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MARS
Jul 19, 2016 20:03:14 GMT -6
Post by swamprat on Jul 19, 2016 20:03:14 GMT -6
How will we get there?
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MARS
Aug 4, 2016 12:59:04 GMT -6
Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2016 12:59:04 GMT -6
Methane.....
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Post by auntym on Sept 25, 2016 12:34:44 GMT -6
www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160923-there-is-a-huge-monolith-on-phobos-one-of-marss-moons?ocid=twert The Phobos monolith There is a huge 'monolith' on Phobos, one of Mars's moons
The mysterious object was spotted several years ago by a NASA probe, and to this day nobody is quite sure what it is or how it got thereBy Colin Barras 24 September 2016 The Mars monolith (Credit: Mars Global Surveyor/Nasa) "When people find out about that they are going to say, 'Who put that there? Who put that there?'" These are the words of Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, in 2009. He was talking about a peculiar and solitary large rock, a monolith, that sits on the surface of the Martian moon Phobos. Aldrin was right: many people are vexed by the Phobos monolith. It has inspired all manner of alien-based conspiracy theories and this fascinating discussion on Reddit. It even gave its name to an album released this year by Les Claypool and Sean Lennon Ono. So what is it?The monolith appears to be a large boulder, variously described as building-sized or 90m tall. It stands in a desolate, featureless region of Phobos, which probably makes the monolith seem even more impressive. Other spooky features, like the infamous face on Mars, do not seem quite so unusual when you take a closer look It is not alone. Mars boasts a monolith of its own. However, the scientific community does not see such monoliths as evidence of advanced alien civilisations. The Martian monolith is almost certainly no more than a roughly straight-edged chunk of rock that tumbled down from a nearby cliff. Perfectly natural erosional forces can also explain why Mars seems to be home to a levitating spoon and an Egyptian-style pyramid. Other spooky features, like the infamous face on Mars, do not seem quite so unusual when you take a closer look or view them from a different angle. The Phobos monolith has not, as yet, received much scientific attention. CONTINUE READING: www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160923-there-is-a-huge-monolith-on-phobos-one-of-marss-moons?ocid=twert
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MARS
Sept 25, 2016 19:35:17 GMT -6
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2016 19:35:17 GMT -6
Look at it this way. If someone noticed all our natural/geographical and man-made stuff on the Earth, but we had very little monuments on our nearby satellite (moon), AND the moon just might be a "chunk" off of our Earth. . .
This article points out more "stuff" on Mars. I thought there were other reasons why Phobos was so unusual. ?? Maybe the "monolith" is (relatively) new- compared to - the way Phobos now seems to be detereorating?
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Post by auntym on Sept 27, 2016 13:45:18 GMT -6
www.space.com/34211-spacex-mars-interplanetary-transport-concept-video.html?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_campaign=socialtwitterspc&cmpid=social_spc_514648#?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2016twitterdlvrit Breathtaking Video Shows How SpaceX Will Send People to Mars VIDEOBy Calla Cofield, Space.com Staff Writer September 27, 2016 A breathtaking new video vividly illustrates how billionaire Elon Musk, founder and CEO of the private spaceflight company SpaceX, would like to send humans to Mars. The gorgeous, computer-animated video will strike a chord with space fans, as it paints a vivid and seemingly realistic picture of humans journeying to the Red Planet. It features a list of specific technologies that could be used in a human mission to Mars, including a launch from Earth and on-orbit spaceship refueling, the use of solar arrays to power the human space capsule, and a booster-powered descent onto the Red Planet. SpaceX released the video just in time: In a few short hours, Musk is scheduled to reveal the long-awaited details of the company's plans to explore Mars. You can watch the long-awaited announcement live today (Sept. 27) Musk will speak at the International Astronautical Congress meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico, and will follow his presentation with a news conference. The SpaceX video has no narration, but a few subtitles point out the key technologies that Musk may discuss in his talk. In addition, the end of the short movie seems to show the eventual terraforming of the Martian surface, which Musk has said he would like to see happen (perhaps with the aid of nuclear bombs). Some details have already been made public regarding SpaceX's plan to send robotic probes and, eventually, humans to Mars. (Musk has said repeatedly that he founded the company with the long-term goal of colonizing Mars.) The company is working on a rocket called the Falcon Heavy that would be large enough to send payloads to Mars. The company has also announced plans to send one of its Dragon spacecraft to Mars by as early as 2018. WATCH VIDEO: www.space.com/34211-spacex-mars-interplanetary-transport-concept-video.html?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_campaign=socialtwitterspc&cmpid=social_spc_514648#?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2016twitterdlvrit
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MARS
Oct 4, 2016 13:57:05 GMT -6
Post by swamprat on Oct 4, 2016 13:57:05 GMT -6
Curiosity Rover Snaps Amazing Selfie on Mars Mountain (Photo)By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer October 4, 2016
This September 2016 self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the "Quela" drilling location in the scenic "Murray Buttes" area on lower Mount Sharp. The paannama was stitched together from multiple images taken by the MAHLI camera at the end of the rover's arm. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has taken a gorgeous selfie that shows the rugged, mountainous landscape the six-wheeled robot will be exploring during its newly begun extended mission.
The selfie is composed of about 60 images Curiosity took on Sept. 17 and Sept. 20 while it was drilling into Martian rock and performing other activities at a site dubbed Quela. That site is located in the foothills of the 3-mile-high (5 kilometers) Mount Sharp.
Quela is about halfway up a 600-foot-thick (180 meters) layer of rock known as the Murray formation. Curiosity's work in the lower parts of this formation indicated that billions of years ago, the area hosted a system of lakes that lasted a long time — perhaps tens of millions of years, mission scientists have said.
