Not a whole lot after all?

A few months ago there was great excitement when a number of mysterious dark features were discovered on the surface of Mars. It very much looked like these might be cavernous entrances to underground caves, but a new image shot from a different angle has unfortunately demolished this theory. It looks like rather than caves, these features are pits. The newest image, with the sun shining from the west, shows the side of the pit, allowing geologists to make a good guess at the true size and nature of the feature, which it must be said, is still pretty impressive.

From the shadow of the rim cast onto the wall of the pit, it seems it is at least 78 meters (255 feet) deep and 150 x 157 meters (492 x 515 feet) across. Something similar has been observed here on earth, where pits form on volcanoes in Hawaii. These "pit craters" generally do not connect to long open caverns but are the result of deep underground collapse.

A shame then that the secret entrances to a long lost Martian civilisation have not been discovered, but a good lesson that it's worth waiting for the Fat Martian to sing before jumping to conclusions.

Going where no Gerbil has gone before

10 Gerbils have been blasted into space for a 12-day mission to test the possible effects on humans of a flight to Mars. The Gerbils were launched from Kazakhstan on Friday 14th September aboard a Foton-M spaceship. The mission will study the physiological and biological effects of long-term flights. The 10 are all sand rodents, praised as "a very interesting object for research" because they "can live for more than a month without using liquids," said Anatoly Grogoryev of the Russian Academy of Science. Day and night will be simulated aboard the spacecraft and the tiny cosmonauts filmed throughout their mission. Unfortunately it will not be a happy ending for all the Gerbils, as several will be dissected on their return to earth. You can't help wishing for a malfunction, and the poor little things go off course and fetch up on a nice little tropical island.

Mars had 40 ice ages

Norbert Schörghofer of the University of Hawaii at Manoa has proposed a new Martian climate theory, which suggests the planet has gone through at least 40 ice ages during the past five million years. These regularly send the planet's permanent ice sheets toward the equator before melting backward. These cyclical fluctuations are likely caused by shifts in the planet's orbit that alter the amount of sunlight reaching the planet's surface. The large volumes of ice found across the planet has puzzled scientists, with the prevailing theory being that the ice was laid down some 5 million years previously as snowfalls, but explaining how the ice water has survived so long has proven difficult. Schörghofer's theory explains the presence of the ice by suggesting it was laid down much later than thought, some perhaps only half a million years ago. National Geographic has the full story.

Opportunity begins Victoria descent

After an initial cautious probe a few days ago to check for wheel slippage, mission controllers have now committed the Opportunity rover to a full exploration of the large Victoria crater. Opportunity re-entered the crater during the rover's 1,293rd Martian day, or sol, (Sept. 13, 2007) to begin a weeks-long exploration of the inner slope. John Callas, the Mars rover project manager has described the exposed rock features in Victoria as like a bathtub ring, with hopes high that the impact which caused the crater will have exposed million year old geological evidence. Opportunity is now about 20 feet (6 meters) inside the rim, with the aim being to reach a layer of light-coloured rock exposed along the crater's inner slope within about a week. The total mission time within the crater is scheduled to last 3 months.

Opportunity scouts Victoria crater

With the dust storms that threatened the Opportunity and Spirit rovers now abated sufficiently to resume operations, the Opportunity rover has taken a first cautious drive into Victoria crater. The crater, measuring approximately one half-mile across and about 200 to 230 feet (70 meters) deep has been a top target for the rover for quite some time. Within the crater, about 40 feet (12.2 meters) below the rim, is a bright band of rocks that is intriguing scientists and which they hope will provide another revealing glimpse into the history of the planet. But this may be a one-way trip for the rover. Once in, it may not be able to get back out again, though there is plenty to explore inside the crater. Opportunity did not drive all the way in on this occasion, but far enough in -- about four meters (13 feet) -- to get all six wheels past the crater rim. Then it backed uphill for about three meters (10 feet). Commands were relayed to the rover to stop driving if the wheels suffered more than 40% slippage. This did indeed happen, so the rover automatically stopped and it is now perched on the rim with just the front wheels over the edge. Mission scientists will now examine the telemetry received back and plan how best to get Opportunity all the way safely.

Rovers are roving again

After many weeks of frustrating inactivity, the Spirit and Opportunity rovers have begun to tentatively wake from a slumber imposed by Mission Control to conserve energy while a planet wide dust storm raged. The storm is now showing some signs of abating, Opportunity is receiving some 230-240 watt hours of energy, while Spirit is getting 313 watt-hours of energy per day and has already made a short 42 centimetre drive. Spirit is now expected to begin the drive to Home Plate, an interesting geological feature that geologists believe may be the remains of a volcano. Opportunity meanwhile is poised to begin the long delayed descent into Victoria crater, a move that may well signal the end for the plucky little robot, as it may well not be able to climb back out again. Spirit is suffering from a layer of dust on the lens of the camera mounted on the end of the rover’s robotic arm and various options are under discussion to try and shake it off. In order to avoid the same problem occurring with Opportunity, the mission controllers are delaying opening the dust cover for now. The solar panels on both rovers may also become impacted by dust, as it begins to settle as the storm dies down, but it is hoped that gusts of wind that have previously helped cleanse the cameras may come to the rescue again.

Canada gears up for Mars

A consortium of Canadian universities is planning to send a lander to Mars in 2009. At just $20 million dollars, the mission is going to cost a fraction of the recently launched Phoenix mission. Though the Northern Light robot will weigh a petite 35 kilograms, far less than Phoenix, it is expected to carry a varied range of instruments, such as a spectrometer, seismic and environmental sensors, plus a rover named Beaver with a 1km range. The rover will also come equipped with a number of useful instruments, including a ground-penetrating radar and a rock grinder. The mission is not government sponsored, but hopes to raise the $20 million needed via private contributions and sponsorship. Costs will be kept low by using an off the shelf launch system, such as the Russian Rockot system, which is made from converted Soviet era ballistic missiles. More info can be found at the Northern Light website.

Mars Phoenix Mission lifts off

NASA has successfully launched the Mars Phoenix lander from Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop a Delta II rocket. It was a textbook lift-off, brilliantly lighting up the night sky. The launch was delayed from Friday because of bad weather, but the rescheduled launch in the early hours of the morning went smoothly. Unlike the Spirit and Opportunity missions presently on Mars, Phoenix is not mobile, but the lander carries with it a 2.4m (7.5ft) robotic arm that will dig into the Martian polar region surface in search of complex carbon-based chemicals (organics) in the soil that could provide tell-tale signs of life.

Mars invades in boxes

August seems to be the silly season for Mars as inboxes fill with a perennial hoax e-mail that arrives at about this time every year. The mail tells readers that Mars is due to an incredibly close approach, so close in fact that it will appear as it the Earth has two moons in the sky. The story seems to have originated from the genuine close approach of August 2003, when the planet came within 35 million miles of us. By no stretch of the imagination did it appear as large as our own moon, but it was some 6 times large than normal and 85 times brighter. From this has sprung the hoax mail, which somehow re-emerges every year no matter where Mars is in the firmament. Alas, to get anything like a repeat of the 2003 show, you’ll have to wait for 2018, though it won’t actually be until 2287 that we’ll get an approach as close again.

Rovers in peril

The Opportunity and Spirit rovers are facing the most serious threat yet encountered on their 3 year sojourns on Mars, with a massive dust storm reducing power levels to their lowest ever levels. Opportunity is the worst effected of the two rovers, with direct sunlight levels to its solar panels reduced by up to 99% in the last few days. Mission scientists have been scaling back science operations for both Rovers, switching off instruments and basically hunkering the machines down in the hope that they can survive. The biggest problem is that they can't simply switch the rovers off and on again after the storm clears. A minimum amount of power is required to run heaters that keep vital core electronics from becoming too cold and Opportunity is coming perilously close to the point where it will not be able to cope. Power levels dipped on Wednesday 18th to an unprecedented 128 watt hours, prompting scientists to take the extraordinary action of suspending some of the regular communication sessions with the Rover, a contingency that has never been enacted before.

Planting the seed of an idea for a green Mars

With an eye to the eventual greening of Mars, Scientists in Mexico are examining Pine trees living on the side of a volcano to see how they cope with the adverse conditions. The snow-capped Pico de Orizaba is not only a dormant volcano but also Mexico's tallest mountain, so the Trees that cling to the side are a hardy breed. Learning how they survive may give clues as to how to one day cultivate plants on Mars, but first we'll need to warm the planet up. Scientist Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez of Mexico City's UNAM University thinks the idea is not necessarily the stuff of science fiction. Global warming here on Earth gives a clue to the process required. If we can introduce highly insulating gases like methane or nitrous oxide in sufficient volume, we could heat Mars. If we can raise the temperature to 41 degrees Fahrenheit from the present minus 67 F, this would match temperatures where trees grow at 13,780 feet on Pico de Orizaba. NASA scientist Chris McKay believes we might see Trees on Mars within 100 years, and sees them as a vital component of any terraforming effort, since Trees are the major "engines of the biosphere."

Opportunity descent into Victoria delayed

Fears that a growing dust storm on Mars will deplete power to the Opportunity rover have caused mission planners to delay by a few days the descent into Victoria crater. Opportunity has been surveying the edge of the crater for months, looking for a safe place to begin the perilous descent, but with dust cutting nearly half the available power to the rover, (from 765 watt-hours to 402 watt-hours per day) the decision has been taken to keep the rover in sleep mode as much as possible, with a tentative date of July 13th pencilled in for a full resumption of the mission. The storm has been growing since June, and while mission scientists remain confident that it will abate and be no threat to Opportunity and Spirit, there is some concern that the storm may go global. Such storms are not uncommon, seeming to follow a rough pattern of occurring every 6 years. The last global storm was in 2001, so the planet is due one.

