CALGARY, ALTA. —
It’s the stuff of both cheesy sci-fi movies, and high-brow academic research…Is there (or was there) life on Mars? A trio of Martian missions arriving at the red planet this month will likely reignite the debate.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Amal orbiter has already arrived, and is orbiting Mars, as has the Chinese Tianwen-1 combination orbiter which is carrying a landing module as well.
NASA’s Perseverance rover is scheduled to land on the surface of Mars on Feb. 18.
All three missions are examining Mars to further our understanding of what is considered he only other possibly habitable planet in the solar system.
“Isn’t that one of the big questions..’ Is life unique to our planet?’ asks Don Hladiuk, a life member of the Royal Astronomical Society. “This is one of the big questions, least to me, and to humanity: did life start elsewhere? And it’d be huge if we could show that life just didn’t start on our planet, it’s able to start in other worlds.”
Why 3 Mars missions all at once?
Why there are three missions to the fourth rock from the sun is more about timing than teamwork.
“The Earth goes around the sun and Mars(also) goes around the sun on these gigantic orbits, and there are times when the planets are close together. And those are the opportune times to fire a rocket over there and get something in orbit or land something on the surfaceai,” said Phil Langill, University of Calgary professor, and director of the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory “It’s all about the timing and the orientation of the planets. When the time is right, then different countries, and more and more countries are getting involved.”
UAE Amal mission
The UAE’s Amal marks the Arab world’s first-ever foray into interplanetary research. It will spend the next two years studying the martial atmosphere from orbit. Scientists will be looking for answers to questions about how Mars changed from having a fairly earth-like environment to what it is now; a cold, dry, planet with a thin atmosphere.
“Everything that we’ve learned from past spacecraft orbiters and rovers, is that early on in Mars’s history, it was warm and wet, very similar to Earth,” said Cassandra Marion, science advisor at the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum “ Then at some point, and we’re not exactly sure exactly when that happened, or why it happened, Mars started losing its magnetic field, it cooled down. And now, because of the very low pressure on the surface of the planet, liquid water is no longer stable. so now it’s gone from its history of wet and warm to now dry, and like a desert, a dry and arid planet.”
China’s Tianwen-1 mission
China’s mission, named Tianwen-1, will send a rover to the surface looking for evidence of ice underground. This is considered one of the key questions which needs answering before sending manned missions to the red planet as a manned Mars mission will be unable to transport all the required supplies meaning the crew will need to harvest some of their own supplies, like water, from the Martian surface.
“These are stepping stones for future colonization,” said Hladiuk “By going interplanetary, by colonizing another world, like Mars, we give our species a better chance, rather than having all our eggs in one basket, We might have a colony and another world.”
Tianwen-1’s rover will be landing on Mars in a the same location where NASA first touched down on Mars in 1976 – a wide open plain known as Utopia Planitia.
NASA Perseverance mission: “Seven minutes of Terror’
The normally stoic NASA engineers have dubbed the period between entry in the Martian atmosphere to landing “the seven minutes of terror.”
That’s because the one-way time it takes for radio signals to travel from Earth to Mars is about 10.5 minutes, which means the seven minutes it takes from entry to the Martian atmosphere to touching down on the planet will happen without any help from earth-based scientists and engineers.
Here’s what has to happen in that 7 minutes
Here on earth NASA scientists give the command for the spacecraft to begin its entry, descent and landing procedure (EDL). From this point on it’s ‘hands-off’ as the computerized systems take over, in a complex set of maneuvers.
Travelling almost 20,000 km/h, the spacecraft hits the Martian atmosphere. It has seven minutes to slow to zero and make a soft landing. Within seconds of entering the atmosphere it will heat up to 1300 degrees Celsius.
The spacecraft’s heat shield will endure peak heating of 2,370 degrees Fahrenheit, 75 seconds after entering the atmosphere.
It helps if you think of Perseverance as the world’s most sophisticated self-driving vehicle. Using two separate systems – a range trigger, and terrain relative navigation – its aim is to maneuver the lander to a safe spot amidst the boulders and craters on this section of Mars.
The range trigger determines when Perseverance should trigger its 21.5 metre parachute . At around this point the heat shields will detach.
But Mars’ thin atmosphere and the high speed of the spacecraft means a parachute alone can’t slow the descent enough for a safe touchdown.
“So then it releases the parachute and the top of the capsule. And then it’s basically a rover attached to a jetpack,” says Marion “They call it the descent, vehicle, but it’s basically a jetpack. It fires these retro rockets towards the surface to slow it down more, and then as it’s coming in, at once it’s a certain distance from the surface. It’s basically on this hazard detecting autopilot so if it sees a boulder, it can actually divert around it all by itself, and to land in a safe spot.
“Then,” Marion says, continuing, “it drops the rover down on these nylon cables, which is the crane part. And then once the rover touches the ground, it senses that and then the vehicle releases the rover and flies off so that it doesn’t crash into the rover. It’s pretty crazy.”
The ‘sky crane maneuver’ has been tested before. It was used to successfully land the Curiosity rover on Mars.
