latest
from nasa
- water
on mars - images suggest recent surface flows
Comparing water phenomena on Earth with recent
traces on Mars.
Image credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS
- “Water is the chief agent of weathering and erosion on Earth.
Mars is a much drier, colder planet on which liquid water cannot exist
very long at the surface because it will immediately begin to boil,
evaporate, and freeze--all at the same time. However, new pictures from
the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) onboard the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS)
have provided an astonishing observation which suggests that liquid
water may have played a role in shaping some recent gully-like features
found on the slopes of various craters, troughs, and other depressions
on the red planet.
These pictures introduce the basic features of a martian gully. The
figure on the left is an example from Mars, the figure on the right
is a gully on Earth. In the Earth picture, rain water flowing under
and seeping along the base of a recently-deposited volcanic ash layer
has created the gully. For Mars, water is not actually seen but is
inferred from the landforms and their similarity to examples on Earth.”
[Quoted from msss.com]
Martian gully in 1999 and again in 2005 with
new deposit.
Image credit: NASA
“Malin and his colleagues used images from NASA’s now-silent
Mars Global Surveyor to revisit regions earlier this year where gullies,
depressionlike landforms on the Red Planet’s surface, were found
in 2000.
“What they found were new, light-colored deposits that do not
appear to have formed from Martian landslides, but could be the work
of frost, salt deposits or long-sought evidence that water flowed recently
on Mars.
“ “Our level of certainty [with] which we can address the
question of whether the gully features that we’re reporting on
were formed by water is high, but not extremely high,” said Malin
[...]” [Quoted from msnbc.msn.com]
- nasa’s
lunar base plans
“The Shackleton Crater rim near the moon's south pole will
likely be the future home of a lunar human outpost, NASA officials
said yesterday. A team of senior space agency managers laid out the
blueprint for returning astronauts to the lunar surface by 2020. But
this time, instead of a series of short, Apollo-like missions, NASA
envisions setting up a base--initially with four astronauts--that
would be fully functioning by 2024.
—
“[...] the entire plan hinges on NASA's ability to build and
fly a new launch vehicle early in the next decade.
—
“[NASA exploration chief ] Horowitz says that NASA isn't expecting
any major budget boosts to cover the as-yet-undetermined cost of the
venture, whereas [NASA's deputy administrator] Dale says that "we
go as we can afford to pay." ” [Quoted from sciencemag.org]
“NASA planners used the international group's deliberations as
well as input from academia, private sector and private citizens as
the basis for sketching a U.S. blueprint for a return to the moon. NASA's
Lunar Architecture Team, chartered in May 2006, concluded that the most
advantageous approach is to develop a solar-powered lunar base and to
locate it near one of the poles of the moon. With such an outpost, NASA
can learn to use the moon's natural resources to live off the land,
make preparations for a journey to Mars, conduct a wide range of scientific
investigations and encourage international participation.
—
“As currently envisioned, an incremental buildup would begin with
four-person crews making several seven-day visits to the moon until
their power supplies, rovers and living quarters are operational. The
first mission would begin by 2020. These would be followed by 180-day
missions to prepare for journeys to Mars.” [Quoted from nasa.gov]
I wish they’d get a move on with this. It’s
about time they properly prioritised the moon base project.
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