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
If #Mars 🔴 could be warmed 🌡️, its air thickened, and its chemistry made more hospitable, the final stages of terraforming would be #biological. Introduce simple plants 🌱. Then insects 🦋. Given time and the right ingredients, #biology can shape a #planet https://www.sciencenewstoday.org/new-study-asks-is-mars-terraforming-even-possible
Chroo 🦠 can live on #Lunar and #Martian soil, and produce #oxygen using only them and photosynthesis. It can even survive the high level of perchlorates found in the Martian soil https://www.universetoday.com/articles/one-extremophile-eats-martian-dirt-survives-in-space-and-can-create-oxygen-for-colonies
One Extremophile Eats Martian Dirt, Survives In Space, And Can Create Oxygen For Colonies
Extremophiles are a favorite tool of astrobiologists. But not only are they good for understanding the kind of extreme environments that life can survive in, sometimes they are useful as actual tools, creating materials necessary for other life, like oxygen, in those extreme environments. A recent paper from Daniella Billi of the University of Rome Tor Vergata , published in pre-print form in Acta Astronautica, reviews how one particular extremophile fills the role of both useful test subject and useful tool all at once.
Scientists have speculated about the possibility of introducing #Chroococcidiopsis 🦠 to the #Martian 🔴 environment to aid in the formation of an aerobic environment. In addition to #oxygen production, Chroococcidiopsis could aid in the formation of #soil on the Martian surface https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroococcidiopsis#Mars_colonization
It may be feasible to fabricate tiny reflective #nanorods from iron and aluminum found in the #Martian soil and launch them into the #atmosphere. “The interaction of those particles with the incoming sunlight ☀️ would then cause that solar energy to be preferentially forward scattered to the surface. That would then cause a very strong #greenhouse effect, and we can warm it up several tens of degrees.” 🌡️ https://www.ucf.edu/news/ucf-planetary-scientists-expertise-informs-new-method-for-terraforming-mars/
UCF Planetary Scientist’s Expertise Informs New Method for Terraforming Mars
UCF physics researcher Ramses Ramirez and collaborators modeled the efficacy of using Martian nanoparticles to increase the planet’s surface temperature, a key component to making Mars habitable.