What Landing On Mars Again Can Teach Us, Again

from the humanity-pep-talk dept

It seems I'm always writing about Section 230 or copyright or some sort of regulatory effort driven by antipathy toward technology. But one of my favorite posts I've ever written here is this one, "We Interrupt All The Hating On Technology To Remind Everyone We Just Landed On Mars." Given that we just landed on Mars again it seems a good time to revisit it, because it seems no less important today than it was in 2018 when I originally wrote it. Just as it seems no less important that we just landed on Mars again. In fact, it all may matter even more now.

Today we find ourselves even more mired in a world full of technological nihilism. It has become a well-honed reflex: if it involves technology, it must be bad. And in the wake of this prevailing distrust we've developed a political culture that is, at best, indifferent to innovation if not often downright eager to stamp it out.

It's a poisonous attitude that threatens to trap us in our currently imperfect world, with no way to solve our way out of our problems. But recognizing what an amazing achievement it was to successfully land on Mars can work as an antidote, in at least two important ways:

First, it can remind us of what wonder feels like. To dream the most fantastic dreams, and then to go make those dreams happen. Mankind hasn't gazed at the stars in ambivalence; the heavens have been one of our greatest sources of inspiration throughout the ages. That we have now managed, for the first time in the history of human civilization, to put another planet within our grasp should not extinguish that wonder, with a glib "been there, done that" shrug. Rather, it is a cause for enormous celebration and should do nothing but inspire us to keep dreaming, next time even bigger.

Because if there's one thing this landing teaches us, apart from the tangible fruits of our exploration, it is to believe in ourselves. Our failures and disappointments here on Earth are serious indeed. But what this success demonstrates is that we can overcome what was once thought impossible. It may take diligence, hard work, and faithful adherence to science. And our human imperfections can sometimes make it hard to manage these things.

But landing on Mars reminds us that we can and provides us with an amazing example of how.

Filed Under: innovation, landing, mars, technology

We Interrupt All The Hating On Technology To Remind Everyone We Just Landed On Mars

from the inspiring dept

It was hardly more than 100 years ago that human beings figured out powered flight. Barely 80 since flight became jet-powered, 70 since it broke the sound barrier, and 60 since we mastered jet flight sufficiently for ordinary commercial use. It was also not even 60 years ago that we figured out how to send human beings into space, and not even 50 since we put them on the moon. These time periods hardly span geological epochs; they can be measured by a lifetime.

For those whose consciousness developed after these tectonic shifts in the development of human civilization, it can be easy to forget that mankind spent vastly more of its existence not being remotely able to succeed at any of these things than being able to do them all. It can be easy to lose sight of what a triumph each leap is when today they all seem so ordinary. We take it for granted that we can board a metal tube and just a few hours later end up a continent away. We become glib about putting people in space when we have them sitting up there 24/7. And the moon, that celestial body that from the dawn of man has been the object of every dream, has long faded into the rearview mirror. Been there, done that, we think, as the knowledge that it is within our grasp slowly extinguishes the wonder that used to fuel our drive to seek the impossible.

Fortunately space is full of other frontiers to tantalize us. And Mars is one of them. Orbiting our solar system between 35 and 250 million miles away from Earth (depending on our respective orbital positions), barely visible to the naked eye, and full of even more mystery than our much more proximate moon (which is less than 240,000 miles away), it passes through the heavens flashing its enticing red glow like a bullfighter to his charges. And so, like moth to flame, we go.

But it hasn't been easy. We didn't get close to Mars until the 1960s, or get any sort of good look until the 1970s. And it wasn't until the 1990s that we finally got to touch it with tools we created as stand-ins for ourselves. But even as some Mars exploration missions succeeded, most have ended prematurely, or failed altogether. Even though in the intervening twenty years since our first lander we've managed to send several more robotic extensions of ourselves, which in turn have sent us back enormous amounts of data teaching us about this place so difficult to know, every time we come up with some new apparatus to help move our still-limited knowledge of Mars forward, we still face the same nearly insurmountable problem: how do we manage to get this highly sophisticated piece of equipment to this incredibly far off place?

