Mars News and Discussions

[caltrek]

This Ecologist Has an Audacious Plan to Build Forests on Mars – Here’s How
by Kiona Smith
December 7, 2022

Introduction:

(Inverse) A CENTURY FROM now, people on Mars might stroll through forests filled with juniper trees, kudzu vines, and heath shrubs. Maybe.
Ecologist Paul Smith of the University of Bristol suggests that long-term residents of Mars, whether they’re settlers or astronauts at research outposts, could build small nature preserves, shielded from the harsh Martian environment by clear domes or layers of Martian crust. But they’re not going to look quite like any forest on Earth.

He published his proposal in the Journal of Astrobiology.

WHAT’S NEW — Smith proposes that once humans have established a solid presence on Mars, they’re likely to want a small piece of home, partly to provide some fresh food and produce oxygen, but also to enable people to do the Martian version of going outside to touch some grass. He suggests about 20 hectares of forest park, carefully contained under protective pressurized domes or sheltered in lava tubes lit by mirrors and fiber optics.
These hypothetical nature preserves won’t be able to replicate any of Earth’s forests, however; even with help from 22nd-century engineers, the Martian environment will be a bizarre place to try and plant a forest. The best option, says Smith, will be to throw in as many species as possible and let evolution select the combination that works best. And the result may include some combinations that would never happen naturally on Earth.

Read more of the Inverse article here: https://www.inverse.com/science/can-we ... -on-mars

Read the plan as put forth the in the Journal of Astrobiology: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journal ... B6A4D9450

caltrek’s comment: Personally, for the short term at least (next hundred years), I would favor concentrating resource allocation on making Earth more livable. This might include more voluntary use of birth control and more imaginative optimization of living space and resources available here on this planet. Still, if there are hardy souls willing to relocate to Mars for colonization purposes, and if folks are willing to pay the additional tax burdens involved in financing such ventures…

[ººº]

[weatheriscool]

In a first, hear a Mars rover get hit by a 387-foot dust devil
Source: Washington Post

The towering vortex slammed into NASA’s Perseverance rover — and scientists are ecstatic

Scientists have seen plenty of dust devils on Mars, and now, for the first time, they’ve heard one. The vortex made a direct hit on NASA’s Perseverance rover, peppering the spacecraft with dust and whispering into a microphone that the team had smartly included in their package of instruments.

The trove of data coming from the encounter has thrilled scientists, who are keenly aware of the outsize influence Martian dust has on the planet’s climate. The fine-grained particles also can damage scientific instruments on Martian landers and rovers and potentially blanket solar panels to the point of uselessness. Studying the rover’s gritty recordings can provide insights into the way dust might affect ongoing Mars missions, and maybe even future human exploration.

The sound of the dust devil, published Tuesday to accompany a paper in the journal Nature Communications, is subtle. It’s crackly and percussive, like radio static, though one might more generously imagine a breeze ruffling some distant palm fronds.

Then come a few seconds of silence as the eye of the dust devil passes over the rover. Sound returns for another couple of seconds as the trailing wall of the dust devil spins over the rover again. Then it’s all over, and Mars is quiet once more.

Read more: https://wapo.st/3iUOc4h

[weatheriscool]

Biggest marsquake was five times larger than previous record-holder
https://phys.org/news/2022-12-biggest-m ... older.html
by American Geophysical Union

Late on the Earth night of May 4, or Sol 1222 on Mars, the seismometer aboard NASA's InSight Mars Lander detected a quake on the Red Planet, with reverberations lasting many hours. The marsquake was at least five times as large as the next largest quake recorded on the planet, according to new research published Wednesday in Geophysical Research Letters. Additional research related to the record marsquake is also being presented this week at AGU's Fall Meeting, in Chicago from 12 to 16 December and online everywhere.

"This was definitely the biggest marsquake that we have seen," said Taichi Kawamura, lead author and planetary scientist at the Institut de physique du globe de Paris, France. Kawamura is co-leader, along with co-author and seismologist John Clinton at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, of the marsquake service (MQS), an international team that monitors and evaluates the seismological data recorded by the NASA InSight Mars Lander.

