Posted on 01/25/2004 1:32:35 PM PST by ambrose
Manned expedition to Mars will have to use Martian resources
25.01.2004, 17.37
PARIS, January 25 (Itar-Tass) -- Earthlings must visit Mars now that the Mars Express interplanetary station of the European Space Agency has confirmed Martian water. Yet they will have to learn how to use Martian resources for their return to the Earth, Marcello Coradini from the European Space Agency?s solar research program, has said.
He said it would be easier to find life forms in the Martian ice if any life forms, such as bacteria or viruses, had survived. Cold is not a problem for bacteria and viruses, and summer temperatures on Mars hardly exceed zero, Celsius, he noted.
He thinks that five or six people should go on a Martian mission. Yet it costs about Eur1 million to bring one kilogram of payload to the Martian orbit at present. So, the crew will have to use Martian resources for air, water and even food, Coradini said.
Anybody know where I can get a job stating the historical and obvious?
Third times a charm.
'. . . there is always a conceivable doubt as to the convincing power of reproducibility; it is for the scientist to decide in the light of his own judgement whether to decide in the light of his own judgement whether to consider such doubt as reasonable in any particular instance.'
--Polanyi
Just a question, don't beat me too bad. You high techies!
ESA independently confirms Dr. Dubya's prediction that we will go to Mars. When Americans fly by Mars, we will anxiously await ESA's confirmation of that event. Has ESA yet confirmed the Apollo moon landings?
By David Derbyshire, Science Correspondent
The Telegraph (UK)
(Filed: 26/01/2004)
The final stage of Earth's invasion of Mars got under way yesterday when the second Nasa rover, a golf cart-sized buggy called Opportunity, successfully bounced on to the Red Planet's surface.
Nasa officials cheered as they received confirmation of the landing at 5.05am at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Within hours the craft had returned a series of images that delighted and puzzled scientists on Earth.
Unlike the rock-strewn images captured by Opportunity's sister rover Spirit, which landed on Mars three weeks ago, these showed an unfamiliar smooth surface - dark red in some places.
A light-coloured outcrop nearby is likely to be a prime target for investigation once Opportunity gets off its lander.
Dr Steven Squyres, the mission's main scientist, said: "I am flabbergasted. Opportunity has touched down in an alien and bizarre landscape. I still don't know what we're looking at."
The arrival of Opportunity means there are now a record five robots and spacecraft on or in orbit around the Red Planet: Opportunity and Spirit on the surface, with Europe's Mars Express and Nasa's Odyssey and Global Surveyor circling.
The successful missions may help lift the spectre of the curse of Mars. Out of the five missions due to arrive on Mars in December and January, only two - the British Beagle lander and a Japanese orbiter, Nozomi - have failed.
Like its sister buggy Spirit, 6,600 miles away on the other side of the planet, Opportunity will study the rocks of Mars and seek out signs of water. Nasa will be keen to find water following the confirmation of ice at the Martian south pole by the European Mars Express orbiter on Friday.
The six-wheeled rover landed in Meridiani Planum, believed to be the smoothest, flattest region on Mars. Its landing site is the highest altitude yet to be explored.
Spirit suffered a communications breakdown on Wednesday but scientists believe they have found the problem and can cure it.
REALLY?
Lets see . . . uh . . . In George Bush's corner 1)the economy 2)Afghanistan 3) Iraq . . . George has enough toys to play with already. It would be unfair to give him one more . . . unless it's a potentially dumb-looking one like, say, George in a flight suit landing on Mars.
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