Rovers in Peril

Those two hearty little rovers that we sent to Mars way back in 2004 could have hit the final stretch of their life. Ferocious dust storms have enveloped the areas in which they've been operating, limiting the amount of power their solar arrays can generate. The image below shows the successive darkening of the skies over the Opportunity rover's position on the Merdiani Planum.This problem seems to effect the rover Opportunity more than Spirit. Prior to the dust storm, Opportunity's solar arrays were churning out 700 watt hours of electricity in a day. Since the storm has hit, that output has dropped to 128 watt hours. NASA has ceased all but the most essential operations hoping to conserve enough power to keep the little rovers internal heaters working. If they can not, then the components inside will freeze and the rover's electronics will cease to function.

I've grown quite attached to these little guys. They've returned a hell of a lot of good science. Compared to many NASA missions, these two little bots have been an absolute bargain. They were designed to function for 90 days have surpassed that landmark by far. For three years they've churned along and in the process they've definitively proved that Mars was once awash in water. They've also set the benchmark for ruggedness and increased our knowledge in the arena of robotics and engineering.

I sure hope that these two little guys can keep it together and weather out the dust storm. I've always known that some day, their signal would fall silent but let's just hope that that time has not yet arrived. Some have questioned the need for space exploration and look at it as a wasteful federal expenditure, but I can tell you that I believe with 100% certainty that we as a species must explore space if we wish to survive in the long run. It is only a matter of time until something comes along to threaten mankind as a species be that the impact of a meteor or comet, a disease, a war or some unforeseen tragedy. When that event arrives, it sure would help to have redundant populations of humans somewhere else for safe keeping. Further, space offers us access to mineral wealth such as we have never had access to before. While I do believe that it is high time for private industry to move into the realm of space exploration, I also believe that federal spending for this exploration is money well spent... Especially when it buys us a pair of troopers like Spirit and Opportunity!

A Bunch of crap that's been accumulating

Ok, I admit it. I don't get around to blogging much. In fact I find interesting articles now and then and ship a copy off to my e-mail intending to blog about them. Then I never get around to doing it. Well I've got a mailbox full of these kind of articles and I thought I'd clear all of them out in one fell swoop.

First one: (Here's the link)

It seems that MicroSoft has decided to get into the realm of robotics. They've put together a software suite for programming robotic applications. That's all I need, now when I'm trying to hack my code into some odd microcontroller, not only do I have to worry about the oddities of the chip itself, now I also have to fight the tool. I can just see it now, I'll be sitting there with a design asking myself some question like "Why the hell can't I pass a property by reference (one of my pet peaves in VB.NET).

Number Two (Here's the Article)
Scientists are finding that numbers once considered constant under Einstein's special relativity may not be all that constant and may change over time. For example the speed of light may not have always been 299,792,458 meters per second. Go figure, that's always been one of my pet peaves. How can these constants exist? Nothing in nature is unchanging. Why should these numbers be any different?

Number Three (Again, the Article)
This article details Bezos' plans to build a spaceport in West Texas. Anyone who's been reading my blogknows that I'm a big supporter of private space initiatives. All I have to say on this one is "Cool!"

Number Five (You ought to know the drill by now...)
It would appear that they've determined that when an alzheimer's drug is administered to guinea pigs exposed to nerve agents, that the guinea pigs suffer on ill-consequences from the exposure. Very interesting! When I was serving in the military all we had were those damned atropine pens and we were always told "If you need to use one of these, you're probably already dead or brain damaged so it won't really matter". Now, theoretically the military can innoculate our soldiers against exposures to nerve agents.

Number Six (You guessed it)
This is the article regarding the efforts to determine exactly what constitutes a "planet". Under the current suggestion anything that orbits a star and not another planet and is round would be considered a planet. Using this definiton, Pluto will remain a planet and Xena, Ceres and Charon will gain planethood status. Ok, I can understand Xena and Ceres, but why Charon? Does it not orbit Pluto? wouldn't that make it a satelite and not a planet? Too much work and not enough recreational reading time to discover the rational. Anyone care to enlighten me?

Number Seven (Last one so get with the program)
NASA's Odyssey orbiter has detected gas eruptions from Mars' south polar region during that hemisphere's spring. If I'm not mistaken that is only the second eruption detected on a body other than Earth by a spacecraft (the other being Io). I just thought this was pretty cool.

So that's it. Now I can clear out all of these links that have been cluttering my inbox.

America's Space Prize

The rules for the new $50 million America's Space Prize have been set. This is a very exciting development in the privatization of space travel. This competition takes over where the Ansari X Prize left off. To win the Ansari prize , the competitor needed only ascend to the fringes of space and be capable of carrying 3 passengers. To win the America's Space Prize however, the competitor will need to lauch 5 people into space and maintain them there for two full orbits. If you are adventurous enough to wish to compete, here are the rules you must conform to:

• The spacecraft must reach a minimum altitude of 400 kilometers (approximately 250 miles);


• The spacecraft must reach a minimum velocity sufficient to complete two (2) full orbits at altitude before returning to Earth;


• The spacecraft must carry no less than a crew of five (5) people;


• The spacecraft must dock or demonstrate its ability to dock with a Bigelow Aerospace inflatable space habitat, and be capable of remaining on station at least six (6) months;


• The spacecraft must perform two (2) consecutive, safe and successful orbital missions within a period of sixty (60) calendar days, subject to Government regulations;


• No more than twenty percent (20 percent) of the spacecraft may be composed of expendable hardware;


• The spacecraft must complete its two (2) missions safely and successfully, with all five (5) crew members aboard for the second qualifying flight, before the competition's deadline of Jan. 10, 2010.


• The contestant must have its principal place of business in the United States of America.


• The Competitor must not accept of utilize government development funding related to this contest of any kind, nor shall there be any government ownership of the competitor. Using government test facilities shall be permitted.


• The spacecraft must complete its two (2) missions safely and successfully, with all five (5) crew members aboard for the second qualifying flight, before the competition's deadline of Jan. 10, 2010.

X-Prize Ressurected

It would appear that once was not good enough! The sponsors of the Ansari X-Prize have announced that the prize will become a yearly competition, looking to improve on the performance of previous contenders. This in addition to the $50M Bigelow prize is truly turning into an interesting set of developments!

The Last Nail's in the Ansari Coffin

True to the promised performance, spaceship one once again made its way into space today, giving its creators the preeminent claim to the Ansari X Prize. This might seem like a small thing to some, but it certainly portends great things to come. This is it folks. Within a very short time, you are likely to see man living in space full time. Sure, you'd never know it by looking at that small aircraft, but that is exactly the weight it was carrying on its wings; the weight of our future.

...and Already the Purse Grows!

At the conclusion of today's rather harrowing, but none-the-less successful flight of Spaceship One, Robert Bigelow of Bigelow Aerospace announced a new prize to sweeten the pot! $50 million for the first private company to develop an orbital craft capable of carrying seven passengers. His idea behind sponsoring the competition was to foster the development of a craft capable of delivering paying tourists to his company's inflatable space habitats.

This is an exciting time indeed. We are seeing the very genesis of every science fiction dream come to fruition.

It is time we returned to the moon and high time we started thinking about setting foot on Mars for the first time.