"The energy released by this single marsquake is equivalent to the cumulative energy from all other marsquakes we've seen so far, and although the event was over 2000 kilometers (1200 miles) distant, the waves recorded at InSight were so large they almost saturated our seismometer," said Clinton.

Seismology on Mars can give scientists a better idea about what lies under the planet's surface—including water—and how its crust and deep interior are structured. Like on Earth, most detected marsquakes are thought to occur due to fault movements.

The largest previous marsquake, recorded in August 2021 (Sol 976 on Mars), was around a magnitude of 4.2, while the May quake had a magnitude of 4.7. (marsquake magnitudes are comparable to those of earthquakes.)

[weatheriscool]

How Mars' thin and turbulent atmosphere leads to curiously sized dunes
https://phys.org/news/2022-12-mars-thin ... ously.html
by Josie Garthwaite, Stanford University

Among the mountainous dunes and small, undulating ripples of Mars' desert-like surface are sand structures, intermediate in size, that are not quite like anything on Earth.

Stanford University scientists have now used an AI model to analyze a million Martian dunes and uncover how these sandy waves form on our sister planet at a scale—roughly 1 meter between crests—that previously seemed incompatible with the physics of how ripples and dunes arise on Earth.

The results, published Nov. 22 in Nature Communications, suggest scholars going forward can use fossilized versions of these structures to reconstruct the atmospheric history of Mars. That's because there is a precise and consistent mathematical relationship between atmospheric density and the size of windblown ripples and dunes at all but the smallest scales.

"This is particularly important because it is thought that Mars used to have a thicker atmosphere in the past, perhaps sustaining Earth-like surface conditions," said senior study author Mathieu Lapôtre, an assistant professor of geological sciences in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. "However, it lost most of it, and we don't really know when, how fast, and why."

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

NASA Mars lander InSight falls silent after four years
https://phys.org/news/2022-12-nasa-mars ... falls.html
by Marcia Dunn

It could be the end of the red dusty line for NASA's InSight lander, which has fallen silent after four years on Mars.

The lander's power levels have been dwindling for months because of all the dust coating its solar panels. Ground controllers at California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory knew the end was near, but NASA reported that InSight unexpectedly didn't respond to communications from Earth on Sunday.

"It's assumed InSight may have reached the end of its operations," NASA said late Monday, adding that its last communication was Thursday. "It's unknown what prompted the change in its energy."

The team will keep trying to contact InSight, just in case.

InSight landed on Mars in 2018 and was the first spacecraft to document a marsquake. It detected more than 1,300 marsquakes with its French-built seismometer, including several caused by meteoroid strikes. The most recent marsquake sensed by InSight, earlier this year, left the ground shaking for at least six hours, according to NASA.

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

Experimentalists: Sorry, no oxygen required to make these minerals on Mars

by Washington University in St. Louis
https://phys.org/news/2022-12-experimen ... -mars.html

When NASA's Mars rovers found manganese oxides in rocks in the Gale and Endeavor craters on Mars in 2014, the discovery sparked some scientists to suggest that the red planet might have once had more oxygen in its atmosphere billions of years ago.

The minerals probably required abundant water and strongly oxidizing conditions to form, the scientists said. Using lessons learned from Earth's geologic record, scientists concluded that the presence of manganese oxides indicated that Mars had experienced periodic increases in atmospheric oxygen in its past—before declining to today's low levels.

But a new experimental study from Washington University in St. Louis upends this view.

Scientists discovered that under Mars-like conditions, manganese oxides can be readily formed without atmospheric oxygen. Using kinetic modeling, the scientists also showed that manganese oxidation is not possible in the carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere expected on ancient Mars.

"The link between manganese oxides and oxygen suffers from an array of fundamental geochemical problems," said Jeffrey Catalano, a professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences and corresponding author of the study published Dec. 22 in Nature Geoscience. Catalano is a faculty fellow of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences.

The first author of the study is Kaushik Mitra, now a postdoctoral research associate at Stony Brook University, who completed this work as part of his graduate research at Washington University.

[Nanotechandmorefuture]

Looks like the Israeli space program beat us to Mars. Israel first ya know.

