Spaceflight 🚀The first #Starhopper flight was in 📆 2019. First #Starship landing (without #RUD 💥) 📆 2021. First #atmospheric entry 📆 2024. When do you expect the first (uncrewed) Starship #Mars 🔴 landing attempt ? 🤔
2025
2027
2029
> 2030
Poll ended at .
#SpaceX will launch its first #Starships 🚀 to #Mars 🔴 in two years. "These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars" https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/musk-says-spacex-launch-first-uncrewed-starships-mars-two-years-2024-09-07/
If the uncrewed test missions succeed, #crewed 👨🚀 👩🚀 missions are expected in 📆 2028 https://www.cnet.com/science/space/spacex-plans-5-missions-to-mars-by-2026-elon-musk-says/
"#Mars 🔴 serves as a simplified laboratory for testing #climate models and scenarios, without oceans and biology, that we can then use to better understand 🤔💭 Earth systems." #Mars can tilt more than Earth, causing the Red Planet's poles to receive more direct sunlight than its midlatitudes, making for longer summer days with higher temperatures https://www.space.com/33001-mars-ice-age-ending-now.html
Injecting tiny particles into #Mars’s atmosphere could warm 🌡️ the planet by more than 10°C in a matter of months, researchers find - enough to sustain liquid water 💧. The 2 million tons of particles represent roughly 0.1% of the industrial metals mined ⚒️ on Earth each year. #Terraforming research shows how important it is to study Earth. “Can we understand 🤔💭 #climate and ecosystems well enough to build them elsewhere ?” https://www.science.org/content/article/terraforming-mars-could-be-easier-scientists-thought
“The barrier to warming #Mars 🔴 to allow liquid water 💧 is not as high as previously thought” : Changing the shape of the planet’s #dust https://news.weinberg.northwestern.edu/2024/08/26/how-we-could-warm-mars/
#ESA #Hubble #SpaceTelescope 🔭 images of #Mars taken December 2024. Thin #water-ice ❄️ clouds are apparent in ultraviolet light https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2025/04/Mars_December_2024
Researchers found that the mid-crust, about 10-20 kilometers down, may be riddled with cracks and pores filled with water 💧. A rough estimate predicts these cracks could hold enough #water to cover all of #Mars 🔴 with an ocean 🌊 1-2 kilometers deep https://www.planetary.org/articles/mars-may-host-oceans-worth-of-water-deep-underground
Only hydrated #minerals as a water source cover the needs to produce propellants and life support #water💧. Extraction from #regolith requires autonomous excavation, transport, processing of regolith and water treatment that present significant challenges. #Atmospheric water harvesting suffers from the extremely low residence time of air in the system. Compression is power-intensive 🪫 but can be competitive if the waste heat from the fission reactors is accessible https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273117725012864?via%3Dihub#s0185