Mars drier than thought, but glass still half full

An ancient Mars of rolling oceans is an image pregnant with implications and one that has gained a lot of currency amongst researchers in recent years, but it is good to be occasionally reminded that this is just a theory, and there are plenty of other ways of interpreting the evidence. New Scientist magazine is reporting this week that results from Mars Express cast some doubt on the idea that Mars was once a very wet environment, because it appears to have lacked the necessary carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere to make this possible. Since the sunlight reaching Mars is 25% less than that on Earth, a very effective greenhouse effect powered by large concentrations of CO2 would have been needed to generate a warm thick atmosphere, 80% more than is experienced on Earth. Analysis of clays, or phyllosilicates, found on the planet by the OMEGA spectrometer on Mars Express seems to indicate that the presence of these clays rules out a large amount of CO2 in the atmosphere since this would have prohibited their formation. Methane, which can also act as a greenhouse gas has been proposed as an alternative driver of a greenhouse effect, but Methane in any significant volume would need an extremely active biosphere, and while it is nice to imagination a tropical Mars in the past, this does not seem very likely. Intriguingly, another alternative has it that large meteor impacts may have caused very brief flurries of wet activity on Mars, in the order of a few thousand years at a time. The question then arises, would a few thousand years of rain (even repeated multiple times) have been sufficient to carve out the river valley like features seen on Mars. Read the article at New Scientist.

Dust storm threatens rovers

A powerful new dust storm is developing on Mars and may threaten the safety of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. The storm is thought to now be several thousand miles in diameter and is some 560 miles (900 KM) east of Opportunity, which is presently working at Meridiani Planum. The fear is that the storm will become global in nature, as last happened in October 2001, when a giant storm blanketed the entire planet in an impenetrable gloom. Ironically, high winds have been the saviour of the rovers before, as dust accumulating on their solar panels appears to have been blown off, restoring power that had been steadily in decline. The storm is not yet big enough to worry mission planners unduly, but a press conference called for Thursday will discuss the possibility that a planned drive by Opportunity into the massive Victoria Crater may be cancelled.

Martian tilt may explain lost ocean

When the Viking spacecraft arrived over Mars in the 1970's they saw what appeared to be the ancient shorelines of a long dead Martian ocean, but this theory was largely discredited bv the later Mars Global Surveyor mission of the 1990's. The far more sensitive Mars Global Surveyor imaged the surface to a resolution of a few hundred metres, and that seemed to prove that the opposite shores of the "ocean" varied in elevation by several kilometres, making for a very unusual ocean indeed, in fact an ocean that simply could not have existed. Until now this is the view that has prevailed, but scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Toronto and the Carnegie Institution in Washington have now re-accessed the data, and their startling conclusion once again puts an ocean on Mars, and a very deep one at that. The scientists have changed their mind because a new theory suggests that Mars has undergone some major upheavals, at the heart of which is an exotic event called true polar wander, a process in which the very poles of the planet shifted, resulting in massive deformation of the surface. If this is the case, then those improbable shorelines may indeed be the edges of an ancient ocean, one that once covered an entire hemisphere of the planet to a depth of several kilometres. If that is the case, then the next question to answer is, where did all the water go? The Independent Newspaper has an excellent indepth article on the new theory.

ESA opts for big Mars mission

In a further sign of the importance national space agencies are assigning to exploration of the red planet, the ESA has moved a step further forward approving a much enhanced vision for the 2013 ExoMars mission. The proposed upgrade would see a 205kg robot lift off on a heavy-lift rocket such as an Ariane 5 or a Proton. The probe would carry a 16.5kg instrument package, including a weather station (or Geophysics/Environment Package - GEP) but a request to include an orbiting communications platform was not approved. This means that ExoMars will be reliant on aging American hardware already in orbit about Mars. The project teams now have the go-ahead to refine the concept over the coming months, though the final design may still be subject be rejection when it comes up for final review in a years time. More information can be found on the BBC website.

ESA air bags demonstrates less bounce

In an important step toward a European mission to Mars, scientists have successfully tested a new kind of air bag landing system that they believe could bring the proposed ExoMars mission to a much speedier and safer stop than previous designs. The American Spirit and Opportunity rovers presently on Mars used airbag technology, but the method employed required the landers survive up to 25 bounces and travel some 200 metres before coming to a standstill. The ESA design, known as a vented, or dead-beat system, uses sensors to deflate the squashable bags on touchdown, reducing the bounce factor and meaning that the payload can be delivered right side up. There is still a lot of testing to be done, but if successful, the bags will also mean a significant weight saving, leaving more room for the science payload. The BBC website has an extensive story.

Storm in a puddle growing on Mars

The prestigious publication New Scientist magazine is reporting on controversial findings that open water was found on the surface of Mars two years ago. Open water should not be possible on Mars due to the harsh surface conditions, (though very strong photographic evidence has been found for occasional small flash floods) so if true, this is a real bombshell. Physicist and Lockheed engineer Ron Levin has looked at images returned several years ago by the Opportunity Rover while it was exploring a crater called Endurance. Creating stereoscopic reconstructions from paired images from the rover's twin cameras, he seems to have found some compelling evidence. The picture shows a one metre square area with a distinctly bluish tint, and indeed it looks just as you would imagine water would look if it were puddling in low depressions in the ground. It is also free of dust and other detritus, suggesting that if it is water or ice, it formed recently. Levin has previously theorised that water might exist briefly on the surface in a regular daily cycle, evaporating away as the day progresses. This however is a very contentious theory, as it would require some very precise circumstances to come about. It is worth mentioning that Levin's father Gilbert Levin was one of the scientists on the old Viking missions to Mars, which found no official evidence for life, though both father and son have been vigorous proponents of the idea that the scientific instruments on Viking did find life, but the results were incorrectly interpreted. I mention this because Levin may well have an axe to grind here, and just as conspiracy theorists are constantly finding signs of an ancient civilisation on Mars, this may be a case of the eye seeing what the mind wants it to see. However, it is equally fair to say that the picture is compelling, so here is hoping that NASA is open minded enough to take a look at this, and have Spirit and Opportunity keep their cameras trained for further examples. As Levin has pointed out, it only requires that they poke the surface with the Rover’s drilling tool to test out his theory. If it’s water, then the drill will make no visible impression. If it’s anything else, it will leave a mark.

ESA Mars rover talks inconclusive

The ExoMars mission to Mars has been the subject of intense discussion over the last few days, as European Space Agency delegates attempt to finalise the design for the ambitious probe. At the heart of the discussion is the proposal by mission scientists to beef up the mission in order to address several worries they have. The most costly change is the request to send a combined orbiter and lander configuration, a proposal driven by several imperatives. For one thing, scientists are concerned that without an orbiter to relay data back to Earth, the ExoMars mission will be relying on American orbiting hardware for the crucial link home, and another failure such as recently befell Mars Global Surveyor would be catastrophic. Equally concerning, a recent change to the launch date from 2011 to December 2013 now means ExoMars would arrive in 2014, at a time of increased dust storm activity. Without an orbiter to wait out the storms, the lander would have to risk a perilous descent in these conditions. These changes mean a far bigger payload requiring a more powerful launch vehicle. That all adds up to substantial cost increases, and that means the member nations of the ESA will have to dig a lot deeper into their pockets to fund it. The worry is that some ESA members may decide to cut and run, threatening the entire project, which is a key plank of highly ambitious European plans to explore and eventually return material from Mars. The discussions to date appear to be veering toward acceptance of the more expensive option, but a final decision has been deferred to a later meeting on June 11th.

Spirit digs up more evidence for water

It was an entirely accidental event, but when a gummed up wheel on the Spirit rover scuffed up some Martian dirt it revealed something that literally had NASA scientists gasping with amazement. Beneath the regular dirty red Martian earth was a layer of intensely bright material, which analysis revealed to be extremely high in silica, so much in fact (90 percent) that it almost certainly required water to produce. One possible origin for the silica may have been volcanic activity, with the silica brought about through the interaction of water, the soil, and acid vapours from the volcano. The material could also have formed in water in a hot spring environment. Either way, it offers yet more compelling evidence for a high water presence on Mars in the past, and that can only increase speculation that Mars may once have enjoyed an environment much closer to Earth than it does today.

Garden from Mars wins at Chelsea

The Chelsea Flower Show is an institution in Britain amongst dedicated gardeners. For one week in May, the cream of the countries garden designers descend on London to show off their skills, but this year something a little odder has landed. "600 Days with Bradstone" is the title of a garden designed by Sarah Eberle for a 600 day stay on Mars, and it's scooped the top Gold award for 2007 and "best in show." Sitting beneath an imaginary dome, the garden is divided into two distinct parts. At one end of the garden is a section designed to draw water from the Martian permafrost; at the other a section designed with the mental well being of the astronauts in mind. The design of the garden has been closely modelled on Mars, and even the plants have been picked for their likely survival properties in the harsh Martian environment. Alas all the tickets are gone, but for more detail on the winning garden, you can visit the website of the Royal British Horticultural Society or take a look at the official 600 days with Bradstone website.

