Edge of Tomorrow

Another movie that looks interesting.  Edge of Tomorrow slated to come out June 2014 starring Tom Cruise.  From looking at the plot, it would seem to be a Groundhog Day but with alien invasion and powered exo-skeletons.  It would be awesome if Bill Murray makes a cameo in this maybe as a grizzled old sarge, but I digress. 

Interstellar (the movie)

Just saw a teaser trailer come out for a movie Interstellar starring Matthew McConaughey and slated for release in November 2014.   It involves travel through wormholes but not too much yet is known about the plot. 

Link:  http://www.interstellar-movie.com/

War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast 75 Years Later

Seventy-five years ago today marks the anniversary of the Orson Welles' adapted performance of War of the Worlds and ensuing public panic of an alien invasion. Here a story with an embedded Radiolab podcast (also a link to an American Experience documentary about the broadcast). 

Dome Over the Valles Marineris?

 

 

In development of a Martian human presence, there will be immense challenges. It would seem a good way to obtain sizable gains in as short as time period as possible, it behoove the settlers to make a large as possible Earth-like space on the planet as possible. One possibility is to cap a portion of the Valles Marineris under a glass envelope.  As pressure of the habitat inside would be much more than normal Martian atmospheric conditions, the pressure differential would hold up the glass structure. The weight of the glass would also keep the pressure at human-habitable levels. In addition, as the whole structure would act as a greenhouse, the temperature inside the habitat would also be more Earth-like.  It also helps that the VM is roughly equitorial and thus gets lots of sunlight relative to other parts of Mars.  Water in the form of lakes inside the habitat would act as thermal mass and prevent wide temperature fluctuations during the day-night cycle. The glass could also have additives such as lead or other materials to protect against radiation, but having a lot of air above one's head helps a lot with that.  Essentially, the whole habitat would work much like Biosphere 2, but at a much larger scale and with all the ecologies worked out, which may be as or more challenging than building the dome itself.      

As an illustration, a 200km length segment of the VM would be capped with glass gathered from minerals in situ. An example width of the VM is also 200km. The depth of the segment could be around 5km. To calculate a rough-order glass thickness, I would compare the pressure of earth's atmosphere at 5km height. There is a difference based on gravity on the air column but that may be neglected for now. On Earth at 5km high, the air pressure is approximately half what it is at the surface or 50kPa. On Mars the average surface pressure is 0.6kPa so the gauge difference can be calculated as 49.4kPa. Using the density of silicon dioxide (2.6grams/cm³) as a representative density of the envelope, one may calculate the thickness required to counterbalance the gauge upward pressure. First I convert the gauge force into equivalent mass on Mars. 49.4kPa for a one square meter area amounts to 13.3kg/m² mass density of the glass given Martian gravity of 3.71m/sec². Dividing this mass density by the density of glass yields 5.1mm thickness required to keep the pressure within the habitat.  So not too bad as far as feasibility goes.  In future posts, I will explore the technical aspects of this concept. 

3D Rocket Engine Contest

DIY Rockets has just released contest to design a 3D printable rocket engine.  There does not seem to be much guidance as far as what fuels and oxydizers to use.  But the goal is to make launch of nanosat payloads (10kg) into Low Earth Orbit.  In the future, printing these components in situ on an alien planet would prove useful.  No more, "uh-oh, rocket is broken, can't get back."  Well, not that simple, but it is interesting as 3D printing changes the manufacturability issues of complex shapes.  That frees up design possibilities which would have been throw out in the past for being economically infeasible to produce.

Martian Land Grab?

There has been lots of news lately on plans for manned mission to Mars. Dennis Tito announced recently a plan for a Mars flyby mission commencing in 2018. 

Mars One, announced colonial plans for Mars.  Meanwhile, Elon Musk of Paypal fame wants to get a colony on Mars of roughly 80,000 people. 

Speculating a little bit, are we on the cusp of a land grab race in Space and on Mars in particular? 

Well, they can have Mars, I for one plan on owning the skies of Venus.  I kid..well, sort of, :)

3-D Printing as Proto Von Neumann Probes?

In a recent article, the European Space Agency is investigating the use of 3D printing to print moonbase structures from lunar materials.  This appears to be the first inklings of a machine capable of replicating itself with materials that it finds in situ.  Several generations from now, 3D printing will be seen as the Granddaddy of these von Neumann probes which will be sent out to explore the heavens.