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China has launched the manned Shenzhou 10 spacecraft on a Long March 2F/G (CZ-2F/G) rocket from the Jiuquan launch site in China at 0938 GMT on 11 June.  For its fifth manned spaceflight mission, three astronauts (taikonauts) flew into orbit on the Shenzhou 10 mission. Aboard the flight was Nie Haishang  (Commander) and Zhang Xiaoguan, along with China's second female astronaut Wang Yaping.   The mission is to dock with the mini-space station Tiangong 1 and crew it for a time.  The crew is also expected to make a "fly around" of the space station as part of the mission.

 

Shenzhou 10 launch. Courtesy: CCTV

In late April, it was announced that that ILS Dover, a US firm specialising in spacesuit design, had won a $4.4 million contract from NASA to design, manufacter and test an new design dubbed Z-2.  The firm beat competitor Dave Clark Co for the contract.Unlike the current NASA spacesuit used on the International Space Station and formerly on the Space Shuttle, the design is to have constant volume joints to allow significant leg movements.  this will allow astronauts to walk on lunar, asteroid and planetary bodies  The Z-2 is also designed to operate at higher pressures and be compatible with the latest airlock designs.

While the name Orion has been used as the name of real and fictional spacecraft before (e.g. Space 2001 - A space Odyssey's transport shuttle, and the latest manned spacecraft being developed by NASA)  the original Project Orion was actually about researching a high speed Interplanetary travel propulsion system. And one that used atomic bombs to do it  

As mankind contemplates journeys to other planets and how to get their economically, and fast enough to not run out of consumables, space propulsion scientists continue in their quest for specific impulse, that measure of momentum change per kg of propellants which could make such missions much more likely if this can be improved.  Some have considered nuclear thermal rockets which can double the specific impulse in comparison to chemical rockets - though using nuclear reactor technology in orbit remains unpopular ever since Cosmos 954 spread its nuclear entrails over Canada in 1978.  

Artist's impression of Project Orion spacecraft departing Earth. Courtesy: Adrian Mann

An even better way of improving specific impulse is to use exotic electric propulsion technologies which can offer ten-fold improvements.  However, they have one major drawback: they are very low thrust and to provide a practically usable amount they would need large power generation system.  In effect this means that they would need either massive solar arrays or a powerful nuclear reactor (yes - it is that N-word again).

There are, of course, other ways of using nuclear propulsion.  An idea originally proposed by Sanislav Ulan in 1947 was to use hundreds of atomic bombs to drive a spacecraft along. This idea was later turned into a full research project called Projct Orion. The history of the project was outlined at an evening lecture at the British Interplanetary society made by Douglas Liddle, a former engineer and aerospace history expert with experience in nuclear weaponry. 

Liddle described how the project was orignally set up in July 1958 after originally gaining traction after an unexpected observation during the Teapot series of nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s that some items could remain intact close to a nuclear detonation.  Bakerlite items had shown themselves to suffer only minor ablation - the logic being that if a nuclear bomb could be exploded near a pusher plate coated with a similar plastic or oil based material, it could be propulsed along without being destroyed.   

Cornelius Everett working with Stanislav Ulan produced a report noting that such a system could be used for space propulsion and Project Orion was formed under the auspices of Freeman Dyson at General Atomic.  The spaceships of various sizes were  designed use a magazine of nuclar devices (upto 900) which would be dropped from the rear of the spacecraft and exploded at one second intervals.   The Plutonium fuelled fission-class atomic bombs of 50kT yield would be specially designed using various explosive lensing techniques to aid the achievement of critical mass along with neutron tubes acting as initiators.  

Each bomb would have a Tungsten "bullet" designed to act as the working fluid of the device.   Scientists realised that a nuclear blast plasma itself would not offer enough mass and hence momentum to propel the craft along at fast enough speeds and that tungsten would be needed to blasted at the back plate to "pulse" the craft on its way.

To protect the crew at the front of the craft, there would have to be extensive nuclear shielding and shock absorbers various invoving double action gas and toroidal techniques.  The tungsten "bullets" would also act as shielding while not used.

