Mars, The Red Planet

I have a feeling I am not the only one interested in Curiosity's imminent touchdown on Mars later tonight! I was worried that people might not even notice because of the enormous spotlight on the olympics but in reality the world seems to be waiting with bathed breath. There is still hope for our species! ;)

So what's the deal? What's so interesting about a rusty ball of rock floating through space? Fool! Would you say earth is just a watery rock floating through space? Have some respect would you! ;) Mars is another world, an entire planet waiting for exploration. Large parts of its history have yet to be uncovered and its future will intertwine with that of mankind. Mars is the scene for one of the greatest genuine adventure stories in mankind's future history. Another great leap waiting to happen.

Martian Geology
Mars is a terrestrial planet that consists of minerals containing silicon and oxygen, metals, and other elements that typically make up rock. Like Earth, this planet has undergone differentiation, resulting in a dense, metallic core region overlaid by less dense materials. Current models of the planet's interior imply a core region about 1790 km in radius, consisting primarily of iron, nickel and sulfur. Two of its most striking geological features are the Valles Marineris, a 4,000 km long, 200 km wide and 7 km deep system of canyons that runs along the Martian surface east of the Tharsis region and the Olympus Mons, a towering shield volcano that reaches a mind boggling 27 km into the sky, more than 3 times the height of Mt Everest. It is the highest known mountain on any planet within our Solar System.

Although Mars has no evidence of a current structured global magnetic field, observations show that parts of the planet's crust have been magnetized, and that alternating polarity reversals of its dipole field have occurred in the past. This paleomagnetism of magnetically susceptible minerals has properties that are very similar to the alternating bands found on the ocean floors of Earth. One theory, published in 1999 and re-examined in October 2005 (with the help of the Mars Global Surveyor), is that these bands demonstrate plate tectonics on Mars four billion years ago, before the planetary dynamo ceased to function and the planet's magnetic field faded away.

Martian History
During the Solar System's formation, Mars was created as the result of a stochastic process of run-away accretion out of the protoplanetary disk that orbited the Sun. Mars has many distinctive chemical features caused by its position in the Solar System. Elements with comparatively low boiling points such as chlorine, phosphorus and sulphur are much more common on Mars than Earth; these elements were probably removed from areas closer to the Sun by the young star's energetic solar wind.
After the formation of the planets, all were subjected to the so-called "Late Heavy Bombardment". About 60% of the surface of Mars shows a record of impacts from that era, while much of the remaining surface is probably underlain by immense impact basins caused by those events. There is evidence of an enormous impact basin in the northern hemisphere of Mars, spanning 10,600 km by 8,500 km, the largest impact basin yet discovered. This suggests that Mars was struck by a Pluto-sized body about four billion years ago. The event created the smooth Borealis basin that covers 40% of the planet.

Martian Water
geological evidence gathered by unmanned missions suggest that Mars once had large-scale water coverage on its surface. In 2005, radar data revealed the presence of large quantities of water ice at the poles, and at mid-latitudes. The Mars rover Spirit sampled chemical compounds containing water molecules in March 2007 and the Phoenix lander directly sampled water ice in shallow Martian soil on July 31, 2008. Liquid water cannot exist on the surface of Mars due to low atmospheric pressure, except at the lowest elevations for short periods. The two polar ice caps appear to be made largely of water. The volume of water ice in the south polar ice cap, if melted, would be sufficient to cover the entire planetary surface to a depth of 11 meters.

Martian Atmosphere
The atmosphere of Mars consists of about 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% argon and contains traces of oxygen and water. The atmosphere is quite dusty, containing particulates about 1.5 µm in diameter which give the Martian sky a tawny color when seen from the surface. Methane has been detected in the Martian atmosphere with a mole fraction of about 30 ppb. It occurs in extended plumes, and the profiles imply that the methane was released from discrete regions. In northern midsummer, the principal plume contained 19,000 metric tons of methane, with an estimated source strength of 0.6 kilogram per second. The implied methane destruction lifetime may be as long as about 4 Earth years and as short as about 0.6 Earth years. This rapid turnover would indicate an active source of the gas on the planet. Volcanic activity, cometary impacts, and the presence of methanogenic microbial life forms are among possible sources.

