Terrifying new discoveries made on Mars

 Terrifying new discoveries made on Mars

Terrifying new discoveries made on Mars

Nasa has been very interested in planet mars and sent multiple rovers to explore the terrain as somebody planning to set up a permanent outpost on the planet elon musk has been paying attention to all the discoveries nasa’s rovers have made the latest rover to land on mars is the perseverance accompanied by a small helicopter named ingenuity what is nasa’s perseverance discovered on mars and how can the discoveries affect you stay tuned as we bring you the shocking findings elon musk and nasa just made on mars that shock the entire space industry while you watch this video there is an autonomous vehicle trudging along millions of miles away on planet mars its name is perseverance and it costs a cool 2.7 billion dollars much more than any vehicle you might see on the road today why did nasa spend so much on perseverance for years nasa’s mars exploration program has been systematically trying to find out 

Whether life ever existed on mars the agency’s spirit and opportunity rovers showed that liquid water once existed on the surface building on that discovery nasa’s curiosity rover found conditions on mars around 4 billion years ago that could have supported life as we know it now perseverance will directly search for signs of past life perseverance launched on july 30th 2020 emits the challenges and chaos of the global coven 19 pandemic it landed on february 18 2021 in the jezreel crater the site of an ancient lake and river delta during seven minutes of terror as mission controllers could not direct the process in real time and the crater the rover will search for microbial fossils in rocks formed in mars’s warm wet past we’ll also look for carbon containing molecules called organics that form the building blocks of life on earth not since 1976 as nasa directly searched for life on mars 

When the dual viking landers performed long shot chemistry experiments that turned up inconclusive results perseverance collects soil and rock samples as it travels and stores them in tubes the future missions by nasa and the european space agency will collect despite technological advances in making small low-power science instruments for space missions many types of laboratory analyses still can’t be performed in space or can’t be done very precisely additionally science is all about being able to reproduce results getting perseverances samples back to earth means we could run the same science experiments in multiple laboratories what does perseverance look like it is a one-ton six-wheeled mars rover the size of a compact car it has the same design as the nuclear-powered curiosity perseverance can operate through dust storms that block sunlight required by solar-powered spacecraft to land perseverance improved upon 

Terrifying new discoveries made on Mars

The complex seven-minute landing sequence referred to as the seven minutes of terror the landing used a supersonic parachute a thruster-powered descent and nylon cords that lowered perseverance the final few meters to the surface using images from navigation cameras placed strategically around the rover and imagery from orbital satellites such as nasa’s mars reconnaissance orbiter scientists and mission operators work together to drive perseverance to promising areas perseverance will investigate any spot that looks interesting collect a sample seal it in a small tube and deposit the tube on the surface for a pickup to earth perseverance is equipped with the life scanning tools including two raman spectrometers these are science instruments that shine ultraviolet light on a rock or soil patch and read the reflected light signature to determine what chemical compounds are present perseverance has one on its robotic arm named sherlock 

And another inside supercam an instrument at the top of the rover’s mast that contains a laser to zap rocks several meters away perseverance also has a camera mounted to its robotic arm to see features as small as a grain of salt and the rover’s lower rear is rimfax a radar that can detect pockets of water up to 10 meters beneath the surface also aboard perseverance is a weather station called meda and moxie a car battery size device that will extract carbon dioxide from mars’s atmosphere and produce oxygen moxie will demonstrate the feasibility of manufacturing oxygen on mars for future astronauts to breathe and use as rocket fuel musk will pay attention to this part as he needs to find a way for his mars explorers to breathe oxygen the perseverance rover is accompanied by a small helicopter named ingenuity the helicopter has no direct impact on perseverance’s mission 

But it will help nasa learn how flying machines can work on the red planet since landing perseverance has been busy with its cameras there are 23 cameras on the rover and they have returned over 100 000 images of the red planet these photos are already helping us understand how the landscape was shaped by water and provide clues that will guide the search for ancient microbial life nasa has made the raw images available to everyone you can view them in an online gallery the photos include an iconic selfie with ingenuity ingenuity itself has flown at least 19 times the first being on april 19 2021 it was the first time a powered flight had taken off on another planet is equipped with two cameras a forward-facing 13 megapixel color camera with stereoscopic imaging capabilities and a downward facing black and white navigation camera with these cameras ingenuity provides high resolution images but it is also creating a high fidelity 3d map of the martian topography the type of 3d image that jumps from the page 