The system had advantages over chemical systems.  Overall it was robust and less likely to be damaged by meteoroid strikes as propellant tankage would have been apt to do. Directional control of the craft would be made by either angling the back plate and by using chemical rocket thrusters on the craft.   In acheiving thrusts equivalent to several million Newtons and at specific impulses ranging between 2000-10000 seconds, a mission to Mars could be cut by several hundred days when compared to a Hohmann transfer chemical rocket alternative.

There were off course problems with the design.  Launching such a device containing several hundred nuclear weapons would require a very reliable and very large launch vehicle.  Apart from the shielding and shock absorption problem, the crew would also have to be protected from high and low frequency vibrations.

Experience in nuclear weapons tests in the upper atmosphere (e.g. the Project Starfish explosions) had shown that it was unwise to explode nuclear devices too close to the Earth's magnetic field and this causes large numbers of charged particles to surround the Earth causing new radiation belts.  Likewise, having bright explosions as the spaceship set off might have damaged the eyesight of observers.  Moving too far away from the Earth  would surely defeat the object of this transport system.

Nevertheless, after initial reluctance to support the idea, by 1964 even Werner Von Braun came to conclusion that such a device had merit.  But by then the Project was looking doomed.  For while NASA and the US Air Force initially supported the project, moves to take nuclear weapons out of space (the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963) banned nuclear devices being exploded in the upper atmosphere and the Outer Space Treaty (1967) banned nuclear weapons from being placed in orbit) meant that NASA withdrew its backing and the project was formally ended in 1965.

As a footnote, Doug Liddle reminded the audience that there was one country that has never been a signatory to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty:  China.   As such, one day it could be China that builds such a spacecraft like Project Orion to eather travel to other planets or to move an incoming asteroid out of the way.

Mars One has formally announced the opening of its application procedure for those willing to become a televised settler in a new colony on the planet Mars.  The trip is one way. The announcement went like this:

Mars One is happy to announce the launch of its astronaut selection program today. The search has begun for the first humans to set foot on Mars and make it their home.

Mars One invites would-be Mars settlers from anywhere in the world to submit an online application via apply.mars-one.com.

This online application will be the first of the four rounds that together make the Mars One selection procedure. Round One will run for over five months and end on 31st August 2013. Applicants selected at the end of this round will include the first crew that will land on Mars in 2023. Mars One selection committees will hone the search for the first crew in three subsequent rounds and further training.

"We are very excited about launching the selection program. Round One is where we open the doors to Mars for everyone on Earth. This is an international mission and it is very important for the project that anyone anywhere can ask themselves: Do I want this? Am I ready for this? If the answer is yes then we want to hear from you," said Bas Lansdorp, co-founder of Mars One.

In the last year Mars One received 10,000 messages from prospective applicants from over 100 countries. Mars One expects an unprecedented number of applications and even more internet users visiting the application website to support their favorite candidates.

Applicants are given the choice of publicly sharing and promoting their application page. While Mars One experts will choose which candidates progress to Round 2, everyone will have the opportunity to know the aspiring settlers and give them their vote of confidence.

Applicants will pay a small administration fee that varies across nations according to their per capita GDP. The variable fee makes the program equally accessible for applicants from all nations and also reduces the number of insincere entries.

"For this mission of permanent settlement we are more concerned with how well each astronaut lives and works with others and their ability to deal with a lifetime of challenges."

"Gone are the days when bravery and the number of hours flying a supersonic jet were the top criteria," said Norbert Kraft, Mars One's Chief Medical Director and former NASA senior researcher.

"For this mission of permanent settlement we are more concerned with how well each astronaut lives and works with others and their ability to deal with a lifetime of challenges."

Throughout the astronaut selection program, Mars One will select applicants who have good physical and mental health and show five key character traits: Resilience, Adaptability, Curiosity, Ability to trust others, and Creativity/Resourcefulness.

In the last stage when 24-40 candidates have been fully trained and qualified, the final decision of choosing the first settlers will be decided by an audience vote.

"In a 1000 years, everyone on Earth will still remember who the first humans on Mars were, just like Neil Armstrong has etched in our memories forever. This makes the selection of the first crew to a different planet a very important election; in my opinion more important than most elections. We hope the whole world will join Mars One in our democratic search of the envoys of mankind to Mars, " Lansdorp said.

