Official Lego-Mars Rover Curiosity if official
Großartig! Das nächste Lego Cuusoo-Set wird dieser Mars Rover Curiosity. Wird leider nicht so badass, wie dieser Lego-Rover hier, aber immerhin. Nicht so großartig: Curiosity hatte sich im Wettbewerb gegen das Portal-Lego-Konzept durchgesetzt, das vor einem Jahr hier gebloggt hatte. Scheiß auf Mars-Rovers, ich will Lego Portals und zwar jetzt! Aber das Projekt ist noch nicht ganz vom Tisch: „We’re still looking into the possibility of releasing a set based on the Thinking with Portals! Project“.
21104 Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover
It is with great pleasure we reveal that the next LEGO CUUSOO set will be the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover, based upon the LEGO CUUSOO project by Perijove.This project rose to popularity in late summer 2012, when the real Mars Curiosity Rover approached and landed on the planet Mars in its historic mission. The model designer, LEGO CUUSOO user Perijove is a Mechanical Engineer who worked on the actual Curiosity rover at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Perijove writes that he built and submitted the rover to further the educational outreach of the Mars Curiosity rover’s incredible mission, and to encourage greater public support for space exploration.
The final product is still in development. Exact pricing and availability is still being determined, so stay tuned on this blog and LEGO CUUSOO for an update on when you can buy your own LEGO rover in the coming months.
NASA draws a giant Penis on Mars
Die NASA hat mit einem ihrer Rover einen Penis auf die Oberfläche des Mars gemalt. Yep, it’s real. Da müssen sich Voina mit ihrer Pimmelbrücke aber nochmal ziemlich anstrengen. Penis-Graffito in Space: Check. „That’s one small pipi for a man, a giant Penis for mankind.“ Ein Interplanetarischer Pimmelwitz. In Space no one can hear you ejaculate. Ich hör’ ja schon auf.
In the end it doesn’t matter how the human kind disappeared from the face of the universe, we will never find the right answer, all that matter is that those who came after the humans, like us, will find penises, penises everywhere, in planets surface, in walls, in buildings, even in discs randomly sent into space.
That’s the legacy of the human beings and I’m no expert in xenobiology but heck, those are damn fine penises.Extract from “Did humans dream with electric penises?” written by Xeox Naz’Ar’Kanaz
First Pic from Mars on TV
Wusste ich auch noch nicht: Das erste Bild vom Mars im Fernsehen entstand, indem sie die Daten der Helligkeitswerte der Pixel ausdruckten, die Zahlenkolonnen aneinanderklebten und wie bei Malen-Nach-Zahlen colorierten. Vintage analoge Datenvisualisierung from Space, quasi.
This image represents the first view of another planet from a vantage point in space. It was taken on July 15th, 1965, when the space probe Mariner 4 flew by only 6,118 miles from the surface of Mars. Before this image the most sophisticated, high res image of Mars was this image by Percival Lowell from the late 1800′s. […]
After a few variations, it seemed most efficient to print out the digits and color over them based upon how bright each pixel was. So Mr. Grumm went to a local art store and asked for a set of chalk with different shades of gray. The art store replied that they “did not sell chalk” […], but they did have colored pastels. Richard did not want to spend a lot of time arguing with them, so he bought the pastels (actual pastels seen [besides]), had the 1’s and 0’s printed out on ticker tape about 3in wide, and his team colored them by their brightness level.
Die ganze Story gibt’s hier: First TV Image of Mars, das Bild in HighRes hier. (via Reddit)
Mars Mission Shield from Poo
Die Inspiration Mars Mission will schon im Jahr 2018 auf einem privat finanzierten einen Mann und eine Frau zum Mars und wieder zurück schicken, jetzt haben sie ihre Pläne bekannt gegeben, wie sie mit dem nicht so ganz trivialen Problem der GCR (Galactic Cosmic Rays) umgehen wollen. Mit Strahlungsschilden aus Kacke. Your Mars Mission is full of Shit, yay!
McCallum told New Scientist that solid and liquid human waste products would get put into bags and used as a radiation shield – as well as being dehydrated so that any water can be recycled for drinking. “Dehydrate them as much as possible, because we need to get the water back,” he said. “Those solid waste products get put into a bag, put right back against the wall.”
