Episode 5 Blues for a Red Planet
Carl is right that Mars has a lot of features that make it seem to be a planet with life. Earth-like features such as: polar caps, a 24-hour day, clouds, dust storms, seasons, to name a few.
It surprised me that the H.G. Wells story, "War of the Worlds" was written so long ago, 1897. The episode also dramatized part of the story and mentioned the 1938 Orson Welles version that was a Halloween prank that panicked much of the country. That production just celebrated its 75th anniversary earlier this month. By coincidence, a week after this Halloween, I convinced two of my grandkids, Cara age 10 and Jimmy age 7, to listen to the broadcast. It seemed a contrast in technology to play off the Internet on my smartphone a 1938 radio recording. It took a while for the kids to realize that there was no picture to watch. You merely listen and use your imagination. I think they enjoyed it and now have a better sense of what life was like before TV, cell phones and computers.
This pictures from the July, 1976 Viking landers seem a little washed out and lacking detail compared to the snapshots we've been getting from later rovers and landers, especially the most recent, Curiosity Rover. Curiosity with its nuclear power source is immune to the seasonal limitations of solar panel power. I hope it keeps rolling up Mt. Sharp for quite a few years. The fact that it can zap rocks with its laser from 20 feet or more reminds me of a reverse "War of the Worlds" with the Martians being attacked this time.
NASA in a few days plans to launch the MAVEN spacecraft that will orbit Mars and try to determine how it lost its atmosphere. MAVEN will also be the communication relay for the current and future assets on the surface of Mars. There is another rover planned in 2020 and after that probably a "sample return" series of missions. The long term goal is to send people in the 2030's. I'd believe that goal more if it wasn't for the fact that every administration since Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew in the early 1970's has said we should go to Mars in the next 20 years.
Scientists have quite a concern about bringing samples of Mars back to Earth because of possible contamination issues. I've heard that they are only confident in bringing the samples back to the International Space Station. I wonder whether they would ever bring the samples down to the Earth's surface.
There also is a Mars contamination concern if we ever send people to explore Mars. Remember that the human body has bacteria and other foreign cells that outnumber the human body cells by a factor of 10. I don't know how we could ever explore with our breathing and other bodily functions and not spread a little of us around the place.
As a final topic, Carl discusses terraforming Mars into a more habitable place if we find that there is no Mars life. Some people probably would consider that effort as the ultimate pollution scenario. But I feel objects like Mars and asteroids are resources meant to help the human race become a multi-planet species. One does wonder what authority here on Earth will have jurisdiction over making those climate changing decisions.
Hope you watch the episode. Comments are much appreciated. Jim
Which countries seem to play the biggest role in space exploration? Is the United States the largest contributor to space travel? I'm just curious to know if we are the only country who has a stake in Mars exploration and if there is a governing body that makes the decision to bring samples to Earth.
ReplyDeleteThe US has the biggest space budget. NASA recent budgets have been about $18 billion (B) which is about a half percent of the total federal budget. During the Apollo moon program, NASA peaked at about 4.5% of the budget which is 9 time greater than it is now.
DeleteCompared to the world space budget I've heard that NASA is about equal to the rest of the world's summed space budget. The main world players are: Europe about $6B, Russia $5B, China is $3B, Japan about $4B and India about $1B.
One thing missing in the NASA numbers are military spending. Where NASA is $18B, the Department of Defense spends $27B on rockets and satellites and the National Reconnaissance Office adds another $15B to that. The total US military spending about $700B per year. Which makes the NASA number seem pretty small.
Russia has been very active with Mars exploration attempts. But they are batting zero as far as successfully landing. Europe has sent some orbiting probes. India just launched their first attempt at orbiting Mars.
Some have suggested to get the UN involved in the decision process. I think that would be a mistake because they seem to be anti-US and their bureaucracy is extremely inefficient.