Lucky Peanuts
During the seven minutes of terror, NASA engineers will be chowing down on peanuts. It’s a somewhat bizarre superstition considering mission control is considered a bastion of science and logic.
In 1964 during launch of the Ranger 7 mission, following six mission failures, one of the engineers passed around peanuts giving the crew something to manage their anxiety. The mission was a success, and ever since peanuts have been part of the countdown checklist for mission control.
Perseverance’s Mission
Once it lands Perseverance will take samples from the soil and set them aside. A decade from now another rover will head to Mars to retrieve, and return them. They would be the first soil samples of another planet ever returned to earth.
Childhood dream come true for Canadian scientist
Chris Herd, a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at the University of Alberta, is one 15 Return Sample Scientists selected by NASA to coordinate the return of the Martian soil and test the samples once back on earth.
“I was 13, when I said I want to be there when the samples come back from Mars. So that would be that would be literally a dream come true for me,” said Herd “My whole role on the Mars mission is to help the mission, decide where to stop and take samples and make sure we have documentation of all those samples that we do take. The potential is huge for discoveries that we just can’t even conceive of now.”
On-Board Drone-Helicopter
Named Ingenuity a 1.8 kilogram drone will be the first vehicle from earth to ever achieve powered flight over the surface of another planet. For the techies, or drone pilots reading it is a quadcopter with four blades over two rotors, which spin in opposing directions at approximately 2,400 rpm. That’s much faster than is needed for drones to fly on earth , and is a result of Mar’s much thinner atmosphere.
The solar powered drone “Ingenuity” is really a demo model, a proof of concept of sorts, in advance of a more comprehensive drone expected to arrive on a future mission.
Ingenuity is only scheduled to take a few short flights in the first month of the mission
After those flights it will attempt to fly higher to help guide the Perseverance rover. Like most earth-bound drones it has a high resolution camera, which will hopefully help Perseverance capture a few selfies as it cruises the surface of Mars.
Water – yes , but is there life on Mars?
David Bowie famously asked it in song. Perseverance may now answer the question; “is there life on Mars?” or perhaps ‘was there once life on Mars?’.
Mars’ polar regions are covered in ice. There is evidence of water lurking beneath those ice caps, and beneath Martian soil. Because water and life go hand in hand, scientists believe studying water on Mars will lead to a better understanding whether life ever existed on the red planet..
“This mission is going to land in a new spot, with new opportunities,” said Marion. “ It’s going to look at this ancient crater that used to be filled by a lake, there’s a river used to run into it, we’ve got evidence from the morphology of the landscape, that it was once a river and a delta. And these are places on earth that you would look to, you know, these, these environments on Earth are teeming with life. And so if we’re going to find ancient life, perhaps this would be a good place to look.”
Don’t expect dinosaur fossils
“They’re not looking for a fish or a fossil” says Langill. “They’re looking for microbial evidence of a metabolic process that may have occurred in a cell millions of years ago. That’s the kind of detail there they are after”
Stepping stones for future colonization
Mapping Martian water is also key to humans travelling to the planet in future missions.
“These are stepping stones for future colonization, As settlers when we came when our ancestors came to Canada, they couldn’t bring all the materials to survive in their towns or in their villages. They had to live off the land and that’s what we’re trying to learn from Mars is start to live off the land because when we go there, we will not be able to bring all the oxygen, or all the water. That’s why they need to find ice as well water ice as well,” said Hladiuk.
“The Perseverance also has an experiment called ‘Moxie’. It’s trying to live off the land. So they’re going to pump in CO2 from the atmosphere, and strip out the oxygen because we need oxygen to breathe. So they’re starting to take those stepping stones for surviving or starting the first colonize colonies on Mars.”
Like so many others around the world, Hladiuk will be tuned in.
“I’ve got my peanuts. I’ll have my Mars 2020 shirt on, my EDL socks, I’ll be all geared up. I’ll have one computer looking at NASA Deep Space Network to make sure signals are coming in. “ said Hladiuk “Watching a live entry is fantastic. It is. I get excited just thinking about it.”
Hladiuk also recommends people take time Thursday night to go outside and look at Mars in the sky. It will be sitting about four degrees above the crescent moon. To determine four degrees hold your hand out at arms length and extend three fingers. That’s usually about five degrees of the sky, so it will be just beneath your topmost finger.
For Langill, the Mars landing also presents another opportunity; a chance to reignite the imagination of a new generation of space enthusiasts.
“From the human perspective, it seems like there’s an awful long time when nothing happens and you kind of forget about space exploration, and then something like this comes along and people get really re-energized and the topic comes back to life, and it’s almost like we we never left.”
Where to watch
Perseverance is scheduled to land on Mars shortly before 2 p.m. MST on Thursday, Feb. 18. NASA hopes the world tunes in for the landing and is broadcasting the live feed starting Thursday at 12:15 p.m. MT. it is available on NASA’s public TV channel, its website, and app, as well as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, and Daily Motion.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
The European Space Agency is fast-tracking a new mission called Ramses, which will fly to near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis and join the space rock in 2029 when it comes very close to our planet — closer even than the region where geosynchronous satellites sit.