Yesterday, we got it right. Yesterday, we threaded this near-impossible needle and successfully landed the InSight Lander exactly where we wanted it. But this perfect arrival obscures what a tremendous accomplishment it represents. As The Oatmeal illustrated earlier this month, there were a zillion possible points of failure that we had to get perfectly right. We had to pick a spot to land. We had to pick a day to launch to hit that spot. We had to pick a place to launch from. We had to calculate where Mars would be by the time it got there. We had to fly it across 300,000,000 miles of space to get there. We had to get it to arrive at the correct 12 degree angle. We had to get it to survive the heat of atmospheric entry. We had to get it to successfully deploy a special "super-sonic parachute" at exactly the right time. We then had to get it to successfully detach from the heat shield, deploy some landing legs, and fall from its protective shell. And then, with the same impeccable timing, we had to get it to fire some retro-rockets to control its continued descent. And we had to perfectly anticipate every instruction for every task in programming baked into our robotic scout months and months before that program would ever be run. Programming error, mechanical error, or any other human error all could have doomed the mission. And yet none did. It has some more to do to prepare for all of its experiments (deploy instruments, etc.) but InSight now stands ready, on Mars, to continue teaching us about our mysterious planetary neighbor.

It is a moment worth celebrating. We spend so much time lamenting technology, often regarding human innovation as some sort of disease to be cured of, that we lose our ability to marvel over just what we've accomplished as a species. To see those first pictures beamed back to our home planet today from another elsewhere in the solar system because we figured out how to is like looking at something of unspeakable beauty. Not just in the view itself but in the momentous human achievement we are privileged to see unfold before our eyes.

Filed Under: advancement, innovation, insight, mars, nasa, technology

DailyDirt: Racing Into Space Again...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

After the Cold War ended, the space race enthusiasm evaporated as the funding for ambitious projects to explore space dried up. Launching dozens of satellites into space to form communications networks was (and still is) a risky business -- with a lot of upfront costs and a lot of equipment that's nearly obsolete by the time it reaches orbit. But it's becoming a bit cheaper to get stuff into space, and maybe we're seeing a bit more of a commercial space race. Check out a few of these space-bound projects.

• NASA recently tested its Space Launch System (SLS) engine that will send an uncrewed Orion capsule beyond the orbit of the moon in 2018 (assuming no delays). Someday, NASA's SLS could take people to Mars, but there are still some engineering challenges to solve before that actually happens.
• Tom Markusic, the founder of the small satellite venture, Firefly Space Systems, wants to clean up the artificial space junk in geo-stationary orbit and recycle it for future moon and mars missions. Markusic proposes using solar electric propulsion-powered space tugs to push old satellites to potential staging bases for human colonies on mars.
• Vector Space Systems is a space vehicle startup just getting off the ground, aiming to put small satellites into low earth orbit -- at a price of 45 kilograms for a $2-3 million. The company plans to have commercial launches ready in 2018, targeting very small satellites that normally go up as secondary payloads on larger launch systems. Smaller payloads with their own dedicated launches won't be subject to the delays or requirements of other payloads, and Vector's launch vehicle claims that its missions could be ready to go within a relatively short 3-month window.
• Russia's new space port at Vostochny has had some delays, but it seems to be up and running. However, the mis-management of this cosmodrome has caught the attention of president Putin who warned that some of the senior managers involved in an embezzlement scheme could go to jail for a few years. The description of the first launch with a visit from Putin sounds a bit like a scene from Return of the Jedi.

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Filed Under: cosmodrome, iridium, mars, satellites, sls, space, space exploration, space launch system, space port, tom markusic
Companies: firefly space systems, nasa, vector space systems

DailyDirt: Moonshot 2.0

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

It's been a while since anyone has proposed and executed a plan as 'out there' as going to the moon in less than a decade. Sure, we have computers that can beat humans at Go, and we're on the cusp of using CRISPR for some amazing genetic modifications. However, we haven't really been serious about getting people off the planet -- and onto another planet -- for quite some time. Here are just a few moonshot-like projects for getting stuff into space, and perhaps making baby steps toward becoming a Type II civilization.

