To launch Monday.

The next robotic mission to Mars has rolled out to the launchpad ahead of its liftoff, which is planned for Monday (March 14).

A Russian-made Proton-M rocket carrying the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Schiaparelli lander — which together constitute the first part of the two-phase, European-led ExoMars mission — rolled out to the pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today (March 11) and was hoisted into vertical position. Technicians had filled the Proton's Breeze upper stage with propellant and oxidizer yesterday (March 10), European Space Agency (ESA) officials said.

If all goes according to plan, the Proton will blast off at 5:31 a.m. EDT (0931 GMT; 3:31 p.m. local Kazakhstan time) on Monday. You can watch the ExoMars launch live here at Space.com, courtesy of ESA.

this fucking week on Getting Learnt With Ricky we studied Explodey Things and fucking learnt how to make a potato gun using plastic tubes a lighter a potato and hairspray.

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those fucking Russian dudes should have used fucking hairspray for the propellant like Ricky does

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[Edited 3/11/16 16:28pm]

Meet the Couple Who Could Be the First Humans to Travel to Mars

BIOSPHERE SURVIVORS

The couple’s drive to explore space was born in a giant glass dome on Earth called Biosphere 2 in the early 90s. Eight people, including Poynter and MacCallum, lived for two solid years from 1991 to 1993 inside the dome near Tucson, Arizona as part of a prototype space colony. The eccentric, privately funded science experiment. contained miniature biomes that mimicked Earth’s environments, including jungle, desert, marshland, savannah and an ocean all crammed into an area no larger than two and a half football fields. The crew subsisted on a quarter-acre agricultural plot and went about their lives while medical doctors and ecologists observed from outside.


{Sidebar: Biosphere 2 was only used twice for its original intended purposes as a closed-system experiment: once from 1991 to 1993, and the second time from March to September 1994. Both attempts, though heavily publicized, ran into problems including low amounts of food and oxygen, die-offs of many animal and plant species, squabbling among the resident scientists and management issues.}

NASA, Tito explained that he would need about $1 billion from the government over the next four or five years to develop the space launch system and other aspects of the mission. NASA was not readily willing to agree to this and they put the issue on hold, MacCallum said.

But regardless of whether Inspiration Mars is successful in 2021, Jones believes these commercial space efforts will help stir momentum and public interest in space that could ultimately help NASA build new infrastructure and convince Congress to allocate the money needed to complete missions like these.

http://www.wired.com/2014...n-profile/

^get Ricky to start on growing Mars weed. I'm sure it'll be greatly appreciated. He'd be great at too.



We are all Explorer Fish

– Only Martians can dance with fish spirits

PREMIERE SCREENING! Nova Cinema, movie theatre #9, 12:00 – Saturday March 12, 2016 / http://www.explorerfishmovie.com

Sarah Jane Pell (AU)

Pell-ExploringMars2014-1M7A2053
Sarah Jane Pell – We are all explorer fish
Pell-UnderCurrent2004
Pell-Hydrophilia2004-39
Pell-ExploringMars2014-1M7A2010
Pell-ExplorerFish-00001-af
Pell_TransPort2004
Pell_SecondNatureSecondSkin_2001
We are all explorer fish – Sarah Jane Pell
We are all explorer fish – Sarah Jane Pell
Pell-ExploringMars2014-1M7A2053
Sarah Jane Pell – We are all explorer fish
Co-commissioned by Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre for Meta.Morf 2016 – Nice to be in orbit!

Starring: SARAH JANE PELL. Camera: SHAUN WILSON. Editor: JACQUI HOCKING. Visual Effects Artist: CHRIS BRAIBANT. Score: STEPHEN BISHOP and ROBIN HAYWOOD recorded live at Liquid Architecture Perth 2015, presented by TURA MUSIC and LIQUID ARCHITECTURE as part of the National Experimental Arts Forum hosted by SYMBIOTICA. Sound design: ALISTER MORLEY. Images NASA. Filmed on location at the Victorian Space Science Education Centre, VSSEC Mars Simulation. Production assistants: SEAN ELLIOTT, DANIELLE WILDE. Writer/Director/Producer Dr. Sarah Jane Pell, RMIT University.