Big bang makes splat on Mars

The Spirit rover, incredibly still working on Mars over 1000 days after its arrival, has made another important discovery, spotting what appears to be a "bomb sag." This may not sound terribly interesting, but to a geologist, this is heady stuff. A bomb sag is a kind of material formed in volcanic explosions on Earth. Rock is ejected up by the explosion and then falls into soft deposits, deforming as it lands. Spirit has snapped just such an object, preserved in layered rocks on the lower slopes of a plateau called Home Plate. Also spotted by Spirit are signs in the surrounding rock of of tiny spherical particles that look like accretionary lapilli. These are coagulated bits of ash that typically rain down after a volcanic explosion, so the evidence suggests that this was a genuine volcanic explosion, rather than the fallout from a meteor strike. What has the scientists interested is that they are seeing lots of evidence from photographs snapped from orbit that this sort of feature is very common, so it looks like Mars had a very violent past. Additional evidence places water at the scene as well. There is for instance a great deal of chlorine evident, which points toward the presence of a briny fluid, and it looks like the bomb sag landed with a splat. The fact that the material it sits on is basalt is also telling. Basalt is not normally associated with explosions, except when it meets water and you then get a steam-driven blast.

Phoenix Mars Lander arrives at Kennedy Space Centre

The August launch of the Phoenix Mars Lander has taken another important step forward with the arrival of the craft at the Kennedy Space Centre, where it will be prepared for a launch on August 3rd. The Phoenix lander is the latest in a series of probes built on the mantra of "follow the water." Equipped with a robotic digging tool, it is hoped the probe will touch down on a Martian ice plain, but at a time of year when the ice will have receded sufficiently so as to have revealed fresh soil. The probe comes equipped with a number of scientific instruments that may solve one of the big mysteries of mars; what happened to all the water scientists think the planet was once blessed with. Amongst the experiments planned, soil will be dissolved to look for salt deposited in ancient floods and an oven will be used to break down samples for chemical analysis. The mission is planned to last 3 months, but on past experience, there is every chance the lander may last longer.

MoonTwins mission paves way to Mars

Aerospace company Astrium is working at the request of the European Space Agency on a two probe mission to the Moon, and is being promoted as a proving flight for technologies required for a Mars sample return mission. The MoonTwins mission (Moon Technological Walk-through and In-situ Network Science) would be launched together on the same rocket, but split up in Earth orbit for independent travel to the Moon. Once in lunar orbit, the probes would first practice linking up (a crucial part of any mission to retrieve material from Mars) and then descend seperately to the surface. One of the probes would likely be targeted for the so called Peak of Eternal Light, close to the rim of Shackleton crater. This is thought of as an excellent potential target for human settlement due to its near continuous exposure to sunlight, important for power generation. More detail on this story can be found at the bbc.

Fond farewell to Mars Global Surveyor

It operated for 4 times longer than expected and returned a stunning array of data, but on November 2nd 2006, the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft made its last call home to Earth. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has now released the preliminary conclusions of a report by an internal review board, and it appears the reason for the failure may have its origins in a computer mistake made 5 months previously. A routine update in September 2005 sent to onboard computers caused inconsistencies in the spacecraft's memory. When engineers tried to fix the problem they compounded the error by sending further incorrect software commands, and then did not catch these new mistakes because the existing procedures to do so were inadequate. The spacecraft continued to function, but on November 2nd, the spacecraft was ordered to perform a routine adjustment of its solar panels which triggered a series of alarms. Though it then reported that the situation had stabilised, the spacecraft re-orientated to an angle that exposed one of two batteries carried on the spacecraft to direct sunlight. This caused the battery to overheat and in turn caused the 2nd battery to degrade. By now the spacecrafts antenna were unaligned with Earth and so the spacecraft could not report its plight to ground controllers, which sealed its fate.

The report points no specific finger of blame as the team followed procedures correctly, (which were themselves flawed), and JPL rightly emphasises the successes of Mars Global Surveyor. The mission was undoubtedly a spectacular success, with the highlight been a series of before and after images of gullies on Mars which appeared to show strong evidence that water had run on the surface in just the last few years. Other discoveries include the identification of the remnants of a magnetic field which would have shielded Mars from deadly cosmic rays and Laser altimeter measurements that produced an incredibly detailed topographic map of the planet.

Aliens smell the coffee

The Grover's Mill Coffee co is looking to purchase 163 Cranbury Road in Grover's Mill in order to turn it into a War Of The Worlds themed Coffeehouse. West Windsor Councilman Franc Gambatese and his wife and business partner Mickey DeFranco were in attendance at Thursday's Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting to seek use variances for the 163 Cranbury Road site. The Grover's Mill Coffee co has cleverly associated itself with the hamlet famous as the landing site for the Martians in the Orson Welles panic radio broadcast of 1938, and even arranged on one occasion for Ann Robinson (star of the 1953 movie) to visit. The Princeton Packet has more information on the meeting (which ended inconclusively) and you can check out the Grover's Mill Coffee co website here. For more on Grover's Mill itself, click here. Best of luck to the Grover's Mill Coffee co on this great idea.

Go to Mars without leaving home

I particularly like that on the list of qualities required of candidates volunteering to spend 500 days on a simulated trip to Mars, under the heading "Requirements for investigators-volunteers" you are requested to list your "bad habits". Is this a call for candour, or are the organisers actually hoping to find some intolerable person to relieve the boredom? It would be fun to think that telling them you snore or seldom wash might actually be as good a qualification as a degree in astrophysics. After all, if astronauts really are to go to Mars and spend 500 days away from Earth in a tiny tin can of a space ship, they are going to have to learn the patience of saints, unless of course this is really a secret reality TV show. In fact, this is a very serious attempt to figure out how people will cope on such an arduous trip. Six candidates will spend at least 520 days (perhaps 700) cooped up on the Mars-500 mission. Communications with the outside world will even be time delayed to simulate the increasing lag as the "ship" travels away from the Earth. So far, over 120 people from 21 countries including Argentina, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Ukraine have applied for the jobs. If you fancy signing up, you can visit the official site here.

Red Star for Red Planet

China is confirmed to supply a micro-satellite for a planned Russian mission to Mars in 2009. The strange sounding Phobos-Grunt mission (the Grunt means soil as the mission is also intended to return a sample from the Martian moon Phobos) is the first Russian mission to Mars since they lost a probe in 1996 to a booster failure. The China-Russia deal was actually first reported last year, but the deal was only formally inked during Chinese President Hu Jintao's current visit to Moscow. If all goes according to plan, after entering Mars' orbit, the Chinese micro-satellite will be detached from the Russian spacecraft, and probe the Martian space environment. The "Phobos Explorer" spacecraft, will also carry some equipment developed by the Hong Kong Polytechnic.

Caves on Mars

Potential openings to large caves have been spotted on the Martian surface. Glen Cushing, from the US Geological Survey (USGS) in Flagstaff, Arizona has reported on the findings, which he spotted in THEMIS (Mars Odyssey's Thermal Emission Imaging System) images of the Arsia Mons region near the equator of Mars. The caves (if caves they are) were given away by what look to be collapsed roofs, with the holes ranging in size from 100 to 252 metres. Several of the dark spots have been probed using thermal infrared imaging which reveals their temperature to be suspiciously consistent at any time of day or night. This suggests the dark spots are not simply pits, which would have sunlit sides and nor do they have the expected telltale rays of ejected dust that would indicate an impact origin. If they are indeed caves, then they may contain water in stable conditions, in which case their existence would be very beneficial to any future long term manned missions to Mars. The caves would make ideal ready-made dwellings for the astronauts, unless of course … they’re already occupied. More at nature.com.

Ice boosts terraforming dream

One of the abiding dreams of science fiction writers and space scientists is the idea of turning Mars into a planet capable of supporting life on an Earth-like scale. This dream now looks a step closer to reality (though we probably couldn’t do it anytime in the next few hundred years) with the confirmation that huge new deposits of ice water have been discovered on Mars. In fact, Mars's southern polar ice cap contains enough water to flood the entire planet approximately 36 feet deep if melted. Radar measurements from the Mars Express orbiter have found ice fields that are up to 2.2 miles (3,500 meters) thick in places. Equally intriguingly, the ice is very pure, with only about 10 percent dust contamination. Yet this still only accounts for a small percentage of the original water volumes thought to once exist on Mars. Either it is still there, locked up beneath the surface in as yet undiscovered places, or it has leaked slowly away into space through the thin Martian atmosphere. But the more water is discovered, the more plausible becomes the idea that we might one day be able to melt it and start the stupendous job of creating a second Earth in the solar system.

Martian Civilisation: Proof at last

Mars is warming up says NASA, and the climate change denial lobby is having a field day, claiming that this proves that a warmer Earth is simply part of a solar system wide process caused by increased radiation levels from the sun. Well I think they are dangerously, disastrously wrong, and we should all be really very worried indeed. We all know of course that the Martian civilisation retreated underground centuries ago, and clearly their War Machine is now cranking up production. Secret underground factories are even now at full capacity, cranking out thousands of Cylinders and Tripods. All that waste heat has to go somewhere, so I would implore NASA to turn their resources to seeking out the thermal vents used by the Martians to dissipate the waste heat. Then we can launch a pre-emptive strike on these hidden factories, before they can deploy their Weapons Of Mass Destruction against us.

Well, if you’ll believe that, you’ll believe anything, but climate change deniers are asking people to swallow an equally outrageous whopper. It is absolutely true that NASA have said “"for three Mars summers in a row, deposits of frozen carbon dioxide near Mars' south pole have shrunk from the previous year's size, suggesting a climate change in progress” but this does not imply that Earth and Mars are suffering the same shared effect.