Of all the planets in the Solar System, the seasons of Mars are the most Earth-like, due to the similar tilts of the two planets' rotational axes. The lengths of the Martian seasons are about twice those of Earth's, as Mars's greater distance from the Sun leads to the Martian year being about two Earth years long. Mars also has the largest dust storms in our Solar System. These can vary from a storm over a small area, to gigantic storms that cover the entire planet. They tend to occur when Mars is closest to the Sun, and have been shown to increase the global temperature.

Martian Moons
Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are small and irregularly shaped. From the surface of Mars, the motions of Phobos and Deimos appear very different from that of our own moon. Phobos rises in the west, sets in the east, and rises again in just 11 hours. Deimos, being only just outside synchronous orbit—where the orbital period would match the planet's period of rotation—rises as expected in the east but very slowly. Despite the 30 hour orbit of Deimos, it takes 2.7 days to set in the west as it slowly falls behind the rotation of Mars, then just as long again to rise.
Because the orbit of Phobos is below synchronous altitude, the tidal forces from the planet Mars are gradually lowering its orbit. In about 50 million years it could either crash into Mars's surface or break up into a ring structure around the planet

Missions to Mars
Mars is currently host to three functional orbiting spacecraft: Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and one on the surface, the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. Defunct spacecraft on the surface include MER-A Spirit, and several other inert landers and rovers, both successful and unsuccessful such as the Phoenix lander, which completed its mission in 2008. Observations by NASA's now-defunct Mars Global Surveyor show evidence that parts of the southern polar ice cap have been receding. Observations by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed possible flowing water during the warmest months on Mars.

Curiosity
Now that we've established that Mars is both pretty and interesting, what exactly will curiosity be up to when he arrives? First and foremost it will try to get an answer to one of the BIG questions; find out whether Mars could ever have supported life. Its official name is MSL, Mars Science Laboratory for a reason. It carries lots of interesting tools that allow it to run its own experiments. It will study both climate and geology as well collect data that will allow us to plan for future human missions to Mars.

Curiosity takes off - http://goo.gl/09wD2 .
Curiosity's bag of tricks - http://goo.gl/8LkoV
7 minutes of terror before touchdown


BBC Horizon: Mission to Mars

Live Coverage
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/
http://www.ustream.tv/NASAJPL

Future
The Red Planet's is our closest neighbor. Both its proximity and status as a prime target for future human colonization ensure our continued interest and help drive more robotic missions to the Red Planet. There will come a time when we, bags of meat, will want to explore it ourselves and that time may almost be at hand. Initiatives like Mars One - http://mars-one.com/en/ - have a real chance of success. They managed to get a lot of respected individuals and companies on board and their timeline looks realistic. Perhaps they will be the ones who translate the dream into reality?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Science_Laboratory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_Mars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_mission_to_Mars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Mars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming_of_Mars

In memory of Merrin*: An education in P2P

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MVGroup
MVGroup is a BitTorrent tracker and file sharing community that specializes in the distribution of educational media, especially documentaries. MVGroup was established in 2002 by "Merrin" and "DarkRain" (Vittorio in those days, hence MVGroup) as a DVD-ripping-and-distributing group for the eDonkey file-sharing network, and the group continues to distribute DVD rips and TV rips on both eDonkey and BitTorrent. It has continued functioning since its establishment except for a short-lived April 2008 outage caused by an error from an anti-piracy group.

On May 5, 2008, "Merrin", the co-founder of the tracker died of undisclosed long-term health problems at the age of 31. By the time of his death, MVGroup had gained over 150,000 members, and has continued to set itself apart from larger trackers, such as The Pirate Bay, by focusing on documentaries and educational material only.