We are all explorer fish

By Sarah Jane Pell

Gripped by an obsession for Earthly connection, Amulet the first human born in low Earth orbit, agrees to work as a sensing agent on the new Mars outpost. If she survives, others will follow and she will not be alone. With the excitement of finding an ancient riverbed, she takes of her helmet to her feel a cloud of hot rain. Her existence is threatened when she draw vapours from leftover Mars Curiosity Rover core-sample holes gets a taste for the rush of pure Oxygen from the red rock: unwittingly tapping into the Wanjijina spirits of The Kimberley. Fearing further alienation from Earth for risking ingesting indigenous Martian organisms, Amulet calls on her alter egos (cloned support crew in the lander) in a bid to stick to the mission. But of course, it was never going to be easy to walk away from such a rush when the ancient spirits begins to awaken the explorer fish…

Amulet grew up in a refurbished Russian satellite in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). From birth, she was supported by Liquid Oxygen and centrifuged daily to redistribute fluids to encourage growth and build bone density. Not for the purpose of visiting Earth’s gravity –that would certainly kill her – but for the long duration space mission to Mars.

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[Edited 3/12/16 15:42pm]

People Are Alike All Over" is episode 25 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.



“ You're looking at a species of flimsy little two-legged animal with extremely small heads, whose name is Man. Warren Marcusson, age thirty-five. Samuel A. Conrad, age thirty-one. They're taking a highway into space, Man unshackling himself and sending his tiny, groping fingers up into the unknown. Their destination is Mars, and in just a moment we'll land there with them. ”

Conrad relaxes, but soon discovers that his room is windowless and the doors cannot be opened. One of the walls slides upward, and Conrad realizes that he has become a caged exhibit in a Martian alien zoo. Conrad picks up a sign that says "Earth Creature in his native habitat" and throws it on the floor. In the episode's closing lines, Conrad grips the bars and yells to the heavens "Marcusson! Marcusson, you were right! You were right. People are alike.... people are alike everywhere!"

“ Species of animal brought back alive. Interesting similarity in physical characteristics to human beings in head, trunk, arms, legs, hands, feet. Very tiny undeveloped brain. Comes from primitive planet named Earth. Calls himself Samuel Conrad. And he will remain here in his cage with the running water and the electricity and the central heat as long as he lives. Samuel Conrad has found The Twilight Zone. ”


The original pilot of Star Trek ("The Cage", later reworked into the two-part episode "The Menagerie") included plot points similar to that touched upon in this episode, particularly the aspect of humans being put on display for study. Coincidentally, that pilot also co-starred Susan Oliver in a similar role (Vina, a female has the task of making the captive feel more at ease).
[Edited 3/14/16 10:05am]

Not Mars, Mercury.

Credit: Fox

There's a lot of other good stuff in "The Marge-ian Chronicles." For example, Homer and Marge aren't happy about Lisa's Mars ambitions, so they ground her. "You are confined to this planet," Marge tells Lisa. "And its moon," Homer adds.

Eventually, all of the other Simpsons — Homer, Marge, Bart and baby Maggie — apply to become colonists themselves, in an effort to make Lisa lose interest in the project. This development excites the publicity-hungry Exploration Inc. guys.

XxAxX said:

Europa: 2999

Chancellor said:

and here I thought this thread was about The Mars Bar returning to the Southeast....

Yeah that candy bar gets a lot of jokes these days. I didn't know it disappeared in some places. Maybe they'll bring it back to add to the hoopla of Man's Journey to Mars.

morningsong said:

Yeah that candy bar gets a lot of jokes these days. I didn't know it disappeared in some places. Maybe they'll bring it back to add to the hoopla of Man's Journey to Mars.