Food too, could be used as a shield, he said. “Food is going to be stored all around the walls of the spacecraft, because food is good radiation shielding,” he said. This wouldn’t be dangerous as the food would merely be blocking the radiation, it wouldn’t become a radioactive source.
Mars trip to use astronaut poo as radiation shield (Danke Dominik!)
Bonustrack: Schönes und ziemlich ernüchterndes Posting auf Reddit zur kosmischen Strahlung auf Reddit: Despite being a huge space nerd for many years, I’ve gradually come round to monkeys in deep space being a Really Stupid Idea.
Problem #2 is the aforementioned SPEs [Solar Particle Event, Sonneneruptionen]. These are occasional events, and vary hugely in magnitude, but a medium-sized one can dump 2Sv in an hour. For the big ones, it’s an order of magnitude higher. With an acute dose of 2Sv, you don’t have a 11% chance of getting cancer, you have a 100% chance of bleeding out of every orifice by the end of the week. More, these things can arrive at Earth within 15 mins of leaving the Sun, which means that in a space colony no-one could venture more than 15, 30, 60 mins (depending on how far from the Sun you are) from the nearest shelter. On a Moon or Mars colony, you can of course travel as much as you want during the night, but if your rover breaks down 8 hours out you are In For It.
Mars-Settlers wanted!
Vor ein paar Monaten bloggte ich über Mars One, die innerhalb von zehn Jahren eine Siedlung auf dem Mars – mit Astronauten ohne Rückflugticket! – errichten und das alles über eine RealityTV-Show vermarkten wollen. Ich halte sehr viel davon für (unterhaltsamen) Bullshit (angefangen bei dem „Mars One is a not-for-profit organisation“), aber nur für den Fall, dass ich mich irre: Jetzt kann man sich für den Job als erster Mars-Siedler der Welt bewerben. Ich hab’ tatsächlich ein paar Sekunden drüber nachgedacht.
Applicants need to be at least 18 years of age, have a deep sense of purpose, willingness to build and maintain healthy relationships, the capacity for self-reflection and ability to trust. They must be resilient, adaptable, curious, creative and resourceful. Mars One is not seeking specific skill sets such as medical doctors, pilots or geologists. Rather, candidates will receive a minimum of eight years extensive training while employed by Mars One. While any formal education or real-world experience can be an asset, all skills required on Mars will be learned while in training. […]
The Mars One Foundation will employ the astronauts during their Earth-based training and life on Mars and will be the manager of the simulation bases on Earth and the human settlement on Mars. Eight robotic cargo missions (2016-2021) will establish a habitable settlement which will welcome the humans upon their arrival to Mars. The final Astronaut candidates will be selected from the global applications through a combination of critical review by Mars One experts and a global, televised program which ultimately selects which set of four astronauts from those assembled will be the first to go to Mars.
Christmas on Mars
John Scalzi hat auf seinem Blog ein Posting von Diane Turnshek, die die Feiertage in der Mars Desert Research Station in der Wüste von Utah verbringt, wo die The Mars Society Tests für bemannte Mars Missionen durchführt.
I’m out at the Mars Desert Research Station north of Hanksville, Utah. I’ve been in training for this mission all my life. A couple of science degrees, my motorcycle license, years spent cooking for four kids, and my journalism skills all contributed to being chosen by The Mars Society for a two week stint in their desert base, a small two-story cylindrical Habitat with 4 x 11 foot bunk rooms and a single bathroom for six crewmembers.
Christmas will be different. We are hosting a Swiss film crew who is making an indie movie featuring humanity’s future life on Mars. We’ll celebrate good tidings with beef stew, homemade bread, potato pancakes and a brownie dessert.
Christmas on Mars (via /.)
NASA found Balls of Plastic on Mars (UPDATE: It’s a hoax)
[update] It’s a hoax, sorry. Meh. (Also: Die Merkus-Wasser-Story stimmt, die Plastikstory nicht.)
Gestern hat die NASA bekanntgegeben, dass sie Wassereis an den Polarkappen des Merkur gefunden haben: New Data Show Mercury Almost Certainly Has Buried Ice at Its North Pole. Finde ich fast langweilig, ich denke, dass Wasser ziemlich häufig auf anderen Planeten – oder besser: Brocken im Weltall – vorkommt.
