Comet C/2013 A1 and Mars

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Moonage

First, check this out:

See those two dots that intersect? That’s Comet C/2013 A1 and Mars.

Now, right now, with very little data, they are projecting it will miss Mars by about 650,000 miles. That’s a close shave, but not real exciting. The key words however, are being “with very little data”. That leaves a LOT of room for error. Additionally, from what I’ve read so far, this comet is BIG. Big enough to do some serious damage. Possibly would destroy one of Mars’ moons ( they’re not much more than big rocks anyway ). And, it would permanently alter the appearance of Mars. As well as, destroy our rovers and give us a remarkable first-person view of what it would be like getting hit by a comet. This stuff is really cool!

If it survives it’s pass with Mars, it will come pretty close to Venus, and even closer to Mercury. Now, from the orbit guessing I’ve seen so far, they’re not sure how close exactly it’s going to get to Mars. Then, they don’t seem to adjust it’s orbit at all when it does pass Mars. So, watch out Mercury and Venus in December 2014!

If this thing does hit Mars or any other planet, it won’t mean the end of life as we know it on Earth, but it could create some serious problems ala February 15, 2013 times 1,000.

Tossing all the conspiracy theories aside, this will make for one spectacular view in Fall 2014 for sure!

A couple of good links:

A good discussion at iceinspace.
The JPL simulator which will be current when you go there.

Have they found life on Mars?

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Moonage

Public Opinion Poll Results

Here’s the story.

Reach for the Stars

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Moonage

This is just cool:

For the first time in history, a recorded song has been beamed back to Earth from another planet. Students, special guests and news media gathered at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., today to hear “Reach for the Stars” by musician will.i.am after it was transmitted from the surface of Mars by the Curiosity rover.

Seven Minutes of Hell

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Moonage

OK, so I understand that the size and weight of Curiosity bar it from being able to be bounced around on the surface of Mars. But really, this seems kinda crazy in a way:

What if one single latch fails to unhitch after the landing? Just seems a little too precarious considering all that goes into a Mars mission.

Hope I’m wrong and this works flawlessly!

Voyager 1′s Great Escape

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Moonage

A fantastic article on one of my all time favorite NASA missions:

Launched two weeks after its sister spacecraft, Voyager 1 lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s SLC-41 at 08:56.00 EDT on 5 September 1977 on a Titan III-E Centaur rocket.

Three months and five days later, on December 10, 1977, Voyager 1 entered the Asteroid belt beyond the orbit of Mars.

And lasting till:

However, in an effort to gain more information on this phenomenon, Voyager 1 conducted a test roll on March 8, 2011 to change its orientation in order to better detect the current direction of the solar wind.

For this maneuver, Voyager 1 rotated 70 degrees counterclockwise with respect to Earth. This was the first maneuver of the spacecraft since it took the family portrait in 1990.

What most people don’t think about is the fact that Voyager 1 is STILL a mission, thirty-four years after its launch. It’s mission, to boldly go where no man has gone before, is expected to last until sometime between 2025 to 2030, or whenever its power runs out.

And, according to one source, 2030 might not even be the end.

Bio Station Alpha

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Moonage

Saw this video recently, it’s pretty cool:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeN8bSvYv0U]

Thought it was cute, but no big deal. Then I saw it on the front page of Foxnews:

Armchair Astronomer Finds ‘Evidence’ of Life on Mars

That’s not exactly the way I took it. But according to the story:

A spokesman for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab told FoxNews.com it was investigating the wild claims, speculating that “Bio Station Alpha” would most likely be determined to be a glitch in the digital imaging or an unusual feature on the surface of the planet — and not a Martian base.

A singular object, over 700 feet long and 150 feet wide on Mars? A singular object. I don’t think that makes the first bit of sense. It may be a visitor to Mars, but any intelligent form of life, if they’re going to build on the surface, but definitely build a lot more than one stadium and call it good.

