From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Sun Jan 11 2004 - 11:51:28 PST
----- Original Message -----
From: daviddarling123
Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2004 10:44 AM
To: DarlingsSpace_at_yahoogroups.com
Subject: [DarlingsSpace] David Darling's Newsletter #18
DAVID DARLING'S NEWSLETTER
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Issue #18
January 11, 2004
e-mail: daviddarling_at_daviddarling.info
website: http://www.daviddarling.info
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Contents
1. Meanderings
2. Views From Mars: Part 1
3. Bookends
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1. Meanderings
Thanks to everyone who's joined the newsletter over the past few
weeks, bringing our number to about 420 spread across six continents
(come on Antarctica!). If you currently get the newsletter from
Yahoo and would like to receive it directly from me instead - to
avoid the ads, etc - just send me an e-mail. We also have a thriving
little community on the bulletin board
http://www.daviddarling.info/discussion/phpBB2/
talking about everything from space travel to time travel, and from
teleportation to life in the universe. It's a pretty eclectic band
of truth-seekers, ranging from professional scientists to amateur
free-thinkers - and everyone is most welcome. You can simply stop by
and take a look, post a message as a guest, or become a registered
user.
The website itself is going from strength to strength and now gets
close to 20,000 visitors a week on a steeply rising curve. The front
page
contains several fresh news items every day, while the encyclopedia
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/ETEmain.html
now has some 2,500 entries - a number that's being added to week by
week. I've also put a Googol search bar on the main page that lets
you search the site for specific topics as an alternative to looking
through the lists of encyclopedia entries. It works quite nicely -
give it a try.
Well, the science story of the moment is the Mars landers and what
they may find in the coming weeks. This is the first of several
newsletters that will be keeping you up to date with developments
and discoveries as we rock and roll along the Martian surface. Get
ready for a fascinating ride!
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2. Views From Mars: Part 1
Maybe it's a bit to early to be writing an obituary for the British-
built Beagle 2,
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/B/Beagle2.html
which hitched a ride to Mars aboard the European Space Agency
orbiter Mars Express and hasn't been heard from since it separated
from its mothership on December 19. The latest attempts to contact
it via Mars Express have failed and there are now increasing fears
that it may have crashed into the planet on Christmas Day. The fact
is we simply don't know what's happened to Beagle. Unlike the Mars
Exploration Rover spacecraft that are equipped with transmitters
that send out tones at each crucial stage of their descent through
the Martian atmosphere (when the heat shield is ejected, when the
parachute opens, when the airbags deploy, etc), Beagle had no way of
telling us what was going on as it dropped to the surface. We know
it was bang on course for a touch down on Isidis Planitia
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/I/Isidis_Planitia.html
when it detached from Mars Express, and everything else looked OK
with the spacecraft at that point. But now we're left guessing: Did
the heat shield fail? Did the parachute or airbags fail to deploy
properly? Was one of the airbags punctured by a sharp rock? Did
Beagle (about the size of a bicycle wheel and the mass of a small
man) roll down the slopes of that forbidding looking crater that was
imaged (too late, from orbit) right in the middle of its projected
landing zone? If I were a betting person I'd put my money on an
airbag failure (earlier versions of the airbags had failed in tests
and there hadn't been enough time to properly test their
replacements) or the spacecraft coming to rest in a position from
which it couldn't transmit directly to Earth or to one of the Mars
orbiters. Maybe hi-res imagery from orbit will spot its parachutes
or airbags and we'll discover more about its fate. Or, by some
miracle, Mars Express will pick up its signal in the coming days.
But it seems most likely that Beagle 2 has joined the long list of
Mars explorers that met with a sticky end - nearly two-thirds of all
spacecraft launched toward Mars since the early sixties haven't
completed their missions. Prior to the current batch of probes
(Beagle and the two MERs), only 13 out of 34 missions had been
successful and only 3 out of 13 landing attempts. Quite a few of
those landers were early Soviet craft. The three previous landing
successes have been Viking 1, Viking 2, and Mars Pathfinder. To this
select band has now been added (touch wood) the first of the MERs,
the Spirit rover, which is standing on its lander, with wheels
unfolded and all instruments functioning, ready to trundle out on to
the Martian surface.
It's a mouth-watering prospect. Within a few days, Spirit will edge
its way down, carefully avoiding (we hope) damaging its solar panels
on the not-quite-neatly-collapsed airbags, and begin its
explorations. Already it's sent back stunning color photos from its
perch inside the 90-mile-wide Gusev crater.
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/G/Gusev_Crater.html
Gusev has a big channel running into it (Ma'adim Vallis) which
probably filled it with water more than 3 billion years ago. Spirit
is going to be trying to find out, from a close examination of its
surrounding rocks, how long that water was there for and whether it
may have helped nurture life. Unfortunately, the MERs don't carry
any biology experiments, as Viking and Beagle did, so they can't
test for the presence of past or present life directly. But they can
certainly find geological clues that would hint that the conditions
may have been right for life to appear. One of the first targets of
the rover will be what looks like a small, shallow, dust-filled
impact crater, nicknamed "Sleepy Hollow," that lies about 50 feet
from the lander. It looks like some rocks have been exposed on the
side of this feature that will provide a kind of portal into Mars'
past. But what I'm most excited to find out about is the weird clay-
like substance that was revealed when the airbags were retracted a
few days ago. NASA scientists have already admitted to being baffled
by this stuff. It looks exactly like soil or sand that is sticking
together in clumps because of moisture. But we all know - don't we? -
that there can't be liquid water on the surface of Mars! Boy oh
boy, if it turned out to be mud we'd have to rewrite the textbooks
and speed up those manned landing plans which Bush may be announcing
this week (although it is election year, don't forget!) Also, some
of the rocks close to the lander have some interesting shades to
them - ochre and even a hint of blue - so they'll make attractive
targets for early investigations too.
OK folks, we have an exciting few weeks to look forward to as Spirit
begins its adventure. And don't forget that its sister craft,
Opportunity, is closing in fast - scheduled to make planetfall on
January 24 on Meridiani Planum
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/M/Meridiani_Planum.html
where gray hematite has been discovered in abundance - a strong sign
of a watery past.
I can hardly wait. With Stardust scooping up bits of cometary dust
and heading back to Earth with it, and Cassini/Huygens due to arrive
at Saturn in June this is going to be one heck of a rollercoaster
ride in space. Stay tuned. I'll be back with a further update on the
Mars explorations in a couple of weeks. Also check the bulletin
board for discussions on the possibilities for Mars life and have
your own say.
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3. Bookends
You can find out about my latest book, The Universal Book of
Astronomy, here
http://www.daviddarling.info/works/spaceflight.html
and, by going to the front page of my website, get further
information about all my books, including Life Everywhere, The
Complete Book of Spaceflight, Zen Physics, and others. You can even
read the first two chapters of many of them. Next due for
publication, in August 2004, is a book on weird and wonderful
aspects of math, including higher dimensions, almost-impossible
mazes, Mobius bands and Klein bottles, and the incredible ham
sandwich theorem!
Until next time,
Best wishes,
David Darling
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