Will the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN probe become a maven on the topic of Mars?

Only time will tell but NASA has a track record when it comes to delivering explorers to our red neighbor in one piece. If all goes well, MAVEN will help us determine how Mars lost almost all of its atmosphere and water. Humans seem to be rather fond of water and oxygen so this isn't just interesting from a scientific point of view, it might also help us safeguard our own planet to make sure that such a runaway process doesn't happen here.

MAVEN will perform measurements from a highly elliptical orbit over a period of one Earth year, with five "deep dips" at 150 km (93 mi) minimum altitude to sample the upper atmosphere. The MAVEN spacecraft will carry three instrument suites, and they include:

Particles and Field (P&F) Package
> Solar Wind Electron Analyzer (SWEA) - measures solar wind and ionospheric electrons
> Solar Wind Ion Analyzer (SWIA) - measures solar wind and magnetosheath ion density and velocity
> SupraThermal And Thermal Ion Composition (STATIC) - measures thermal ions to moderate-energy escaping ions
> Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) - determines the impact of SEPs on the upper atmosphere
> Langmuir Probe and Waves (LPW) - determines ionospheric properties and wave heating of escaping ions and solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) input to atmosphere
> Magnetometer (MAG) - measures interplanetary solar wind and ionospheric magnetic fields

Remote Sensing (RS) Package
> Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrometer (IUVS) - measures global characteristics of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere
> Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS) Package - measures the composition and isotopes of neutral gases and ions

MAVEN is expected to reach Mars in September 2014. By then, the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite on board the Curiosity rover will have made similar surface measurements from Gale crater, which will help guide the interpretation of MAVEN's upper atmosphere measurements. MAVEN's measurements will also provide additional scientific context with which to test models for current methane formation in Mars.

Launch T-minus: 1h 25m
Watch MAVEN take off live here; http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv

Looking for more info on Mars? http://wondreal.blogspot.be/2016/06/mars-red-planet.html

This Robot Renaissance ≠ The Second Renaissance

After almost 20 years of killer drone dominated robot headlines, it seems the world's robots have finally had enough and have decided to collectively launch a full scale PR offensive to improve their image. December has truly been an amazing month for robot enthusiasts. First we had Amazon unveiling their delivery by air plans, then we got news that along with 7 other companies google had just bought Boston Dynamics and yesterday we saw NASAs Valkyrie and many other bots compete at the DARPA Robotics Challenge! The challenge was a phenomenal success and was won by SCHAFT, which you can see in action in the video below. This month also saw Europe launch Gaia & Swarm, we saw China land a Jade rabbit on the moon and two days ago we were allowed to eavesdrop on the conversation between Japanese robot Kirobo and an astronaut aboard the ISS. With TU Delft unveiling its DelFly; the first fully autonomous robot dragonfly, and yesterday's introduction to cubli; a walking and jumping self balancing cube, robot news shows no signs of slowing down. When you see robonaut stretching its new legs in the links below, you can only wonder where they will take us.

From a simple Roomba to Google's selfdriving cars, from Matternet's quadcopter delivery vehicles to robot seals for the elderly and robot dinosaurs that teach kids to code,... Robots are finally helping us rediscover that they have other uses besides spying and bombing people. After 40 years of hiding in space, in the military, in darkened manufacturing plants and only recently showing up in healthcare and search and rescue, increasingly advanced robots and drones are finally beginning to show up in the more traditional consumer market.

More and more we see robots that support us, not just literally as is the case with exoskleletons, or physically when they replace broken limbs and organs, but also mentally. A computer, when given input (keyboard, mouse, camera) can mine, gather, assemble, transform, inspect and distribute data. If a computer has an eye, it can see you fall. A robot is all that with the added benefit that it can actually catch you. A robot is what happens when you stick any combination of wings, arms, eyes, ears and/or noses onto a computer. We love to play with these machines because humans crave data. It's what allows us to improve our understanding of the world and our quality of life and these new toys are helping us generate mountains of it. Even excavating it from places we never would have thought possible, places inaccessible to ourselves.