There are far more differences than similarities between Earth and Mars to start making grand comparisons like this. To begin with, the changes have been observed around the South Polar Cap, and not the entire planet, so this is hardly conclusive evidence of a planet wide effect. We must also consider the impact of the eccentricity of the Martian orbit combined with its obliquity (the angle of its spin axis to the orbital plane), which means that it not only periodically swings closer to the Sun (perihelion), but also wobbles in its orbit. As a result the climate is prone too much greater seasonal swings than we experience on Earth. This effect is also exacerbated by the lack of a large moon to dampen down the wobble. Then there are also things like seasonal dust storms to consider, which are large and long lasting enough to swing temperatures through several degrees of variation.

So there are plenty of alternative reasons for the observed warming on Mars, but please do what I did to write this posting. Go out and research the facts and make up your own mind. The information is out there and pretty easy to find. Here’s a good start at RealClimate.org which does a much better job of summarising the flaws in the Mars climate change argument than I can.

Rosetta Mars flyby

The Rosetta comet rendezvous mission has made a gravity assist manoeuvre around Mars, using a close pass of the planet to boost it toward its destination, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The probe switched on the camera aboard Rosetta's Philae lander (which will be attempting the first landing on a comet in May 2014) just four minutes before the spacecraft reached closest approach to the Red Planet. It returned some stunning images, including one showing elements of the Rosetta probe itself with the planet 1000 kilometres below, plus some nice images showing traces of the Martian atmosphere taken by the OSIRIS wide-angle camera. In addition, the ROMAP instrument was also switched on, collecting data about the magnetic environment of Mars. The approach gave mission scientists the first chance to switch the Philae lander into fully autonomous mode, completely relying on the power of its own batteries. Full story at the Rosetta site.

Candor Chasma had a watery past

Yet more persuasive evidence has arrived from Mars supporting the theory that the planet had a very wet past indeed. Newly analysed images from Europe's Mars Express orbiter show an area known as Candor Chasma, a small part of the great Martian rift valley Valles Marineris. The Valles Marineris is as long as the United States and in places plunges miles down, but in the Candor Chasma region, scientists have spotted some intriguing geological features. Seen in the images is a hilly landscape composed of alternating bands of light and dark coloured rock. It could have been wind or volcanic forces which forged these features, but water (and water in vast quantities) seems the most likely agent. Further supporting this contention, the striped landscape also boasts a network of cracks, known as joints. These are surrounded by prominent haloes of bleached rock. The same features have been identified here on Earth and what this seems to indicate, say a team from the University of Arizona, is "a clear indication of chemical interactions between fluids circulating within the fracture and the host rock". Most promisingly, these features are millions of years old and have been exposed slowly by the elements. Locked underground at the time the water was present in liquid form, this would have provided a very hospitable place for primitive life to take hold. The BBC has the full story.

Lost And Found On Mars

NASA is evaluating the use of RFID Chips for a trip to Mars. Radio Frequency ID chips are increasingly being used as a way to monitor stock levels in warehousing, but the technology may find a new and vitally important home in space. Losing things in space is a notorious problem that has long plagued astronauts. Put down a screwdriver and the odds are it will float away, so if you can tag it so that it radiates a signal all the time, it could be a real time saver, perhaps even a life saver. For instance, according to Spaceref.com, in 2003, the International Space crew were missing "over 100 items listed in the IMS (inventory management system.) " This included critical equipment such as filter cartridges, and spares designed to support station systems operation. On a trip to Mars, losing things becomes even more critical, as there will simply be no way of getting replacements to the astronauts. The first stage in testing the durability of RFID chips will be to store a selection in a box on the outer skin of the Space Station. Further tests will then be conducted on a long range mission to the moon.

Fascists On Mars

This looks totally insane, but a film that has been made in Italy is actually called Fascists On Mars, and no, its not allegorical, this film really is about fascists who travel to Mars. Called Fascisti su Marte in Italian, it's an extraordinary story set in 1939, telling of a group of fascists who decide to transplant their warped political philosophy to Mars. The mastermind (if that's the right word) behind this cinematic marvel is 42 year old Corrado Guzzanti, a comedian of enormous stature in Italy, famous for his biting satires and attacks on prominent politicians and institutions. The film is apparently narrated by an off camera voice, as in the news reels of the time, and you can see from the trailer that this method is extended to the visuals, which look like something out of an old Flash Gordon serial, with silver tail finned rockets and flaming meteors. It's very hard to judge exactly what is going on in this film from a trailer (especially as I don't speak the lingo) but it looks utterly out of this world, full of larger than life situations and broad slapstick comedy. The trailer can be found here leonardo.it and there are a good many clips (don't ask about the legality, I'm just pointing them out) at Youtube.

Boston shocker

A lot of news sites are drawing comparisons this week with the Orson Welles War Of The Worlds radio broadcast and an advertising stunt that went badly wrong in Boston. Bizarrely, the culprit was The Cartoon Network, or to be more precise, an ad agency working on their behalf. It appears that The Cartoon Network hired a company called New York-based Interference Inc to run a gorilla ad campaign for the cartoon Aqua Teen Hunger Force. This involved pasting up flashing electronic signs across the city. These were spotted and the alarm was raised, with the police called out and a massive anti-terrorism response triggered. Part of the problem was that the signs bore a slight resemblance to circuit boards, but probably the biggest single reason for the panic that resulted was the choice of location. Sticking them on bridges and underpasses was really asking for trouble in the present climate, but equally you have to wonder how people were so concerned at something that clearly looked so innocuous; it hardly seems likely that Al Qaeda would build bombs to look like cartoon characters (or am I giving them ideas?) Why indeed did the same campaign pass off without comment in other cities? I guess this really does show how easy it would be to trigger one hell of a panic with the right triggers, though I think the really interesting part of this story is that just about every news item I have read in the past few days concerning this event references Orson Welles. It’s actually a bit of a weak connection to make, but it proves there's life in the old dog yet.

BBC wants you

Continuing on from their recent excellent season of programs looking at the history of British science fiction, the BBC is inviting you can contribute to the My Science Fiction Life website, where fans can record and share their recollections and experiences on the part science fiction has played in their lives. It's not limited to British science fiction and there is a great timeline that you can browse and add to. Naturally there is a place on the site for The War Of The Worlds, so if there is something you would like to say about the novel (and if you're reading this, you must have something to say) then get over to the BBC and make your mark.

Digging deeper

Researchers from the University College London have suggested in a new paper published January 30th (in the journal Geophysical Research Letters) that finding life on Mars will require deep drilling in choice locations. Because the planet lacks sufficient atmosphere to ward off harmful radiation, there is no chance that microbes could have survived on the surface or even relatively deep within the ground. The researchers estimate that only microbes that have been buried several meters below the surface could survive, but finding such deeply hidden evidence is a task beyond the scope of any hardware presently on Mars. There is a chance that the European Space Agency's ExoMars mission (due to land 2013) could get deep enough, but what we really need are human hands. The new research looked at a number of different soil configurations, to estimate the best likely place to look: dry soil, frozen soil containing layered permafrost, and ice. Ice turns out to be the best medium, with a particularly good target identified as the frozen sea at Elysium, which is thought to have surfaced in the last five million years. Such a geologically young feature will not have received as much radiation as other older areas of the planet, thus increasing the likelihood of some microbes surviving.

Checking the air and water

Conventional wisdom has it that one of two things might explain the lack of air and water on Mars. First is the idea that it simply leaked away over the eons, dribbling away into space as the solar wind stripped molecules from the top of the planet's atmosphere. Another more colourful theory has it that some catastrophic impact blasted the atmosphere away in one titanic event. Either way, the planet now shows little sign of either water or air, though a recent set of photographs snapped from orbit did offer the tantalising possibility that water may still occasionally flow over the surface. Measurements taken previously have suggested the ongoing loss was quite rapid, but new observations from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter are throwing those measurements out, though not necessarily with the bathwater, because that still seems to be there in potentially vast quantities. New figures from Mars Express put the rate of leakage at 20 grams per second of oxygen and CO2, which is 1% of the measured rate by the 1989 Phobos 2 mission. If correct, and extrapolating backwards into its history, it means that Mars has lost a lot less water than air than previously calculated, perhaps only in the region of a few centimetres of water. This is very exciting news, because based on observations of geological formations on the surface, it has been estimated there was once enough water on Mars to fill oceans half a mile deep! So if Mars hasn't lost its water and air, where is it? The only real possibility is underground, which returns us to the fascinating discovery of what looked like a very recent (in the region of years) outpour of water on Mars. Was this little dribble the tip of a huge iceberg buried beneath the Martian sands? Could be, but don't forget the other possibility that a giant asteroid blew away the atmosphere sometime in the distant past. But it certainly is a food for thought (or should that be water to glug and air to breath) because if it is there, locked away beneath the surface, we have even more reason to get a human presence on Mars as soon as possible.

Mars photo winners announced

NASA has just announced the winners of a survey conducted amongst the public to find the best pictures sent back from Mars by the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. At deserved first place is the hugely evocative moment that Spirit caught the sun sinking beneath the rim of Gusev Crater on May 19, 2005. It's a stunningly beautiful image, simple but haunting. Let's hope that one day in the not too distant future, human eyes get to experience this in person. The site hosting the winners is well worth a visit just to remind yourself of what an amazing achievement the Spirit and Opportunity rovers have been. The relatively small expense of these missions makes the amazing return in terms of science more than worthwhile, but these photographs represent more than just facts and figures. They reveal a world that is both alien and yet strangely familiar. They are the best argument possible for placing a human presence on this most earth like of worlds. See all the pictures from mars here.

John Carter bound for Disney?