Over the next year or so, the Curiosity team plans to drive the car-size rover through the Murray formation's upper half.
This 360-degree paannama was acquired on Sept. 4, 2016, by the Mast Camera on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover while the rover was in a scenic area called "Murray Buttes" on lower Mount Sharp. The flat-topped mesa near the center of the scene rises to about 39 feet above the surrounding plain. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
"We will see whether that record of lakes continues further," Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. "The more vertical thickness we see, the longer the lakes were present, and the longer habitable conditions existed here. Did the ancient environment change over time? Will the type of evidence we've found so far transition to something else?"
The $2.5 billion Curiosity mission touched down inside Mars' 96-mile-wide (154 km) Gale Crater in August 2012, to search for evidence that the region could once have hosted life as we know it.
Curiosity quickly determined that the area near its landing site harbored a potentially habitable lake-and-stream system in the ancient past, fulfilling the chief mission goal. In September 2014, after a 14-month trip, the rover reached the foothills of the towering Mount Sharp, whose many layers hold a history of Mars' transition from a relatively warm and wet world to the cold, dry planet it is today.
Curiosity has been slowly climbing up through these layers for the last two years. And it should continue that work for at least two more years, provided nothing goes wrong; on Saturday (Oct. 1), the rover officially began a two-year extended mission, the second such extension NASA has granted Curiosity.
"This mission, as it explores the succession of rock layers, is reading the 'pages' of Martian history — changing our understanding of Mars and how the planet has evolved," Curiosity program scientist Michael Meyer, who's based at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in the same statement. "Curiosity has been and will be a cornerstone in our plans for future missions."
www.space.com/34291-cmars-rover-curiosity-selfie-mount-sharp.html
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MARS
Oct 6, 2016 8:10:20 GMT -6
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2016 8:10:20 GMT -6
And it should continue that work for at least two more years, provided nothing goes wrong; on Saturday (Oct. 1), the rover officially began a two-year extended mission, the second such extension NASA has granted Curiosity. Read more: theedgeofreality.proboards.com/thread/1596/mars?page=10#**** Really COOL!! But, if the rover is taking samples while drilling, aren't we risking HAVING those samples, if the rover does break down? Or are you telling me that this rover is sophisticated enough to process the samples (every time) and give us a correct reading?? The "selfie" is very "telling"; IMO. But yet, I feel "slow" . Have I not being paying attention? Do we have any intention to get this rover back to Earth someday? A man-made machine; roving around on Mars for several years; not needing a "hands-on" tune up....... WHOA
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MARS
Oct 10, 2016 15:51:47 GMT -6
Post by swamprat on Oct 10, 2016 15:51:47 GMT -6
Major Dust Storm Could Soon Hit MarsBy Samantha Mathewson, Space.com Contributor October 10, 2016
A raging Martian dust storm is expected to sweep across the Red Planet within the next few months, according to a study that found a way to predict these otherwise variable weather events.
Global dust storms on Mars threaten robotic rovers traversing the Martian surface, as well as astronauts that may one day set up camp on the Red Planet. However, based on past weather patterns, Martian dust storms may soon become more predicable — and if history repeats itself, the next storm is just around the corner, according to a statement from NASA.
"Mars will reach the midpoint of its current dust storm season on October 29th of this year," James Shirley, a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in the statement. "Based on the historical pattern we found, we believe it is very likely that a global dust storm will begin within a few weeks or months of this date."
Local dust storms are fairly frequent on Mars. However, these localized storms can grow into regional or, in some cases, global storms. The dust storm season typically reaches its peak during the spring and summer in the planet's southern hemisphere, when Mars is closest to the sun, NASA officials said in the statement.
Dust storms on Mars create a massive haze that blankets the planet. The last global dust storm on Mars was in 2007. During this storm, NASA Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity received scarce solar power, but were able to survive.
"The global dust storm in 2007 was the first major threat to the rovers since landing," John Callas, project manager for Spirit and Opportunity, said in the statement. "We had to take special measures to enable their survival for several weeks with little sunlight to keep them powered. Each rover powered up only a few minutes each day, enough to warm them up, then shut down to the next day without even communicating with Earth. For many days during the worst of the storm, the rovers were completely on their own."
Before 2007, major Martian dust storms have been recorded in 1971, 1977, 1982, 1994 and 2001. Using data on the orbital motion of Mars, Shirley discovered a pattern in the occurrence of these storms. He found other planets impact the momentum of Mars as it orbits the solar system's center of gravity. The planet's momentum increases and decreases in a cycle that lasts 2.2 years, slightly longer than the Martian year, which is 1.9 years. Shirley found that global dust storms tend to occur when the momentum is increasing during the first part of the dust storm season, which doesn't happen during every Martian year. The finding is reported in a new study, published May 2015 in the journal Icarus.
The new findings are consistent with weather patterns of the past, as none of the global dust storms on record have occurred when Mars’ momentum was decreasing during the first part of the dust storm season, NASA officials said in the statement.
Current observations of the Martian atmosphere indicate that conditions of this year's dust storm season are similar to those recorded during previous dust storm seasons. So far, however, a global dust storm has yet to develop.
In late August, several local dust storms grew into a major regional dust storm by early September, but weakened before becoming a global storm. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will be keeping a close eye on the Red Planet to see what storms develop over the next several weeks.
www.space.com/34329-major-dust-storm-soon-hit-mars.html
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MARS
Oct 10, 2016 19:14:11 GMT -6
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Post by skywalker on Oct 10, 2016 19:14:11 GMT -6
And it should continue that work for at least two more years, provided nothing goes wrong; on Saturday (Oct. 1), the rover officially began a two-year extended mission, the second such extension NASA has granted Curiosity. Read more: theedgeofreality.proboards.com/thread/1596/mars?page=10#**** Really COOL!! But, if the rover is taking samples while drilling, aren't we risking HAVING those samples, if the rover does break down? Or are you telling me that this rover is sophisticated enough to process the samples (every time) and give us a correct reading?? The "selfie" is very "telling"; IMO. But yet, I feel "slow" . Have I not being paying attention? Do we have any intention to get this rover back to Earth someday? A man-made machine; roving around on Mars for several years; not needing a "hands-on" tune up....... WHOA No, we have no plans to bring it back and yes it can analyze samples right there on the planet.
