Mars Data Dump

This is kind of odd. I'm a big space nerd, so I follow this stuff pretty closely, but there's a whole slew of Mars stories today. The first one I saw today was a large piece in the Globe and Mail about Bush's proposed space initiative.

First off, if people read the piece in the Globe and Mail today and were interested in the possibilities of Mars exploration, all I can say is that you're much better off reading Robert Zubrin's book itself. The Case for Mars should be easily available at libraries, or bookstores. The piece was not terribly informative, and much of what it wrote clearly it got wrong. The largest point is that the reporter seems to be conflating Zubrin's original plan (which makes a lot of sense, but would be risky) with Bush's non-proposal for space exploration (which makes no sense, thus will never happen, thus is not risky whatsoever.)

If you read Zubrin and like it, move on to Entering Space (his second book) or Mining the Sky by John S. Lewis. Both are excellent.

Secondly, the hopes that life might be found on Mars, either extant or fossilized, have taken another blow:

One study reveals that a region rich in the mineral olivine - which suggests it is has been "dry" for about 3 billion years - is actually four times larger than previously thought. That adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting Mars was mostly cold and dry - and not warm and wet - in the past.

Oh well. I guess this means that the strip-mining can commence, as soon as Halliburton can figure out a way to bid on Martian projects. My suggestion: The US Congress declares Mars an enemy, then Halliburton can go there just like they worked with Iraq and Iran.

Thirdly, NASA plans to launch a probe to Mars to investigate the north polar region. Interesting science - hopefully NASA actually manages to land this one, unlike their last attempt.

Fourthly, and not entirely Mars related, the Planetary Society (I believe Carl Sagan's old group) has announced the planned launch of their first attempt at a solar sail spacecraft. Basically, the craft will be launched by a Russian submarine on June 21st, maneuver in orbit for about a month using nothing but sunlight on sails made of mylar, and then in all prbability burn up in the atmosphere. While this isn't the first solar sail, it is the first private attempt to do so. If there's ever any large-scale movement of people off-earth, I would bet on solar sails to take people - they're simple, cheap, and as reliable as sunshine. John Lewis (mentioned above) has written a great deal about the possibilities of solar sailing, as have others.

We now return to our regularly unscheduled blogging.