New Mars Forums

it looks like after making a colony on Mars Titan could be our next colony pit stop before Alpha Centauri

http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/PR/2004/ … 7final.jpg

Could some one give me a little advice please

A friend of mine has just purchased one of the LX-90 Meade scopes, it was a second-hand model of the telescope for and he bought it for his family. However everything is not going so smooth  and it has come with no instructions.I have knowledge and know some stuff about planets and physics but know very little about star watching and telescopes.

We have had some resonably clear sky and are working in GMT time. A few nights ago it the weather was not too bad, and we tried to see if we could see anything in the Sky but nothing sadly ( Everything seems to be working maybe we have it set up wrong? the stand seems kind of weird ).
We have tried looking for Saturn but can't find it, hercules cluster no luck in finding, Andromeda can't seem to get this one either and Orion nebulae can't find this also. May it wasn't so clever to buy second-hand astro equipments

Does anyone here on this site have some advice on the best way to set up one of these scopes, or are the sky scences which we have searched for simply not visible now? What galaxy is visible now in the sky, and does any person know how to use the Lx 90 telescope to search for the stars?
What is the best method for a newcomer to search for the stars using this type of scope using meade lX90?

Can anyone point me in the direction of an online star chart which shows what is visible in the night sky during the month of may? I think we had a very Close Approach of Mars in 2003, can we still see mars in the sky in may of 2004 or will it have to be setember before we see a good view, can some one give me a little help please?

Thank you very much

Yang Liwei Rocket

yes there could be problems in putting so much time and efforts into just trying to build a lunar launch pad, people like Astronaut Glenn might point out the facts and difficulty, Gerhard von Müehle has also pointed out the possible errors in such a plan , we need new designs and maybe soon the US might put a man on mars, spending so much time with the moon could be wateing projects and money but is anyone listening?

yes, no matter how many times you watch it, no matter where it launches from Europe, Russia, USA or what type of rocket it is or type of probe.
I think it still is a wonderful site, watching something blast off, pushing out past the Earths air and off into space. There is something special about watching a lift off

To see a mass ratio of 27 is possible, but what about the weight of the rocket itself? So even to get 1 Kg off the ground you would need to use a very heavy weight of fuel and also the weight of the rocket. However a  rocket is a variable mass body, meaning that mass changes with respect to the material that it is burning. Saturn V was a real ground launcher rocket, it produced its most power thrust at sea levels, while the  Russian version didn't kick in to full power until about a minute into the flight.
I think it takes about 900 tonn of fuel to get an object off into space, can't be sure how much power, thrust, force, or weight is involved but I'll try and check it out.

another image from latest journeys
[http://www.thespacesite.com/images/news … rspole.jpg]http://www.thespacesite.com/images/news … rspole.jpg

There are many plans about going to Europa moon of Jupiter but none have gotten started. There are great ideas from the German Aerospace , is this ESA going to look below, I wonder why NASA haven't tried to do something like this earlier? [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3548139.stm]http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3548139.stm
Once they do get a probe below the ice.. it would be wonderful it if there  data on the composition of the water and were photos of maybe a sub-surface ocean of water, can u imagine the images?
[http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/3 … rob203.jpg]http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media....203.jpg
[http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993421]http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993421
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/895000/im … opa300.jpg]http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/895000/im … opa300.jpg

A lunar colony would be a great thing, we could learn mcuh about space, biology and science with a base on the moon...but a lunar colony would only be useful if it was essentially self-sustaining, maybe this program will waste $1 trillion dollars  of money?

move through the crater in 3-D
[http://www.hazyhills.com/mars3d/spirit/20040313.html]http://www.hazyhills.com/mars3d/spirit/20040313.html

Mars is to small to hold onto a gas like Helium but it has enough mass and gravity to be able to keep heavier molecules and other types of elements...
thats why its atmosphere has some Ammonia, Water Vapour, suspended dust-Particles and Carbon Dioxide

terraforming its atmosphere would be very difficult

There are now three satellites orbiting mars taking wonderful pictures, here are some animation and pictures of mars

[http://www.oier.org.cn/opportunity.gif]http://www.oier.org.cn/opportunity.gif

[http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/ … A067R1.jpg]http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery....7R1.jpg
( this one from spirit on the ground )

[http://www.esa.int/export/images/ob_22_reull_v,1.jpg]http://www.esa.int/export/images/ob_22_reull_v,1.jpg
ESA reported Mars Express had found water on Mars

The Europeans have created an Ion drive system to be used in their next probes, they are now trying to enhance their ion thrusters, Ion Engines are very weak compared to rocket fuel but Ion thrusts are verry good, they have many advantages, such as needing less propellant, having greater payload capacity and being capable of much more precise spacecraft pointing. They deliver about ten times as much thrust per kilogram of propellant used than a chemical rocket, making them very 'fuel-efficient', and maybe could be used for cheaper long distance transport of minerals and materials in the future, Ion engine link here
[http://www.esa.int/export/esaSC/SEM3JQX … ing_0.html]http://www.esa.int/export/esaSC/SEM3JQX … ing_0.html
There is also Project Daedalus to send an robotic, nuclear-powered spacecraft to Barnard's Star, a very dim red
dwarf that may contain two Jupiter-class planets. Accelerating to 12-13 percent of light speed using a deuterium powered probe.
NASA spent lots of time doing the planning fopr a replacement rocket shaped X-33 was being developed NASA . It was to travel at 16 times the speed of sound and replace the older Space Shuttle. The funding was cut for NASA and military took over the projcets like Lockheed Martin, Russian and Chinese have looked at NASAs old project and might design an X33 of their own. After the recent space disaster NASA might re-open this old project.
Russians, European ESA, China and USAs NASA are all lokking at better ways to fly, cheaper fuel and increased power. Even if we could travel at 10% the speed of light it would take us almost 50 years to reach Alpha Centauri, and maybe another 50 to return home?
Using particle accelerators we have discovered many anti-matter and anti-energy particles in this giant atom smashing tunnels. One german  Eugen Sanger  had proposed its use for spacecraft propulsion because antimatter has the highest energy density of any material currently found on Earth. It could be used to push mankind to the near the light speed barrier. Under current proposals, the annihilation of matter with antimatter is 10 billion times more efficient than the oxygen-hydrogen combustion in the Space Shuttle's main engines, and about 100 times more than fission or fusion reactions. If we were to use this raw pure nati matter power we could have probes that reach pluto in a few hours, but instead today it takes us months sometimes years to go and travel and send robotic stuff to mars and other planets.
We have many great ideas for the future, I hope NASA can make something great like it has done in the past.