The Mars Perseverance Rover

[tumbling.dice]

The Mars Perseverance Rover is scheduled to launch on July 20th and will land on Mars in February 2021. The rover will carry the first ever helicopter to the red planet; other than cameras it will carry no scientific equipment, it is simply a proof of concept demonstration of the practicality of flight on Mars.

The rover will carry seven scientific instruments including a subsurface radar to search for subsurface ice and water up to a depth of 30 feet. At a price tag of $2.1 billion I sure hope this sucker works.

Here's a video of how the helicopter is supposed to work.

[Jessica]

one day humans will realise they cannot afford to have wars, because we have other much cooler stuff to do with our money.

[WritersPanic]

We can't live there. The gravity is too low. Even if we make air, water and food there, we can't stay very long.

[Jessica]

i get arguments like that. but at the same time i always feel like... well yeah but we don't know what might happen, get discovered, get invented? i prefer to word everything as "we can't stay long as things currently stand"

[Audiogen]

We can't live there. The gravity is too low. Even if we make air, water and food there, we can't stay very long.

one day humans will realise they cannot afford to have wars, because we have other much cooler stuff to do with our money.

And our weapons, Apparently Elon Musk wants to nuke the poles of Mars in an attempt to make it habitable.

[Jessica]

oh wow. i'd love to watch it happen.

[WritersPanic]

And our weapons, Apparently Elon Musk wants to nuke the poles of Mars in an attempt to make it habitable.

Alfred Nobel only wanted to make tunnels more efficiently and less dangerous. He was mortified when dynamite was twisted into a weapon of war. Any tool can be bastardized I guess. Nuking the poles is an interesting idea. But Mars would probably benefit more from a thick blanket of pollutants from the earth. If only there was a way to suck them all out of the atmosphere and compress them for delivery every time the Starman comes around (repeatedly proving Zubrin correct).

But living in 1/3 earth gravity can't possibly be sustained. Our bodies would have to be modified. Or we'd be taking more than a year each way to spend a few months there. OR, we make it an intentional 1-way mission for the first sets of settlers.

It may sound odd, but scores of disabled people would be perfect for this. They might even volunteer in substantial numbers. Many could survive longer in space and/or Mars longer than they might on earth. We just need to send an automated grave digger to the planet. Those ferrying around in space might prefer to be set adrift after expiring. The sun will eventually grab them, in a few centuries.

[Jessica]

from what i understand a fairly substantial number of people in general volunteered! i'm happy that they're insane enough but i would never leave earth.

[WritersPanic]

At a price tag of $2.1 billion I sure hope this sucker works.

It probably will. The 2 solar-powered rovers were expected to last 9 months or so. Instead they lasted for years. One of the reasons for so many NASA successes is their tie to the government. It's easy to get a government to pay for redundant systems whereas a corporation prefers to save a nickel from every product attachment point.

Of course there have been spectacular and tragic failures.

[neonspectraltoast]

We sure are certain of ourselves for people who admit there are gaps in our understanding of the COSMOS. It kind of feels like we're giving up. But we can understand gravity much better than we do, and one day it may be possible to rearrange dark matter to create artificial mass that doesn't interact with ordinary matter. And Mars will be inhabited by humans who live on Mars and work on Earth.

[tumbling.dice]

NASA has been studying the effects of weightlessness on humans, but I couldn't find anything specific about 1/3 g. I would assume that's better than 0 g. There are five metrics that NASA is working on for a potential manned mission to Mars: gravitational fields, isolation/confinement, hostile/closed environments, radiation and distance from Earth. On a personal level the confinement would send me over the edge. I'm claustrophobic and thus would be addicted to tranquilizers before I even reached the red planet.

https://www.nasa.gov/hrp/bodyinspace

[WritersPanic]

I just wonder how well pot will grow there.

[Audiogen]

from what i understand a fairly substantial number of people in general volunteered! i'm happy that they're insane enough but i would never leave earth.

The way things are going, it's quite possible they are the sane ones.

[Jessica]

well, yes, good point.

[Din Djarin]

The way things are going, it's quite possible they are the sane ones.

Have you ever c h ecked out an Ayreon album, Geebee? I know you're a prog lover and would dig a lot of the themes (and of course the music!). I'm mentioning it now because The dream sequencer album deals with the last living human, who's living alone on Mars after we managed to eradicate ourselves on Earth. Good stuff

[Audiogen]

I have not, do you have a particular album recommendation?

[tumbling.dice]

I just wonder how well pot will grow there.

They'll grow it hydroponically I suppose. You can be their test subject.

[Din Djarin]

It is the 22nd century. I am the last of the Mars Colonists. The air supply has almost run out on this desolate Mars colony, and the food supplies from Earth have stopped arriving since the final war of 2084. I am walking through the tunnel towards our recreation machine called the Dream Sequencer. I hope it will sweeten my final days..."

lyrics:
(Dream sequencer system online)
Good morning colonist. You have selected the Universal Migrator program.
Please lie down in the energy tank and place the electrodes on your temples.
Think of your designation number and drink the fluid from the vessel at the left
terminal.

(Program loaded, commencing U.M. preincarnation protocol)
Now focus on the music as I take you back to your chilhood......and beyond.....

[Din Djarin]

"It is the end of the 21st Century. I have returned to my own childhood. I remember it
all as the Dream Sequencer images mix with my own recollections. This is the day my
sister and I realised that we would never see the planet Earth."

My House on Mars
lyrics [Johan Edlund, Floor Jansen]:

Daddy where are you now
Forgot about your vow?
You promised you'd return and take me to Earth

Did you have to fight that war
What was it all for?
The honor of one's name, what is it worth?

I'm all alone - we're all alone
My future's unknown - our future's unknown
I reach out to the stars out here in my house on Mars

Mother did you hear me cry?
You never told me why
You put me in this world of rock and dust

No friends for playing games
No foes who scorn my name
Computerized machines of steel and rust

Is this my home? - this is our home
This desolate dome - this desolate dome
I call out to the stars: I'm alone in my house on Mars

I'll never smell the ocean breeze
I'll never climb the highest trees
I'll never feel the burning sun
I'll never meet my chosen one... in my house

Daddy I forgive you now
You could not keep your vow
You will never return, I'll never see Earth

My time has come - our time has come
I'm emotionally numb - emotionally numb
I'm headed for the stars, I'm leaving my house on Mars
No friends in my house on Mars
No foes in my house on Mars
I was born in my house on Mars
I will die in my house on Mars

[WritersPanic]

They'll grow it hydroponically I suppose. You can be their test subject.

Naaaa, I'm too old now. But they will need sources of medications and such that do not exist on Mars. The rush to put people there is hindering progress that could be made in building infrastructure there robotically. When humans arrive on Mars, everything they need should already be there and in operation. It's not just a little jaunt to the moon, it's a really long trip and the potential for rescue is almost nonexistent.

[Jessica]

that is a good point, about it being better to build robotically first