Space And Planet News December 21, 2009

Since the last article I wrote was on astronomy, I decided to continue the theme for this article with space. There certainly is enough material to write about with this topic. One thing that I have noticed is that more and more planets are being discovered, so many in fact that the news about their discoveries is not making it to the general news for the public anymore, unless there is something very unusual about a particular discovery. Remember the rock that was said to come from Mars that was suspected of having evidence of life on it? That belief was all but crushed by scientists, but today it has risen again. A new analysis has been made on the rock known as ALH 84001 and the result is that scientists now say that a non-biological explanation for how the structures formed is unfeasible and impossible. Looks like life of some sort did exist on Mars after all. If microscopic life existed, could larger forms of life have existed? Could we all be descendants of people born on Mars, who had to beat a hasty retreat? The new analysis used technology that just wasn't available the first time the rock was analyzed.

ALH 84001

Photo Source: NASA

Some scientists want to classify things other than astronauts exploring, as human space exploration. An example of this is the Hubble telescope. They want it classified as space exploration and in a manner of speaking I guess it is, but I don't see how it can be classified the same as human space exploration. There is a panel that is deliberating right now and trying to determine if they should give billions more for manned space exploration, or just forget the whole thing and close down that part of science. They figure it would save a lot of money. I think that it is wrong to try and put a price tag on human space exploration, or to try and classify other things as such. What all of us need to remember is that the rewards of this type of space exploration could vastly outweigh the cost. If we look just in one area of human space exploration and that is the invention of new devices, we see so much that has benefited mankind. Robots are just not as capable as man and require a long time to execute commands sent from earth and the further away they are, the longer it takes, which could cost us the entire mission under certain circumstances. Add to that, that there are places that they can not go that man can. There is still no substitute for boots on the ground.

Robot Rocket Plane To Explore Mars
Photo Source: NASA

Speaking about robots exploring other planets, NASA is now proposing that a robotic rocket plane explore Mars. I like the idea, as it would give the device more capability to cover a greater part of the planet. The plane is to be called, The Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Surveyor (Ares). Here is the problem however, the tiny plane will only be able to fly for about 75 minutes. In this time however, it will fly about one mile above the surface and explore a far greater amount of terrain than the rovers ever could. It is believed that the plane would be able to cover an area of about 600 square miles and give far greater detail than a satellite could. NASA is now giving private companies a chance to develop this craft that was previously denied. This is not the only suggestion. Another one is for a nuclear powered boat to sail the waters of Saturn's moon Titan. Interesting since the water is frozen. I am against anything nuclear being used. Why do we always want to contaminate other worlds? Sure it is more convenient for us, but if life does exist elsewhere, we could be damaging it.

Footprint From Apollo 11 On The Moon
Photo Source: NASA

One scientist is wondering why the discovery of water on our moon is being treated with a big Ho Hum! He feels that this is such an important discovery, that if it would have happened 30 years ago it would have been hailed as one of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind. He knows how important it is, because he knows that the moon is going to become a busy hub for getting around the solar system. He also knows that humans will have to colonize other worlds and the moon will be an important first stop on this trip. The question that I have is, did we do this before? I know that I keep going back to this question, but it is pretty hard not to, with the evidence that is available that shows ruins on the moon and all the testimony that has come out about this along with several books that mention this. Could we be repeating what we have done in the past?

NASA is annoyed. They are annoyed at Hollywood for producing movies like 2012 that indicate the end of the world will occur on, yes 2012. A NASA research scientist stated that he had nothing against the movie, but he didn't like the way it was marketed and the way it exploits people's fears. The scientist works for the Ames Research Center. I personally don't know how modern people can believe the nonsense that ancient people somehow knew something about when the world would end. Sure the Maya were advanced in astronomy in their day, but if you compare them to us today, they didn't exactly match up. So I have to ask the question, do scientists today know when the world will end? If they do, they are all keeping it a secret and I am sure that at least one of them would have cracked by now.

Scientists are hotly debating the point of whether bacteria could live on Mars. The answer seems to be that it is entirely possible. Does this mean that there is bacteria on Mars? No it doesn't, it only means that there could be. But looking for bacteria on Mars just might not be enough. There could be some other form of microscopic life there that we have never seen before. If there were Martians existing at one time on the planet, perhaps if they were more advanced than us, they might have created nanites. I am talking about machines the size of bacteria and smaller. What if some of these exist in the soil, would that prove that intelligent life once existed on the Red Planet? Probably yes. The tests that we are currently performing to try and discover bacteria on the planet, might be doing the opposite and destroying some unknown forms of life.