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
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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
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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.

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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

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Conclusion

• Life on Mars? Or not?

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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?