In late May 2012, the non-profit-making organisation, Mars One Foundation announced plans to send humans colonists to Mars.  But there is a catch.  There is no way of return. In a lecture made in April 2013 at the British Interplanetary Society in London, Bas Lansdorp, Co-Founder of the Mars One project, detailed how far the project had gone answered questions on the plan to put a colony on Mars.  Lansdorp, an engineer and wind energy entrepreneur started the project using his own capital with technical support from his co-founder and ESA scientist Arno Wielders.   The idea is to make the project into a long term world television event.  The project would be thus funded from the revenues derived from advertising and media sales run by a commercial organisation called the Interplanetary Media Group. 

A $6 billion Plan - and that is just for starters

After raising sufficient capital, and having selected various subcontractors, Mars One outfit will formally award contracts to them.  Of the key suppliers, one is likely to be Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) which will scaled-up versions of a SpaceX vertical-landing Dragon capsule, crew planetary transfer and Mars landing technologies and a full launch service to the project.  It is estimated that $6 billion would be need to launch the initial crew of four with a further $4 billion being need for each crew thereafter.   No return capability is to be included. 

Lansdorp noted that initial plans have been discussed with SpaceX, though he cautioned that Mars One would have to provide funding before they would work in detail on the project.  Under the plan, a crew of four settlers would be drawn from a pool of astronaut settlers who themselves would have already been chosen via stringent acceptance tests.  Despite the one way nature of the trip, Landorp reported that some 10,000 people had already expressed an interest in applying for the adventure via e-mail.

The running order

While the technical details remain sketchy, Lansdorp detailed the basic timeline of the plan.  Before any manned launch takes place, there would be various precursor missions.  According to the plan in 2016 a demonstration mission would test the Martian approach and landing techniques.  In 2018, a Mars rover would be landed to find the best location for such a base. 

In 2020, a series of six missions would land cargo and a second rover vehicle.   The living quarters would include two living units and two life support systems for redundancy.   The rovers and trailers would be used to move modules and structures to the main base site. The use of inflatable structures would be employed, some of which would be covered with Martian soil to a depth of 2 meters to provide radiation protection.  Bas Lansdorp noted that that the Mars Curiosity Rover has confirmed that the surface radiation environment is relatively benign, being only equivalent to astronaut exposure in low Earth orbit (LEO).

The life support systems would include systems to create a breathable atmosphere by filtering nitrogen and argon from the Martian atmosphere and oxygen and water would be drawn from the planet's soil.  Power would be supplied using solar array technologies and food would be grown using greenhouse equipment.  It is realised that such a colony would still need periodic supplies from Earth.  Likewise, having to account for sand storms and solar degradation would mean that about 3,000 square meters of solar panels would be needed to satisfy the power demands of the initial colony.

Only once enough breathable air and drinkable water has been produced would the astronauts be launched to the planet in an initial crew of four.    

At this point, funding and successful missions to date permitting, the first crew of four settlers would be launched on their flight to Mars - probably around 2023.  The 210 day first manned flight in 2023 would be via a transfer vehicle that would carry all its own water (about 2500 litres without reuse) with the tankage being used to block radiation in space.   A second crew could be launched in 2025.

Artist's impression of Mars One base for settlers - Courtesy Mars One/Bryan Versteeg

Is it just the "beautiful people" that need apply?

While the James Bond movie Moonraker (1979) had a plot involving megalomaniac space villain Hugo Drax being intent on restarting the human race in space using "perfect" human specimens, Lansdorp was at pains to note that it would not just be perfect people that need apply.  This would be despite the discriminatory demands of television audiences. 

"Everybody will be able to apply for the missions." said Lansdorp.  "It won't just be beautiful people that go on this trip" he said.   

Having said that, Landorp then confirmed that genetic and health tests would sift out some of the weaker applicants.  The process of candidate selection is to start in the second quarter of this year - probably in May.  

On the subject of selection, some doubted good space crews and good television would be compatible.  Specifically, highly skilled and well balanced individuals that make ideal astronauts and crew mates, would probably actually make good television viewing.  For what is being planned is a reality TV style approach examples of which usually only make good viewing because of conflict between "difficult" personalities. 

