Ares Express Issue 4
The European Space Agency’s announcement of their future Mars exploration plans failed to edge NASA’s seemingly indestructable rovers out of the spotlight, but they still attracted the attention of our forum regulars, along with their current probe to Titan. Read more about this and other topics in this week’s Ares Express.
One of the most remarkable traits of humans is the way in which we rapidly become accustomed to the most amazing things. While it would be wrong to say that people have lost interest in NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity rovers, it certainly is true that we’ve accepted the presence of two mobile rovers on the surface of a planet a hundred million miles away with insouciant ease. Of course, what all of this means is that the frantic pace of posting on the New Mars forums has slowed down somewhat.
There’s been plenty of other topics to discuss, though. Jim Burk’s comprehensive article on the new Crew Exploration Vehicle (’Project Constellation’) has sparked off debates on the forums, along with renewed discussion on ESA’s mission to Saturn and Titan.
This Week on the Forums
– Europe goes to the Moon and Mars!
In an announcement demonstrating that NASA isn’t the only game in town when it comes to space exploration, the European Space Agency detailed plans to land a rover on Mars in 2009, a sample return mission within five years after that date and a human mission proposed for 2024. New Mars members treated the announcement with their trademark combination of skepticism and pragmatism and quickly diverted the thread onto more immediate and interesting matters, such as the launch capacity of Soyuz and the Delta-IV rocket. It takes a lot to get New Mars excited about something…
It’s depressing to recall that the ESA Cassini/Huygens mission gained more attention in the media for its radioactive payload than the fact that it was going to Titan, and it’s something that the New Mars members haven’t forgotten. In this thread, members agree that the use of nuclear power, be it through RTGs or other methods, is absolutely essential to the exploration of the outer system and most likely for the human exploration of Mars as well.
Spirit has now fully recovered and has achieved the admirable feat of being the first probe to drill into a rock on another planet. Admittedly, it was only to a depth of a few millimetres, but all great journeys start with small steps. In the discussion thread this week, we’ve seen poetic contributions by long-time members Clark and Stu Atkinson, in addition to the usual poring over the latest photos to come from the two rovers. The current big question is about the identity of the little spheroids featured in recent NASA conferences and photos.
In a thread dedicated to the venerable Saturn V launcher, Cindy has drawn our attention to a campaign by the Space Preservation Society seeking to preseve the Launch Umbilical Tower, from which the first manned landing on the Moon began. There’s also a petition to save the tower.
As always, this is only a selection of the most popular or interesting threads on the forums - please browse the forums to see many more posts!
Forum News
All quiet on the Martian front this week.
Mars Links
The BBC has an enjoyable article called Sending postcards from Mars by Rachael Buchanan, a science producer sent to cover the landing of NASA’s Spirit rover. The article talks about the travails the crew experienced in trying to film the event and the excitement of seeing the first images from Mars.
Signing Off
More coverage of the New Mars forums next week, and I have a feeling we’ll be hearing more exciting news about Spirit and Opportunity as they get into the full stride of their mission. If you’d like your website or forum thread featured on next week’s issue, just reply in the Ares Express Issue 5 thread on the forums or add a comment to this story below.
Filed under: Editorials on February 8th, 2004
These things are bloody marvelous.
Nick