When you wear those fetching red and blue glasses perseverance however has done something more exciting in fact this next achievement can change the face of space exploration forever in another first for this mission the gold car battery sized instrument made history when it created oxygen from the carbon dioxide in the thin martian atmosphere in other words moxie will help provide humans with breathable air and come home safely using solid oxide electrolysis moxie works by drawing in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere compressing and filtering it to remove contaminants then heating it to separate the oxygen and carbon monoxide the carbon monoxide is expelled back into the atmosphere while the oxygen is isolated by a hot charged ceramic component causing the oxygen ions to merge into the precious oxygen moxi generated about 5.4 grams of 98 pure oxygen in one hour for context this is enough oxygen for a human to breathe for about 10 minutes the process takes a huge amount of energy 

Terrifying new discoveries made on Mars

And is limited by the power supply to 12 grams per hour around the same as a large tree makes scientists hope that when scaled up to around 100 times larger this technology may be used to not only provide breathable air for future explorers but also as a propellant to lift astronauts off the surface you may recall at this point the musk plans to produce propellant to power the starship right on mars perseverance has also been busy collecting samples the rover has taken six samples of the martian rock and atmosphere while scientists back home eagerly anticipate and plan for their return perseverance also drilled six centimeters into the martian surface and extracted a rock core carefully sealing it in a tube that was the first time a spacecraft had ever taken samples from another planet that could eventually be returned to earth when the samples are delivered scientists can analyze them using technologies that may be impossible to transport to mars apart from collecting samples perseverance 

Has made another important confirmation on mars thanks to the rover scientists have analyzed one of the crater’s most massive geological features the delta scarp they have confirmed that the jezreel crater a dry window-roaded depression today was once an ancient lake fed steadily by a 120 mile long river around 3.7 billion years ago as further proof the crater also contains a triangular shaped delta where the river once fed into the lake there are chances that the river delta was mostly calm but there is evidence of high energy flooding in the area transforming the slow meandering waterway into fast moving flash floods perhaps caused by a dramatic shift in climate these waters were strong enough to carry large boulders downstream before depositing them in the lake bed now the perseverance is confirmed the landing area was once a lake environment we may find evidence of ancient aqueous life in the underlying sediments 

But that is not all the perseverance has discovered in its short stay on the planet it has also discovered organic molecules carbon containing organic chemicals have been discovered in some of the rocks in the jezreel crater by the scanning habitable environment with ramen and luminescence for organics and chemicals instrument the molecules containing the carbon have been found in both the interior of the braided rocks and in the dust of non-abraded rock water is life on earth and scientists believe that the earliest amino acids were formed in water that was rich in organic components if there are signs of life on mars they’re likely to be found in or near water because of the early life traces discovered in terrestrial lava tubes martian lava tubes are another promising candidate in addition we believe the delta is littered with boulders when and how did they arrive only massive floods on earth are capable of moving rocks of this magnitude using images 

And data gathered by rimfax sherlock and watson we can learn more about the geological history of mars and the extent to which the planet was wet in the distant past the curiosity rover on mars just returned a picture that highlighted an intriguing feature in the rocks of the red planet it looks like an intricately carved entryway on the martian terrain doppelganger doors are so convincing that they almost make us believe there is some sort of secret hideout for martians or that there is a portal to another universe this is also giving us tunnel to the center of the planet vibes science fiction movies could at least be inspired by this photo the geological aspect it captures however it’s far more rational to point out that this is most likely due to a sheer fracture which occurs when a strain on the rock causes a portion of it to break off possibly with a helping hand from a mars quake or two in fact the greatest trembler ever recorded on mars occurred on may 4th this year and scientists are still trying to figure out 

