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The Red Planet

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The Red Planet Possibility of life, exploration and beyond Introduction The Myth and the civilization The Exploration Life on the Red planet? The Future Conclusion ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: The Red Planet


1
The Red Planet
  • Possibility of life, exploration and beyond

2
Introduction
  • The Myth and the civilization
  • The Exploration
  • Life on the Red planet?
  • The Future
  • Conclusion

3
The Myth and the Civilization
  • The canals, the face and the civilization that
    our imagination created

4
The Canals
  • In 1876 Italian priest Pietro Secchi observed
    straight line pattern on the surface of Mars
  • 1877, Giovanni Schiaparelli published a map of
    Mars, assigning names and called the feature
    canali, or Channel
  • The popular notion that intelligent life form
    constructed the canals was argued persuasively by
    Percival Lowell in his 1895 book

5
The face on Mars
  • In 1976, spaceship Viking 1 spotted the shadowy
    likeness of a human face
  • What could it be for? Does it signify some kind
    of Alien presence?

6
The Civilization
  • There was a wide believe that Mars is populated
    by Intelligent life form

7
Life Came From Mars?!
  • Can an asteroid from Mars possibly contaminated
    Earth with bacterial life form?

8
The Exploration
  • The Russian and USAs Mars exploration effort

9
The Russian Attempts
  • The Soviets, being a player in the space race,
    sent more then a dozen of spacecrafts to Mars
  • http//www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Soviemar/soviem
    ar.htm

10
The US Launches
  • The US also began its own Mars exploration
    projects, including the Mars Global Surveyor, the
    Pathfinder rover, and the recently launched
    Spirit and Opportunity
  • http//mars.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/

11
Mars 1-6 Orbiter/Lander
  • The U.S.S.R.s Mars project is the first attempt
    to send a space craft to Mars
  • Mars 2 Lander became the first artificial object
    on Mars when it crashed onto the surface

12
Mariner1-9 Orbiter/Lander
  • Mariners are the first probes that successfully
    sent back data of Mars with 4 successful missions.

13
The Mars Global Surveyor
  • In 1998, the Mars Surveyor was sent in Mars orbit
    with its camera pointed towards the face. Another
    mission in 2001 showed clearly that the face is
    no more then mesas.

And no, the face doesnt open up, and no, open
sesame does not work on Mars (just a stupid
comment made on Mission to Mars, its better if
you never saw the movie)
14
Mars Pathfinder Mission
  • Mars Pathfinder is the first rover sent to Mars.
    It was designed as a technology demonstration of
    a way to deliver an instrumented Lander and a
    free-ranging robotic rover to the surface of the
    red planet

15
Spirit/Opportunity Mission
  • In 2004, when the distance between Earth and Mars
    is at its minimum, twin rovers are sent over to
    Mars in the Delta rocket.
  • Their mission is to look for signs of liquid
    water and evidence of life.

Spirit
Opportunity
16
Life on the Red planet?
  • Can life exist on this dry and hostile planet?

17
The Building Block of Life
  • As we have learned in class, the four essential
    elements for life are H,O,N,C.
  • Weve also learned that water, as far as our
    knowledge can tell, is the single most important
    solvent for life to form
  • If water exists, or existed on Mars, then there
    is a possibility of life

18
Water?!
  • "We have concluded the rocks here were once
    soaked in liquid water," ---Steve Squyres ,
    Opportunity mission, 2004
  • As we all know, water is one f the most important
    bases of life, providing solvent and enabling
    chemical reactions

The bedrock in which Opportunity took its sample
from
19
But How??
  • There was a high concentration of water soluble
    salts in the bed rock, which, at least on Earth,
    can only be formed by evaporation of salted
    water.
  • Previous missions by Mars Global Surveyor also
    provides evidence by picturing possible seabed
    accumulation.

20
A Race with Time and Battery Life
  • There is a lot more to be discovered, and more
    question to be answered, but we dont have much
    time left with Spirit and Opportunity
  • The rovers have a design life of 90 Martian days,
    and 90 days was a long time ago

Okthis is actually the picture of a Lander
returning sample to Earth, not an overworked
rover explodingso?
The overworked, underpaid rover
21
The Future
  • 2050 Men on Mars? The possibility and expectation

22
The Moon, and the Mars
  • With the experience and knowledge gained on the
    moon, we will then be ready to take the next
    steps of space exploration human missions to
    Mars and to worlds beyond.
  • ---President Bush, January 2004

23
Taking Baby Steps
  • The first step towards manned mission to Mars is
    the completion on the ISS( International Space
    Station) which in only staffed with two emergency
    crew at the moment
  • With the shuttle fleet grounded, the only link
    between ISS are the Russian launchers.
  • To replace the shuttle and get astronauts back
    into space, NASA has been instructed to produce
    the Crew Exploration Vehicle, a heavy duty
    reusable vehicle.

24
The CEV
25
Back on the Moon
  • The Second step is the returning to moon
  • The moon is a perfect place to test technology
    for human habitat station that will be used for
    long term stay on Mars, and the ability to
    transport such module from Earth to space

26
Modified CEV For Mars
http//boeingmedia.com/images/one.cfm?image_id886
4releaset
27
Man on Mars!!
  • With the technology proven and the ability to
    transport crew through space, a manned mission
    will be sent on Mars
  • A manned mission will accomplish more in the way
    that the experts sent there will know what they
    are looking for and can perform a smarter
    analysis on the samples found

28
Conclusion
  • Life on Mars? Or not?

29
InconclusiveAgain?!
  • Ok, so nothing is solid on the evidence of life
    on Mars yet, but at least were sure theres no
    intelligent life form there, I mean, being a bad
    neighbor like us who crashes space crafts onto
    their planet every once in a whileId have been
    pretty annoyed.

The fact is that we dont have enough information
to prove or disprove that life existed on Mars or
not. Sending a space craft over might look easy,
but truth be told, even NASA screwed up half of
the mission. One little mistake, even a single
degree of an error in the navigational system,
can send the space craft into some weird orbit
that will never reach Mars.
30
Questions?
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