This week Europe launched Gaia, last week China's rover started roaming the surface of the moon, last month India sent a probe on its way to orbit Mars and last year the US's massive Curiosity gently touched down on Mars. We've got robots keeping an eye on places as remote as Titan and even Pluto and this year, for the first time in our history, we've managed to guide one of our envoys, Voyager 1, out of our solar system and into the the void between the stars. If there is a race between man and machine, we fleshlings just got beaten to interstellar space. These days, robots are literally everywhere.

Have you seen the many Robot spiders, fish, snakes, flies and dragonflies, humming-bees and -birds, apes, mules, dogs, lizards, jellyfish & octopi crawl around on youtube? During my travels I've even made some rare sightings of various room sized robot scientists, puking and farting humanoids and even many armed surgeons and organ growers. Robotics is undergoing its own Cambrian explosion. Robots are beginning to take on a stupendous amount of shapes and sizes, their form and function radiating outwards filling niches as fast as we can think of them. If something can be done, we either already have or are about to. The human spirit in action!

Anyone can visit any place anywhere from wherever they are by sending or unlocking a robotic representation of themselves. Robots giving keynote speeches are kind of cool but how would you feel about a robot boss? You can ask Siri, Google or WolframAlpha anything and they will be able to answer many of your questions. You can play a game with Watson or Deep Blue and lose. You can have sex with a realdoll or a real far-away person through teledildonics. Could chatterbot, when he recognizes you and can recall your past conversations, become your friend? Another celebration of the human spirit or the loss of our human touch?

Right now people can perform a 9 to 5 drone flight over Afghanistan and not miss their family dinner in the US... How much longer before we'll be able to do 9 to 5 shifts as astronaut miners? Robotic avatars that respond 1:1 to your movements and virtual reality gear that allows you to put yourself in the robot's position will no doubt find use in various branches of our emerging space industry. Besides exploration, mining and construction, they might even find use in tourism. I can imagine many being too afraid to strap themselves to the top of a rocket but I think A LOT of people would pay to experience space through an avatar.

> Apple, Amazon & Google getting into robotics
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/apple-amazon-and-now-google-an-exciting-time-for-robotics
> Google adds to its menagerie of robots
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/14/technology/google-adds-to-its-menagerie-of-robots.html
> Boston Dynamic showcase
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/17/google-boston-dynamics-robots-atlas-bigdog-cheetah
> Meet the DRC teams
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/video-friday-darpa-robotics-challenge-trials-meet-the-teams
> DRC trials wrap-up
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/darpa-robotics-challenge-trials-results
> Matternet's package delivery drones
http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/aerospace/aviation/matternets-package-delivery-drones
> Amazon Testing Drone Delivery System
> Gaia Space Telescope Soon to Map the Milky Way [HD]
> Swarm; orbiting magnetism to light converter maps earths magnetic field
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/at-work/test-and-measurement/orbiting-magnetism-to-light-converter-maps-earths-magnetic-field
> China's Jade Rabbit Moon rover sends back first photos
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25393826
> Astronaut chats with Kirobo
http://www.universetoday.com/107382/this-hilarious-conversation-with-a-space-robot-makes-kirobo-seem-almost-human/
> Robot dragonfly DelFly Explorer flies autonomously
> NASA Unveils Valkyrie
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/military-robots/nasa-jsc-unveils-valkyrie-drc-robot
> Robonaut Legs In Motion
> The Cubli: a cube that can jump up, balance, and 'walk'
> BBC/NHK docu; Robot Revolution, will machines surpass humans (2013-05-04) Full HD 1080P

We have a liftoff and are on our way to Mars! *Big cheers!

Let's hope he has a nice trip and gets there in one piece. The landing will be quite a nerve wrecking moment as well, but I am really looking forward to it. HD footage from Mars! We will be hearing a lot more from Curioisity in 8 and a half months.

PS: I can't reach mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ at the moment which is good! There seems to be a lot of interest!

NASA's Huge Nuclear Powered Mars Rover and its bag of tricks

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mission with the aim to land and operate a rover named Curiosity on the surface of Mars. The MSL is scheduled to launch between November 25 and December 18, 2011 and to land on Mars at Gale Crater between August 6 and August 20, 2012.