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MARS
Dec 19, 2016 9:36:44 GMT -6
Post by swamprat on Dec 19, 2016 9:36:44 GMT -6
Rover hits jackpot of Mars evidenceBy Deborah Byrd in Space December 17, 2016
A cool animation showing now and long ago at Gale Crater, plus the path of the Curiosity rover on Mars today, and an update on Curiosity’s findings.
This GIF depicts Gale Crater at two points in time: now and billions of years ago. Water moving beneath the ground, as well as water above the surface in ancient rivers and lakes, provided favorable conditions for microbial life, scientists say. However, as yet, no life has been found. Image via NASA JPL/ Caltech.
When the Curiosity rover landed in Mars’ Gale Crater in 2012, the mission’s main goal was to look for signs of water and determine whether the area ever offered an environment favorable for microbial life. And that’s exactly what the rover has been doing, while investigating rock layers in the floor of Gale Crater on Mars and on the crater’s central peak (Mount Sharp). On December 13, 2016, at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, scientists spoke of Curiosity’s recent results and said the information recorded in Mars’ rocks shows how its environment has changed over time. They said the change in Mars’ ancient lakes and wet underground environments, billions of years ago, created more diverse chemical environments that affected their favorability for microbial life.
John Grotzinger of Caltech, a member of Curiosity’s science team, spoke of the rover’s findings as a “jackpot” because, he said:
"There is so much variability in the composition at different elevations…"
He said that, as the rover examines higher, younger layers on Mount Sharp, researchers have been impressed by the complexity of the lake environments that once existed there. These researchers said in a statement:
"Hematite, clay minerals and boron are among the ingredients found to be more abundant in layers farther uphill, compared with lower, older layers examined earlier in the mission. [We] are discussing what these and other variations tell about conditions under which sediments were initially deposited, and about how groundwater moving later through the accumulated layers altered and transported ingredients."
Grotzinger added:
"A sedimentary basin such as this is a chemical reactor. Elements get rearranged. New minerals form and old ones dissolve. Electrons get redistributed. On Earth, these reactions support life."
Has the rover found evidence for martian life? No. Scientists for decades have searched for evidence of life on Mars, but – to date – no compelling evidence for it has been found.
Still, the results from Curiosity – as has been true of evidence gathered elsewhere on Mars – is tantalizing.
A wide view of Curiosity’s traverse from landing through sol 1536. At this point, since landing on Mars in 2012, the rover has driven just over 9 miles (about 15 km). The base image is from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter CTX, colorized with Mars Express HRSC image. The route is copied from official mission maps. White circles represent drill sites; filled circles mark a few locations along the traverse between Yellowknife Bay and The Kimberley where there was some science but no drilling. The future route map is based upon the proposal for Curiosity’s second mission extension. Image via Emily Lakdawalla’s blog at the Planetary Society.
The researchers said Gale Crater’s main appeal for them is in the geological layering exposed in the lower portion of the crater’s central mound, Mount Sharp. They said:
"These exposures offer access to rocks that hold a record of environmental conditions from many stages of early martian history, each layer younger than the one beneath it. The mission succeeded in its first year, finding that an ancient martian lake environment had all the key chemical ingredients needed for life, plus chemical energy available for life. Now, the rover is climbing lower on Mount Sharp to investigate how ancient environmental conditions changed over time."
Curiosity Deputy Project Scientist Joy Crisp of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, explained:
"We are well into the layers that were the main reason Gale Crater was chosen as the landing site. We are now using a strategy of drilling samples at regular intervals as the rover climbs Mount Sharp. Earlier we chose drilling targets based on each site’s special characteristics. Now that we’re driving continuously through the thick basal layer of the mountain, a series of drill holes will build a complete picture."
These scientists said that four recent drilling sites – from “Oudam” this past June through “Sebina” in October – are each spaced about 80 feet (about 25 meters) apart in elevation. This uphill pattern allows the science team to sample progressively younger layers that reveal Mount Sharp’s ancient environmental history.
Fifteen Curiosity drill holes on Mars. As of December 2016, Curiosity has drilled and sampled at 13 locations on Mars. They are (left to right and top to bottom): John Klein, drilled on sol 182; Cumberland, on sol 279; Windjana, on sol 621; Confidence Hills, on sol 759, Mojave, on sol 882; Telegraph Peak, on sol 908; Buckskin, on sol 1060; Big Sky, on sol 1119; Greenhorn, on sol 1137; Lubango, on sol 1320; Okoruso, sol 1332, Oudam, sol 1361; Marimba, sol 1422; Quela, on sol 1464, and Sebina, sol 1495. The drill holes are about 0.6 inches (1.6 cm) wide. Image and caption via Emily Lakdawalla’s blog at the Planetary Society.
Bottom line: NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is finding patterns of change in rock composition at higher, younger layers of Mount Sharp on Mars. The rover’s data shows that ancient Mars sedimentary basins with groundwater were chemically active, a factor favorable for possible life.
earthsky.org/space/mars-rover-curiosity-update-dec-2016-gale-crater
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Jan 25, 2017 16:44:23 GMT -6
Post by swamprat on Jan 25, 2017 16:44:23 GMT -6
Cliff, go get me one of those rocks for my mantel, OK?