In my humble opinion these are some of the best documentaries out there. If you are looking for more information on any of these you can find it at http://www.docuwiki.net. Read carefully the linked page and you'll find nirvana. ;)

Exact Science
[Physics]
Absolute Zero - BBC (series, 2 episodes)
Light Fantastic - BBC (series, 4 episodes)
Atom - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
Time - BBC (series, 4 episodes)
Shock and Awe - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
Everything and Nothing - BBC (series, 2 episodes)
Order and Disorder - BBC (series, 2 episodes)
Invisible Worlds - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
The Fabric of the Cosmos - PBS (series, 4 episodes)
Elegant Universe - PBS NOVA (series, 3 episodes)
Hunting the Elements - PBS NOVA
The Secret Life of Chaos - BBC
The Big Bang Machine - BBC
Feynman: Fun to Imagine - BBC
Do You Know What Time it is? - BBC Horizon
How Long is a Piece of String? - BBC Horizon
What is Reality? - BBC Horizon
What is One Degree? - BBC Horizon
To Infinity and Beyond - BBC Horizon
What Happened Before the Big Bang - BBC Horizon
What on Earth is wrong with Gravity - BBC Horizon
Is Everything we Know about the Universe Wrong? - BBC Horizon
The End of God - BBC Horizon
Parallel Universes - BBC Horizon
Can We Make a Star on Earth? - BBC Horizon
Molecules with Sunglasses - BBC Horizon
Nanotopia - BBC Horizon

[Biology]
The Shape of Life - PBS NOVA (series, 8 episodes)
Evolution - PBS NOVA (series, 7 episodes)
How to Grow a Planet - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
Becoming Human - PBS NOVA (series, 3 episodes)
The Origins of Us - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
Inside the Human Body (series, 4 episodes)
Into the Mind - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
Superhuman - BBC (series, 6 episodes)
Brain Story - BBC (series, 6 episodes)
The Brain: A Secret History - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
Human Sensens - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
How to Build a Human - BBC (series, 4 episodes)
First Life - BBC (series, 2 episodes)
Wonders of Life - BBC (series, 5 episodes)
Secret Universe: The Hidden Life of the Cell - BBC (docu-film)
The Secrets of the Mind - PBS NOVA
Is Seeing Believing? - BBC Horizon
The Ghost in Your Genes - BBC Horizon
Fix Me - BBC Horizon
How Does Your Memory Work - BBC Horizon
Mad but Glad - BBC Horizon
Don't Grow Old - BBC Horizon
Are We Still Evolving? - BBC Horizon
The Secret You - BBC Horizon
The Secret Life of your Body Clock - BBC Horizon
Living Forever - BBC Horizon
The Nine Months That Made You - BBC Horizon
Why Do Viruses Kill? - BBC Horizon
Designer Babies - BBC Horizon
What Makes Us Clever? A Horizon Guide to Intelligence - BBC
Do You See What I See? - BBC Horizon
Playing God - BBC Horizon

[Geology]
Time Machine - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
Earth, the Power of the Planet - BBC (series, 5 episodes)
Journeys from the Center of the Earth - BBC (series, 6 episodes)
Earth Story - BBC (series, 8 episodes)
Journeys into the Ring of Fire (series, 4 episodes)
The Beauty of Maps - BBC (series, 4 episodes)
How the Earth Was Made - History Channel (series, 2 seasons)
Cloudspotting - BBC
Snowball Earth - BBC Horizon
The Core - BBC Horizon
IMAX - Journey to Amazing Caves (docu-film)