• A California startup, Moon Express, is almost ready to get approval for landing a 20-pound spacecraft on the moon in 2017. This company is navigating both the rocket science engineering challenge AND the daunting regulatory approval process at the same time, and it's also competing in Google's Lunar X Prize contest for $20 million. [url]
• A space elevator made from carbon nanotubes (CNTs) might not be practical because CNTs aren't as strong as previously thought. A single flaw in the structure of CNTs can reduce the material's maximum strength, rendering a CNT tether far from ideal for a space elevator. [url]
• If everything goes according to plan, Elon Musk's SpaceX will land human beings on Mars in less than a decade. That's an extremely bold goal that goes well beyond JFK's moonshot in the 1960s -- and regular cargo trips to Mars could happen every couple years or so to prepare for this venture. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Filed Under: carbon nanotubes, cnt, manned missions, mars, moonshot, space, space elevator, space exploration
Companies: moon express, spacex

DailyDirt: A Mars Mission By 2018?!

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Space exploration is gradually becoming cheaper and more reliable. Reusable rockets haven't proven to be economical yet, but presumably, they will be. Robot missions that roll around on the surface of other worlds have been shown to be very effective, if a bit slow, and bigger and better robots are probably going to be sent to more and more objects in space. However, people are still dreaming of colonizing the moon or Mars -- and it looks like there has been some progress to be able to do so.

• SpaceX has always had a goal of reaching Mars, but it's saying it'll make an actual attempt in 2018. Its Red Dragon program isn't going to have a crew (the problem of shielding astronauts from deep space radiation hasn't been solved yet), but carrying cargo to our neighboring red planet and collecting data on the journey is a reasonable preliminary step for Elon Musk's vision for colonizing Mars. [url]
• Apparently, two species of fungi originally from Antarctica can survive under Mars-like conditions on the International Space Station for at least 18 months. The fungi Cryomyces antarcticus and Cryomyces minteri are microorganisms that seem to be resistant to extreme UV radiation, cold temperatures and low pressure atmospheric environments -- just the kind of life we might be looking for on Mars if it already exists there. [url]
• NASA is reaching out to the public for ideas on building habitat modules for living in deep space. NASA's Orion spacecraft isn't likely to reach Mars with a crew in the next decade, but NASA will need all the help it can get to design a manned mission that can survive for months in deep space. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Filed Under: astronauts, deep space, fungi, iss, manned missions, mars, orion, red dragon, space, space exploration, spacecraft
Companies: nasa, spacex

DailyDirt: How Will Anyone Get To Mars?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Traveling to mars is going to be a really, really long term project. We had some fun on the moon and drove around up there in a nifty moon buggy, but we didn't have a commitment to stay there for very long -- or even plans to keep going there once we knew it could be done. Getting astronauts to mars requires a completely different level of planning than going to the moon. Current technology won't get us there (well, at least not alive and healthy), but maybe we're still making some progress with a few untested propulsion systems.

• Russia's national nuclear company Rosatom could build a nuclear-powered engine to get to mars in 90 days -- if it had the funding. The technology was first developed in the 1960s, but no one has really continued to work on various kinds of nuclear-powered propulsion for manned spacecraft (hmm, wonder why..?). Launching radioactive materials on a ship that might not make it into outer space could end in a spectacular disaster, but maybe if someone could build it in space from several small payloads of fissionable material? (Or better yet, build it from fissionable materials already in space....) [url]
• It's possible to send something to mars in just 30 minutes with a (proposed) laser propulsion system. Chemical rockets to mars will take months, but using photonic propulsion could accelerate a small (lightweight, perhaps wafer-thing) object to very high speeds. One catch would be that there wouldn't really be a way to slow it down, unless there was a decelerating laser on the other side. [url]
• It's not beyond the imagination to think that people might someday be able to move asteroids around at will. Getting more water to mars by sending an icy asteroid there might be possible someday, and if we're able to do that we might as well hitch a ride on it. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Filed Under: astronauts, fission, laser propulsion, lightsail, manned missions, mars, nuclear energy, propulsion, rockets, space, space exploration, spacecraft
Companies: nasa, rosatom

DailyDirt: Making A Trip To Mars

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

It's been decades since a human being has traveled beyond low earth orbit. Last year, NASA tested its human-rated Space Launch System to an altitude of 3,600 miles, but getting people to a "human accessible surface" that isn't part of the earth is going to take some time. China could have a taikonaut on the moon before 2030. NASA can say it's "been there, done that" -- but when will it be able to top a manned lunar landing?