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MARS
Jan 26, 2017 15:56:22 GMT -6
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Post by skywalker on Jan 26, 2017 15:56:22 GMT -6
I want to see some fossil bones or something cool like that. Maybe some little Martian trilobites or other marine organisms. That would convince the crap out of people.
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MARS
Jan 26, 2017 18:13:44 GMT -6
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Post by skywalker on Jan 26, 2017 18:13:44 GMT -6
I think they should have done it years ago. That planet is not very far away. How can they just let it sit ip there and not go look at it?
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MARS
Jan 26, 2017 22:15:59 GMT -6
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Post by skywalker on Jan 26, 2017 22:15:59 GMT -6
I'll go up there! I want to be the first dude to set foot on Mars. That would be cool!
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MARS
Mar 26, 2017 20:38:43 GMT -6
Post by swamprat on Mar 26, 2017 20:38:43 GMT -6
NASA's Spirit Mars Rover Found Mysterious Growths on Mars That Could Be the Biggest Discovery in Science3/25/2017
Four billion years ago, Mars looked a lot like Earth does today. So it's not surprising that a team of scientists believe that they may have discovered the first signs of ancient alien life on the planet. Learn more about this in the video:
www.physics-astronomy.com/2017/03/nasas-spirit-mars-rover-found.html#.WNh3lWe1uUl
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Apr 4, 2017 19:57:08 GMT -6
Post by swamprat on Apr 4, 2017 19:57:08 GMT -6
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Apr 20, 2017 19:58:24 GMT -6
Post by swamprat on Apr 20, 2017 19:58:24 GMT -6
Gullies Streak Down Mars Crater in Stunning NASA PhotoBy Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer April 20, 2017
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image of a gully-streaked crater in the Red Planet's northern hemisphere on Jan. 15, 2017. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Gullies streak down the slopes of a frosty Red Planet crater in a gorgeous new photo by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
MRO captured the image using its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, which can spot features as small as a coffee table on the Martian surface.
"This is the location with the most impressive known gully activity in the Northern hemisphere," HiRISE principal investigator Alfred McEwen, a professor of planetary geology at the University of Arizona, wrote in an image description yesterday (April 18). The location he was referring to is about 51.7 degrees north latitude and 333 degrees east longitude, according to the description.
"Gullies are active in the winter due to carbon dioxide frost, but northern winters are shorter and warmer than southern winters, so there is less frost and less gully activity," McEwen added.
Therefore, the crater's gullies are quite different from the dark streaks known as recurring slope lineae (RSL) that temporarily stain some slopes near the Martian equator during the warmest parts of the year. Some scientists posit that RSL are signs of salty liquid water, but others point to dry landslides as the likely cause.
Though NASA released the gully-crater image yesterday, HiRISE actually took it on Jan. 15.
Zoomed-out view of the gully-streaked crater in the Martian northern hemisphere photographed by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Jan. 15, 2017. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
The $720 million MRO mission has been circling Mars for more than 11 years, studying the planet's geology and climate, searching for signs of liquid water activity, and scouting out possible landing locations for future robotic and crewed missions, among other tasks. MRO also serves as a communications relay link between robots on the Martian surface, such as NASA's Opportunity and Curiosity rovers, and their handlers back on Earth.
MRO and its instruments remain in good shape despite the spacecraft's relatively advanced age, NASA officials have said.
www.space.com/36526-mars-gulllies-crater-amazing-mro-photo.html
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May 8, 2017 15:39:47 GMT -6
Post by auntym on May 8, 2017 15:39:47 GMT -6
What Keeps Cleaning The Mars Rovers?Mystery History Published on Apr 3, 2017 The mars exploration missions launched in 2003, successfully landing two rovers, spirit and opportunity on the red planet. The mission's objective was to search for clues to past water activity on Mars. The mission also included three previous landers: the two Viking program landers in 1976 and Mars Pathfinder probe in 1997. Both rovers were given an expected lifespan of just 90 days due to the notorious dust storms present on the surface. spirit lasted an incredible 7 years, surviving until 2010, yet mysteriously, Opportunity is still functioning to this day. This is due to several events which have become known as cleaning events, which over that last 14 years, have been mysteriously cleaning the rovers solar panels. Designed to go offline during the night to save energy, it is during these hours that something, or someone has been helping to keep our rovers running. Opportunity has since been given 5 mission extensions, which it has successfully completed. In July 2007, during the fourth mission extension, severe Martian dust storms blocked sunlight to the rover and threatened the ability of the crafts survival. However, when the dust storms lifted, they revealed that something had cleaned the rover of nearly all debris. On May 1, 2009, during its fifth mission extension, Spirit became stuck in the soft soils of Mars. After nearly nine months of attempts to get the rover back on track, including test rovers on Earth, NASA announced on January 26, 2010 that Spirit was being re- tasked as a stationary science platform. Strangely it seems, because the rover was not moving, it missed subsequent cleaning events, leading nasa to lose contact shortly after. Most recently, Opportunity has seen a surge in energy after a "cleaning event" in March, the Martian month coincidentally, resulting in a power boost of 70 percent when compared with power levels at the start of this year. And now mission scientists have released a self-portrait photo of the Mars rover. When compared with the dust coverage at its worst, the difference is nothing short of dramatic. Having just survived its sixth Mars winter, thanks to the most recent cleaning event. Opportunity now has solar panels that are as dust free as they were when they entered the Martian atmosphere. Just what exactly has been cleaning the rovers on mars? covert astronauts? Or maybe its Aliens? Whatever it is, We may never know.. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleaning_event
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MARS
May 9, 2017 10:28:01 GMT -6
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Post by jcurio on May 9, 2017 10:28:01 GMT -6
Parawhatta? Again?