[Astronomy]
The Planets - BBC (series, 8 episodes)
Stephen Hawking's Universe - Discovery (series, 6 episodes)
Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking - Discovery (series, 3 episodes)
How the Universe Works - Discovery (series, 8 episodes)
The Universe - History Channel (series, 5 seasons)
Known Universe - NGC (series, 6 episodes)
Wonders of the Solar System - BBC (series, 5 episodes)
Wonders of the Universe - BBC (series, 4 episodes)
Space - BBC (series, 6 episodes)
The Search For Life: The Drake Equation - BBC
Titan A Place Like Home - BBC Horizon
Bye Bye Planet Pluto - BBC Horizon
The Death Star - BBC Horizon
The Hawking Paradox - BBC Horizon
Titan, A Place Like Home? - BBC Horizon
Supermassive Black Holes - BBC Horizon
Lost Horizons: The Big Bang - BBC Horizon
Most of Our Universe Is Missing - BBC Horizon
Seeing Stars - BBC Horizon
Are We Alone in the Universe? - BBC Horizon
Death Of The Universe - NGC
Origins - PBS Nova (series, 4 episodes)
Welcome To Mars - PBS Nova
Voyage To The Mystery Moon - PBS Nova
Journey to the Edge of the Universe - NGC (docu-film)
IMAX - Space Station (docu-film)
IMAX - Hubble (docu-film)

[Nature]
Private Life of Plants - BBC (series, 6 episodes)
Life in the Undergrowth - BBC (series, 5 episodes)
Nature's Great Events - BBC (series, 6 episodes)
Frozen Planet - BBC (series, 7 episodes)
The Blue Planet - BBC (series, 8 episodes)
Planet Earth - BBC (series, 11 episodes)
Human Planet - BBC (series, 8 episodes)
EarthFlight - BBC (series, 6 episodes)
Great Barrier Reef - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
Madagascar - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
Galápagos - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
Yellowstone - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
Wild China - BBC (series, 6 episodes)
Wild Pacific - BBC (series, 5 episodes)
Ganges - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
Africa - BBC (series, 6 episodes)
Life - BBC (series, 10 episodes)
Life on Earth - BBC (series, 13 episodes)
The Living Planet - BBC (series, 12 episodes)
The Trials of Life - BBC (series, 12 episodes)
Life in the Freezer - BBC (series, 6 episodes)
The Life of Birds - BBC (series, 10 episodes)
The Life of Mammals - BBC (series, 10 episodes)
Life in Cold Blood - BBC (series, 5 episodes)
Wild Sex - NGC (series, 6 episodes)
March of the Penguins (docu-film)
Microcosmos (docu-film)

[Mixed]
The Ascent of Man - BBC (series, 10 episodes)
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage - PBS (series, 14 episodes)
The Day the Universe Changed - BBC (series, 10 episodes)
The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion - BBC (series, 6 episodes)
The Human Animal - BBC (series, 6 episodes)
The Incredible Human Journey - BBC (series, 5 episodes)
How Earth Made Us - BBC (series, 5 episodes)
Chemistry, a Volatile History - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
The Story of Maths - BBC (series, 4 episodes)
The Code - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
Visions of the Future - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
Connections - BBC (series, 3 seasons)
Swarm - BBC (series, 2 episodes)
Dara Ó Briain's Science Club - BBC (series, 6 episodes)
Brave New World - Channel 4 (series, 5 episodes)
Through the Wormhole - Discovery (series, 4 seasons)
NatureTech (series, 3 episodes)
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out (Richard Feynman)
How to Build a Bionic Man - Channel 4
Explosions, How we Shook the World - BBC
Afterlife: The Strange Science of Decay - BBC
The Voice - BBC
The Satellite Story - BBC
The Story of One - BBC
Stuff: A Horizon Guide to Materials - BBC
The Hunt for AI - BBC Horizon
Diamond Labs - BBC Horizon
Fermat's Last Theorem - BBC Horizon
Who's Afraid of Designer Babies? - BBC Horizon
The Lost World of Lake Vostok - BBC Horizon
Human v2.0 - BBC Horizon
Moon for Sale - BBC Horizon
The Boy Who Was Turned into a Girl - BBC Horizon
Alien Planet - Discovery (docu-film)
Home (docu-film)

