The Russian Institute of Medical-Biological Problems (IMBP) is looking for volunteers to participate in the third step of the Russian experiment “Mars-500”, which simulates an isolated 520-day flight to the Red Planet. “The basic requirements are as follows: age 25 to 50, higher education and a knowledge of Russian and English at a high enough level to ensure professional and social interaction,” the IMBP said in an announcement. Applications should be sent to pressimbp@gmail.com (with cc to class@imbp.ru) with the title «Участие в проекте “Марс-500» (“Participation in the Mars-500 project”).
November 2nd, 2009
A Faster Journey to Mars The New York Times
Science Illustrated – A plasma rocket engine now in development could reduce the travel time to Mars by two-thirds.
October 29th, 2009
Russia Proposes Nuclear Spaceship CBS News
Russia laid out its ambition to gain an edge in the space race by building a nuclear-powered spaceship. Federal Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov told a government meeting that the preliminary design could be ready by 2012. He said it would then take nine years and 17 billion rubles ($600 million) to build the ship.
At the meeting on new communications and space technologies, televised live, President Dmitry Medvedev hailed the plan and ordered the Cabinet to find the money for it. But the stated ambition contrasted with slow progress on building a replacement to the mainstay Russian spacecraft, sounding more like a plea for extra government cash than a detailed proposal.
“It’s a very serious project,” said Medvedev. “We need to find the money.”
October 28th, 2009
Official Mars Society Statement Regarding Augustine Commission Report
The recently released report from the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee (AKA: The Augustine Commission), Seeking a Human Space Program Worthy of a Great Nation, states that “A human landing and extended human presence on Mars stand prominently above all other opportunities for exploration. Mars is unquestionably the most scientifically interesting destination in the inner solar system. It possesses resources which can be used for life support and propellants. If humans are ever to live for long periods with intention of extended settlement on another planetary surface, it is likely to be on Mars.”
The Mars Society is in perfect agreement with this statement and we hope that NASA will pursue a program that will realize this goal as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Unfortunately, the Augustine Commission report then goes on to state that we are not ready to go to Mars with current technology and we can go nowhere in the next decade, even with the expenditure of over a hundred billion dollars. While challenging, sending humans to Mars is possible with current technological expertise and we could have humans on Mars in the 2020s.
October 26th, 2009
Mars Caves Might Protect Microbes (or Astronauts)
series of newly discovered depressions on the Martian surface could be the entrances to a cave system on the red planet.
Hints of subsurface tunnels have been found in images of Mars before, but the new evidence is more suggestive, said Glen Cushing, a physicist with the U.S. Geological Survey who discovered the possible caves.
Such a subsurface system could provide shelter to future Mars-visiting astronauts, as well as a protective habitat to any potential past or present Martian microbes, Cushing said.
October 23rd, 2009
Buzz Aldrin: Mars trip could be Obama’s legacy Newsday
Forty years after Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin was part of a historic first, becoming the second man to walk on the moon, he dared President Barack Obama to seize the reins of history – and send Americans to land a man on Mars, or one of its two moons, Phobos.
Aldrin said the president has “the most glorious opportunity to go down in history” if he declared the United States’ intent to send astronauts to the Red Planet – much as President John F. Kennedy dared the United States to send men to the moon in 1961.
Speaking Thursday at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in East Garden City, where he was signing copies of two recent books, Aldrin said if the United States sent “creatures from the Earth to set up life on another planet” it would be viewed “for thousands and thousands of years like Alexander the Great, Magellan and Columbus.”
He said Obama could take credit for the vision.
September 22nd, 2009
Could a Gravity Trick Speed Us to Mars? Wired
Putting a human on Mars might be easier than anyone thought. A flight to the Red Planet currently takes at least six months, which is why we send robots—the trip is boring, fuel costs are astronomical, and cosmic radiation is nobody’s friend. But NASA engineer Robert Adams has a solution: the two-burn maneuver, an all-but-forgotten secret of orbital mechanics that could cut travel time in half.
September 9th, 2009
Human colony on Mars ‘will make the world a better place’ telegraph.co.uk
“We should establish a self-supporting colony on Mars,” suggests J Richard Gott, professor of astrophysical sciences as Princeton University in the US.
“That would make us a two-planet species and improve our long-term survival prospects by giving us two chances instead of one.”
As one might expect, his belief in the species-saving potential of space exploration is echoed by Sir Richard, whose Virgin Galactic company plans to offer orbital flight for paying passengers.
“If we are going to survive as a civilisation we need low energy and environmental access to space on an industrial scale,” he told the magazine.
September 2nd, 2009
Op-Ed: A One-Way Ticket to Mars The New York Times
Now that the hype surrounding the 40th anniversary of the Moon landings has come and gone, we are faced with the grim reality that if we want to send humans back to the Moon the investment is likely to run in excess of $150 billion. The cost to get to Mars could easily be two to four times that, if it is possible at all.
This is the issue being wrestled with by a NASA panel, convened this year and led by Norman Augustine, a former chief executive of Lockheed Martin, that will in the coming weeks present President Obama with options for the near-term future of human spaceflight. It is quickly becoming clear that going to the Moon or Mars in the next decade or two will be impossible without a much bigger budget than has so far been allocated. Is it worth it?