Scott Pelley: But you say you didn't expect the company to be successful? Then why try?

Elon Musk: If something's important enough you should try. Even if you -- the probable outcome is failure.

The Telsa Model S was the Motor Trend 2013 Car of the Year, with the magazine noting:

The 2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year is one of the quickest American four-doors ever built. It drives like a sports car, eager and agile and instantly responsive. But it's also as smoothly effortless as a Rolls-Royce, can carry almost as much stuff as a Chevy Equinox, and is more efficient than a Toyota Prius. Oh, and it'll sashay up to the valet at a luxury hotel like a supermodel working a Paris catwalk. By any measure, the Tesla Model S is a truly remarkable automobile, perhaps the most accomplished all-new luxury car since the original Lexus LS 400. That's why it's our 2013 Car of the Year.

Even with this success, Mr. Musk still faces problems distributing his cars in some states. For instance, New Jersey may take away Telsa's license to sell cars directly to customers and bypass dealerships.  Then again, he has faced even greater challenges in the past and won. 

Great Image: Dark Barchan Dunes on Mars

Some were curious about "canals" on Mars many years back, but what would early astronomers made of the image here?  Military fortifications? Large land crabs?  Something else?  Well, here is Malin Space Science Systems' version of the story:  

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows north polar sand dunes in the summertime. During winter and early spring, north polar dunes are covered with bright frost. When the frost sublimes away, the dunes appear darker than their surroundings. To a geologist, sand has a very specific meaning. A sand grain is defined independently of its composition; it is a particle with a size between 62.5 and 2000 microns. Two thousand microns equals 2 millimeters. The dunes are dark because they are composed of sand grains made of dark minerals and/or rock fragments. Usually, dark grains indicate the presence of unoxidized iron, for example, the dark volcanic rocks of Hawaii, Iceland, and elsewhere. This dune field is located near 71.7°N, 51.3°W. Dune slip faces indicate winds that blow from the upper left toward lower right. This picture covers an area approximately 3 km (1.9 mi) across and is illuminated by sunlight from the lower left.

 Image Credit:  NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

SpaceX Delays Returns to the Space Station

After a delay earlier this month, SpaceX was scheduled to its third resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on March 30th.  However, the mission, SpaceX-3 (pictured here), has been delayed again due to an electrical short in the tracking radar. According to the U.S. Air Force:

A mandatory range asset supporting the NROL-67 launch went offline, March 24, 2014. An investigation revealed a tracking radar experienced an electrical short, overheating the unit and rendering it inoperable. The outage resulted in an inability to meet minimum public safety requirements needed for flight, so the launch was postponed.

Initial assessment indicates repair of the tracking radar will take approximately three weeks. The Air Force is evaluating the feasibility of returning an inactive radar to full mission capability to resume operations sooner. The launch schedule impact is to be determined, pending resolution of the anomaly. Early indications are all launches scheduled for FY14 will be supported. More information will be provided as it becomes available.

The launch, originally schedule for March 16, will provide the ISS with a variety of needed items while also delivering and removing scientific cargo.  According to SpaceX, the Dragon cargo includes:

 ...about 4,600 pounds of supplies and payloads, including critical materials to support more than150 investigations that will occur during Expeditions 39 and 40. Dragon will carry four powered cargo payloads in its pressurized section and two in its unpressurized trunk, a first for SpaceX. Dragon will return with about 3,600 pounds of cargo, which includes crew supplies, hardware and computer resources, science experiments, biotechnology,and space station hardware.

 Science payloads include the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS), which will test the use of laser optics to transfer information to Earth from space; the Vegetable Production System (VEGGIE), a unit capable of producing salad-type vegetables in space; and the T-Cell Activation in Aging experiment that seeks the cause of a depression in the human immune system while astronauts are in microgravity. In addition, the High Definition Earth Viewing (HDEV) investigation includes four high-definition cameras to be placed on the space station’s exterior for use in streaming live video of Earth for online viewing.