On the implications of breeding on the planet had Landorp jested that "what settlers get up to in their own time is their own business," not realising that the salacious aspect of reality TV is what often drives viewer numbers. There was another serious aspect to this question.  Given that sterilisation from cosmic and solar radiation would hopefully be avoided during the journey using shielding, Lansdorp admitted such an eventuality would have to be considered.  He noted that conception and foetus growth under these conditions had not been tried yet, nor had the long term genetic and health consequences been tested.  Some suggest that over time, a whole new sub-species of human could be created. 

When asked whether human settlers would bring contamination to the planet, Landorp noted the chairman of the COSPAR Panel of Planetary Protection on the Mars One adisory board advising the organisation on its adherence to the Planetary Protection Protocol.

With respect to what laws would be applied for such a colony, Lansdorp said he expected that the settlers would, over time, set up their own nation with their own set of laws.  When questioned whether such a legal regime might include the "death penalty" for extreme crimes such as murder, as used to be prevalent in the early days of sea-faring exploration and colonisation, Lansdorp made the somewhat unrealistic and impractical suggestion that that a cell could be set up for long-term imprisonment.  Lansdorp noted that chance of such a serious criminal eventually would be very small.

What about the competition?

Earlier this year, the former space tourist and business entrepreneur, Dennis Tito, announced a plan to fly a couple around Mars on a round trip. Lansdorp said he admired Tito and his Inspiration Mars Foundation for their 2018 Mars flyby plan, adding that he was relieved that at least Tito was not planning to land on Mars.

Mars One hopes to benefit from Tito's development of technology which in effect shared many of the elements of Mars One project. For example, both organisations plan to use the US firm Paragon Space Development Corporation as a supplier to produce their human life support and space suit systems.  Lansdorp noted that he was to meet Tito shortly at a conference to see if there was any common ground for co-operation between their two organisations. Landorp did note one big difference between the Tito plan and the Mars One mission.  Mars One would be "as international as possible" while the Tito mission would be a mainly US-only mission.

Lansdorp admitted that if Tito's mission went well, and importantly, secured sufficient television and online audiences, then raising funds for their own operation would become significantly easier,   With respect to their own funding Landorp remain silent on the amount raised to date, save to note that his not-for-profit organisation was receiving large and small donations every week.

When asked whether SpaceX leader and originator, Elon Musk, might not want to take the glory of landing on Mars first, Lansdorp retorted: "Elon does not want to be the first man on Mars.  He wants to retire there."

So what are the chances of the MarsOne mission?

From a technological point of view, the plan has elements of success.  Lansdorp was at pains to point out that the plan would only require current technology to be achieved.  "No new inventions need to be done to make this mission possible," said Lansdorp. 

While there are possible legal issues in sending early settlers with not capability to return to Earth, not least if ever there resupply missions were halted, Lansdorp noted in not have to return to Earth considerably helped the technological chances of success.  It is the return to Earth capability from the Martian surface that had not yet been developed by mankind.

The weakness of the Mars One plan is the television/media model for raising funds.  For two settlement missions, $10 billion will be needed.  While Lansdorp noted that he thought that such revenues would be available, drawing on the parallel to the major television sporting event of 2012, the Olympics, which raised $4 billion, critics wonder whether the ennui of watching astronauts basically do not much day-after-day will be revenue generator that the Mars One organisation thinks.

On a lighter note: they may have missed a funding trick

For this Mars settlement plan, Mars One emphasises that all participants have to be volunteers.  In doing so, one cannot help thinking that perhaps the Mars One team has missed a trick.  If they had allowed nominations to be made for such one way trip on a paid for basis this really could have been a most excellent money spinner.  No doubt nominations for various politicians, bankers, school teachers etc would top the poles.

 

Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Pasadena have put the Mars Curiosity Rover into a one month hibernation starting on 4 April.  The reason is that the planetary alignment of Mars puts the sun and its atmosphere of highly charged particles more or less directly in the way of direct communications between Mars and Earth which makes commanding the spacecraft difficult.  A basic signal transmitted from the rover effectively saying "I am still alive" can still be received but commanding the rover has been suspended until 1 May.