Humanities
[War]
The World at War - (series, 26 episodes)
Weird Weapons - History Channel (series, 2 episodes)
Atlantic convoys - War at Sea (series, 4 episodes)
Apocalypse: The Second World War (series, 6 episodes)
Last Voices of WWI - History Channel (series, 6 episodes)
Fog of War (docu-film)
Nuit et brouillard - Night and Fog (docu-short)
Hearts and Minds (docu-film)
Restrepo (docu-film)
Armadillo (docu-film)
Trinity and Beyond (docu-film)

[Prehistory & earlier]
Walking with Sea Monsters - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
Walking with Monsters - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
Walking with Dinosaurs - BBC (series, 6 episodes)
Walking with Beasts - BBC (series, 6 episodes)
Walking with Cavemen - BBC (series, 4 episodes)
The Mystery Of The Jurassic - BBC Horizon
Stone Age Columbus - BBC Horizon
The Day The Earth Almost Died - BBC Horizon

[Politics & Economics]
Commanding Heights - PBS NOVA (series, 3 episodes)
The Ascent of Money - (series, 6 episodes)
How Britain Made the Modern World - (series, 6 episodes)
In Europe (series, 30 episodes)
Frontline - PBS (series, 30 seasons)
The Love of Money - BBC
Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky (docu-film)
Rebel with a Pause - Noam Chomsky (docu-film)
Inside Job (docu-film)
Nostalgia for the Light (docu-film)
Chavez: Inside the Coup (docu-film)
Taxi to the dark side (docu-film)
Taking liberties (docu-film)
Crude (docu-film)
Globalization is Good (docu-film)
The Corporation (docu-film)
Wal-mart: the High Cost of Low Price (docu-film)
Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room (docu-film)

[Mixed subject]
Civilization - BBC (series, 13 episodes)
The Virtual Revolution - BBC (series, 4 episodes)
Science and Islam - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
Fry's Planet Word - BBC (series, 6 episodes)
Human, All Too Human - BBC (series, 3 episodes)
The NASA Missions : When We Left Earth - Discovery (series, 6 episodes)
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends - (series, 3 seasons)
When Louis Met... - (series, 2 seasons)
Up - (series, 7 docu-films)
The Boy With the Incredible Brain
N is a Number
The Century of the Self (series, 4 episodes)
Guns, Germs and Steel - PBS (series, 3 episodes)
Transcendent Man (docu-film)
We Live in Public (docu-film)
Lake of Fire (docu-film)
Into Eternity (docu-film)
Titicut Follies (docu-film)
Rise of the Drones - PBS NOVA
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple - PBS
The Machine That Made Us - BBC
A War On Science: Intelligent Design - BBC Horizon
Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires - (docu-film)
All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace - BBC (series, 3 episodes)

[Special cases]
Koyaanisqatsi (docu-film)
Powaqqatsi (docu-film)
Naqoyqatsi (docu-film)
Chronos (docu-film)
Baraka (docu-film)
Samsara (docu-film)
51 Birch Street (docu-film)
Our Daily Bread (docu-film)
Rivers and Tides (docu-film)
Encounters at the End of the World (docu-film)
Dark Side of the Moon (docu-film, don't research it (spoilers!) just watch!)

I'd also like to stress that BBC Horizon, now into its 49th season is prolly the best docu seriess of all time. I could just as well have included every single episode.

Mexico's giant crystal cave

Mexico's giant crystal cave got it's name from the stunning 10 meter long crystals that were found inside. The cave is extremely hot with air temperatures reaching up to 58 °C (136 °F) with 90 to 99 percent humidity. Due to these factors, the cave is relatively unexplored. Without proper protection people can only endure approximately ten minutes of exposure at a time. The cave lies on an ancient fault and there is an underground magma chamber below the cave. The magma heated the ground water and it became saturated with minerals, including large quantities of gypsum. The hollow space of the cave was filled with this mineral rich hot water and remained filled for about 500,000 years. During this time, the temperature of the water remained very stable at over 50°C. This allowed crystals to form and grow to immense sizes.

Bonus Picture: A science team explores the cave.
BBC Docu - How Earth Made Us