I see a tail .......
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MARS
May 12, 2017 22:03:34 GMT -6
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Post by jcurio on May 12, 2017 22:03:34 GMT -6
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May 15, 2017 9:38:15 GMT -6
Post by swamprat on May 15, 2017 9:38:15 GMT -6
This is NOT the next Rover scheduled for the 2020 launch, but perhaps it is similar to the ones to be used for manned missions in the 2030's.
In other words, "Batman Lives"! NASA has been quietly working on a Mars rover concept that looks like a Batmobile Dave Mosher May 11, 2017
• The visitor complex at NASA's Kennedy Space Center has quietly rolled out a six-wheeled Mars rover. • The vehicle was made by a concept car company and debuted in early May. • A major cable network is allegedly producing a TV show about the unnamed vehicle's design and construction. • Though it's a demonstration vehicle for educational use, it was created to be as realistic as possible.
A NASA spokesperson told Business Insider that the project "is not really a NASA-affiliated thing" and is run by its independently operated Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. (Representatives at the visitor complex did not immediately return our calls.)
However, Marc Parker said NASA introduced his company to engineers and scientists at Kennedy Space Center who are actively working on the space agency's goals of exploring Mars with astronauts.
According to Marc, NASA gave his company a few parameters for the vehicle and had two schools of thought for it: either a small scout vehicle "for four astronauts to investigate, explore, and get test samples" or a "full research laboratory".
The company started with an electric motor, solar panels, and a 700-volt battery and built the vehicle around that, Marc says, "since there's no gas stations up there" — and decided to tackle both concepts at once.
"What we actually came up with was a dual-purpose vehicle. It actually separates in the middle. The rear section is a full lab, the front area is a cockpit for going out and doing scouting," he says. "The lab section can actually disconnect ... and be left on its own to do autonomous research. That way the scout vehicle can go out to do its thing without the fuel consumption and extra weight, then come back later." While the cab is lined with earthly "creature comforts" such as GPS, air conditioning, and radio, Marc says the body is made entirely out of aircraft-grade aluminum and carbon-fiber to keep the weight down.
He says it hasn't been officially weighed, but estimated the rover — which is 28 feet long, 13 feet wide, and 11 feet tall — should come in at about 5,000 pounds.
"A Honda Civic weighs about 3,500 to 4,000 pounds, and a 5,000 pounds is about the weight of a pickup truck," he said, emphasizing that the concept vehicle is very light given its size and capabilities.
Marc says that while the rover could drive as fast as 60-70 mph, it's designed to roll along at 10-15 mph or less, since it'd be used to methodically roll over dunes, rocks, craters, hills, and more. He added that each wheel has an independent suspension to overcome such obstacles with ease.
Of all the projects that Marc says he and his brother have worked on, he said "this one has blown us away the most." He hopes it inspires NASA and the public alike to dream big about the future of space exploration.
"Movies are cool, TV is cool, but it's something else to be part of a thing that could inspire kids to go Mars and live in outer space," he says.
This story was updated to clarify the relationship between NASA and the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mars-rover-prototype-seadek-2017-5?utm_content=buffer592f0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer-ti
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May 19, 2017 13:29:07 GMT -6
Post by auntym on May 19, 2017 13:29:07 GMT -6
www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a26576/humans-evolve-mars/ How Would Humans Evolve on Mars? Nature's super slow prototyping process would look completely different for humans living on another planet.By Darren Orf / www.popularmechanics.com/author/2793/darren-orf/May 19, 2017 Human beings are the result of millions of years of evolution doing its slow but inevitable work, creating more complex beings purpose built to their environment. For example, we breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide—pretty convenient for a planet covered in plants don't you think? But what happens when you relocate a species to another environment almost entirely unlike its ancestral home? In other words, what the hell is going to happen to humans on Mars? Space Time takes a moment to conduct a thorough thought experiment about what could happen to humans when generation after generation continue to live, grow, and evolve on Mars. Considering even small evolutionary differences exist among humans today—the people of Tibet have higher lung capacity that the rest of us, for example—the differences between humans on completely different planets would be huge. Host Matt O'Dowd suggests that Martians would, over the years, develop genetic mutations that would counter the risks of decreased bone density and muscle mass, something scientists observe in astronauts regularly. Over time Martians might also become taller than humans, since their hearts wouldn't have to fight such strong gravity to pump blood throughout their body—one of the biologicals reasons for the limit to human height. The video continues to touch on the Martian climate, lack of a micro biome (which would make future Martians incapable of living on Earth), and even future possibilities of terraforming the planet. It's a bit of a far future thought exercise, but it's fascinating nonetheless. www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a26576/humans-evolve-mars/
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MARS
Jun 4, 2017 15:21:09 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by skywalker on Jun 4, 2017 15:21:09 GMT -6
I never doubted it. Imagine what it was like back when there was water and oceans and life on it. It would have been a little miniature baby earth.
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MARS
Sept 17, 2017 13:49:57 GMT -6
Post by swamprat on Sept 17, 2017 13:49:57 GMT -6
Page 1 of 3
"What’s a future for if not to dream big? ... Setting sail to Mars, putting in place a thriving civilization on that far-off world, is a quest unprecedented in history. It is time to place humankind on that trajectory. I fervently believe it is our rendezvous with destiny.” – Buzz Aldrin, Destination Mars.
Below, take a deep look at humankind’s efforts to step foot on the Red Planet in the 2030s, and read guest essayist Buzz Aldrin’s ideas on how we can accomplish this magnificent feat. Also included is an article by James Dean outlining some of the potential issues in coping with a Mars mission.By Buzz Aldrin September 17, 2017
Having farsighted goals and objectives is a trait of bold space exploration planning.