[caltrek]

New NASA Nuclear Rocket Plan Aims to Get to Mars in Just 45 Days
by Matt Williams
January 23, 2023

Introduction:

(Science Alert) We live in an era of renewed space exploration, where multiple agencies are planning to send astronauts to the Moon in the coming years. This will be followed in the next decade with crewed missions to Mars by NASA and China, who may be joined by other nations before long.

These and other missions that will take astronauts beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and the Earth-Moon system require new technologies, ranging from life support and radiation shielding to power and propulsion.

And when it comes to the latter, Nuclear Thermal and Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NTP/NEP) is a top contender!

NASA and the Soviet space program spent decades researching nuclear propulsion during the Space Race.

A few years ago, NASA reignited its nuclear program for the purpose of developing bimodal nuclear propulsion – a two-part system consisting of an NTP and NEP element – that could enable transits to Mars in 100 days.

Read more here: https://www.sciencealert.com/new-nasa- ... t-45-days

[Time_Traveller]

Finding a huge amount of water on Mars surprised scientists

February 1, 2023

Α groυp of scieпtists υsiпg the Eυropeaп Space Αgeпcy’s ExoMars Orbiter ideпtified a sigпificaпt deposit of water immediately beпeath the Valles Mariпeris Martiaп caпyoп system, which is teп times loпger aпd five times deeper thaп oυr owп Graпd Caпyoп.

The scieпtists discovered geпυiпe water ice aroυпd three feet below the caпyoп’s sυrface after aпalyziпg data from the Trace Gas Orbiter’s (TGO) Fiпe Resolυtioп Epithermal Neυtroп Detector (FREND).

The preseпce of water oп Mars coυld iпdicate the preseпce of microbial alieп life, as well as the possibility of more complex life forms – especially if Mars has the vast expaпses of water that Earth does.

“With TGO we caп look dowп to oпe meter below this dυsty layer aпd see what’s really goiпg oп below Mars’ sυrface,” lead aυthor Igor Mitrofaпov of the Rυssiaп Αcademy of Scieпces said iп a statemeпt.

“FREND revealed aп area with aп υпυsυally large amoυпt of hydrogeп iп the colossal Valles Mariпeris caпyoп system: assυmiпg the hydrogeп we see is boυпd iпto water molecυles, as mυch as 40 perceпt of the пear-sυrface material iп this regioп appears to be water,” he added.

https://fancy4sport.com/finding-a-huge- ... sts-cusan/

[ººº]

Finding a huge amount of water on Mars surprised scientists

February 1, 2023

Α groυp of scieпtists υsiпg the Eυropeaп Space Αgeпcy’s ExoMars Orbiter ideпtified a sigпificaпt deposit of water immediately beпeath the Valles Mariпeris Martiaп caпyoп system, which is teп times loпger aпd five times deeper thaп oυr owп Graпd Caпyoп.

The scieпtists discovered geпυiпe water ice aroυпd three feet below the caпyoп’s sυrface after aпalyziпg data from the Trace Gas Orbiter’s (TGO) Fiпe Resolυtioп Epithermal Neυtroп Detector (FREND).

The preseпce of water oп Mars coυld iпdicate the preseпce of microbial alieп life, as well as the possibility of more complex life forms – especially if Mars has the vast expaпses of water that Earth does.

“With TGO we caп look dowп to oпe meter below this dυsty layer aпd see what’s really goiпg oп below Mars’ sυrface,” lead aυthor Igor Mitrofaпov of the Rυssiaп Αcademy of Scieпces said iп a statemeпt.

“FREND revealed aп area with aп υпυsυally large amoυпt of hydrogeп iп the colossal Valles Mariпeris caпyoп system: assυmiпg the hydrogeп we see is boυпd iпto water molecυles, as mυch as 40 perceпt of the пear-sυrface material iп this regioп appears to be water,” he added.

https://fancy4sport.com/finding-a-huge- ... sts-cusan/

Discovery of the year? At least in astronomy.

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

New interactive mosaic uses NASA imagery to show Mars in vivid detail
https://phys.org/news/2023-04-interacti ... -mars.html
by Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Both scientists and the public can navigate a new global image of the Red Planet that was made at Caltech using data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Cliffsides, impact craters, and dust devil tracks are captured in mesmerizing detail in a new mosaic of the Red Planet composed of 110,000 images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Taken by the veteran spacecraft's black-and-white Context Camera, or CTX, the images cover nearly 270 square feet (25 square meters) of surface per pixel.