Go here for the completed press kit from SpaceX.  You can also stay up to date on the mission via NASA's SpaceX Blog. 

An Expensive Miss on a Russian Rocket

Given that we are now paying the Russians about $71 million per seat to get an astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS), maybe they felt a longer ride would give us more for our money.  That seems to be the case since the most recent Russian Soyuz space capture missed its connection with the ISS and the American and Russian passengers will have to wait another 36 hours before trying again.  The good news is that they are used to this longer trip, with the shorter 6 hour trip being a pretty new development since last year.

NASA's Steve Swanson and Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev are fine and everything should continue without a hitch.  The problem seems to be a software glitch that prevented a 24-second engine burn to align the capsule with the ISS.

We are lucky we still have the Russians to get passengers to the ISS until we can bring in our private sector partners.  SpaceX has another ISS resupply mission this weekend, so things are on track for the U.S. to be back in the space station transportation business.

Update:  The new ISS crew is safe and sound after a longer than expected delay.  NASA reported:

The new trio docked Thursday to the Poisk docking compartment at 7:53 p.m. EDT and opened the hatches less than two hours later to greet Commander Koichi Wakata and Flight Engineers Rick Mastracchio and Mikhail Tyurin. The sextet then gathered inside the Zvezda service module for a welcoming ceremony with words of congratulations from family members and mission officials.

33rd International Space Development Conference

If you want to learn more about the "colonization, development, and capitalization of space," the National Space Society (NSS) has a conference for you on May 14-18 in Los Angeles.  The NSS's 33rd International Space Development Conference will be held at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel.

The NSS invites members of the general public, space activists, scientists, engineers, educators, astronauts, aerospace industry leaders, and government officials to explore humanity's future in space. The conference will feature a number of speakers sharing their ideas about future space missions, including Space X CEO Elon Musk, Apollo 11 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Orbital Sciences VP Mike Pinkston, members of the Mercury MESSENGER Team, and many others. 

The conference will also have a Space Settlement Design Contest,which is an annual contest co-sponsored by the NSS and the NASA Ames Research Center.  Any student (up to age 18) from anywhere in the world can participate. Interested parties need to submit a paper relating to orbital settlements, with the contest rules stating "Settlements may not be on a planet or moon...Settlements must be permanent, relatively self-sufficient homes, not temporary work camps."

The contest is serious work.  A six member team from Cypress Bay High School Weston, Florida, won the context in 2013 with their 126 page paper Maui.  According to the winning paper's executive summary, 

...Maui tells a story, the story of how extraterrestrial colonies may grow and develop from ramshackle frontier towns to bustling cities. Maui is the narrative of mankind’s first permanent settlement in the Saturn system, orbiting the moon Titan.

Prior conferences and speaker presentations can be found here.  Past student contest winners back to 1994 can be found here.

Image Credit and more photo information:  http://space.mike-combs.com/gallery.htm

How About Russia and Mars?

The International Space Station may still be seen as successful U.S.-Russian cooperation, what about a future Mars mission?  Dr. Robert Zubrin, President of The Mars Society, had some grim words about Russia prior to the invasion of Ukraine in Fall 2013 edition of The Mars Quarterly.  In his article, he discusses some dark comments by Putin advisor Alexander Dugin:

"Liberalism,” says Dugin, meaning the whole western consensus, “is an absolute evil....Only a global crusade against the U.S., the West, globalization and their political-ideological expression, liberalism, is capable of becoming an adequate response...The American empire should be destroyed.”

Notheless, Dr. Zubrin still believed in a joint U.S.-Russian mission to Mars, noting, "Dr. Carl Sagan proposed a similar concept to help counteract U.S.-Soviet tensions in the 1980s. It was a good idea then, but critically necessary one now"

I am not sure if the recent events in Ukraine may have changed the mind of Dr. Zubrin, but I think we need to be very careful here.  The International Space Station already hands in the balance.  Do we want more of our NASA dollars dependent on a fickle and growingly reckless Russia?  My tendency is to say no for now.