For my part, over the last 30 years I have been a vocal and global advocate for establishing a permanent human settlement on Mars. Our reach for that world summons the very best of humankind to make this lofty ambition a reality.
Let me detail a blueprint for the red planet, a plan that will get people to Mars by 2039, a plan to create a sustainable path to permanent inhabitation of Mars. No flags, footprints and scurrying back to Earth this time. I call it Cycling Pathways to Occupy Mars, or CPOM for short.
Here is my vision: In 2039 or earlier, I believe we can have one or two Earth-Mars “Cyclers” taking astronauts to Mars on a three-month trip every two or four years. Crews will be transported to the Earth Mars Cycler with a single launch with refueling in Earth orbit. Doing so means that the cost of sending an astronaut to Mars will be an order of magnitude cheaper than the expeditionary architectures so often discussed today.
More to the point: By dramatically lowering the cost of transporting astronauts to Mars, it is, by far, the most sustainable approach to permanent inhabitation of Mars.
LONG-HAUL TRANSPORTATION To routinely depart Earth, I foresee long-haul transportation systems. These deep space cruisers not only continuously cycle between Earth and the moon but also constantly transfer explorers and settlers between Mars and Earth. A fully reusable lunar and interplanetary system is the best way of transporting people and cargo across the vast vacuum of space.
I call these reusable spacecraft Cyclers because they are put in motion first between Earth and the moon and then between Mars and Earth. Very much like ocean liners, the Cycler system would unendingly glide along predictable pathways, moving people, equipment and other materials to and from Earth over inner solar system mileage.
A sequential buildup of a Full Cycling Network should be put in place, geared to the maturation of moon and Mars activities. What can evolve is having Earth, the moon and Mars forming a celestial triad of worlds. This trio of celestial bodies will become busy hubs for the ebb and flow of people, cargo and commerce traversing the inner solar system.
KEY PRINCIPLES There are several precepts underlying my CPOM master plan.
First of all, I call for a presidential commitment on the 50th anniversary of the first Apollo landing on the moon in 2019 to achieve a continued occupation on Mars with international crews.
There is need for U.S. leadership to shape a Global Lunar Mars Coalition that embraces major spacefaring nations, including Europe, Russia, India, Japan and China, as well as emerging space actors like the United Arab Emirates, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.
We can afford to go to Mars, but we must have fiscal discipline. That requires focusing our limited resources on only those things that are truly necessary to get to Mars. In my view, we are currently spending more than $6 billion on programs that we do not need to get to Mars.
A key guideline for CPOM is reusability. Every element of the system — from the lunar and planetary landers to habitation systems — is used multiple times for multiple purposes.
Once again, the foundation for human space transportation is the Cycler. The Cycler is an evolutionary spacecraft concept that begins as a commercial Low Earth Orbit Cycler. It replaces the International Space Station and then evolves to house crew and tourists transiting between Earth and the moon, going on from there to provide a habitat in lunar orbit, then supports crew transport outward to Venus, which then leads to the orbiting of the Mars moon Phobos and finally as the permanent crew transport system between Earth and Mars.
TESTING GROUND Let me underscore another key precept. With mostly international contributions, we need to use the moon to test our systems and operations for Mars. But we need to be clear that anything we use on the moon must be testing Mars operations and systems. We cannot afford to design and test two entirely separate surface architectures — one solely for the moon, one just for Mars.
For example, there’s an important commodity that can be drawn from the moon. That is a commercial supply of lunar propellants. Using rocket fuel from the moon will reduce the cost of transporting cargo to Mars by several factors. Utilizing lunar-based propellants to fuel reusable lunar landers and tankers will revolutionize in-space transportation among Earth, the moon and Mars.
My bottom line: Putting in place sustainable permanence through cycling pathways reduces the cost of sending crews to Mars by an order of magnitude over traditional expeditionary means.
This approach to Mars inhabitation is outbound-biased. All of the people who transit to Mars will remain there for the rest of their lives. This requires very different thinking about how we live and work on Mars.
MARTIAN LIFESTYLE My bridge-building plan that links Earth, the moon and Mars will not come about easily. A major challenge that must be faced early on in occupying the Red Planet is how best to make it selfsufficient. Shipping to Mars the resources to reliably support a human stay on Mars is prohibitively expensive. We need to “live off the land” by using local resources on Mars, its water, soil and other assets, some of which, I am positive, have yet to be identified.
We can’t fool ourselves. A sustainable civilization on Mars is extraordinarily complex. There’s need to think through almost every aspect of human society and scope it for another planet. Furthermore, we cannot ignore the problems of mental and social health of those pioneering inhabitants of Mars.
Creating a “lifestyle” on Mars demands space transportation, power production and food supplies, and relying on construction materials on that world. I envision that the society on Mars begins as Earth’s most international endeavor ever conceived.
Yes, achieving over the next decades the scientific and technological wherewithal to facilitate and sustain the arrival of humans on Mars is indeed intimidating … but what’s a future for if not to dream big?
To occupy Mars is a task like no other. This enterprise can unite the great nations of the world in a purely peaceful and cooperative way.
Setting sail to Mars, putting in place a thriving civilization on that far-off world, is a quest unprecedented in history. It is time to place humankind on that trajectory. I fervently believe it is our rendezvous with destiny.
Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin is an international advocate of space science and planetary exploration. Aldrin and co-author Leonard David wrote “Mission to Mars — My Vision for Space Exploration,” published in 2013. Aldrin’s latest children’s book, “Welcome to Mars: Making a Home on the Red Planet,” co-authored with Marianne Dyson, was published in September 2014. Aldrin and Ken Abraham’s book, “No Dream Is Too High: Life Lessons From a Man Who Walked on the Moon,” was released in April 2015.
