Four Europeans vying to become guinea pigs for a 520-day simulated mission to Mars say they are proud to be putting their lives on hold for the sake of scientific advancement.
“I want to help humanity take a step forward by improving our level of knowledge,” Belgian candidate Jerome Clevers, 28. said at the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Dutch offices where he and his colleagues were introduced to the media.
Diego Urbina, 26, of Italy added: “When the first humans step on Mars, I can say, ‘Yeah, I helped do that.’ And then we get to use cool space suits, which is also nice!”
Two of the four, who also include Romain Charles, 30, and Arc’hanmael Gaillard, 34, both of France, will take part in a biomedical experiment starting this summer with three Russians and a Chinese participant in what the ESA has termed “second to none as the ultimate test of human endurance”
Volunteers to be isolated for 520 days on simulated Mars mission The Montreal Gazette
UK Space Agency launched in London The Daily Telegraph
The UK Space Agency, as it is officially named, took off with the help of British astronaut Major Timothy Peake.
But the accent at the launch in London was on the dry realities of economics rather than Dan Dare.
Lord Mandelson was on hand to keep proceedings firmly grounded, despite the Science Minister Lord Drayson confessing that he would ”like to see human beings living on Mars”.
The Business Secretary said: ”I think it is important to remember that although it is cutting edge, this stuff is not sci-fi. It may start in space, but it comes down to Earth very quickly and is directly relevant to all our daily lives.”
Britain’s mini-version of NASA will take overall responsibility for UK space activities, replacing the soon-to-be defunct British National Space Centre (BNSC).
‘Cosmonauts’ ready for Mars test
A Belgian, two Frenchmen and a Colombian-Italian have agreed to be locked away in steel containers for 18 months to simulate a mission to Mars.
Their self-imposed exile will test the physical and mental requirements of ultra-long duration spaceflight.
The Europeans will join a predominantly Russian crew for the Mars500 project, which is due to start in May.
All the food and water needed for the “journey” will have to be loaded into the “spacecraft” before “departure”.
There will even be a simulated landing.
After about 250 days, the crew will be split in two, and three “cosmonauts” will move into a separate container to walk on the “surface of the Red Planet” wearing modified Russian Orlan spacesuits.
‘Mars’ mission is ultimate reality show The Guardian
In May, six people will climb into a steel container in Moscow and the door will be locked tight. For the next 18 months, the “crew” will live inside this windowless environment – four interlocked modules measuring, in total, 550 cubic metres – as they attempt to simulate the conditions onboard a spacecraft on a round-trip to Mars.
It sounds like the ultimate TV reality show: six different personalities forced to get along while their omnipotent masters outside issue them with a daily set of tasks and instructions. The experiment is one of the most fascinating and demanding psychological tests you could ever dream up. But, if we are ever to get to Mars, these are exactly the sort of conditions that a crew will have to suffer and survive.
Room for Debate: Where, If Anywhere, Is NASA Headed? Scientific American
On complex issues, as is often said, it is possible for intelligent people to disagree. That was certainly the case March 15 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, when five leaders of the space exploration intelligentsia met to discuss NASA’s plans for human spaceflight.
The topic of the event, the 10th annual Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate, could hardly have been more timely, given the February budget request from President Obama that sought to drastically change NASA’s direction for human spaceflight and the way the agency does that business. If the budget survives Congress, NASA could start hiring private corporations to launch U.S. astronauts into orbit rather than use its own hardware; Obama’s plan would also scrap the existing Constellation Program, including the Ares rockets being developed to lift humans beyond low Earth orbit for the first time since the 1970s.
Moon vs. Mars at Museum ScienceInsider
The American Museum of Natural History had little idea of how prescient they were being when they picked the theme for this year’s Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate. Shortly after the museum directors decided on the debate topic, “The Moon, Mars and Beyond: Where Next for the Manned Space Program?”, the federal budget was announced on 1 February, revealing that NASA’s Constellation project of crewed moon missions had been canceled. Kicking off the annual event last night to a sold-out auditorium, Hayden Planetarium Director Neil deGrasse Tyson said, “What was originally just going to be us putting out opinions now turns out to have huge implications.”
Although moon and Mars missions are often discussed as if they were mutually exclusive alternatives, general consensus among the scientists on the panel was that even if putting a human on Mars were the paramount long-term goal, returning humans to the moon would still be a critical step toward that end. “The moon is a good place to test out the technology for a Mars mission, like life-support systems and transport vehicles. … I think that casting it in terms of ‘Do we go to the moon first or go to Mars?’ is not the right question,” Steven Squyres, principal investigator on the Mars Exploration Rover project, said after the debate.
Instead, the broader question to which the panelists kept returning was not simply which destination NASA should target first but what will happen if NASA has no clear destination at all.
Martian Moon in Spotlight
Fresh imagery from Europe’s Mars Express orbiter shows the Martian moon Phobos in sharp, 3-D detail. This isn’t the first time Phobos has gotten its close-up, but interest in the irregular moon is rising – in part because it’s increasingly seen as a steppingstone for Mars-bound astronauts.
Last month, NASA shifted its focus from sending humans back to the moon to a “flexible path” that includes the moons of Mars as potential destinations. The idea is that low-gravity locales such as Phobos (and Mars’ other moon, Deimos) should be easier to get to because they’re more accommodating for landing and ascent.
Media opportunity: ESA presents European participants in 520-day simulated mission to Mars
A crew of six, including two Europeans, will soon begin a simulated mission to Mars in a mockup that includes an interplanetary spaceship, a Mars lander and a martian landscape. The Mars500 experiment, as long as a real journey to Mars, will be second to none as the ultimate test of human endurance. The European candidates who will help to answer these fundamental questions will be presented to the media on 22 March 2010 at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Media representatives wishing to attend the event are kindly requested to fill in the attached accreditation form and return it by fax to the ESA Headquarters Media Relations Office by 18 March 2010.
Mars glacier lubricant could fuel rockets New Scientist
Rocket engines could benefit from a natural Martian lubricant – but not to keep them oiled. A salty sludge that may be lubricating the ice caps of Mars could one day provide fuel.
The ice is too cold to flow normally. But if winds were to carry salty soil particles to the ice cap, they might gradually sink to form a briny bed, kept liquid by the planet’s warmth. This could allow the ice cap to flow like a glacier, say David Fisher at the Geological Survey of Canada in Ottawa, and colleagues.
Such brine would freeze as it moved toward lower temperatures at the edge of the ice cap, forming a ring of concentrated salt. This could one day be mined as a component of solid rocket fuel, says Fisher.
Roving Mars in Award-Winning Style DiscoveryNews
Despite NASA’s manned space exploration being in a state of flux, there’s still a lot of innovative ideas for future manned expeditions to Mars. From new concepts for interplanetary rockets to the next generation of unmanned reconnaissance robots, we are certainly well on our way to acquiring the technologies necessary to land an astronaut on Mars.
But once we’re there, how will we get around? Mars is a big place — it has approximately the same amount of land to explore as Earth — so it would be nice if we traveled in style.
So why not travel in award-winning style?
An Illinois-based design consulting firm decided to take on this challenge, designing a manned Mars rover, winning the “Good Design Award” in the transportation category from The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design last month. They were in good company; Good Design Awards also went to Mercedes for their SLR Coupe and Apple for the iPod touch.