Aber diese Meldung hier finde ich spannend: Curiosity untersucht grade eine Ansammlung kleiner Kügelchen und die sind aus Plastik. Plastik! Noch wichtiger: Das Mars-Plastik ist genau solches, das nur mit dem Einsatz von Petrochemikalien geformt werden kann, was stark auf Öl auf dem Mars hindeutet und dieses Öl ist bislang nur bekannt als Fossil ehemaligen Lebens und das wiederum heisst: Plastikkügelchen auf dem Mars könnten der Beweis dafür sein, dass es mal Leben auf dem Mars gab. Whoa!
The small spheres at Matijevic Hill have different composition and internal structure made completely of plastic. Curiosity’s science team is evaluating a range of possibilities for how they formed. The spheres are up to about an eighth of an inch (3 millimeters) in diameter.
Last week Curiosity was able to use its SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) device to confirm the discovery. A robotic arm with a complex system of Spectral Analysis devices was able to vaporize and identify gasses from the sample, concluding that it is in fact plastic. How plastic formed or ended up on the Martian surface is quite an exciting mystery that sparks many questions. The type of plastic sampled as we know so far can only be formed using petrochemicals, meaning not only that there could possibly be a source of oil on the Red Planet, but that somehow it got turned into plastic. Even more interesting is that oil or petrochemicals used to create this type of plastic are only known to come from ancient fossilized organic materials, such as zooplankton and algae, which geochemical processes convert into oil pointing to the earthshaking evidence that there was once life on mars.
Knots in Space!
Superinteressanter, extrem nerdiger Artikel im International Guild of Knot Tyers-Forum über die Knoten in den Kabelbindern der NASA, die zusammen mit Curiosity grade auf dem Mars rumfahren.
NASA has in-house standards for the knots and methods used on their spacecraft. These are specified in NASA Technical Standard NASA-STD-8739.4 — Crimping, Interconnecting Cables, Harnesses, and Wiring. As far as I’ve been able to identify in the rover images below, all of the lacings shown are one of two of the several patterns specified in the standard.
The above illustration shows the so-called “Spot Tie”. It is a clove hitch topped by two half-knots in the form of a reef (square) knot. In addition to its pure binding role, it is also used to affix cable bundles to tie-down points, as can be seen in many of the Curiosity rover images below.
Knot history buffs might find it interesting that a “Spot Tie”-like knot, with opposite Clove Hitch end orientation and topped only with a single half-knot was illustrated in 1917 by A. Hyatt Verrill under the name “Gunner’s Knot”. This was seemingly due to Verrill copying from J.T. Burgess, who had oversimplified “Bowling’s” description of what possibly was the first known textual description of the Constrictor knot. But that’s a whole different can of worms!
Knots on Mars! (and a few thoughts on NASA’s knots) (via MeFi)
Mars Rock tweets his Laser-Execution
My robot friend is still staring, and is making a strange clicking noise now. It’s kind of making me nervous. :/
— N165 (@N165Mars) August 19, 2012
Curiosity auf dem Mars macht sich grade bereit, seinen ChemCam-Laser zu testen und zwar an einem Brocken Mars-Gestein, der neben ihm liegt. Der Stein twittert grade seine Laser-Exekution.
A small stone lying just to the side of the vehicle at its landing site on the floor of Gale Crater has been selected as a test target for the ChemCam laser. The brief but powerful burst of light from this instrument will vaporise the surface of the rock, revealing details of its basic chemistry. Dubbed N165, the object is not expected to have any science value, but should show ChemCam is ready for serious work.
Nasa’s Curiosity rover prepares to zap Martian rocks (via MeFi)
Curiosity Mars-Panorama
Curiosity rover: Martian solar day 2 in New Mexico
Andrew Bodrov hat aus den Curiosity-Panoramafotos der NASA eine interaktive Version für 360Cities zusammengestückelt. Ich denke, ich mach’ da mal Urlaub.
Interview with an Mars-Astronaut in Antarctica
BBC Future hat ein superinteressantes Interview mit Dr. Alexander Kumar, der seit Februar in einer Station in der Arktis eingeschlossen ist und dort die Isolations-Bedingungen untersucht, die auch während kommenden Mars-Missionen auftreten werden.
