New Mars Forums

Does anyone know how many Gs the craft will be subjected to? Just wondering if it could be modified to carry humans.

What if the first space colony is speaking Chinese
http://www.newmars.com/forums/viewtopic … 39&start=0
a red-Moon and then China sticks its flag into Mars ?

If the first person on Mars is Chinese so be it they will get the applause and the great PR. But it will come down to who actually colonizes the planet and Mars is a big place. There may well be a Chinese colony, A USA one, Russian, Indian and European as well. Even I hope a Scottish one but it depends on technology we dont have and changes to the worlds political structures.

Still im doubtful that the Chinese as they are have the capacity to not only go to Mars but to have a colonisation programme too. Im even doubtful that the Chinese will be able to keep pace with the world they are expanding now but this only increases pressures on there country and costs increase. There bubble may well burst.

18 December 2007
For the first time in 40 years of space activities, a silent revolution is taking place at the European launch site in Kourou. Jules Verne, the first human-rated spacecraft to be launched from Europe's Spaceport, is being prepared for launch.

The 48 m3 pressurised module of the largest, most complex automated spacecraft ever developed in Europe has been inspected and closed, fulfilling the most stringent rules of human spaceflight.

Three days later, the two halves of the 20-tonne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) – the avionics/propulsion module and the pressurised cargo carrier – were mated ready for its launch, scheduled for February 2008, to re-supply the International Space Station (ISS).

“In order to eliminate any risk of disease or contamination for the astronauts on board the ISS, we have disinfected all the surfaces inside the pressurised module with pure hydrogen peroxide. Even if it is launched unmanned, ‘Jules Verne’ respects all the human spacecraft safety requirements. This also applies to the 7 tonnes of cargo carried into orbit”, said Patrice Amadieu, ESA’s ATV Deputy Project Manager.
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ESA, NASA and an international team are developing plans and seeking recommendations to launch the first Mars mission to bring soil samples back to Earth. The ability to study soil from Mars here on Earth will contribute significantly to answering questions about the possibility of life on the Red Planet.

Returned samples also will increase understanding of the useful or harmful properties of Martian soil, which will support planning for the eventual human exploration of Mars.

A task force named the International Mars Architecture for Return of Samples, or IMARS, recently met in Washington to lay the foundation for an international collaboration to return samples from Mars. NASA hosted the meeting. IMARS meeting participants included representatives from more than half a dozen countries and ESA, NASA, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
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Explaining this absence will wait for a future opportunity for now, and much more important than that here are some words to shed some light over the COROT mission.
I've just checked my e-mail and there was one particularly calling my attention coming from...Malcolm Fridlund, COROT's Project Scientist.

After a previous announcement of a press conference to the 10th of this month where results would be released Fridlund reveals that this date has been postponed...but not for long...
We will just have to wait about a week, the upcoming December 20 is the day to stay alert.
According to the mission's happy Project Scientist, there will be in that day's morning, a press conference at the Paris Observatory.
Fridlund also indicates that there will be a simultaneous press release at a time yet to be decided but it will be around noon.

This press event will focus on the release of data to the Co-Investigators that took place yesterday, with the fact that Annie Baglin, COROT's Chief Scientist, has been awarded a french medal, and...drums please...with the first 3 papers that have been already submitted.

Juicy ain't it?
It will worth the wait.

More soon...

Next January will mark the fourth anniversary of President George W. Bush’s speech at NASA Headquarters that unveiled the Vision for Space Exploration, the long-term plan that gave the space agency a new direction, away from the space shuttle and space station and towards a human return to the Moon and, eventually, human missions to Mars. At that time the announcement drew comparisons to the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI), the last major effort by a president to reshape the direction of NASA, with corresponding concerns that the Vision would meet a similar, unfortunate fate. Yet the Vision is alive and well today (despite some concerns about its implementation), while SEI had effectively been dead long before it could reach its fourth anniversary. What caused SEI to fail, and what lessons did its failure provide future initiatives, like the Vision? These are questions explored in depth by Thor Hogan’s history of SEI, Mars Wars.....

By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News

   
Europe's ExoMars rover is scheduled to launch in 2013

The European Space Agency (Esa) has drawn up its shortlist of the best places to look for life on Mars.

Esa will launch a mission called ExoMars in 2013 in which a robot rover will search the Martian surface for evidence of past or present life.

The locations on the shortlist are all being targeted as potential landing sites for these missions.

They host some of Mars' oldest rocks, which were in contact with water just after the planet's formation....
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