Terrifying new discoveries made on Mars

What caused it and where it was located furthermore while the door-like rock formation may appear to be life-size in our imaginations the cavity seen in real life could only be a few centimeters or inches tall though it’s difficult to tell from the image close-up images of mars from rovers and landers have shown a fascinating variety of the red planet’s geology including ice-filled craters chevron-shaped rock formations hollow-down mountains and more but it’s vital not to get carried away with what hazy photographs could suggest when it comes to eerie space discoveries that resemble alien buildings you may recall china’s u22 rover spotting a strange cube-shaped object on the moon last year further study revealed that the alien home was actually just another rock given its cuboid shaped by light and perspective effects in light of what curiosity is discovered most recently 

This is a possibility on mars ingenuity began its illustrious career as a technology demonstration for rotorcraft flight in a low pressure environment far below that of earth the density of mars’s atmosphere at surface level is about one percent that of earth’s atmosphere at sea level in comparison the all-time helicopter altitude record on earth reached 40 820 feet which is near the top of the passenger jet cruising altitude range earth’s air is 30 times denser than martian stp standard temperature and pressure even at that altitude piloting ingenuity is thus not only a first for aerodynamics but also a game changer for off-world exploration in general being able to fly around on mars brings up a whole new set of options for exploration beyond simply making the record books elon musk’s vision of a human colony on mars has inspired nasa to explore new ways of finding and solving problems in order to gain momentum in the second great space race 

The commercialization of low earth orbit and the expansion of human influence into the greater solar system especially on mars two cameras on board ingenuity enable high resolution observation of its surroundings in addition to being the pilot project for powered flight on another planet a 13 megapixel color camera with stereoscopic imaging and a downward facing black and white camera for use in navigation in addition ingenuity is acquiring enough data to create a high quality 3d map of the martian landscape between the two cameras it has on board we can now map the martian landscape to the individual rocks thanks to stereoscopic 3d and the repeated photographing of the surface at different times on different solves as recently as a few years ago we didn’t even know if water existed elsewhere in the universe we now have a small population of robots on another planet searching for traces of life 

And squinting into the soil to see if there is water there this is useful for a variety of legitimate important and well-founded scientific reasons elon musk’s plan to establish a colony on mars may maybe closer than we previously thought however you can’t just drop humans on mars which is harsh and leave them to fend for themselves musk has to provide a base for his explorers luckily the us through nasa also wants to send astronauts to mars with similar goals musk and nasa are working together to develop bases for humans on mars what does the base look like and what will it offer many people had childhood dreams however while many limited their aspirations to the earth elon musk allowed his own to extend to space ashley vance’s 2015 biography claims that by the middle of musk’s teenage years he had come to see man’s fate in the universe as his personal obligation vance also cites terency bene 

Terrifying new discoveries made on Mars

Who went to school with musk bennett claims that musk was already thinking about colonizing other planets in his early years in 2001 musk attended a meeting of the non-profit mars society group during the event muscle learned about the group’s plans to send mice into space to inspire people musk started considering the prospect of sending them to mars instead an idea that eventually led him to founding spacex in 2007 before spacex had even launched its first rocket to orbit musk told wyatt that in 30 years there would be a base on the moon and mars the idea took on a new form in 2016 when he gave a speech at the international astronautical congress about his idea to make humanity into a multi-planet species however after growing older musk himself explained why he wanted to build a new city on mars one theme he regularly talks about is that a life-ending event on earth could spell the end of humanity 

But humanity could live on if it could set up a base on a new planet like mars earth is about 4.5 billion years old but life is still not multi-planetary and it is extremely uncertain how much time is left to become so musk wrote on twitter in november 2021 beyond the worst case climate change scenario a surprise meteor strike could also wipe out humanity another reason is that having a goal like colonizing or terraforming another planet is a reason to keep on living musk said there are so many things that make people sad or depressed about the future but he thinks becoming a space faring civilization is one of those things that makes everyone excited about the future this we can agree with elaborating he said a reason for humanity to expand is that we are life’s guardians the creatures that we love cannot build spaceships but we can and we can bring them with us meanwhile musk also thinks it is high time we surpass the record of going to the moon 

