New Mars Forums

The future of the space station would be discussed at a Jan. 26 meeting in Montreal with the heads of the world's space agencies.

But he added the space station program isn't in jeopardy.

"All of the partners have agreed that they will support their undertakings until at least 2016."

Seven other instruments were also selected for the MSL, including a mast camera, a Mars hand lens imager and a Mars descent imager, all led by Malin Space Science Systems; a chemistry and micro-imaging sensor, led by Los Alamos; an alpha-particle-X-ray-spectrometer, led by the Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry; an X-ray diffraction and fluorescence instrument, led by the NASA Ames Research Center; and a sample analysis instrument, led by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. MSL will also carry a pulsed neutron source and detector for measuring hydrogen, provided by the Russian Federal Space Agency. The project will also include a meteorological package and an ultraviolet sensor provided by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science.

An experiment a local resident is working on may yield technology to protect astronauts from the effects of radiation during missions to Mars.

Manning, who said he believes he will see a manned-mission to Mars in his lifetime, and his colleagues at CAMMP are researching Zeolite crystals, which he said are hard like rocks and act as sponges because the crystals are full of tunnels that can store water and chemicals.

Manning said the crystals are the backbone of the chemical processes industry and are a catalyst used to convert crude oil to gasoline. The crystals are also used in a variety of household applications, including cat litter to absorb odor, water filters to remove impurities, in laundry detergents to soften hard water, and in automobile catalytic converters to reduce pollutants.

     In space, Zeolite has already been used to recover, purify and recycle air and water aboard spacecraft.

     Manning said Zeolite could help protect humans from radiation on manned trips to Mars because the crystals have already demonstrated extraordinary stability when tested as radioactive waste disposal containment materials.

     "Zeolites absorb radiation and could help mitigate the effects of cosmic and galactic radiation. It could be used on the exterior of the aircraft and the interior as well," Manning said.

     Radiation degrades food and Manning said he believes the crystals could also be used to develop food packaging for manned missions.

     "When we send people to Mars, we have to send their lunch," he chuckled.

     Manning had a hand in developing the first samples that were processed in the Zeolite Crystal Growth Furnace on the international space station and some of his experiments were part of the payload on the space shuttle Columbia (STS-107) when it disintegrated 19 miles above the earth on Feb. 1, 2003.

New ultraviolet observations indicate a Milky Way star is spinning nearly 200 times faster than Earth's sun, the probable result of a merger between two sun-like stars whose binary orbit recently collapsed, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder astronomer.