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MARS
Sept 17, 2017 13:52:48 GMT -6
Post by swamprat on Sept 17, 2017 13:52:48 GMT -6
Page 2 of 3 CONQUERING THE MIND ON MARS The human psyche might be the toughest challenge for a successful Mars mission
JAMES DEAN FLORIDA TODAY 9/17/17
Earth is so far away, you can see it only as a speck of light in the sky. A reply to your urgent message home won’t arrive for more than 40 minutes. And one of the handful of crewmates sharing your cramped living quarters for more than a year is starting to get on your nerves. Welcome to the first outpost on Mars.
It’s the destination NASA and private company SpaceX want humans to reach in the next couple of decades — for the government, a small exploratory crew, and for Elon Musk, the first 100 settlers establishing a colony. Simply getting people to the red planet, where only robots have roamed, will be a monumental challenge. Rockets, spaceships, landers and habitats will take years and billions of dollars to develop.
While engineers focus on that important technical work, researchers also are studying how explorers or settlers will cope emotionally and socially during a multiyear space expedition far more distant than any yet.
NASA’s longest stay on the lunar surface was about three days, and on the International Space Station nearly a year.
A mission to Mars — 140 million miles from Earth, on average — involves journeys of more than six months there and back and a minimum stay longer than a year.
“Psychology turns out to be one of the key issues that nobody has been really thinking about,” said Andy Aldrin, director of Florida Institute of Technology’s Buzz Aldrin Space Institute, which hosted a workshop on the subject recently at Kennedy Space Center. “What we are talking about is people on another planet forever. That presents a whole bunch of psychological issues that we don’t have any way of really thinking about.”
Many will be positive: pride in a pioneering mission, a spirit of adventure and scientific discovery, and satisfaction in achieving something great.
But from Skylab to Mir to the ISS, experience living for long periods in low Earth orbit has shown that even elite, highly trained astronauts confront stress in such extreme environments. Mars will be much more extreme.
“It’s really different going to the space station versus being the first people to go to Mars for such an extended period of time,” said Jessica Wildman, an assistant professor in Florida Tech’s School of Psychology who has researched team dynamics and “self-maintenance” for NASA. “We’re anticipating that the stressors will be stronger.” EARTH AS A STAR If life in microgravity gets stressful, International Space Station astronauts often retreat to the outpost’s windowed Cupola.
Gazing down at the Earth spinning 250 miles below helps them to relax, recharge their spirits and reconnect with home.
That outlet won’t be available on Mars, and no one knows the consequences.
“What effect is it going to have for folks who do these long-duration exploration missions to not see Earth?” said Wendy Bedwell, president of Tampa-based PACE Consulting Solutions, who performs NASAfunded research on crews simulating Mars missions. “What happens when home is a speck in sky?”
Unlike many other mission conditions, the “Earth as a star” or “Earth out of view” phenomenon can’t be simulated. But it may be significant.
To date, astronauts report feeling profoundly changed by seeing Earth as a blue marble floating in space, by seeing the fragility of the environment and atmosphere that sustain all life as we know it. For some, their spirituality is strengthened.
“This has a lot of ramifications in terms of living on Mars, where Earth is not such a big, beautiful ball; it’s this little, insignificant dot,” said Nick Kanas, professor emeritus at the University of California at San Francisco and author of “Humans in Space: The Psychological Hurdles.”
CONFINEMENT With a living area equivalent to a sixbedroom home, the International Space Station is substantially roomier than early Mars habitats might be.
But living there still isn’t easy, said former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, one of only two people who have lived on the station for nearly a year — twice as long as a typical mission.
“There’s no sun, wind, rain,” Kelly recalled during a recent appearance at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex promoting its “Summer of Mars” campaign.
“You can’t get away. You can’t call Uber.”
Every nook of the station is crammed with hardware, supplies and even trash. One astronaut described it to a researcher as resembling “Walmart after an earthquake.”
Mars explorers occasionally will get outside and leave boot prints or rover tracks on the surface, but spacewalks are not likely to be frequent or for pleasure.
Aspiring space explorers, often adventurous lovers of the outdoors, must understand the constraints.
SOCIAL ISOLATION Had a rough day at work? You can go home and vent to friends or family.
Mars explorers, perhaps six or fewer on the first expedition, won’t have that luxury. They’ll be together all day, every day, for at least two or three years.
Normal conversation with family or Mission Control won’t be possible. Any communication will take more than 20 minutes to travel each way when the planets are farthest apart from each other, on opposite sides of the sun.
“If all your real-time communication is just with the six people that are physically with you, that’s pretty limiting in terms of your social circle,” Wildman said. “How do you vent when the people you want to vent about are the people you have to vent to?”
MONOTONY It’s the greatest adventure imaginable — extending humanity’s presence to another planet. Could one possibly be bored?
In reality, systems are mostly automated and may be controlled remotely from Earth. Much of the routine work involves not trailblazing but science experiments, equipment maintenance and chores, like cleaning a bathroom or preparing meals.
That mismatch between expectations and reality can be jarring.
“I’m colonizing Mars, but really minute by minute, I’m going through this schedule of mundane activities, and that feels strange,” Wildman said.
Mission planners will need to think carefully about how to keep crews entertained.
See next post for page 3
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MARS
Sept 17, 2017 13:55:33 GMT -6
Post by swamprat on Sept 17, 2017 13:55:33 GMT -6
Page 3 of 3
THIRD-QUARTER EFFECT Halfway through a marathon mission, it hits you: There’s still another half to go.
Antarctic expeditions have exhibited this “third-quarter effect,” in which crew members might feel depressed or anxious, or tensions between crew members could rise just after the halfway point.