The idea of a John Carter of Mars movie is almost as old as the books themselves, but it has never managed to escape from development hell. The first attempt came in 1931 when animation pioneer Bob Clampett interested the Burroughs family in the idea of a feature length cartoon. There was considerable interest from Burroughs and his son, and much preparation took place, including the creation of a test reel, but interference from Studio Execs destroyed the project. Several other attempts have been made since, most recently with Paramount pictures. The project even got as far as working through a number of potential directors. Word now comes that since Paramount have dropped the property, there is interest coming from Disney, who see great franchise potential in the project. This is very much breaking news (rumour might be a better word) so take it with a pinch of salt. See tmz for the breaking story.

New probes go head to head, one crashes and burns

NASA announced on Monday that initial funding had been granted to run feasibility studies on two new Mars missions (as part of the Scout programme) with a tentative launch date for the winning proposal of 2011. Both missions to be considered are concerned with learning more about the upper atmosphere of Mars. MAVEN stands for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, and will focus on upper atmosphere dynamics. The "Great Escape mission" (a much nicer name) would perform a similar mission, but might also be able to measure atmospheric constituents such as methane. Both probes are at the very earliest stage of development and some $2 million will be spent over the next nine-months before NASA picks one of the two missions for full development. The total mission cost is expected to be in the region of $475 million. Also announced at the same time was further funding to develop greater ties with the European effort to explore Mars. The full NASA press release can be read here.

Unmentioned in the above press release is the sad news that a great proposal to send an aircraft to Mars was not selected in this round of approvals. Scientists at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton were understandably disappointed that their trail-blazing idea did not get the go-ahead, but the possibility exists to resubmit the proposal at a later date. The site for the Ares craft is here.

Safe landing for Phoenix proves a rocky road

With a launch due in August 2007, the mission planners for the Phoenix probe to Mars are still struggling to identify a safe landing site near to the northern polar region. The already orbiting Mars Odyssey has been using a thermal camera to look down at night and identify hot spots from cooling rocks on the surface. Unfortunately, the prime landing area proved to harbour a minefields worth of rocks that would make a landing there extremely perilous. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is also getting into the act, using its High Resolution Science Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera to take daytime shots. The primary mission of Phoenix is the search for water, hence the importance (and restrictions) of finding a polar landing site. Once down, the probe will use a robotic tool to dig up to 3 feet down into the Martian surface. Space.com has the full story of the ongoing effort to find a safe landing spot.

Viking missions may have killed Martians

A little dramatic perhaps, but a controversy has been rumbling on for many years about the scientific data returned by the 1976 Viking Missions to Mars. For many, the results signalled the final death knell for the long cherished hope that Mars might still harbour some primitive form of life, but not everyone agreed. Conspiracy theorists like to say there was a cover-up of the results, but far more plausible is the belief that the scientists running the probes simply got the results wrong or mis-interpreted them. One such proponent of this theory is Dr. Gilbert V. Levin, who was actually one of the mission scientists in charge of the Viking Labelled Release (LR) experiment. This was designed to detect the uptake of a radioactively tagged liquid nutrient by microbes in the soil. The idea was that gases emitted by these microbes would show the radioactive tagging. Initial results were in line with this prediction but the overall results proved inconsistent. Dr. Levin has since argued vigorously that his experiment did show signs of life, but now we have a new take on the experiment that suggests the probes actually killed any existing Martian microbes. In a paper presented to the American Astronomical Society in Seattle, geology professor Dirk Schulze-Makuch has suggested that the microbes may have been a hydrogen peroxide based life form and that in heating the soil sample during the experiment, the Viking probes would have very effectively killed their intended targets. A NASA scientist is now looking at using the forthcoming Phoenix mission to look into the theory, though it will mean some science on the fly to find a way of adapting the existing instrument package to look for hydrogen peroxide based microbes. ABC News has the detailed story.

War Of The Worlds gets sporty

It looks like there is a new War Of The Worlds date to enter into your calendars. I have not been able to find a specific website that gives any great detail on this event, but apparently the West Windsor-Plainsboro North school, whose address happens to be none other than 90 Grovers Mill Road, is now into its fourth year of running a large and successful sporting tournament known locally as "The War Of The Worlds." Schools apparently gain points for each win they chalk up, with the grand winner taking home a trophy that resembles the Grover’s Mill red barn where the fictional War of the Worlds story took place in 1938. The competition has been held over several weeks running through to the first week of January. If anyone happens to have any further information on this event and particularly anything that explains the genesis of the event, I would love to hear from you.

Mars rovers get smarter

They were only meant to last a few months on inhospitable Mars, but on January 3rd 2007, the Spirit rover will incredibly begin its fourth year of operation and a few weeks later so will Opportunity. Both rovers have survived many trials, such as jammed wheels and dusty solar panels, but they are also getting smarter thanks to software upgrades beamed to them from Earth. Newly added for 2007 is the ability to pick out significant changes between images, a very useful capability in the search for dust devils. Both rovers have snapped dust devils on Mars, but with the new software, they will be able to pick out the fast moving weather features and beam those specific images back to Earth, saving much bandwidth. Similar thinking will also help the rovers spot interesting cloud formations. Several other upgrades to give the rovers greater autonomy have also been added, and this unexpected chance to test new ideas in live laboratory conditions is sure to provide useful experience for mission planners working on future missions. A detailed review of the upgrades can be found at the spaceflightnow site.

Mars just not exciting

Just about anyone with a TV set watched the first Apollo moon landing, but by Apollo 16 the public were growing tired of the spectacle and it has even been said that the Networks received complaints that reruns of I Love Lucy were been pre-empted to make way for live pictures from the moon. Now in a new survey of American youth, NASA faces the glum prospect that even before it has begun the return to the moon and plans to put a man on Mars, the younger generation feels apathy toward the missions.

The problem is more acute than you might think, since teens and twenty-somethings are the ones who in later years will be digging deep for the tax dollars to pay for these programs, especially projects that may stretch for decades at a time. NASA therefore faces a serious challenge here on earth to enthuse a new generation with the spirit of exploration. Unfortunately we’ve not had an orator of Kennedy’s standing for many years – the way Bush junior has talked about the space program has made it seem about as exiting as a tax audit, so the prospects do not seem good.

A recent workshop attended by some 80 NASA personal involved in public relations focused on the Internet as a particularly strong way of getting out the message. NASA has of course already enjoyed some success with online projects. Its Mars mission websites have received very strong levels of traffic; the Pathfinder web site received 40 million hits in a single day when the first images were beamed back of the plucky little rover on the Martian surface. Equally, when it was announced that signs of life had been detected in a Martian meteorite, President Clinton felt it important enough to comment and the story made headlines across the planet. Unfortunately these were both very much flashes in the pan. One has to wonder, even if a flying saucer touched down on the Whitehouse lawn, if in this age of soundbites and rolling news, the story would be more than a seven day wonder. The real challenge is not getting people excited, because clearly there is a latent interest for big space stories, but maintaining the commitment of the public over the dull stretches of time between the news-worthy moments. For instance, how many people give any thought to the present space program – how many even know that there is a permanent presence in space aboard the International Space Station? Were it to spring a leak and they all died horribly in orbit, it would make news, but the daily grind of routine aboard the station is hardly of interest to CNN.

NASA talks of recruiting movie stars to promote their activities, but then mentions Patrick Stewart and David Duchovny as potential partners. Well sorry David, but you are hardly a man in the public eye since the demise of The X Files, and equally, you’re both predominantly associated with science fiction. You’re simply going to be preaching to the converted. Better to ship Renee Zellweger up to the station for a week long stay. There has been some serious sounding talk of Madonna making the trip, but the Russian Duma voted the proposal down. That was actually a great shame and rather short sighted. If as reported Madonna really is keen to make the trip, then NASA might want to consider putting some pressure on their Russian partners, or flying the material girl themselves aboard a shuttle. Sure, it’s all horribly contrived and serious scientists would be horrified at the waste of time and effort, but imagine the publicity.

Something else that really needs addressing is the underlying reasons for going into space. There is a lot of talk about manufacturing in space and developing new technology that can be applied to consumer and industrial products, but such innovations have been slow in coming. Perhaps the biggest push should be made to show the Moon and Mars as potential lifeboats for the human race. Stephen Hawking made just such a case earlier in the year, and again we got that brief spike of interest, but who remembers it now? NASA could even push the high frontier metaphor. America is a country of immigrants, so what better way to promote space than as a new frontier to be conquered. I don’t look forward to the first MacDonalds on Mars, but it’s a price worth paying for the survival of the human race.

Belgium gets a fright

In a program acknowledged to have been influenced by the Orson Welles radio broadcast of The War Of The Worlds, a fake news program in Belgium saw 30,000 concerned viewers jam switchboards. But this was no alien invasion, rather it was a salient demonstration of just how easy it is to tap into local concerns and bypass the normal common sense of viewers. Belgium is a country roughly divided between the Dutch-speaking Flemings of the north and the French-speaking Walloons of the south, and recent tensions between the two groups have led to constitutional amendments granting some formal recognition and autonomy to the regions. On Wednesday the 15th of December, viewers tuning into Belgium State Television were astounded to be told that the Flemish parliament had voted for Flanders' secession from the Kingdom of Belgium. The broadcast utilised real news reporters and fake outside broadcasts of jubilant crowds, and even prominent politicians took part. Such was the concern of viewers that the stations website was crashed under the strain. Television journalist Philippe Dutilleul had planned the program for two years, and has received mixed reactions to the broadcast. Flemish nationalists naturally applauded the resulting upset, but the president of Wallonia has called the TV event an "unacceptable" breach of journalistic ethics. Jean-Paul Philippot, the chief administrator of Belgian state television was called in to the responsible ministry to explain himself and receive a roasting. Perhaps the most interesting thing to consider is that despite the vast range of alternative news sources available to viewers (other channels and the Internet), many still apparently took the broadcast at face value, and were genuinely concerned. It makes you wonder what would happen if a big broadcaster did something similar with terrorism. Time magazine has a detailed piece further explaining the tensions that exist between the two regions.