MastCam: HD video (This is going to be a real treat!)
Hand Lens Imager: Color pictures of features as tiny as 12.5 microns
SAM: A mass spectrometer, a gas chromatograph and a laser spectrometer.
MARDI: Camera located on Curiosity's main body, will record video of the rover's descent.
CheMin: Identifies different types of minerals.
ChemCam: Fires a laser at Martian rocks and analyze the composition of the vaporized bits.
APX: Shoots out X-rays and helium nuclei to identify elements.
DAN: Fires beams of neutrons at the ground in search of ice and water-logged minerals.
RAD: Helps prepare for future human exploration of Mars. The instrument will measure and identify high-energy radiation of all types on the Red Planet, from fast-moving protons to gamma rays.
REMS: Measures atmospheric pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction, air temperature, ground temperature and ultraviolet radiation.
MEDLI: Measures the temperatures and pressures the heat shield experiences as the MSL spacecraft streaks through the Martian sky. (installed on the shield and not on the rover)

http://www.space.com/13689-nasa-amazing-mars-rover-curiosity-science.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Science_Laboratory

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

Something so hot it's cool to touch

Light up your day with this video demonstration of a space shuttle thermal protection tile! These tiles dissipate heat so quickly, it can be safely picked up immediately after being removed from a 2200°F (1204°C | 1478K ) oven, despite still being red-hot.

The Thermal Protection System covered essentially the entire shuttle surface and consisted of seven different materials in varying locations. Each type of TPS had specific heat protection, impact resistance, and weight characteristics. Ceck out this pdf for a very detailed look at the space shuttle's TPS. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/pdf/584728main_Wings-ch4b-pgs182-199.pdf

How can something this hot be cold enough to touch?
Misconceptions About Temperature - Veritasium Youtube
spoiler; When you touch something you are actually feeling the heat flux: how fast that thing is heating you up, not the temperature itself. Because the material used for these tiles conducts heat extremely poorly it won't burn your fingers.


Space Shuttle Thermal Tile Demonstration

Google and NASA's Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab

Welcome to the future; Google uses quantum computer to more accurately distinguish intentional blinks from involuntary ones which could lead to a breakthrough in wink triggered apps!

If that sounds like something out of the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, I'd say you are right but it also happens to be the world we live in these days. :)

Normally, when a company's commercials promise you the future, you roll your eyes. When google does it, you don't. Self driving cars, wearable computing, artificial intelligence, fiber and balloon network carriers, asteroid mining, synthetic meat, robotic lunar missions, quantum computing, conquering death, ...

Google is playing it extremely smart, portraying itself as the most forward thinking future driven company out there. They are going to have an advantage on other companies hoping to draw on the pool of talented individuals that really want to make a difference. Since they put their money where their mouth is and are really trying to pull the future into the present, I can't help but cheer them on!

Nasa's keeping it cool, really cool

NASA's Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL), scheduled to be installed on the International Space Station early 2016, has succeeded in producing a state of matter known as a Bose-Einstein condensate, a key breakthrough for the instrument.

A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter of a dilute gas of bosons cooled to temperatures very close to absolute zero. Under such conditions, a large fraction of the bosons occupy the lowest quantum state, at which point quantum effects become apparent on a macroscopic scale.

CAL researchers used lasers to optically cool rubidium atoms to temperatures almost a million times colder than that of the depths of space. The atoms were then magnetically trapped, and radio waves were used to cool the atoms 100 times lower. The radiofrequency radiation acts like a knife, slicing away the hottest atoms from the trap so that only the coldest remain.

The research is now at the point where this process can reliably create a Bose-Einstein condensate in just seconds.

CAL is designed to study ultra-cold quantum gases on the space station. In the station's microgravity environment, interaction times and temperatures as low as one picokelvin (one trillionth of one Kelvin) should be achievable. That's colder than anything known in nature, and the experiments with CAL could potentially create the coldest matter ever observed in the universe. These breakthrough temperatures unlock the potential to observe new quantum phenomena and test some of the most fundamental laws of physics.

ScienceCasts: The Coolest Spot in the Universe

http://coldatomlab.jpl.nasa.gov/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose%E2%80%93Einstein_condensate

Voyager 1

After 33 years, the Voyager 1 is nearing the edge of our solar system. This ambassador to the stars carries with it the historic golden record on which the following hopeful message was recorded.

Saturn

HD and fullscreen is recommended but be careful not to drown.

A tribute to the space shuttles

The end of an era... Goosebumps.