Kanas, who has studied Mir and ISS astronauts and cosmonauts, hasn’t found the effect consistently in spaceflight, but Bedwell has at the simulated Mars habitat 8,200 feet up on Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano.
Asked after an eight-month mission there if they could have lasted longer, participants all said no.
“Had it been longer, that could have been a real issue,” she said.
FRESH FOOD Astronauts eat shelf-stabilized food from pouches and cans every meal.
NASA is experimenting with growing crops that could supplement deep space explorers’ diets with fresh food and nutrients.
In a small growth chamber on the ISS called Veggie, astronauts have grown heads of red romaine lettuce, zinnia flowers and, most recently, Chinese cabbage.
Besides the occasional crunch of a fresh lettuce leaf, astronauts report that they enjoy taking care of the plants.
“There’s lots of feedback from the astronauts that they love to have the plants; they like to tend them; they like seeing living things,” said Ray Wheeler, a NASA plant physiologist at KSC. “To provide these supplemental foods, we think, is very important in terms of the nutrition, but also in terms of human well-being.”
GETTING ALONG When hardware breaks or emergencies happen, astronauts are highly trained to react and solve problems together. Overcoming such challenges can be a positive bonding experience.
But during routine, day-to-day activities, small personality conflicts can prove more problematic.
“We have many, many stories of little irks, cultural misunderstandings that led to frustration, and those actually cause bigger problems,” Wildman said.
One example: An ISS astronaut described tension that built up over dinners, which one crew member saw as a chatty social time, while another just wanted to eat quietly. In another case, crewmates from different countries disagreed on how to report a problem to the ground.
Anyone can get along for a while, Kanas said. “After about six weeks, the jokes aren’t so funny, the tension increases, and then you’re really in business in terms of what you’re going to see in terms of studying long-term psychosocial effects,” he said.
Bedwell, who studies crews simulating Mars missions at the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, or HI-SEAS, said the same annoyances that might cause a marital spat — the toothpaste cap not screwed on properly — crop up in the 1,200-square-foot habitat that offers almost no privacy.
“You can imagine an isolated and confined environment is sort of like a pressure cooker, that all the little things that occur normally bubble up much more quickly,” she said.
Despite such inevitable conflicts, Bedwell said, crews’ commitment to completing missions lasting six months to a year has never faltered.
AUTONOMY Even short communication delays of less than a minute can cause frustration and lower morale, researchers have found.
Delays on Mars will be much longer, lasting between four and 24 minutes. That will fundamentally change the crew’s relationship to home and Mission Control, requiring astronauts to work more independently and operate with less support.
The balance of control between ground teams and space crews can be tricky. In 1973, Skylab 4 astronauts led a “mutiny in space,” officially called an unplanned day off, during which they refused to talk with the ground.
EARTH, WE HAVE A PROBLEM If a life-or-death crisis strikes, the fate of a Mars crew won’t be left solely in Mission Control’s hands, as during the “successful failure” of Apollo 13.
The entire world will be engaged, and properly harnessing modern networking and crowdsourcing technologies may solve problems that a small group could not, said Vas Taras, associate professor of management at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
“A mission like this will have probably the biggest support base,” he said. “We will have, obviously, the experts who work for the mission, but also millions of people who will be willing to help. That presents huge challenges but also wonderful opportunities.”
Welcome to the team.
COMING HOME Adjusting to life back on Earth after extended periods in low gravity is physically challenging.
Explorers returning from Mars will be hailed as global celebrities, like the first astronauts and Apollo moonwalkers, adding to the challenge of reintegrating back to their old lives.
So why worry about these social issues before the rockets and spaceships are even ready?
As Andy Aldrin said one researcher put it, we’re not really sending a spacecraft to Mars. “We’re even not sending a person to Mars,” he said. “Ultimately, you’re sending a 6-pound brain.”
Like tests of new technology, studies of behavior and team dynamics are about reducing risks on dangerous and expensive deep space missions.
“Interpersonal implosions are a low probability but hugely problematic if they do happen,” Wildman said. “The goal is to select and train crews so that maybe you never have the problem.” The crews selected for a Mars mission will be extraordinary, said Wheeler, the plant physiologist. “But anything you can do to keep their well-being and performance factors at a higher level, I think is critical,” he said.
Scientists and mission planners today rely on a variety of analogs, or simulated missions like HI-SEAS, to learn what issues are likely to arise and how to mitigate them.
At HI-SEAS, one of the best analogs available on the ground, Bedwell said even crews who were glad their missions were over remained optimistic about the prospects for one day exploring Mars.
“Almost all of them say, ‘Absolutely, I’d go tomorrow,’ ” she said. “So even though it was difficult, the benefits far outweighed anything they experienced.”
SOURCE: USA Today
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MARS
Sept 30, 2017 22:51:35 GMT -6
Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2017 22:51:35 GMT -6
I've never been as intrigued with Mars as I am Phobos..I think there is old technology there. Mars..is so ancient..and so sterile now. I feel sad when I think of Mars for some reason..very sad.
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MARS
Oct 1, 2017 9:11:21 GMT -6
Post by swamprat on Oct 1, 2017 9:11:21 GMT -6
"I feel sad when I think of Mars for some reason..very sad."
Me too, Jo. I wonder what happened there a long time ago?
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MARS
Oct 1, 2017 10:37:53 GMT -6
Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2017 10:37:53 GMT -6
Something that took long enough for them to know it was happening. Not boom gone. Like the grief of billions still hangs in the space around the place.
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MARS
Oct 1, 2017 20:20:11 GMT -6
Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2017 20:20:11 GMT -6
I suspect Phobos or rather not Phobos but Phobos 2 has a secret.
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