New Mars Forums

I am reminded of;

But in the Latin alphabet, "Jehovah" begins with an "I".

Oppy, if you see a rock with a J on it, don't roll over it!

http://moon.pr.erau.edu/~holmesg/venus.html

Some good info on Venus' atmosphere (Two good graphs)

No blueberries that I can see at the Spirit site, but check out that shadow!

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/ … ...7M1.JPG

Here is Inca City;

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/8_2 … /incacity/

This was a tough one, they all are so interesting.

I love Venus for its potential to become a second Earth. But it is visually a boring planet, from orbit.

Neptune is one of the most beautiful planet, visually. I love blue planets. Saturn, with its rings is a close second, for beauty.

Mars is beautiful, and it has the potential to be a new home for humans.

The other worlds of the Solar System are all interesting, and have their own beauty.

A bunch more here;

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/ … _m144.html

This stuff looks so much like Limestone.

Cindy, I have seen many MOC Mars pictures that could be framed and hung on the wall as art.

Have you ever looked at the Gale crater?

Here are some good ones;

Great Contrast
http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/m07_m12 … 01028.html

Great Layering. Looks like it could be in Arazona
http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/e07_e12 … 01254.html

Please send a rover here;
http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/e01_e06 … 02493.html

http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/e07_e12 … 02415.html

It might be a universal norm for an intelligent species to reach a point and get off the natural evolutionary path, and make their own evolutionary path- either through technical mechanical means, or bioengineering.

D'oh, I typed this one fast and did not proof read it.

This part shoud be;

"So where are humans now? Have we be become comfortable in our niche and stopped evolving?"

Quasar, do you see us becoming cyborgs.

Actually, I like the thought of placing my mind in a small starship and exploring the galaxy for thousands of years (After I am old and my body is giving out)

On the Animal Planet, I was watching the Crocodile Hunter, and his mates, wrestle a huge crocodile. Steve mentioned that Crocodiles have been on the Earth for hundreds of millions of years, and have changed little.

Why is that? I believe it is because their form has proven successful for the niche they inhabit.

Humans have been around for about a million years. So why is the crocodile at our mercy? It is because, despite that animals long existence, it has become comfortable in its niche and not evolved. Humans have quickly come along and surpassed the crocodile in a short time.

So where are humans now. Have be become comfortable in our niche and stopped evolving. Will some other species come take over our world? (I don’t think we are in danger of any native Earth life taking over, but what about life elsewhere?)

Is their anyway we can insure that we continue evolving? Is the use of computers, robots and other technology to aid us a form of evolution- since they are extensions of ourselves?

From; http://www.khou.com/]http://www.khou.com/

Saving the Saturn V rocket

05:48 PM CDT on Tuesday, June 15, 2004

By Nancy Holland / 11 News

HOUSTON – The bones of devoured animals littered the giant rocket that could have taken Americans to the moon. Now, a mission has been launched to save the Saturn V from decay.

The huge rocket has sat in an open pasture near the Johnson Space Center since 1977. The 363-foot launch vehicle has been an impressive and familiar reminder of Houston’s spacefaring past. Longhorns that shared the pasture often seemed to pose in front of the Saturn V, offering up yet another uniquely Texas image. But the Texas sun that baked the rocket and the constant humidity had no respect for history. The rocket was rapidly deteriorating. The risk of losing it forever was very real.

NASA
The Saturn 5 has become a familiar part of the JSC landscape. 
The rocket that became so much a part of the landscape could have gone to space. Its predecessors took the first humans to the moon on Apollo 8. This one might have flown astronauts to the moon on Apollo 18 if that mission, and all subsequent moon missions, had not been cancelled.

In all, three Saturn V rockets still survive. Only the one in front of the Johnson Space Center is actually made up entirely of rocket stages intended for flight. It has been called a national treasure. In fact, a grant from Save America’s Treasures of the National Park Service and the National Trust for Historic Preservation could provide $1.25 million for restoration if matching money is raised. Already workers have begun the painstaking task of figuring out exactly what is wrong and the equally difficult task of figuring out how to correct it.

Allan Needell of the Smithsonian Institution’s Air and Space Museum is in Houston this week to see the Saturn V. Some of what he already knows may sound appalling to those who love and revere America’s space program. He points out the rocket was never meant to lie on its side. While it could take the tremendous stresses of a liftoff on a moon bound mission, it was never designed for years of lying horizontally. Rainwater has gotten in and accumulated. Owls live in the interior.

“Owls bring field mice and eat them in there.” Needell describes what workers have already found including the bones of small rodents and plenty of waste from birds. “There’s pigeon nests near the command module.” He says.

It seems a sad fate for such a piece of history. Yet, Needell points out there have been efforts over the years to protect it. It has been painted. Some of it, he says, is actually in remarkably good shape. But much of what has been done has not been what he calls “historic preservation”. That calls for more than just making the rocket look good.

Now with a serious restoration project underway, workers have taken off a number of panels and pieces and sent them for testing.

“We’ve sent samples of various things, mold, mildew, bacteria and plants.” Says Needell. Once people at the lab find out precisely what is growing on and in the Saturn V restorers will figure out the best way to get rid of it.

Those interested in preserving the rocket also want to undo all the artificial things that have been done to touch up damage and as much as possible make it the way it was in the days it could have blasted off from the earth.

“Imagine being able to see the Mayflower.” There is an edge of excitement in Needell’s voice. “You have movies. You can watch faded movies. We have photographs. We will know what a Saturn V looked like but there’s nothing like this.” That is why he thinks saving the rocket is so much more than just preserving some pieces of metal. He believes the rest of America feels the same way.

“The American people believe there is nothing like ‘the real thing.’”

He says up to ten million people a year come to the Air and Space Museum and he knows firsthand they don’t want to see a replica. He compares the Saturn V to the Wright brothers’ airplane that holds such a place of honor in the museum. Its wings have had to be restored but people know they are seeing the actual plane.

“There’s nothing like being in the presence of the real article,” Needell says. “The Saturn V represents the scale of the effort of putting men on the moon.

It is a serious and difficult job to restore the aging spacecraft. It is also a costly one. Locally, efforts to raise money for the restoration continue. But those who believe in that restoration believe if ever there was a place where such efforts should succeed this is it; a city that likes to boast that “Houston” was the first word from the moon must surely want to preserve the vehicle that made it possible.

Cindy, to keep the pictures the original size, go to tools Menu and choose Internet Options. In the Advanced tab scroll down and uncheck the Enable Automatic Image Resizing checkbox.