That makes the Global CTX Mosaic of Mars the highest-resolution global image of the Red Planet ever created. If it were printed out, this 5.7 trillion pixel (or 5.7 terapixel) mosaic would be large enough to cover the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California.

The product of Caltech's Bruce Murray Laboratory for Planetary Visualization, the mosaic took six years and tens of thousands of hours to develop. It is so detailed that more than 120 peer-reviewed science papers have already cited a beta version. But the mosaic is also easy enough for anyone to use.

"I wanted something that would be accessible to everyone," said Jay Dickson, the image processing scientist who led the project and manages the Murray Lab. "Schoolchildren can use this now. My mother, who just turned 78, can use this now. The goal is to lower the barriers for people who are interested in exploring Mars."

CTX is among three cameras aboard MRO, which is led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. One of those cameras, the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), provides color images of surface features as small as a dining room table. In contrast, CTX provides a broader view of terrain around those features, helping scientists understand how they're related. Its ability to capture larger expanses of the landscape has made CTX especially useful for spotting impact craters on the surface. A third camera, the Mars Color Imager (MARCI), led by the same team that operates CTX, produces a daily global map of Mars weather at much lower spatial resolution.

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter completes 50th flight
https://phys.org/news/2023-04-nasa-inge ... -50th.html

by Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The history-making rotorcraft has recently been negotiating some of the most hazardous terrain it's encountered on the Red Planet.

NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has completed its 50th flight on Mars. The first aircraft on another world reached the half-century mark on April 13, traveling over 1,057.09 feet (322.2 meters) in 145.7 seconds. The helicopter also achieved a new altitude record of 59 feet (18 meters) before alighting near the half-mile-wide (800-meter-wide) "Belva Crater."

With Flight 50 in the mission logbook, the helicopter team plans to perform another repositioning flight before exploring the "Fall River Pass" region of Jezero Crater.

"Just as the Wright brothers continued their experiments well after that momentous day at Kitty Hawk in 1903, the Ingenuity team continues to pursue and learn from the flight operations of the first aircraft on another world," said Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Ingenuity landed on the Red Planet in February 2021 attached to the belly of NASA's Mars Perseverance rover and will soon mark the two-year anniversary of its first flight, which took place on April 19, 2021. Designed as a technology demonstration that would fly no more than five times, the helicopter was intended to prove powered, controlled flight on another planet was possible. But Ingenuity exceeded expectations and transitioned into being an operations demonstration.

[weatheriscool]

NASA Unveils Interior of Simulation Mars Habitat for Future Missions

NASA opened its doors to the media for a deeper look at its Mars test environment, where four volunteers will spend a year farming and conducting experiments as if they lived on the Red Planet.
As NASA promised in March, we have far more information about the space at the heart of the agency's Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA), which aims to study how humans might someday live on Mars.

This summer, four volunteers will move into NASA’s Mars Dune Alpha, a 3D-printed structure and massive sandbox comprising a simulative Mars habitat. The volunteers will live around the clock in Mars Dune Alpha for one year at a time, conducting farming, geology, and even medical experiments to help NASA determine the viability of long-term life on Mars. Even though the habitat is here on Earth, the volunteers will be prevented from contacting their “real world” friends and family for the duration of the test.

https://www.extremetech.com/aerospace/n ... e-missions

[weatheriscool]

NASA Selects 10 Scientists for International Mission to Martian Moons
https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9384/nasa-se ... ian-moons/

JPL’s Abigail Fraeman will help study the composition of Phobos and Deimos using instruments on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s spacecraft.

NASA has selected 10 researchers from institutions across the U.S. to join the Science Working Team of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission as NASA-supported participating scientists.

JAXA’s MMX mission, planned to launch in 2024, will visit the two Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos, land on the surface of Phobos, and collect a surface sample. Plans are for the sample to be delivered to Earth in 2029.

Seven of the selected scientists will conduct research using the MMX flight instruments. They are: