“I think humans will reach Mars, and I would like to see it happen in my lifetime.” –Buzz Aldrin

Mars Arctic 365 is the next step in working toward human exploration of the Red Planet. Set to begin in July of 2014, the mission is a creation of the Mars Society and will be the most realistic mock Mars mission to date. Six crewmembers will spend one full year living and working in the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS), situated on Devon Island in the high-altitude Canadian Arctic. FMARS is a 25 x 27 foot cylindrical structure, simulating more similar spatial restrictions that will likely be conditions for astronauts on Mars. The crewmembers will conduct scientific research, such as field geology, and perform maintenance on their habitat and equipment (all while wearing space suits, of course).

Compared to past mock Mars missions, like Mars 500, Mars Arctic 365 will be a more precise and realistic mission simulation. As FMARS director Joe Palaia points out, “The duration, the harsh environment, actually doing the same activities as a Mars crew—this combination hasn’t been done before.” The Mars Society wants to test the crew’s ability—under all of the conditions aforementioned—to work efficiently and to make any small changes to procedures or equipment that might have otherwise been overlooked. Put simply, through learning and making modifications, Mars Arctic 365 will prepare us for the challenges (and excitement) that will accompany the first manned mission to Mars, and NASA will surely be at the forefront of such missions in the future. The best way to improve efficiency and design of the mission is to give it a test-run. 

Read more:

http://www.marssociety.org/home/press/announcements/marssocietylaunchesefforttoconductone-yearmissioninthecanadianhigharctic

 http://www.space.com/21392-mock-mars-mission-arctic.html

 Tell Congress that you support doubling funding for NASA:

http://www.penny4nasa.org/take-action/

“This is the first confirmation of sedimentary conglomerates on another planet.” - Rebecca M.E. Williams of the Planetary Science Institute.

NASA’s Curiosity rover found evidence of exposed bedrock made up of smaller fragments cemented together, commonly referred to by geologists as a sedimentary conglomerate. These rocks are the first ever found on Mars that contain streambed gravels.

“These conglomerates look amazingly like streambed deposits on Earth,” Williams added. “Most people are familiar with rounded river pebbles. Maybe you’ve picked up a smoothed, round rock to skip across the water. Seeing something so familiar on another world is exciting and also gratifying.”

The size, shape, and arrangement of the rocks discovered by Curiosity display the telltale signs of water transport through a stream that potentially stretched for a few miles and likely was ankle-deep. Sanjeev Gupta, of the London-based Imperial College, added this:

“The rounding indicates sustained flow. It occurs as pebbles hit each other multiple times. This wasn’t a one-off flow. It was sustained, certainly more than weeks or months, though we can’t say exactly how long.”

NASA plans to further explore the region where these conglomerates were located, known as the Gale Crater. This region has been identified to once have conditions that would be favorable for microbial life. 

Check out this recent 360 degree panoromic of Mars from the “eyes” of Curiosity: http://www.360cities.net/image/mars-gigapixel-panorama-curiosity-solar-days-136-149#-5.92,-3.62,42.5

Read more about the Martian sedimentary conglomerates: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20130530f.html

It has been nearly 44 years since man landed on the Moon. Now, it is time for the next giant leap for mankind: a mission to Mars.

Whether it is an American pursuit or a collaborative mission between countries, a mission to Mars will push both science and NASA in a great direction. We have the technology and brave astronauts, but currently lack the funding. If NASA’s budget was increased to 1% of the federal budget, then we could realistically reach Mars. A penny for NASA will push the frontiers of exploration, expand our knowledge of the universe, and provide  opportunities for new scientific discoveries.

We’ve sent the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers to Mars, but now it is our turn. Let’s reach Mars. Tell Congress to double NASA’s funding.

Last year NASA received an unexpected gift from the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO): two large optical telescope assemblies originally built for a now cancelled spy satellite program. The telescopes are similar in size and appearance to the legendary Hubble Space Telescope, but currently contain no instrumentation. NASA recently asked the scientific community to propose potential missions for the NRO telescopes.

One of the most intriguing suggestions, the Mars Orbiting Space Telescope (MOST), would use solar electric propulsion to place one of the highly capable systems in orbit around Mars. After a nearly 5 year voyage to the red planet, MOST would use three main instruments to observe the planetary surface with a resolution of up to 3.1 inches per pixel — 4 times better than the current Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). These observations would be helpful in choosing destinations for future manned and unmanned surface missions. In addition, MOST could be turned away from Mars to observe the outer planets and their moons and serve as a relay for current and future Mars rovers.

The potential uses for these donated telescopes are certainly exciting, but it will still take significant time, money and effort to prepare them for whatever mission is finally chosen.

It would be a shame to not utilize these donated telescopes to their full potential due to a lack of funding. Let congress know that you want to double NASA’s budget so we can take advantage of this unique opportunity: http://www.penny4nasa.org/take-action/

Read more: http://www.space.com/21064-nasa-donated-spy-telescope-mars.html

On this day 52 years ago, this nation set out on a bold and daring mission to put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. Not wanting the Soviet Union to be the leaders in space, we marshalled our brightest minds and our wealth of resources toward achieving this goal. And on July 20, 1969, through tragedy and triumph, we made history, successfully landing men on the Moon. As Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell later described it, “It’s not a miracle, we just decided to go.”

Today, NASA is in a holding pattern; barely able to sustain their existing programs on an ever diminishing budget, much less put us on a trajectory for human exploration of Mars. Unable to even launch astronauts into low-Earth orbit, the United States is ceding its role as the leader in space. It’s time we reestablish space exploration as a national priority, and commit to putting humans on Mars.

Tell Congress You Want A Bold New Vision For The Future Of American Space Exploration:
http://www.penny4nasa.org/take-action/

It has been more than 40 years since Buzz Aldrin made history stepping onto the surface of the moon. Since then, he has spent less time thinking about the moon and more time about humankind’s next giant leap: Mars. 

In Buzz Aldrin’s new book, Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration, the veteran astronaut lays out his plans for what would he believes would be “an American-led permanent human presence on Mars by 2035.” Aldrin addresses the inevitable technological and financial issues, and suggests how we could solve many of them. The issue most emphasized by Aldrin is our lack of political will and leadership. “There’s no doubt who was a leader in space after the Apollo Program. Nobody came close to us. And our education system, in science, technology, engineering and math, was at the top of the world. It’s no longer there. We’re descending rather rapidly.” 

Want to help turn this around and lead again? Tell congress to double NASA’s budget: http://www.penny4nasa.org/

Check out Buzz Aldrin’s new book: http://buzzaldrin.com/latest-buzz/mission-to-mars-book/

POLL: 76% Of Americans Support Doubling NASA’s Budget For A Mission To Mars

The American public overwhelmingly support a doubling of NASA’s budget in order to fund a mission to Mars, according to a recent survey. The poll, commissioned by Explore Mars, a nonprofit organization, and aerospace contractor Boeing, also demonstrated a high degree of enthusiasm about human exploration of Mars.

The survey found that 76 percent of Americans agree that NASA’s budget should be increased to 1 percent of the total federal budget to fund initiatives, including a mission to Mars. Currently NASA’s budget represents less than 0.5 percent of overall federal spending.

Read more about the poll’s findings in our latest blog post at
http://www.penny4nasa.org/2013/05/15/poll-americans-overwhelmingly-support-doubling-nasas-budget-mission-to-mars/

Write Congress and let them know you support doubling NASA’s budget for a mission to Mars:
http://www.penny4nasa.org/take-action/

Going on THIS WEEK…

Explore Mars and the George Washington University Space Policy Institute present the The Humans to Mars (H2M) Summit, 6-8 May 2013 at the Lisner Auditorium of the George Washington University in Washington, DC.

What do we need to land humans on Mars by 2030? If you want to know the answer, we invite you to join us at the Humans to Mars Summit. There is a live webcast! (http://h2m.exploremars.org/webcast/).

H2M will be a comprehensive Mars exploration conference to address the major technical, scientific, and policy-related challenges that need to be overcome to send humans to Mars by 2030. 

Check it out! Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. 

Colonizing Mars is a hot topic right now. There are multiple organizations that are currently hard at work developing plans for sending humans to Mars.

One of the most important aspect of any Mars (or other planetary) plan is the ability to produce food and other consumables in the colony’s base.

This brings synthetic biology into the conversation. Synthetic biology refers to:

The design and fabrication of components and systems that do not already exist in the natural world, and the re-design and fabrication of existing biological systems.

At the cutting-edge of this discipline, researchers are rewriting the basic operating instructions of living cells. So far, synthetic biology has produced diagnostic tools for diseases such as HIV and hepatitis viruses.

Researchers from NASA’s Synthetic Biology Initiative are working to build designer microbes to aid future crewed space missions. This includes re-engineering bacteria:

to serve as a food source on long-haul spaceflights

to produce hydrocarbon fuel

to leach metals from rocks (biomining).

NASA and other researchers and organizations are busy investigating the possibility of growing plants on other planets and the possibility of purifying any water that might be under the Martian surface.

All are hopeful that there will soon be progress in this field so that humanity may soon get a head start on becoming a spacefaring species.

Read more:

http://astronaut.com/self-sufficiency-on-mars-synthetic-biology-holds-the-key/

Even though we can’t predict when the next NEO (near earth object), like asteroids or short period tail comets, will come and hit us we can definitely tell you the odds. We also won’t get too much of a warning either because there are still tons of undiscovered larger NEO’s out and about.

This is where NASA comes in. Besides the Spaceguard Survey NASA has a mission to Mars that will study Mars’ deep interior. It was also carry an experiment that will slam an impactor into a threatening asteroid. The mission Osiris-Rex is targeting a 900 ft. asteroid called 1999 RQ36 that can give us clues on how life began on Earth as well as it is headed straight for us in 2182! Osiris-rex will collect samples from the rock and return it back to Earth in 2023. One of the biggest challenges is actually the budget for this mission and time constraint. They want to get this mission started in the fall, which isn’t a lot of time as well as NASA is footing the bill of $100+ million.  

Check out our latest blog post on Impact Craters to get more insight on what asteroids can do http://www.penny4nasa.org/2013/04/29/death-beauty-and-hows-that-space-program-going-the-impact-crater-story/