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ARE WE ALONE? Or was there life on another planet?
NASA’s $2.5 billion dream machine, the Mars Science Laboratory, aims to take the first steps toward finding out when it nears Mars’s surface on Monday.
Neighbour
The planet is Earth’s closest neighbour, and scientists have found signs of water there, hinting that some form of life was likely to have existed there at some point even though Mars is now a dry place with a thin atmosphere, extreme winters and dust storms.
NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory carries a one-ton rover, Curiosity – the size of a small car and the biggest ever built for planetary exploration – and a complex toolkit will zap rocks and drill soil in the hunt for microbial fossils.
The landing of the nuclear-powered spacecraft is the boldest ever attempted, and involves penetrating the atmosphere, slowing down with the help of a supersonic parachute and dropping down gently with tethers from a rocket-powered sky crane.
Landing
NASA said it expects to know of the landing at 5.31 GMT Monday, about 14 minutes after the landing actually happens due to the time it takes for spacecraft signals to travel from Mars to Earth.
The Mars Science Laboratory began its journey to the Red Planet more than eight months ago when it launched from the Florida coast in late November 2011.
“It gets scarier every day,” said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. He noted that only about 40 percent of past attempts by global space agencies to send spacecraft to Mars have succeeded.
Can we do this? Yeah, I think we can do this. I am confident the team has done an amazing job. We have the A-plus team on this. They have done everything possible to ensure success. But that risk still exists. It is going to be tough.
Weather
NASA has detailed the final minutes of the complex landing in an Internet video called Seven Minutes of Terror.
The landing site for the rover is a flat area known as Gale Crater, which lies near a mountain that scientists hope the rover will be able to climb in the search for sediment layers that could be up to a billion years old.
One potential factor of concern, the weather, appears to be cooperating after a nearby dust storm spotted days ago dissipated, MSL deputy project scientist Ashwin Vasavada told reporters.
Mars is playing nice and we are going to get good conditions for Sunday.
Vasavada said the dust storm near the landing site has evolved into a “fairly harmless cloud of dust” that probably will not reach Gale Crater by the time of the landing.
He said it was not “expected to affect entry, descent and landing in any meaningful way.”
If the landing goes according to plan, NASA hopes to have some low-resolution black and white images taken from cameras on the rear of the rover shortly afterward.
More images will follow in the coming days. Engineers on Earth will spend most of August remotely checking out systems on the vehicle.
Curiosity may start to roll for its first drive in September, with its first scoop samples expected late in the month and its first drilling attempt in October or November.
Pick ourselves up
If the landing fails, McCuistion vowed that the NASA program would continue its efforts to explore Mars.
We will pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off. We will look at this and do something again. We will do it again, this will not be the end.
“Human spirit gets driven by these kinds of challenges and these are the kinds of challenges that force us, drive us to explore,” he added. ”To explore our surroundings, to understand what is out there, and obviously look at ‘Are we alone?’”
If they pull this off and it works half as well as expected no amount of gold medals would be enough in recognition. Faster, higher, stronger indeed!
If this lands safely it will be unbelievable. Here is the link to the video mentioned in the article as to how the decent will work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki_Af_o9Q9s&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Amazing stuff,
I hope the landing is successful. Venus is usually our nearest neighbour though, not Mars.
The object is to find life, or evidence that it once existed, so Mars is a more likely candidate. It’s not just a question of distance.
Never wrote it was. The article incorrectly states that Mars is Earth’s nearest neighbour. It isn’t. Usually, it’s Venus. At the moment, both Venus and Mercury are much closer to Earth than Mars.
My bad, apologies :)
How we going to pay the bond holders and eradicate world debt when plundering money on pointless projects?
This is far from pointless, and is a tiny fraction of the USA’s annual budget of trillions of dollars
This is much more important (and much less boring) than money markets Dave, don’t drag it down to that level!
Put a sock in it Dave, it’ll be a novelty some day to read a comment on the Journal that doesn’t have an off topic comment about bond holders or bailouts etc erc
Pointless? 2.5 billion on a project which will expand our knowledge of another planet, finding evidence for or against the possibility of extra-terrestrial life is well worth it.
What will paying a bond holder 2.5 billion do? Nothing.
Because this ain’t America, Christ almighty
What absolute twaddle. The search for extraterrestrial life and discovering the origins of the universe are not only fundamental questions but critical to humanity’s survival in the long term. To say nothing of the technology that space exploration has created which has found its way into everyday life. When you look at what even this small country fritters away on nothing 2.5billion is a small sum for something so important.
Can’t get to Mars this Bank Holiday Weekend. Your Mars Rover is at the garage and the kids hate the astronaut suits.?
Go to Ireland’s answer to Martina vista’s – The Burren! http://holidaysaroundireland.com/2012/01/the-burren-in-county-clare/
Well said Dave
Yeah that’s true there are a vast amount of galaxies and planets, almost to many to actually comprehend so I would have to agree with ya on that one but I would also say that it’s not just about the amount of stars/planets out there it’s about how often the exact specific conditions that science currently thinks is needed for life to develop, actually occur. Life on mars or even the proof that there was life would broaden the conditions to look for !! Personally I agree there’s way to much stuff out there for it to just be us !!
I’d say the exploration of space and finding out if we are alone or not is probably one of the most important quests for all of mankind. If they find that life existed or exists it gives us an ever better look at how life develops or could develop therefore giving us insight into how we developed. It also means the likelihood of life somewhere else in the universe is an even stronger possibility, giving the direction of space exploration a solid and somewhat new direction! If on the other hand very little is found it continues to suggest that we are alone in the universe which in that case maybe people would realise how crazy it is that humans evolved into what we are today so we could all stop killing each other over borders and religion and realise our potential as one of the most amazing participants in the evolutionary story of planet earth . . . . Just saying !! Also Booo to the bankers, continuous complaining is a proven way to make a change !!
So not finding evidence on one planet in one solar system out of over 10 billion stars means we’re likely alone in the universe? Not even counting how many galaxies are estimated to be out there.
The question isn’t “are we alone”, it’s more like “how isolated are we” and “how advanced are we compared to what is out there”.
I mean planet goldilocks and planet x , you people are suckers for the liars in NASA as the american people were in 1938 when Orsen welles fooled them over a radio broadcast that martians had landed LOL
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