24 April 2008
The Search for Life on Mars: Part 1
Pre-Space Age The prospect of life on Mars has tantalized humans for centuries. We long to find some proof that we are not alone, that the universe is not as empty as it seems, and so we look to the most Earth-like planet in our solar system for signs of life. Early astronomers quickly noticed that Mars shares some properties with the Earth. In 1783, William Herschel discussed the similarities …
21 April 2008
Sand Dunes near the North Pole
Take a look at this new HiRISE image of sand dunes near the north pole on Mars: Click to go to the HiRISE site and learn more (and for much higher resolution)!
17 April 2008
Carnival of Space #50
Grab yourself a corndog and some cotton candy and head over to the Carnival of Space! Ok, so it’s not an actual carnival, but there are some really interesting posts about everything from racing rockets to dark matter to an episode of Firefly. So go check it out. You can eat cotton candy and corndogs while doing so, if you want. I won’t tell.
16 April 2008
Nine Good Reasons for Space Exploration
Advocates of space exploration often get asked the question: “Why should we spend money on NASA where there are so many problems here on Earth?” Universe Today has been compiling a list of responses to this question by space-bloggers from across the web. Check it out, there are some great answers. In response to Universe Today’s call for answers, we decided to compile a list of our top reasons that …
15 April 2008
Damn Dirty Apes … On Mars!
This just in from the BBC: Russia has announced that it plans to send monkeys to Mars! Although the idea conjures up images of a future Mars peopled by a race of hyper-intelligent chimpanzees*, it also makes sense. We want to know the physiological effects of such a long-duration flight, but nobody would want to send a human to do something so risky. So, it falls to the monkeys to …
14 April 2008
Cape Verde Mosaic
Last week I posted a nice mosaic that Opportunity took of her current target, Cape Verde. Ever since the dust storm last summer, the camera lenses have been a bit clouded up, and it takes some time to fix the images up so that they look a little more normal. A new, touched-up false color version of the image is now available, as well as an approximate true color mosaic. …
13 April 2008
Cracking the Nutcases
Over at the space review, Dwayne Day shoots down the ever-ridiculous Richard Hoagland; the guy who, among other things, believes that there are glass tunnels and cities and pyramids and faces on Mars. Go take a look, at Day’s article. It’s pretty amusing.
12 April 2008
Yuri's Night 2008
Happy Yuri’s night everyone! What are you doing reading blogs? Go out and celebrate the 47th anniversary of the first human in space!
10 April 2008
Carnival of Space #49
Hey everyone, check out the latest Carnival of Space over at Will Gater’s blog! Also, you need to go take a look at the spectacular HiRISE images of Phobos that were just released. Here’s a low resolution teaser:
9 April 2008
Mars Matters!
The Planetary Society recently submitted an invited statement to the House Science and Technology Committee on the NASA 2009 Budget Request. The statement makes some excellent points about the problems with the budget request, specifically regarding the descoping of “The Vision” (now a dirty word at NASA HQ) and the concurrent decrease in Mars funding. I recommend reading the whole thing, but here is my favorite bit specifically about Mars: …