Ramses is short for Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety and, as its name suggests, is the next phase in humanity’s efforts to learn more about near-Earth asteroids (NEOs) and how we might deflect them should one ever be discovered on a collision course with planet Earth.
In order to launch in time to rendezvous with Apophis in February 2029, scientists at the European Space Agency have been given permission to start planning Ramses even before the multinational space agency officially adopts the mission. The sanctioning and appropriation of funding for the Ramses mission will hopefully take place at ESA’s Ministerial Council meeting (involving representatives from each of ESA’s member states) in November of 2025. To arrive at Apophis in February 2029, launch would have to take place in April 2028, the agency says.
This is a big deal because large asteroids don’t come this close to Earth very often. It is thus scientifically precious that, on April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass within 19,794 miles (31,860 kilometers) of Earth. For comparison, geosynchronous orbit is 22,236 miles (35,786 km) above Earth’s surface. Such close fly-bys by asteroids hundreds of meters across (Apophis is about 1,230 feet, or 375 meters, across) only occur on average once every 5,000 to 10,000 years. Miss this one, and we’ve got a long time to wait for the next.
When Apophis was discovered in 2004, it was for a short time the most dangerous asteroid known, being classified as having the potential to impact with Earth possibly in 2029, 2036, or 2068. Should an asteroid of its size strike Earth, it could gouge out a crater several kilometers across and devastate a country with shock waves, flash heating and earth tremors. If it crashed down in the ocean, it could send a towering tsunami to devastate coastlines in multiple countries.
Over time, as our knowledge of Apophis’ orbit became more refined, however, the risk of impact greatly went down. Radar observations of the asteroid in March of 2021 reduced the uncertainty in Apophis’ orbit from hundreds of kilometers to just a few kilometers, finally removing any lingering worries about an impact — at least for the next 100 years. (Beyond 100 years, asteroid orbits can become too unpredictable to plot with any accuracy, but there’s currently no suggestion that an impact will occur after 100 years.) So, Earth is expected to be perfectly safe in 2029 when Apophis comes through. Still, scientists want to see how Apophis responds by coming so close to Earth and entering our planet’s gravitational field.
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“There is still so much we have yet to learn about asteroids but, until now, we have had to travel deep into the solar system to study them and perform experiments ourselves to interact with their surface,” said Patrick Michel, who is the Director of Research at CNRS at Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in Nice, France, in a statement. “Nature is bringing one to us and conducting the experiment itself. All we need to do is watch as Apophis is stretched and squeezed by strong tidal forces that may trigger landslides and other disturbances and reveal new material from beneath the surface.”
The Goldstone radar’s imagery of asteroid 99942 Apophis as it made its closest approach to Earth, in March 2021. (Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/NSF/AUI/GBO)
By arriving at Apophis before the asteroid’s close encounter with Earth, and sticking with it throughout the flyby and beyond, Ramses will be in prime position to conduct before-and-after surveys to see how Apophis reacts to Earth. By looking for disturbances Earth’s gravitational tidal forces trigger on the asteroid’s surface, Ramses will be able to learn about Apophis’ internal structure, density, porosity and composition, all of which are characteristics that we would need to first understand before considering how best to deflect a similar asteroid were one ever found to be on a collision course with our world.
Besides assisting in protecting Earth, learning about Apophis will give scientists further insights into how similar asteroids formed in the early solar system, and, in the process, how planets (including Earth) formed out of the same material.
One way we already know Earth will affect Apophis is by changing its orbit. Currently, Apophis is categorized as an Aten-type asteroid, which is what we call the class of near-Earth objects that have a shorter orbit around the sun than Earth does. Apophis currently gets as far as 0.92 astronomical units (137.6 million km, or 85.5 million miles) from the sun. However, our planet will give Apophis a gravitational nudge that will enlarge its orbit to 1.1 astronomical units (164.6 million km, or 102 million miles), such that its orbital period becomes longer than Earth’s.
It will then be classed as an Apollo-type asteroid.
Ramses won’t be alone in tracking Apophis. NASA has repurposed their OSIRIS-REx mission, which returned a sample from another near-Earth asteroid, 101955 Bennu, in 2023. However, the spacecraft, renamed OSIRIS-APEX (Apophis Explorer), won’t arrive at the asteroid until April 23, 2029, ten days after the close encounter with Earth. OSIRIS-APEX will initially perform a flyby of Apophis at a distance of about 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from the object, then return in June that year to settle into orbit around Apophis for an 18-month mission.
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Furthermore, the European Space Agency still plans on launching its Hera spacecraft in October 2024 to follow-up on the DART mission to the double asteroid Didymos and Dimorphos. DART impacted the latter in a test of kinetic impactor capabilities for potentially changing a hazardous asteroid’s orbit around our planet. Hera will survey the binary asteroid system and observe the crater made by DART’s sacrifice to gain a better understanding of Dimorphos’ structure and composition post-impact, so that we can place the results in context.
The more near-Earth asteroids like Dimorphos and Apophis that we study, the greater that context becomes. Perhaps, one day, the understanding that we have gained from these missions will indeed save our planet.