That was my go-to Candy bar back-in-the-day, period...I miss it like I miss Clear Pepsi...

2020 is set to be a good year for Mars exploration. The United States, China, the United Arab Emirates, Europe and Russia all have planned Mars missions that are scheduled to launch, or likely to launch, in that year.

There have been more than 40 missions to Mars throughout history. Some of these missions were failures, while others completed their goals and are no longer operational. Today, there are two operational robots on the Martian surface and five operational orbiters circling the planet.

To date, all successful missions to Mars have been completed by four entities: NASA, the Soviet Union, the European Space Agency and the Indian Space Research Organization. Japan and China have tried and failed.

In about five years, UAE and China hope to join the ranks of nations who’ve successfully explored Mars, while NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are planning ambitious missions to expand their Mars exploration capabilities.

Why is everyone launching in 2020? It’s part strategic, and part coincidence.

Because of the location of Mars relative to the Earth, prime launch windows (where the least amount of power is required to travel between the two planets) only open up every 26 months.

One of those windows happens to be between July and August of 2020, which is when these missions are scheduled, or expected to launch. Of course, any of these missions could have been launched during earlier windows in 2018, or later windows in 2022; 2020 just happened to line up with budgets and development timelines.

United States

NASA owns and operates the only two working rovers on the surface of Mars today. Three of the five operational Mars orbiters also belong to NASA. A smaller Mars mission, the InSight lander, is scheduled to launch during the 2018 window, but NASA’s next big rover worth $1.9 billion will leave Earth in 2020.

The design of the Mars 2020 rover is based largely on the design of the Curiosity rover, one of the highly successful robots that is still operational on Mars today. The new 2020 rover will make use of Curiosity’s landing system and rover chassis design, but will carry a new set of seven instruments and upgraded hardware.

Like many of the other landers and rovers before it, one goal of the Mars 2020 mission is to assess the habitability of its surrounding Martian environment. The rover will also directly search for signs of ancient Martian life.

Equipped with a coring drill, the nuclear-powered rover will be capable of collecting and storing Martian samples. NASA’s goal is to, eventually, design a sample-return mission that would be able to retrieve the samples and bring them back to Earth. Another possibility is that future astronauts would collect these samples and bring them back.

“Next year, we will send the InSight lander to study the planet’s core and in 2020, a new rover called Mars 2020 will build on the success of Curiosity and help us prepare for human arrival at Mars and, for the first time ever, it will cache a sample for later return to Earth.” Dr. Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator

The Mars 2020 rover is scheduled to launch in July, 2020.

China

In recent years, China has focused its exploration on the Moon. Performing the first soft landing on the moon in 37 years, their Chang’e 3 lander sent back a suite of never-before seen true color photos of the lunar surface. A follow-up mission to the far side of the Moon is planned for 2018.

In 2020, however, China has its sights set on the red planet. Late last year, China unveiled a model one-third the size of the spacecraft they intend to be the country’s first successful Martian mission.


The spacecraft is composed of two main parts: an orbiter and a rover. With their own spacecraft in orbit around the planet, China can ensure a means of communicating with their lander. India, ESA and NASA also have working orbiters around Mars, but collaborating with other nations for communication purposes would be tricky, or downright impossible. So instead, they’re sending their own.


As their first Mars mission, the primary goal is to successfully develop the capability to remotely navigate a probe into orbit, soft-land a rover on the Martian surface and maintain communication with both. While scientific goals are also likely, China has yet to release specific details on this part of the mission.

United Arab Emirates

At just two years old, the United Arab Emirates Space Agency plans to complete its first mission to Mars in 2020 with an orbiter they’ve named Hope. In the video below, the Hope mission team explains that they plan to produce the first-ever truly global picture of the Martian atmosphere and perform the first holistic study of the Martian climate.