Mars Rover Curiosity will be asleep for a while.  Courtesy: NASA/JPL

 

 

 

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Mars Curiosity Rover fell into a safe mode on 16 March as result of on board data file size anomaly.  A file meant for deletion was connected to active command file and the safe-mode entry was triggered when the command file failed a size-check by the rover's protective software.  The system the rover's computer system was rebooted and recovered on 19 March.

After NASA found it could no longer offer launches for the ExoMars mission, the European Space Agency (ESA) approached Russia for help.  As a result of long running discussions, on 14 March the ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain and Head of Roscosmos Vladimir Popovkin  have signed a formal agreement for their respective agencies  to work in partnership on the ExoMars programme towards the launch of two missions: one to be launched in January 2016, and one to be launched in 2018.

Under the deal, ESA will provide the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and the Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module (EDM) in 2016, and the carrier and rover in 2018. Roscosmos will be responsible for the 2018 descent module and surface platform, and will provide launchers for both missions. Both partners will supply scientific instruments and will cooperate closely in the scientific exploitation of the missions.

The 2016 mission has two major ESA elements: the TGO and the EDM. The TGO will search for evidence of methane and other atmospheric gases that could be signatures of active biological or geological processes. It will also serve as a data relay for the 2018 mission. The EDM will land on Mars to prove key technologies for the 2018 mission.

In 2018, the ExoMars rover, to be provided by ESA, will search the planet's surface for signs of life, past and present. It will be the first Mars rover able to drill to depths of 2 m, collecting samples that have been shielded from the harsh conditions of the surface, where radiation and oxidants can destroy organic materials. The rover will be delivered by a Russian descent module that includes a surface platform equipped with additional scientific instruments.

While taking a back seat to the other partners, NASA will still make important contributions to the ExoMars programme, including the Electra UHF radio package for TGO, and Mars Proximity Link telecom and engineering support to the EDM

The ExoMars Programme is funded by fourteen ESA states (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K., and Canada) of which Italy is the largest contributor and the UK the second largest. Member states also provide scientific instruments to ExoMars. For the 2016 TGO, these include the infrared and ultraviolet spectrometer package NOMAD (led by Belgium) and the CaSSIS high-resolution colour stereo camera (led by Switzerland). Italy will lead the DREAMS environmental station on the EDM.

The 2018 Rover will comprise PanCam, a wide-angle and high resolution camera system (led by the United Kingdom); CLUPI, a close-up imager (led by Switzerland); WISDOM, a ground-penetrating radar (led by France); Ma_MISS, a miniaturised infrared spectrometer integrated in the subsurface drill (led by Italy); MicrOmega, a visible and infrared imaging spectrometer (led by France); RLS, a Raman spectrometer (led by Spain), and MOMA, a novel organic molecule detector (led by Germany, with substantial contributions from the United States).

According to NASA scientists, an analysis of a rock sample collected by NASA's Curiosity rover shows that ancient Mars could have supported living microbes. Data returned by the rover's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instruments. allowed scientists to identifiy sulphur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon -some of the key chemical ingredients for life - in the powder Curiosity drilled out of a sedimentary rock at the Yellowknife Bay ancient water stream bed in Gale Crater on the Red Planet.

Further evidence of flowing fresh water was also found.  The drilled red rock was discovererd to be made up of a fine-grained grey mudstone interior containing clay minerals, sulphate minerals and other chemicals. These clay minerals are a product of the reaction of relatively fresh water with igneous minerals, such as olivine, also present in the sediment.  This ancient wet environment, unlike some others on Mars, was not harshly oxidizing, acidic or extremely salty. The presence of calcium sulphate along with the clay suggests the soil is neutral or mildly alkaline.

Scientists were surprised to find a mixture of oxidized, less-oxidized, and even non-oxidized chemicals, providing an energy gradient of the sort many microbes on Earth.  This energy gradient, along with the right chemistry and, most imporatantly, the presence of fresh water, hints that life could have existed on the planet millions of years ago.

"A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program at NASA headquarters in Washington. "From what we know now, the answer is yes."

This view was backed up by John Grotzinger, Mars Science Laboratory project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, as he saidL: "We have characterized a very ancient, but strangely new 'gray Mars' where conditions once were favourable for life."