Google Mars to get upgrade

Google has already had running for some time a limited Martian version of their hugely popular Google Maps for Earth, allowing users to look at various features on the Martian surface and to pinpoint the locations of landers. In an agreement announced today with NASA, Google is to enhance this service significantly, allowing in due course for users to view high-resolution 3-D maps of Mars (and the Moon.) The collaboration is a growing one, with Google funding a NASA research center in Silicon Valley and using their search and indexing technology to unify and make easily accessible the vast amount of data held by NASA. Other aspects of the deal will allow real-time tracking of the International Space Station and the space shuttle from home PCs. Read more at BBC news.

Martians have invaded already say scientists

In a controversial paper by a Russian-American team of researchers, it is has been claimed that incredibly hardy microbes with an extreme resistance to high levels of radiation may have evolved on Mars. The argument goes that at no time in the Earths history has there been an evolutionary need for such extreme resistance, which is rated at several thousand times the lethal doze for a human being. It has already been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that some meteorites found on Earth had originated on Mars (they were themselves likely blasted from the Martian surface during cataclysmic meteor impacts) and given that the evidence for water on Mars keeps coming on thick and fast, it is not a great leap to imagine some of these super bugs surviving the trip to Earth. Deinococcus radiodurans is one such microbe, and in honour of its toughness, has been nicknamed "Conan the bacterium" by microbiologists. But not all scientists agree with the theory, with a counter argument raised that the radiation hardiness is simply a side effect of the microbes developing a resistance to dehydration. The BBC News site has more on this story.

War Of The Worlds comic may be revived

Back in 1996, writer Randy Zimmerman worked on a comic book mini series called The Haven And The Hellweed, which took a hard look at the realities of a modern day Earth under attack by Martians, and just how harrowing and difficult any kind of resistance would have to be. The story was continued in an intriguing sequel called The Memphis Front, but this was cancelled after only 2 issues when the publisher ran into trouble. Yet despite the long hiatus, Randy has not given up on his cherished story and while nothing has yet been formalised, there is a possibility that the first series may be reprinted, and the Memphis Front finally finished. Speaking to this website, Randy had this to say. “I've always wanted to at least finish The Memphis Front because is IS such a great, tight, story. At present I haven't worked on it in over a year, but issues 3&4 are pencilled and scripted (#3 needs to have the inks finished, while 4 needs to be lettered and inked), and #5 is plotted (or course- it's the climax of the story), but hasn't been touched since I finished typing the plot many moons ago. The WOTW stories are still very close to my heart and I do consider it to be some of my very best writing to date. There were also more stories planned - the next arc I would have done would have covered Detroit (it would cover a wider span of time as we followed the same character living in Detroit for almost the whole duration of the war), and I had another writer that was supposed to cover the invasion of Chicago (which would have taken place before Memphis), but he never took it past the plotting stage.”

There have been several other attempts to expand on The War Of The Worlds by speculating on the impact of a second invasion, most famously in the 1970’s Killraven series. Just this year, Boom Studios unleashed their Second Wave series, but neither this nor Killraven came quite as close as did The Haven And The Hellweed to capitalising on the full storytelling potential of the idea, so there is definitely cause for guarded optimism that Randy might get to at least finish The Memphis Front. Who knows, perhaps we might even get to see those Detroit and Chicago stories. It’s a franchise that could run and run. The London Front, anyone?

Martians could invade Earth

A leading British scientist has warned that plans to bring back material from Mars could imperil the Earth should people come into contact with Martian microbes. Dr John Murray, a scientist connected with Europe’s Mars Express mission reportedly believes that life is to be found on Mars, but he thinks it likely that it will be discovered in a dormant state, frozen in ancient Martian ice deposits. Murray has been leading a team at the Open University in the city of Milton Keynes who have been examining fractured features on the Martian surface that are akin to ice formations on Earth. If this is the case, it may indicate the existence of a submerged sea, 800 to 900 kilometres in size and with an average depth of 45 meters. Since the sea will date back to a much earlier era in Martian history, any primitive life that may have existed will be frozen in time. Murray is proposing a two-stage mission to validate his hypothesis, the first a probe to smash into the ice and blast out a crater, the second to land and revive any slumbering microbes. But Murray is cautious about the prospect of bringing anything living back from Mars. H.G. Wells imagined Martian invaders dying of common earthly diseases, Ray Bradbury sent colonists to Mars who infected and wiped out a Martian civilisation, but to bring Martian microbes to Earth may well prove equally cataclysmic, should one of them prove to be a virulent pathogen to which we have no natural immunity.

There she blows! Water on Mars

In what may prove one of the most important scientific announcements in history, NASA has reported strong evidence that free flowing water has been spotted on Mars. The pictures that seem to clinch one of the longest running debates in space science have come from the now defunct orbiting Mars Global Surveyor, which recently ceased communicating with Earth. An image snapped in December 2001 of the Terra Sirenum region when compared with another taken in April 2005 seems to show a clear fresh deposit of material that has the distinctive look of water action. Close examination of the pictures even shows that the water (if indeed it was) has flowed around obstacles. Similar evidence is also seen in images snapped of the Centauri Montes region. The volume of water is likely to be small, in the region says NASA's Michael Meyer of five to ten swimming pools and the water would literally boil as it erupted from the ground. "You've heard of the smoking gun" says Meyer, "well this is the spurting gun." Of course, the pregnant implication of this discovery is that where there is water, there is quite likely life. To view the amazing pictures, visit the Mars Global Surveyor website.

More landers spotted on Mars

Further extraordinary images have arrived from Mars that show not only the presently operating Spirit rover (Opportunity was photographed several months ago) but the Viking landers as well. Shot from the orbiting Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the image of the Viking 1 lander also shows the discarded spacecraft shell lying some 260 meters from the lander and most amazingly, what may well be its parachute. It is planned to use the MRO to photograph other past landers in the coming months, some successful, some not. Next in line is likely to be the plucky little Mars Pathfinder, which paved the way for the highly successful Spirit and Opportunity, and of course it almost goes without saying that efforts will be made to find the resting place of the ill-fated UK mission, Beagle 2. Other lost probes that will be searched for are Nasa's Mars Polar Lander, and the Soviet craft Mars 2, Mars 3 and Mars 6. You can view the latest pictures here.

Superb new images from Mars

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is well into the science phase of its mission, using the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE)camera to return images of unprecedented detail, down to as close as 1 meter resolutions. Aside from the wealth of scientific information to be returned, a recent image has spotted the impact point of the Opportunity rover, with the remains of the heatshield and parachute also spotted nearby. Over the next couple of weeks, the camera will be looking for "all the easy-to-find hardware on Mars," says Professor Alfred S. McEwen of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona. That includes NASA's rover Spirit, the Viking 1 and Viking 2 landers, and Mars Pathfinder. You can see the Opportunity image here or see all images here. The team intends to release new images every Wednesday.

War Of The Worlds song

Sorry, but that headline is a bit of a misnomer. This is not a song about Martian invaders (wouldn't that would be fun) but a mellow little number about a relationship going to the dogs. Written and sung by the bizarrely named "Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly" (a name apparently cribbed from a computer magazine headline), the person lurking behind the name (which has a little bit of a science fiction flavour itself) is 20 year old Sam Duckworth, another of the new breed of musicians who have forged a presence online with the likes of Myspace. His first album 'The Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager' is making ripples with music critics, and while I certainly don't count myself as one, so can't judge one way or another as to the musical qualities of the song, his War Of The Worlds song is to my untrained ear a pleasant enough listen. Of course I'm slightly biased by that song title. Decide for yourself by listening at the Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly website.

Rosetta probe prepares for Mars flyby

Mission controllers for the European comet interception mission Rosetta are preparing the probe for a gravity assist flyby of Mars this February. The 3 ton probe is scheduled to meet comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014, but requires 4 gravity assists along the way, sling-shotting around planets to gain speed. Rosetta has already completed one such manoeuvre around the Earth in 2005. The flyby will not however just be providing a push in the right direction from Mars. The probes instruments are being warmed up in preparation, and it will use its imaging system and imaging spectrometers to gather data about the surface and atmosphere of Mars and its chemical composition. It will also collect data about the atmosphere's interaction with the solar wind and the Martian radiation environment. Phobos and Deimos, the two moons of Mars, will also be imaged. For a full report, go to the ESA webpage.

Scena Theatre stages War Of The Worlds

The Washington based Scene Theatre is to stage their own version of The War Of The Worlds radio broadcast this December. The play will be using the original script by Howard Koch, with the action primarily seen from the perspective of the actors in the studio, but listener reactions will also be inserted into the story, overlapping with the events in the studio. The story begins with the actors milling about in the studio preparing their lines, and will including authentic moments such as the actor playing the role of an unnamed secretary of the interior imitating the distinctive tones of President Roosevelt. This was a devious way in which Welles sidestepped the censor, who had insisted that the originally scripted role of the President would have to be removed.

Reviews are invited from anyone who attends this play. More details about the Scene Theatre at their website.