Living here is the closest anyone can come to living on the surface of another planet. I have also coined the term Planet Concordia to describe this feeling. Despite significant differences in surface gravity and atmospheric pressure between Antarctica and the Polar Regions on Mars, the average Martian surface temperature is -55C (-67F), similar to our extreme cold temperatures at Concordia.
Our crew has been completely isolated since February. We are more isolated from civilization than the astronauts living onboard the International Space Station. It is impossible for us to leave the base until mid-November.
Alongside studying and reacting to changes in crew dynamics, we have to deal with any day to day challenges involving life-support-system maintenance and equipment failure and breakdown. We have to be completely self-sufficient. All our food is canned, tinned, dried and prepackaged – there is no method of delivery here during winter. We are alone – the same as any Mars Mission would be.
Antarctica to Mars: The loneliest job in the world
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Mars500-Experiment starts
Fake Astronauts walk on Fake Mars
The End of Mars500
Curiosity killed the Cat and other News from Mars
Ich habe den Brohei um die Landung des Mars Rovers Curiosity gestern aus Zeitmangel nur so halb mitbekommen, hier das wichtigste: Das Vieh ist gelandet, hat bereits erste Bilder und Videos geschickt, NASAs Bobak Ferdowsi ist ‘ne Web-Meme, die Mars-Landung hatte bereits Ärger mit Copyright und alle sind glücklich.
Mehr: @SarcasticRover: „I sent back 5MB of data to Earth today… it was an MP3 of “Bust a Move” by Young MC. LOL THEY HATE THAT SONG!“, Curiosity made in Lego, Totally Not Shopped Pics from Mars. PetaPixel hat ein paar Details zu den Kameras auf dem Rover: How NASA’s Curiosity Rover Will Shoot Photos of Mars. Und die NASA hat’s tatsächlich geschafft, die Landung von Curiosity mit dem Mars Orbiter zu knippsen. Well done!
Also: Curiosity killed the Cat! (via Scanzen)
Mars-Landings 7 Minutes of Terror
Youtube DirektNASA, via Laughing Squid
Mitarbeiter von NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory erklären, was wärend der Landung des Curiosity Mars Rover passieren wird und warum sie die finalen Momente die „7 Minutes of Terror“ nennen.
Mars One: A Big Brother on our Way to the Red Planet
Eine holländische Firma will eine permanente Mars-Station bauen und den Weg dahin mit einer Art Space Travel Big Brother finanzieren und zum Media Event machen, ein Rückflug ist nicht eingeplant, die Astronauten sollen den Rest ihres Lebens auf dem Roten Planeten verbringen. Wird natürlich nie stattfinden, aber die Idee finde ich angesichts der Finanzierungsprobleme der NASA zumindest diskussionswürdig – beides, sowohl die One Way Ticket-Option als auch die Finanzierung über ein Reality TV-Event.
A Dutch company has launched a reality television-type project to establish a human settlement on Mars by 2023. Mars One, as the project is called, aims to bring a total of 40 astronauts to Mars between 2023 and 2033. Organizers say the astronauts will be expected to remain there permanently – “living and working on Mars the rest of their lives.”
As the first humans ever to set foot on Mars, they will conduct experiments and explore it, providing “invaluable scientific and social knowledge” with those back on Earth. Their lives will be streamed online 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Tom Sachs Mars Mission-Installation
Tom Sachs, dessen Arbeiten ich hier schon öfter gebloggt hatte, zeigt derzeit in der Armory in New York eine Mars Missions-Installation. Designboom hat ein paar schicke Bilder davon und ich liebe Leatherface on Mars:
SPACE PROGRAM: MARS is a demonstration of all that is necessary for survival, scientific exploration, and colonization in extraterrestrial environs: from food delivery systems and entertainment to agriculture and human waste disposal. Sachs and his studio team of thirteen will man the installation, regularly demonstrating the myriad procedures, rituals, and tasks of their mission. The team will also “lift off” to Mars several times throughout their residency at the Armory, with real-time demonstrations playing out various narratives from take-off to landing, including planetary excursions, their first walk on the surface of Mars, collecting scientific samples, and photographing the surrounding landscape.