I’m with the glitch theory. I hope they don’t waste a lot of money figuring it out. In the meantime, let’s watch a cool trailer:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHRf01Gjosk]

Mars anomalies

Posted on January 7, 2010 by Moonage

This is just cool. No science to support it, just cool.

Monoliths on Mars

Posted on August 6, 2009 by Moonage

I had heard briefly about the Phobos monolith. Buzz Aldrin thinks it’s definitely a sign from extra-terrestrials. Now, I got a pic of the monolith on Mars. Pretty cool stuff. Check them out:

One’s on Mars, one’s on Phobos. Care to guess which is which? Now, there are kinds of theories one could make up about this bizarre coincedence. Not sure which I’d want to run with first. Being as there are two, and monoliths look very much like doors, my first conspiracy theory would be portals to get from one place to another. A person just steps in the one on Mars and POOF! They’re on Phobos. Now, Phobos isn’t your ordinary ugly-ass moon. It’s really not much more than a rock. That is, a rock NOW. Look carefully at Phobos:

That sure is an odd shaped rock dontcha think? Sure looks kinda, sorta, something like this:

Sure, not as pretty or as clean, but no telling how long that thing has been floating around Mars. OK, so we suddenly discover a monolith, followed by another monolith, which happens to be on a rock shaped like a pod from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Now, this is where it gets weird. All this stuff about monoliths on Mars popped up shortly after we noticed this:

Up there at the top of Jupiter. That dark spot. That wasn’t there a couple of weeks before. Anyone remember what happens to Jupiter in 2010?

Now, granted, this is pretty hypothetical at this time. But, if someone discovers a monolith floating around Jupiter any time soon. THEN we can freak out.

If you want to understand this better, read the books.

Life at Blood Falls

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Moonage

First of all, look at where I’m talking about:

Looks scary, creepy, to me. Pretty nasty place. Now, underneath that blood it’s cold. Very, very, cold. Needless to say, there’s no light. There’s not even oxygen. This is about as bad as it gets on Earth. Odd thing is, there is life. Now, it’s not terribly advanced or anything. It’s just bacteria. But, this bacteria obviously doesn’t need the things we need to exist. It feeds off the sulphur that gives that blood look. The big picture here to me is once again, we’ve found life where life shouldn’t exist. In other words, searching for oxygen and water on a planet isn’t terribly necessary. It does make it more likely for advanced life, I assume. And, if you’re looking for some criteria to search for, it helps narrow down the search from millions of stars with planets to probably tens of thousands. But, the assumption that Earth could be the only orb with life just keeps getting less and less likely. Under these conditions, and the under-sea volcanic discoveries, life could possibly exist on Europa or Enceladus. That would even allow for more consideration on Mars, even if it doesn’t have any real water as we need.

This is very cool even if it doesn’t make the huge headlines of the world.

the most important discovery of all time

Posted on January 15, 2009 by Moonage

Life on Mars

There’s most undoubtedly methane on Mars. How that methane got there is debatable. On our planet, it’s caused mostly by cows farting. I don’t think anyone is looking for farting cows on Mars. But, it could very well be the result of microbes under the surface.

That led Foxnews to forego the millions of scientists all over the planet to source The Sun with this bizarre statement:

It’s “the most important discovery of all time,” former British civil servant and fervent UFO hunter Nick Pope told the Sun. “We’ve really only scratched the surface — it’s an absolute certainty that there is life out there and we are not alone.”

OK, so maybe this is something to get excited about, but does anyone in the science community feel this way or are we supposed to believe this based on the finding of one former British civil servant?

Then the story goes on to point out that this methane discovery actually occurred in 2004. So why wait five years to suddenly come to the realization that methane is commonly produced by cows farting?

This is weak.

For the record, the methane=life discussion began in earnest in 2005. The 2005 article is a much more in-depth article that cites actual scientists instead of former British civil servants. I am clueless what prompted this Fox thing.

Moonage Spacedream

It's full of stars

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