• NASA is working on its (potentially Mars-bound) spacecraft, Orion -- to get astronauts deeper into space. At the same time, NASA is also developing its Space Launch System (SLS) that will get Orion beyond low earth orbit, and if everything goes as planned the first manned crews will be taking off in 2023. [url]
• It might make sense to create a moon base as a pit stop before launching manned missions to more distant locations like Mars. If we can mine the moon for resources, that could reduce the expense of sending everything from the earth. However, it'll take a bit longer to figure out how to process and manufacture anything on the moon, especially if it's going to be done autonomously somehow. [url]
• NASA's 2013 class of astronauts are being trained to possibly go to Mars. There are only 8 of these astronauts (and 4 of them are women), and presumably, their training on vomit comets will be pretty intense. [url]
• Making a trip to Mars in the near future is going to be expensive and probably controversial. Arguably, billions of dollars could be better spent to solve problems on Earth, and Mars is going to be around for quite some time. Still, it doesn't hurt to make some goals and try to scope out potential landing sites on the red planet, does it? [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Filed Under: astronauts, human accessible surface, leo, lunar base, manned missions, mars, moon, orion, sls, space, space exploration, space race, taikonauts, vomit comet
Companies: nasa

DailyDirt: Government Space Programs On Shoestring Budgets

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

A renewed interest in space technology is growing with re-usable rockets and more private companies getting into the space business. Rocket science is generally a pretty expensive and risky venture because there are just so many things that could go wrong. Still, there are a few space agencies accomplishing significant space missions on relatively small budgets, and we should probably expect amateur space programs to get better and better as the costs to get to space come down.

• In Ghana, the All Nations University College (ANUC) is developing a fledgling space program with plans to send a cubesat into orbit by 2018. The University of Natural Resources and Energy in Ghana is planning to launch a weather satellite in September 2016, and the Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI) has other ambitious plans to send a satellite into space by 2020, too. While Ghana's economy is still mostly dependent on agriculture, these space programs could help farmers and the government plan better and help to preserve the nation's environment. [url]
• Russia is working with countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran on joint space programs for peaceful exploration. Roscosmos (the Russian Federal Space Agency) is helping these countries train their own cosmonauts and build satellites, presumably in exchange for funding that the Russian space agency might need to continue building its own independent space station by 2023. [url]
• India's Mars Orbiter Mission was an impressive success in 2014 -- achieved with a fraction of the budget of other Mars missions. India put an artificial satellite named Mangalyaan in orbit around Mars for just $74 million -- less than the cost to make the fictional movie Gravity (and less than India receives in foreign aid from the UK). The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is only the 4th space agency behind the US, Russia and the EU to have completed a successful Mars space mission, and the entire mission took less than a year to execute from approval to launch. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Filed Under: all nations university college, ghana space science and technology institute, indian space research organization, isro, mangalyaan, mars, mars orbiter mission, roscosmos, satellites, space, space exploration

DailyDirt: If People Were Meant To Fly In Space...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

When the Soviets launched Sputnik 1 in 1957, the US launched a satellite and put together its own space agency less than a year later. In the past week, NASA has commemorated the loss of its astronauts in the Challenger and Columbia disasters, as well as the men who died in Apollo 1. There's a new generation of kids who have only seen SpaceX and Soyuz take stuff into low earth orbit (plus maybe a successful Orion test) -- and a few other private companies reaching the edge of space. Robots have been doing an excellent job of exploring mars and other destinations in our solar system, but we shouldn't forget about manned space exploration entirely.

• The Columbia space shuttle disaster might have been averted with a second space shuttle launch to dock with it and rescue the astronauts. A rescue mission would have involved a complex space walk and several unknown risks, but plans were drawn up -- and that's why subsequent shuttle launches had a second shuttle on standby. (But the rescuing shuttle would still have the same problem of a potentially damaged wing, too...) [url]
• The Challenger explosion was predicted by a handful of NASA engineers who argued against launching the shuttle because they had data that indicated the o-rings wouldn't seal properly under the cold weather conditions. Bob Ebeling still blames himself, but hindsight is always clearer -- and it wasn't Ebeling's decision to launch. [url]
• NASA has lost 24 pilots and astronauts in space launches and test flights. Manned space exploration is still a NASA priority, and spaceflight will always be an inherently risky venture -- especially as it pushes technology to ever more distant places. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, if you want to support NASA unconditionally, print out this form and send your money... into space.

Filed Under: apollo, bob ebeling, manned missions, mars, soyez, space, space exploration, space shuttle
Companies: nasa