Dates: December 2 through January 14, Thurday – Saturday at 7:30pm, Sunday at 3pm

PWYC previews: Saturday, December 2 at 7:30pm and Sunday, December 3 at 3pm

Venue: DC Arts Center (DCAC), 2438 18th Street NW,Washington DC (note: venue different from that of recent Scena Theatre productions).

Ticket prices: $25 - $32 ($5 discount to students and seniors)

Box office: Click here to buy tickets online or call 703-683-2824

Artistic Team: Robert McNamara (Director), AJ Guban (Set Design), Marianne Meadows (Lighting Design), David Crandall (Sound Design), Zoe Cowan (Costume Design), Melissa Narvaez (Properties Design)

Cast: with: Joe Baker, Dan Brick, Kathryn Cocroft, Kim Curtis, John Geoffrian, Elizabeth Jernigan, Michael McDonnell, Ellie Nicole, Karen Novack, Sasha Olinick, Lee Ordeman, John Tweel, Alex Zasatavovich

A photo from rehearsals can be found here.

Hopes fade for Mars Global Surveyor

NASA is not giving up just yet, but after 10 days of increasingly ominous silence from the 10 year old Mars orbiting space probe, it looks like curtains. Launched on November 7, 1996, the mission was intended to last two years, but like the incredible longevity of the Spirit and Opporunity rovers, the probe surprised mission controllers by lasting long past its warranty. In the process, it took a staggering 240,000 pictures of the surface, but aftern receiving a signal indicating there were problems with a solar panel, the probe fell silent. NASA had hoped to catch a glimpse of the surveyor on Monday might from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, but nothing was seen. Hopes are now being pinned on an effort to instruct Mars Global Surveyor to send a single to one of the rovers below, asking it to switch on a beacon. If the beacon switches on, then this will provide a chance for mission controllers to pinpoint the location of the wayward probe.

Mars Flyer gets wind tunnel test

One of the most exciting prospects for exploration of Mars is the idea of sending an automated aircraft, which could clearly cover great distances and return unprecedented detail of the surface. The newest design to enter the testing stage rejoices in the wonderful name of the Mars Advanced Technology Airplane for Deployment, Operations, and Recovery, or to shorten it to its acronym, MATADOR. Not surprisingly given that brain bender of a name, this is a military funded project; don't the military just love their acronyms? However, don't be disappointed to learn that it is apparently unarmed, unless of course they know something we don't and we're preparing to declare war on Mars. The project is run out of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, a name synonymous with murky stories of crashed UFOs and stored alien bodies. Tests of the winged design were conduced recently in a vertical wind tunnel. The plane has a folded wing design, which means it would deploy with the wings folded, and then unfurl them deep in the atmosphere. There are plans to do more testing in the future, including the possibility of sending the plane aloft with a balloon. You can find more at the AFRL (there's another acronyn) web site.

Excellent new science fiction documentary debuts on BBC4

Produced as the centrepiece of a week long stream of programs celebrating the importance of British science fiction, part one of this ambitious documentary series lends the subject all the gravitas you would expect of a BBC production, delving deep into the origins of modern science fiction and specifically the vital role played by H.G. Wells in the creation of several key tropes of the genre. Contributions come from a galaxy of star names; many of them revered as royalty in science fiction circles. Brian Aldis, Arthur C Clarke and Nigel Kneale (who we tragically lost just a few weeks ago) lend weighty and authoritative opinion as representatives of the generation of writers closest to Wells, while up and coming talents like China Melville, Stephen Baxter and Brian Stableford signal their own debt to a writer whose ideas are still being liberally borrowed from today.

The core focus of "From Apes To Aliens" is the vexed question of evolution; an idea that the program argues persuasively has always been a key component of British science fiction. Of course Wells himself returned to the theme several times in his novels, first in The Time Machine and again in The War Of The Worlds, though surprisingly the program makes no mention of the fact that he was tutored by T H Huxley, the greatest evolutionary proponent of the day (he was known as Darwin’s Bulldog) and surely therefore a huge and important influence.

The program makes use of archive footage and modern day interviews with writers and scientists, as well as occasional dramatic sequences. These recount key moments in Wells’ life and scenes from his books, though interestingly and quite effectively, the writer and his characters are here presented as essentially one and the same, thus Wells is seen not only writing his books, but constructing his Time Machine and exploring the underground caverns of the Morlocs. This seems a perfectly reasonable dramatic device given that Wells certainly interjected some autobiographical material into his novels. As an interesting aside, it’s not the first time this has been done, most successfully in the superb Nicholas Meyer directed movie Time After Time.

Given that this program is part of a retrospective season of British science fiction, it not unnaturally plunders the BBC archives for causal connections with Wells, and so there is no great surprise that Doctor Who is presented as an important antecedent. The insightful point is made that the time travelling doctor (as first presented to the British public by William Hartnell) was played very much as if he were a Victorian or Edwardian gentleman, and his Tardis was full of the sort of old clutter and bric-a-brac that you might find in an English home of those periods. As critic Kim Newman observes, the Time Traveller of H.G. Wells was dressed in the attire of his time, so it made sense for the Doctor to be dressed in the same way, rather than the modern uniforms of Star Trek. It is also worth remembering that the very first voyage of the Doctor was to the far past and a meeting with cavemen that evoked memories of Wells’ bestial Morlocs.

Readers of this site will be pleased to learn that The War Of The Worlds is also afforded due deference, though an error is made in crediting Wells with the inspiration for the story. It is certainly true to say that the idea for the War Of The Worlds was suggested during a walk by Wells and his brother Frank, as attested to by H.G himself in his autobiography. Along the way, they were discussing the plight of the Tasmanian natives who were then facing the genocidal attentions of colonial invaders, but Brian Stableford suggests erroneously that it was H.G. Wells who offered the observation, “suppose some beings from another planet were to drop out of the sky suddenly?” It was in fact his brother who made this hugely salient observation, though of course H.G developed the idea and made such capital of it, using his story to smash the smug assumption that the British Empire was an unassailable power in the world.

It would have been nice to see a few more references to the incredible legacy of The War Of The Worlds, such as the Orson Welles radio broadcast, and you can’t help but smile when Doctor Who is once again trotted out for comparison, with the slightly more tenuous connection offered up between Wells’ Martians and the Daleks. The program leaves direct discussion of Wells at this point to look at the equally worthy work of Olaf Stapleton and then briefly touches on American influences. There is a quaint bit of Yank bashing here from Kim Newman, who gently chides the primitive early American television science fiction shows such as Captain Video, contrasting these with the much more polished and grown up BBC series Quatermass. Of course this is not to say that Quatermass does not deserve our wholehearted praise. The series had the British viewing public glued to their sofas every week and had palpable connections with The War Of The Worlds. The third series even focused on the discovery of a long buried Martian spacecraft beneath London.

The rest of the program works through several more of the greats of British science fiction, with welcome discussion of the work of Arthur C Clarke, with Clarke himself providing much in the way of comment. Of course pride of place is given to his magnum opus 2001 A Space Odyssey, but it is nice to see his less well-known (though I think equally good) Childhood’s End acknowledged as the prototype for that archetypal science fiction vision; as giant spacecraft hover over our cities in mute testimony to their overwhelming technological superiority. It is an idea since revisited many times on television and film, most notably in the excellent mini series V and of course, Independence Day, which (though not mentioned in the program) was of course an unacknowledged remake of The War Of The Worlds.

This first episode is an excellent series opener, full of detail and respect for the genre and I think one of the few times it has been treated with anything approaching the respect it deserves. The program does however end on a sad note, with a visibly upset Clarke lamenting the failure of science to emulate the great ideas of science fiction, notably in the lost promise of the Apollo moon program. Alas, as will be covered by the second program in the series, science fiction, and British science fiction in particular, has had far more predictive success with matters of an unsettling and depressing nature.

Martians And Us, From Apes to Aliens can be seen on BBC4 on Monday 13 November 2006 9pm-10pm; rpt Wednesday 15 November midnight-1am; rpt Sunday 19 November 12.50am-1.50am (Saturday night)

Science Fiction Britannia on the BBC

Starting this coming Monday (November 13th) on BBC 4 is a fasinating new season exploring the history of British science fiction. There promises to be a wide ranging selection of programming, including original documentaries and plenty of classic BBC science fiction. Highlights for readers of this site will be two documentaries. The three part The Martians And Us is the centrepiece of the season, the first part of which will be looking at how HG Wells captured man's fascination with evolution to father a new form of fiction. HG Wells And Me is a more general look at his life and work. There is also a welcome repeat for the excellent drama HG Wells: War With The World, which adapts his own autobiography. Plenty more details and clips at the Science Fiction Britannia website.

Orson Welles going to Mars and so can you!

The Orson Welles War Of The Worlds broadcast is going to Mars aboard the Phoenix spacecraft, due for landing in May 2007. A special DVD will contain the broadcast as well as a fantastic collection of material spanning centuries of human thought about the red planet. Works by top science fiction authors such as Ray Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles) and Issac Asimov (I'm in Marsport Without Hilda) will be included on the DVD, as well as fantasy images of Mars. Not only this, but you too can have your name encoded on the disc, which may well be found by far future explorers (human, or otherwise.) It's a great idea, and the full list of material which can be found on the Planetary Society website (who are sponsoring the endeavour) reads like a veritable who’s who of science fiction, but includes some less well known material. I particularly love that H Beam Piper's superb Omnilingual is included, surely one of the best stories ever written about Mars.

