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Our ongoing missions to Mars are over 50 years in the making
A deep space mission to Mars will require more than a few bottles of Poland Spring and water reclamation is a complicated business. Luckily, recent research is showing that liquid water may be more prevalent on the red planet than previously thought. Gathering the data that led to this discovery (amongst many others) didn't just happen overnight. It's the result of over 50 years' worth of missions from Earth with sights set on Mars, not all of which were successful. We've collected some highlights from humankind's long history of hurling spacecraft toward the fourth planet from the sun, and the good news is: We're getting better at it.
I found a secondhand telescope, now what?
It's amazing what you can find on the streets of San Francisco. No, the actual city streets, not the '70s cop drama starring Michael Douglas. I recently came across a scavenger's treasure in the city's Sunset neighborhood: a fully operational Meade NG-70 Altazimuth Refractor Telescope. It was just sitting there on the curb with a handwritten note simply stating "Free" taped to its barrel. Now, I'll tell you, I'm not much of an astronomer -- inasmuch as I have never used (even touched) a telescope or ever had much interest in learning. The idea of standing around outside in the dark, fiddling with dials always seemed too much hassle to make very distant sparkly objects to appear slightly larger. But what I am also not is a sucker -- and a free telescope is a free telescope -- so into my car's trunk it went.
NASA details its plans to reach and explore the red planet
NASA once said that no private company's reaching the red planet without its help. If that's true, then private space corps should be thankful that the agency has a solid plan to get us there. America's space agency has published a document that details the steps it's taking to reach Mars. In it, NASA outlines the three phases of its journey, starting with a step called "Earth Reliant," which is comprised of conducting experiments aboard the ISS and studying how long-duration missions affect the human body. This phase is already ongoing, with the agency testing out different materials and 3D printing on the space station and conducting appropriate research on human behavior and health for the first batch of lucky astronauts.
6 technologies that will help humans survive on Mars
By Cat DiStasio Planet Earth is abuzz with headlines about Mars. First, NASA announced the discovery of flowing water on the red planet. Then The Martian opened to rave reviews. We have so many questions about the mysterious frozen planet. Does liquid water mean there's life on Mars? Will plants grow there? Can we turn the water into breathable oxygen so Mars could someday become a tourist destination? In order for humans to live there, a few things would have to happen. First off, its climate is inhospitable with an average temperature of minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit. So, we'd have to find a way to mitigate that or change the climate entirely -- which is what Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had in mind with his crazy plan to drop nuclear bombs on the poles. Beyond that, the first settlers would need shelter, food and breathable oxygen. Although nobody knows when a manned Mars expedition will launch, engineers are already working on technologies to address these needs and more.
ICYMI: Mars life, bendy smartphone screens and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-427843{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-427843, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-427843{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-427843").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: It's Space Week, and today's celestial story is an earth-bound look at what a colony of humans would have to endure on Mars. People from Hawaii's Space Exploration Analog and Simulation group just finished an eight month camp-out, cut away from society and only allowed outside when clad in space suits. Not so spacey but equally fascinating, MIT scientists figured out a bendable smartphone display's chemistry. And wearable product company Lumo announced new running shorts that aim to fix your body mechanics when pounding pavement.
The Hubble Telescope's breathtaking views of space
We already showed the Hubble Telescope some love back in the spring when it turned 25. However, since it's Space Week, we thought we'd revisit some of its amazing space imagery once more. Since it launched aboard the Space Shuttle discovery in 1995, Hubble has captured breathtaking views of planets, galaxies and more for us to enjoy. That being said, let's get started with the telescope's most recent work: a photo of spiral galaxy NGC 613.
ICYMI: Crowdfunded rocket, swimming robotic bees and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-819313{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-819313, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-819313{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-819313").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Harvard researchers taught a swarm of robotic bees to swim, propelling themselves through the water with their tiny little wings. A new Kickstarter project aims to crowdfund a rocket to the moon, if it can get funding up to one million dollars. And the German Autobahn 8 played host to a self-driving big rig truck as part of a test drive by automaker Daimler.
Thousands of images from NASA's Apollo missions make it to Flickr
Over the past few months, NASA's been showing us a ton of stunning images of Pluto. And if you thought that was captivating, wait until you see what else has made it onto the web. On Friday, Project Apollo Archive took to Flickr to publish more than 8,400 high-resolution images from NASA's missions to the Moon. The image repository compiles photographs taken by Apollo astronauts during their trips, such as the emblematic Apollo 11 and the final Moon mission, Apollo 17. "Around 2004, Johnson Space Center began re-scanning the original Apollo Hasseelblad camera film magazines, and Eric Jones and I began obtaining TIFF (uncompressed, high-resolution) versions of these new scans on DVD," Kipp Teague, who heads up the project, said to The Planetary Society. "These images were processed for inclusion on our websites, including adjusting color and brightness levels, and reducing the images in size to about 1,000 dpi (dots per inch) for the high-resolution versions."