Let's put any joint Mars mission on the shelf until we know we are able to work together with Russia on this planet.

Will Ukranian Issues Impact the US-Russian Cooperation in Space?

The recent invasion of the Crimean peninsula by Russian forces does not bode well for future cooperation between the United States and Russia, and yet the International Space Station (ISS) depends on such cooperation. In fact, until the U.S. commercial sector can regularly resupply the ISS, NASA is completely dependent on the Russians to move people and cargo to and from the station.  Russia has also contributed multiple modules to the ISS, such as the Zvezda Service Module (pictured above) containing living quarters for the crew, as well as extra Soyuz crew vehicle permanently docked to the ISS in case of emergencies. 

Earlier this month, Spaceflight Now highlighted NASA Administrator Charles Bolden's statement on the issue:

"I think people lose track of the fact that we have occupied the International Space Station now for 13 consecutive years uninterrupted, and that has been through multiple international crises," he said. "I don't think it's an insignificant fact that we are starting to see a number of people with the idea that the International Space Station be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. It's not trivial."

Hopefully, the ISS can stay above the political fray, but given our restrictions on scientific cooperation with the Chinese, the Congress has shown it will put politics ahead of science.  These are the risks of such cooperation, as we saw with the Sochi Olympics as well.  When friendships fray, much hangs in the balance.

NASA's FY 2015 Budget Request: Good Ideas with Limited Resources

The White House released its budget request for NASA earlier in the week.  The good news is that NASA has a lot of good projects on the drawing board.  The bad news is that this country does not have the money or will power to adequately fund future space projects.  The White House asked for $17.5 billion for NASA in FY 2015, a drop from $17.6.  And while this does not sound like much, it is a much larger cut if you assume any level of inflation since the space agency again has to do more (or at least the same work) with less money. 

But let's look at the proposed projects listed in NASA's budget:

•  Supports the 2018 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope;
•  Continues formulation and development of Mars Rover 2020 and MOMA/ExoMars missions to Mars;
• Continues development of the robotic OSIRIS-REx mission to retrieve and return samples from an asteroid;
• Continues pre-formulation work for a potential mission to Jupiter’s moon, Europa. 
• Extends operation of the International Space Station (ISS) to at least 2024, and sustains delivery of cargo to the ISSwith U.S. developed, commercially procured space transportation elements;
• Maintains development of Space Launch System/Orion on track to send astronauts on deep space exploration missions; and
• Funds 7 launches over 24 months: Deep Space Atomic Clock (precise navigation); Green Propellant (higher-performing alternative to toxic hydrazine); Sunjammer Solar Sail (propellant-free propulsion); and four small spacecraft demos.

NASA also made a video explaining this budget, which is an interesting approach to the dry workings of budget policy. 

This is a promising list of projects.  Exploration of Europa is exciting, and one can argue that a lot of this work can still contribute to a manned space mission to Mars at some point in the future.  In fact, the budget PowerPoint notes that this budget "Aligns NASA’s activities to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars in the 2030s."

NASA's Administrator Charles Bolden expanded on this in his press release, stating:

In the coming year, we'll build on our nation's record of breathtaking and compelling scientific discoveries and achievements in space, with science missions that will reach far into our solar system, reveal unknown aspects of our universe and provide critical knowledge about our home planet.  It includes funding for missions to Mars and the formulation for a mission to Jupiter's moon, Europa. It also funds science missions already heading toward destinations such as Jupiter and Pluto and operating throughout the solar system, a mission to study our planet's magnetic system, and steady progress on the James Webb Space Telescope.