I suspect Orson Welles would have been thoroughly amused to know his broadcast would one day make the trip to Mars, but what would H.G. Wells have made of the idea? I think he would have been a little bemused but rather pleased. In my opinion, it is no exaggeration to say that if not for the fascination Wells created in fictional mars-scapes, mission likes Phoenix would simply not be happening, so you can say that things have finally come full circle. That Wells' War Of The Worlds (though perplexingly, only an excerpt of the text) is to rest on Mars, is a truly inspiring thought.

Facing Facts

On the 25th of July 1976 the Viking One orbiter took what should have been another routine image of the surface, but in fact set in motion one of the best-loved and most intriguing conspiracy theories yet developed. The image was of the so-called "face on Mars", a feature that looked distinctly man (or should that be Martian) made. NASA scientists were in fact the first to make the light hearted observation that it looked like a face, but also were quick to point out that the "face" was simply the result of random chance. The orbiter was looking down on that particular spot in such a way that the sun caught a natural feature and amplified the rock formations into the now iconic features. But the image was just too darn alluring, and set in motion an enduring myth and a mini industry of believers who have since spent considerable energy searching the surface for new features, even after the face was pretty well debunked by subsequent images.

There are now entire websites devoted to finding new anomalies on both the surface of Mars and the Moon, and as the images flood in from Mars, there are rich pickings to be had and plenty of scope to accuse both NASA and the ESA of covering up (doctoring) images to hide what the amateur investigators say is plain and obvious evidence of a alien construction on our neighbouring worlds. It all sounds a little desperate and certainly I think they are seeing what they want to see, (I’ve looked at dozens of these images and just can’t see anything untoward) but I have a little private bet with myself that it might yet be one of these amateurs who spots something that the more strait laced scientific community might overlook or even dismiss.

I certainly don't think they've found anything yet, but look at how web communities (and especially Bloggers) have worked together in recent years to investigate where the media fear (or are too incompetent) to tread - the case in point being the fake documents purporting to show Bush in a bad light during his National Service days. That same energy is being applied to the search for proof of live out there, and it would be just wonderful if some guy (or gal) in their spare room made the big discovery. There are just so many images coming in from Mars at the moment that something might easily slip past the scientists, so watch this space. In the meantime, the ESA have re-imaged the face and produced a lovely and pretty damning 3D movie of the rock formation that started the whole thing off. You can see it on the ESA site.

1938 Radio Broadcast celebrated

Many groups and origansations have been celebrating the Orson Welles broadcast of The War Of The Worlds, which terrified many thousands of listeners on the Halloween night of October 30th, 1938. Two events of note come from West Windsor, where can of course be found the unassuming little hamlet of Grover's Mill, the original Martian beachhead as selected by Howard Koch, the writer of the 1938 broadcast. On Saturday the 8th, the David Sarnoff Library in Princeton NJ hosted a live re-enactment of the infamous radio broadcast. Rather brilliantly, the broadcast used original vintage radio microphones provided by the New Jersey Antique Radio Club. Tonight, the 30th of October, local artist Donna Clovis and students from High School North will present "Powers From Pluto", which is an updated version of the broadcast which features television and the internet as the conduit for terror. Anyone interested in tickets can find contact details here.

Other celebrations of note:

WTBQ 1110 AM hosted a live open to the public recording on the 28th.
Los Alamos Little Theater is presenting a stage version of the broadcast tonight (Oct 30th) and several other performances in the coming week.
Pauls Valley Arts Council is doing what sounds like a very interesting stage play, that not only re-enacts the broadcast, but tells the behind the scenes story as well. You can catch a performance tonight (the 30th) at the Pauls Valley High School, Oklahoma.

Mission To Mars

The Mars Society, an organisation whose stated aim is to further the goal of the exploration and settlement of the Red Planet, is soon to announce the crew of seven that will depart in May 2007 for a simulated mission to Mars. The project, known as the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station, is located in the high artic, on Devon Island, Nunavut. It was chosen because the inhospitable environment is as close to Mars as you are likely to find on Earth. The project, which will run between May 1 through August 31, 2007, will allow scientists and engineers to study the Mars-like climate and conditions of the polar desert and to explore the human impact of long-term isolation in a harsh, cold environment. More information can be found at the Mars Society website.

Biggest every panarama from Mars

In celebration of over 1000 days of successful operation on Mars, the Spirit rover (the original mission plan called for an effective life of just 3 months) has completed a huge new 360-degree panoramic view from its winter resting place, a small hill known as "Low Ridge, which has been home since April. The stop was required as the reduced sunlight of the winter months on Mars precluded any significant activity. The panorama was compiled several pictures at a time every few sols (a Martian day) over a total of 119 sols. The McMurdo panorama (as it has been dubbed) shows volcanic rocks around the rover, Husband Hill on the right, the El Dorado sand dunes near the hill and Home Plate below the dunes. Two rocks, right of center, are believed to be meteorites. The total volume of data transmitted back to Earth exceeded 500 megabytes. A variety of mages are available at the NASA Spirit homepage in both regular and 3D formats.

Mars rover revolts

Satirical webzine The Onion is reporting on some odd and worrying behaviour on Mars by the Spirit rover. After 3 years on the red planet, The Onion reports that the rover may be getting tired of the repetition of its daily routine. Dead give aways include up to 1000 messages a day saying simply "no water" and for 3 days running, the rover has transmitted images of the same rock with the accompanying message, "Happy Now". "Spirit has been displaying some anomalous behaviour," said Project Manager John Callas, though this is to underplay some of the more worrying quirks now plaguing the multi million dollar project, such as using its robotic sample collection arm to make obscene gestures back to mission control. The full story can be found at The Onion. (Warning, contains some expletives.)

Simpsons to fight War Of The Worlds

The November 5th episode of The Simpsons will be celebrating Halloween with another of their now annual "Treehouse Of Horror" anthologies. The Simpsons has a laudable tradition of spoofing famous (and not so famous) science fiction ideas (perhaps the best was the Treehouse Of Horror story that remade The Twilight Zone episode "It's a good life") and this newest episode (Treehouse of Horror XVII) promises to be the best yet. "The Day the Earth Was Stupid" is going to be a Simpson take on the Orson Welles radio broadcast of 1938, but this time it will regular aliens Kang and Kodos take advantage of a similar radio panic to invade Springfield. The story is also intended to be a comment on the situation in Iraq, with Kang and Kodos expressing surprise that they have not been welcomed with opened arms by the residents of Springfield. "Don't worry says Kodos, "we still have the people's hearts and minds," and holds up a brain and a heart. Look for a full review here after the episode has aired.

I Spy Opportunity

Extraordinary images are once again coming in from Mars. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has managed to snap an image of the Victoria Crater, on the rim of which can be seen the Opportunity Rover. You can see a large size labeled image from the orbiter by following this link. It is also fasinating to be able to see images taken on the ground by the rover of the Victoria crater rim. The images give an amazing perspective on the situation. The Victoria crater is by far the biggest feature to be explored by the rover and scientists are already getting excited by the layering (upwards of 50 feet) seen in the crater walls which are sure to provide new insights into the geological past of Mars. After traversing the rim of the crater, it is hoped to be able to find a relatively easy route down into the crater itself.

Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds DVD

Fresh from a highly sucessful run of performances across the UK, the stage version of the Jeff Wayne musical version of The War Of The Worlds is to be released on DVD. There will be two versions made available, a single disc and a double disc special. There are going to be a significant number of extra features on the double disc edition, including features on Making A Martian Fighting Machine, ehearsing "Thunder Child" and "Bringing Back Burton", which refers to the way in which the production brought back to life the much missed Richard Burton in the form of a stage projection. The double disc set will also include a 12 page booklet with exclusive photos from the show. The release date for both discs is November 6th.

H.G. Wells to get BBC treatment

The BBC is to broadcast an ambitious drama starring Michael Sheen as H.G. Wells. The BBC press release says of the 90 minute "A Life In Pictures", "Every word spoken by HG Wells in the film is his own, taken from his autobiography and other writings. The film mixes futuristic animation with drama to tell the story of this visionary writer." I'm particularly intrigued by the reference to animation. Does this mean we are going to get a fresh look at The War Of The Worlds with the correct period setting? Broadcast is scheduled for Winter 2006. Sally Hawkins (Fingersmith, Vera Drake, Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky) plays Wells'lover Rebecca West.

Clouds riding high on Mars

The European Space Agency's orbiting Mars Express spacecraft has discovered the highest clouds yet detected above the surface of a planet. The Earth has clouds that top out at about 52 miles, but clouds on Mars reach up to 62 miles. (100 kilometers) The clouds on Mars are thought to be made of Carbon Dioxide. There are no pictures available as the detection was made by the means of ultraviolet and infrared instruments on the orbiter. The orbiter looked at stars just before they were eclipsed by Mars and saw them dim, the telltale sign of clouds in the atmosphere. Says Franck Montmessin, a French researcher on the camera team, "If you wanted to see these clouds from the surface of Mars, you would probably have to wait until after sunset."

Has life on Mars been blown away?

Sushil Atreya, a University of Michigan professor in the Department of Atmospheric Oceanic and Space Sciences thinks so. His paper "Oxidant Enhancement in Martian Dust Devils and Storms: Implications for Life and Habitability" suggests that storms and dust devils would produce oxidants that would destroy any chance for life to get to grips on the surface, since any organic material would be scavenged efficiently by the surface oxidants. Of course this is not the end of the story by any means. This blog has reported numerous arguments for and against life on Mars, and until a human being gets there to conduct indepth exploration, I think we can still cling to the idea that Earth is not the only home to life in our solar system. For a detailed report on Professor Atreya's findings, go to spaceref.