With a scheduled launch in July, 2020, the space probe will be the Arab world’s first Mars mission. After a nine-month journey, Hope will arrive at Mars in 2021. That year holds particular significance for the UAE because it’ll be the country’s 50th anniversary.


Despite all the tensions and the conflicts across the Middle East, we have proved today how positive a contribution the Arab people can make to humanity through great achievements, given the right circumstances and ingredients.” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of Dubai.

While the mission is managed completely by an Emirati team, the data from the Hope mission will be shared with more than 200 universities and research institutions around the world.

“We aim for the UAE to be among the top countries in the field of aerospace by 2021” – Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates

Europe and Russia

Finally, Europe will also probably add a Mars mission of their own to the 2020 launch window. Their mission, ExoMars Phase 2, will include a rover designed to conduct exobiology and geochemistry research. The mission will also include a Russian surface platform which will image the landing site and conduct long-term climate modeling and atmospheric investigations.


ExoMars Phase 2 is currently scheduled for the 2018 launch window, but because of funding issues and technical delays, there have already been discussions to postpone it to 2020.

Unfortunately with Mars missions, if the project is a few months behind, you cannot simply push back the launch by a couple of months. Missing the short two-month window means you’re probably just going to have to wait another 26 months. NASA recently went through this same decision process when they postponed the InSight lander from the 2016 launch window to 2018.

Europe successfully launched ExoMars Phase 1 earlier this month. Similar to the proposed Chinese mission, ExoMars Phase 1 consisted of an orbiter and a lander. In addition to analyzing the Martian atmosphere, the orbiter will also be used as a relay for the ExoMars team to communicate with the lander and the rover once it arrives.


Phase 1 will arrive at Mars in October of this year. Phase 2 intends to soft-land a rover, which will be the most technologically challenging addition to the ExoMars robotic team.

Upon landing, the rover will leave the Russian surface platform and travel across the surface of Mars. In addition to proving out the capabilities of robotic mobility, the rover is equipped with scientific instruments, including a drill, which will be used to conduct exobiology and geochemistry research.
One big year

If all goes according to plan (and if ExoMars Phase 2 does get postponed), 2020 is going to be a big year for important (expensive) launches. Six to nine months after the 2020 launch window, Mars can expect a fleet of orbiters, landers and rovers coming from five different nations back here on Earth.

XxAxX said:

I'll wish you bon voyage. Make sure you post great pictures on the org.

I like the beach too much for all that.

An otherworldly tourist attraction could be coming to Sin City a few years from now.

A consortium that includes a renowned space designer wants to build an immersive experience called "Mars World" near the famed Las Vegas Strip by 2021.

The multi-acre simulated city will rise on yet-to-be purchased land somewhere between the I-15 freeway and Las Vegas Boulevard, if all goes according to plan. Visitors will be treated to the music, costumes and culture of a Mars colony. They will take simulated "Marswalks" in one-fourth Earth gravity, ride a tram around the crater in which the city is built and even sleep overnight in rough habitats if they wish. [7 Biggest Mysteries of Mars]

- See more at: http://www.space.com/3239...4DREB.dpuf

You don't have to be Matt Damon to explore Mars.

NASA uploaded an interactive 360 degree video to YouTube that lets anyone explore the rocky terrain on the red planet.

All the footage was captured by the Curiosity Rover on December 18, 2015. Curiosity has been on Mars since August 2012.

The rover is not equipped with a 360 camera; therefore someone at NASA had to stitch together dozens of high-resolution images to create the interactive.

Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system. The massive Martian mountain towers high above the surrounding plains of the red planet, and may be biding its time until the next eruption.

Characteristics

Found in the Tharsis Montes region near the Martian equator, Olympus Mons is one of a dozen large volcanoes, many of which are ten to a hundred times taller than their terrestrial counterparts. The tallest of them all towers 16 miles (25 kilometers) above the surrounding plains and stretches across 374 miles (624 km) — roughly the size of the state of Arizona.

- See more at: http://www.space.com/2013...rdVdh.dpuf