Could NASA use more funds for more extensive exploration?  Absolutely, but that is not in the cards with this Congress and in this economy.  And combined projects with other nations, such as China and now Russia, may be difficult to establish given the political situation.  That said, maybe now is a time to out-Putin Putin with a bold new mission in space?  This budget came too late for such vision, but I am hopeful. 

Bottom Image Credit:  The Washington Post.

More Earth-Like Planets Located

If you are looking for a little bit of bedtime reading, you could do worse than this 138 page paper from NASA titled "Validation of Kepler’s Multiple Planet Candidates. III: Light Curve Analysis & Announcement of Hundreds of New Multi-planet Systems."  Released on February 25th, the paper highlights the expoplanets found to date as well as a few new ones:

The Kepler mission has discovered over 2500 exoplanet candidates in the first two years of spacecraft data, with approximately 40% of them in candidate multi-planet systems. The high rate of multiplicity combined with the low rate of identified false-positives indicates that the multiplanet systems contain very few false-positive signals due to other systems not gravitationally bound to the target star (Lissauer, J. J., et al., 2012, ApJ 750, 131). False positives in the multi-planet systems are identified and removed, leaving behind a residual population of candidate multi-planet transiting systems expected to have a false-positive rate less than 1%. We present a sample of 340 planetary systems that contain 851 planets that are validated to substantially better than the 99% confidence level; the vast majority of these have not been previously verified as planets.

Among these 851 planets, the ones of particular interest are the "...768 planets across 306 systems being newly validated."  That is a nice collection of new new planets. 

For some reason, in its press release, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced 715 new planets around 305 star systems. But why quibble?  But here is the important part:

Four of these new planets are less than 2.5 times the size of Earth and orbit in their sun's habitable zone, defined as the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet may be suitable for life-giving liquid water.  One of these new habitable zone planets, called Kepler-296f, orbits a star half the size and 5 percent as bright as our sun. Kepler-296f is twice the size of Earth, but scientists do not know whether the planet is a gaseous world, with a thick hydrogen-helium envelope, or it is a water world surrounded by a deep ocean.

I expect that more research on all the data acquired in the earlier Kepler mission will continue to bring forward new findings.  And, as noted earlier, Kepler may still have some life left for new missions.  

Image Credit:  NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC-Caltech)

Great Image: Milky Way with Ariane Rocket Launch

You cannot do much better than this fantastic view of the Milky Way, meteor streak, and Ariane rocket plume.  The image is from NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day.  Here is the accompanying story from the website:

Can the night sky appear both serene and surreal? Perhaps classifiable as serene in the above panoramic image taken last Friday are the faint lights of small towns glowing across a dark foreground landscape of Doi Inthanon National Park in Thailand, as well as the numerous stars glowing across a dark background starscape. Also visible are the planet Venus and a band of zodiacal light on the image left. Unusual events are also captured, however. First, the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, while usually a common sight, appears here to hover surreally above the ground. Next, a fortuitous streak of a meteor was captured on the image right. Perhaps the most unusual component is the bright spot just to the left of the meteor. That spot is the plume of a rising Ariane 5 rocket, launched a few minutes before from Kourou, French Guiana. How lucky was the astrophotographer to capture the rocket launch in his image? Pretty lucky -- the image was not timed to capture the rocket. Also lucky was how photogenic -- and perhaps surreal -- the rest of the sky turned out to be.

Image Credit and Copyright: Matipon Tangmatitham

17th International Mars Society Convention

If you are looking for more information on Mars, from past rover programs to ideas for future settlements, you may want to attend the 17th International Mars Society Convention at the South Shore Harbour Resort in League City, Texas from August 7-10, 2014.  

Last year's conference covered a number of interesting topics, including:

-- Latest Findings from the Mars Probes
-- Plans for Human Mars Missions
-- Martian agriculture/aquaculture and greenhouse/greenhab technology
-- Terraforming - Creating an Ecology for Mars
-- The One Way Mission to Mars
-- Asteroid Missions: A Bridge to Mars?