The human species should venture farther in space however it must be noted that musk is not the only person to call for humans to colonize another planet another great mind the late professor stephen hawking said in 2017 the humans would need to expand out within 100 years if they hoped to survive nasa however wants to send astronauts to mars to try to find the origin of life and answer the puzzling question of why we are here as such the space agency is not planning for a colony what nasa’s and musk’s plans have in common is the space vehicle that will take people to mars central to musk’s and nasa’s plans is the starship this fully reusable rocket currently under development in texas will enable spacex to send humans and cargo to mars the ship will be capable of launching about 150 tons or 100 people into space at a time musk plans to build hundreds of starships that would take off every time the earth and mars line up favorably 

Its use of liquid oxygen and methane as fuel rather than rocket propellant used in the falcon 9 means explorers can fly to mars refuel using resources found on the planet and fly back to earth the astronauts could even venture out further into space building a planet-hopping network of refuelling stations along the way the ship is about to host its first orbital flight this year while the company’s primary goal is to fly the ship from the starbase facility in texas musk has indicated that the team is also preparing to launch from cape canaveral in florida should too many delays arise what will living on mars look like certainly it is no fairy tale and any mars explorer and nursing dreams of bliss will quickly wake up to reality it’s not going to be easy as musk himself readily admits in november 2018 he compared the ads for going to mars the ads for sir ernest shackleton’s expedition to the antarctic men wanted for hazardous journey small wages bitter cold long months of complete darkness constant danger safe return doubtful honor and recognition in case of success 

Okay the antarctic had probably never existed but the general idea is the same recent expeditions to mars have revealed musk may be correct about the dangers from the planet for example in december 2021 the hope mission to mars hosted by the united arab emirates encountered a dust storm it quickly advanced thousands of miles wide passing over the crater containing nasa’s perseverance rover and ingenuity helicopter the storm lasted until january 14th the events showed how the weather on mars could be brutal especially compared to earth’s weather dust storms that blow over solar panels can render them less effective depriving a space station of vital electricity dust isn’t the only obstacle that astronauts will face in april 2022 nasa revealed that the curiosity rover had to give up its ongoing expedition route due to ventifacts sharp rocks that could damage the rover’s wheels but of course all these difficulties won’t stop musco and nasa and indeed they won’t stop musk’s volunteer explorers the full-size city musk plans to build on the surface of mars 

Is open to regular people not just scientists and researchers so if you are interested in moving to mars you could pay for your flight with a loan once there you would be able to pay off the loan by working in anything from iron foundries to pizzerias there would be enough work for you because musk declared that there would be labor shortages for a long time this city would be free to govern itself on its own terms as indicated by the starlink internet service terms and conditions released in october 2020 this appears to contradict the 1967 outer space treaty which states that the launch origin country is responsible for subsequent space activities david anderman who served as spacex’s general counsel when the terms were released suggested to inverse in 2021 that the two documents may be set on a collision course but musk is no stranger to head-butting authorities when they stand in his way so fingers crossed for how that will go down musk estimates that it would take around 1 million tons of cargo to build a self-sustaining city on mars 

He plans to transport 1 million people so he needs massive infrastructure to support his crowd assuming it costs 100 000 per ton to send cargo to mars with the starship that means the cargo musk needs on mars could cost around 100 billion dollars to transport musk estimates the whole city could cost about 10 trillion dollars at the high end where will musk get the money to fund his mars city musk has been stockpiling money for this reason helping to pay for this is why i’m accumulating assets on earth he tweeted in fact his huge pay packets from tesla should give him a nice boost spacex may not stop with just one city however paul worster mars development engineer said that spacex could build multiple cities he explained the idea is to expand out start not just with an outpost but grow into a larger base not just like there are in antarctica but really a village a town growing into a city and then multiple cities on mars musk plans to terraform mars in fact at spacex’s headquarters next to the lobby the company has two images that show a before and after the terraformed mars the current surface temperature on mars is an average of minus 63 degrees celsius or minus 82 degrees fahrenheit musk wants to heat up the planet’s poles to release stores of frozen carbon dioxide this would use a series of continuous low fallout nuclear fusion explosions to act as artificial suns the idea would be to use the carbon dioxide stores to create a more hospitable atmosphere humans could then walk around the planet using just a breathing apparatus.