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?