For example, Bas Lansdorp, the co-founder and CEO of Mars One, discussed his idea of organizing a mission to Mars.  If you want to view this presentation and others, you can view them at the Mars Society's page on YouTube.  And if you want to learn more about the projects of the Mars Society, I recommend you visit their website as well as view their past quarterly reports. 

Russian Olympics: A New Potemkin Village

Speaking of the Olympics, it is clear the Sochi games ending this weekend were basically a $50 billion modernized Potemkin village.  Not only does Putin's Russia have some pretty horrible internal problems, as well as a few problems on its border (be it Georgia or Ukraine), but the "village" itself is plagued with corruption and construction issues.  I believe Russia would have been much better off investing that money in its future, including education, science, and needed infrastructure.

The New Yorker magazine had a good article titled the "Sochi Effect," calling this Winter Olympics the "greatest financial boondoggle in the history of the Games."  The article goes on to state:

But an economic boost based on corrupt spending is an illusion, the equivalent of a sugar high... in a pathbreaking study nearly twenty years ago, [IMF economist] Mauro found that countries with high levels of corruption spent little on education. In economist-speak, corrupt politicians put too much money into physical capital and not enough into human capital. Crony construction capitalism leaves us with too few teachers and too many ski jumps to nowhere.

Sadly, the Olympics have become window-dressing for bad actors, be it Russia, China, or even Greece (which spent plenty of money it clearly did not have).  How much better would it have been if Russia took care of things at home and spent some of these funds on longer-term projects, such as a space program that does more than shuttle cosmonauts to the International Space Station?  Yes, many countries have wasted their treasure on such white elephants, but I look forward to the day the human race has greater designs for the future than winning a medal n figure skating. 

Extra Special Medals in Sochi

Last Saturday marked the one-year anniversary of the Chelyabinsk meteor hitting Russia, the largest such strike since 1908 in another part of Russia (yes, one lucky country).  To commemorate the event, the Russians provided special gold medals to athletes at the Sochi Olympics with pieces of the meteorite integrated into the design (pictured above).  

And to further commemorate the event, another meteor was streaming towards the Earth today just in case we were not paying attention to the medals.  This meteor is the size of three football fields and should miss us by about 2 million miles.  As you may recall, we were watching another close flyby when the Chelyabinsk meteor came out of nowhere.  I imagine a number of Russians are looking skyward now. 

A New Cosmos is Coming, But Not on PBS

Like millions of people, I am a fan of Carl Sagan's Cosmos series from 1980.  The program, Cosmos: A Personal Journey, brought a fascinating and understandable form of astronomy into America's living rooms.  The program was viewed by more than 750 million people and won both Emmy and Peabody awards. 

Dr. Sagan put the universe, and our place in it, into a context that continues to fascinate today, particularly the cosmic calendar.  The calendar demonstrated that, if all time was condensed to a year, we humans would have first appeared on December 31st during the remaining 8 minutes of the year, with our written history appearing in the last 13 seconds. Certainly a mind-blowing way to show our place in time.

So is it time for an updated version of Cosmos?  It seems the Fox network and the National Geographic Channel feels it is and it has brought in Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist, to renew the role of Dr. Sagan.  The new program, to be broadcast next month, is called Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey. You can view a trailer for the show here.

It is a wise choice in terms of a popular scientist who can make the complex fun.  However, I am more comfortable with PBS, the creator of NOVA and Frontline, taking the helm than Fox, the creator of the Simpsons and Fox News.  In fact, Fox is bringing in the animation skills of Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy.  Does this mean a talking dog will explain the process of searching for exoplanets?  I hope not.

The original Cosmos is one of those television jewels that most likely will never be duplicated, but time moves on (yes, that last second of the year) and new stories need to told.  Let's hope Dr. Tyson can create a whole new generation of fans staring at the stars for answers. 

Update:  The new Cosmos series premieres on Fox and the National Geographic Channel on March 9th.