NASA’s Perseverance Rover shares stunning HD picture of the Martian Surface via Twitter

Two weeks after touching down on the Martian surface, NASA’s newest rover to arrive on the Red Planet has wasted no time getting to work. The above picture is not the set of a movie. It’s from the Martian surface.

Perseverance has three primary missions:

1. Search the remains of the former lake bed it was dropped in for signs of life.
2. Set down the simple helicopter it’s carry for a test flight. If successful, it will the the first-ever aircraft flight on Mars.
3. Attempt to convert Carbon Dioxide into Oxygen. If successful, this would open the door to the possability of making the Martian surface breathable for Humans.

All that said.

I do think the first human missions to Mars will happen in my lifetime. NASA stated in 2015 they are planning to begin the first manned missions to Mars by 2040 with the hope of having the first human colonies established by 2050. That’s 30 years from now. Assuming I live that long, I’ll be in my mid-to late 60s at that time.

The Carbon to Oxygen Test is easily the most important of the three. Mars has a thinner atmosphere than Earth’s but if this test is successful, it will be a simple matter of thickening the planet’s atmosphere so heat and breathable oxygen can be trapped on the planet. You thicken the planet’s atmosphere and you’re looking at generating precipitation–rain, specifically–and then we will have water on the planet’s surface. With that, the same conditions we have on Earth to support life will be in place on Mars.

Basically, this small-scale test will be to see if a fire can be burned on Mars. If so, that opens a ton of possabilities down the road. Looking ahead, humans could walk around on Mars without space suits once the air is breathable. You do that and you can work on building permanent human settlements on the planet.

Mars does have an ice cap and if the planet can be warmed, that would release that ice as liquid water. It’s also believed that there are large deposits of water–Mars is believed to have had an ocean in the past– below the surface that could be tapped into.

…I hope folks can now appreciate why there is so much interest in Mars in recent decades. Big picture, if humans can establish permanent settlements on another planet or celestial body, that would effectively ensure the survival of the species.

The cynics out there would be quick to say “We’ll just trash Mars like we’ve done to Earth”. Well, Mars is basically a wasteland right now. It would likely need to be Terraformed to make the Martial soil ariable for growing crops, trees and other types of vegetation. That’s looking ahead though. There is a process that will take years and it starts with what’s going on now.

Before I move on to another topic, I want to show you this:

NASA is now 5 for 5 in using the Sky Crane Maneuver to land rovers on the Martian Surface. They released Ultra HD video footage of the dramatic landing they were able to record for the first time last week. Apparently, they used four cameras to record and only went that far under the condition it would not affect the landing itself.

7 Minutes of Terror is so called because during the 7 minutes from the start of the landing portion of the mission to when it touches down, there is radio silence between the Rover and NASA. By that, NASA is unable to monitor what is going on until the landing is completed. Once it’s touched down, the Rover powers up and Pings NASA to confirm safe landing.

The fact that we now have video footage of the landing this time means we now have valuable data with which to make this a standard way to plan future landings including landings with humans. For those who don’t know, Mars does have an atmosphere. A thin one but it does have one. This is also why Ingenuity was sent with Perseverance. More possabilities for the future in short.

 

NASA and Space X are testing the possability of building solar panel arrays in space for the purposes of delivering electricity to receivers on Earth. The intent is to create a supplemental power system that can deliver power to remote areas where building traditional power plants would be difficult. It could also be used to bring power to areas devastated by natural disasters.

For the intial test, they sent a single panel into space. This panel will collect solar energy and send it to a receiver on Earth with enough electricity to power a laptop. Such tech would be very easy to scale up and build a panel array large enough to power an entire city.

Another benefit to Space Solar Power Plants (henceforth SSPPs) is it opens the door to building structures and vehicles in space instead of on Earth. This will drastically drive down costs and time for missions to Mars, the Moon and elsewhere. It also means SSPPs can naturally be built to orbit the Moon, Mars and other celestial bodies.

On a related note. The European Space Agency (ESA), China and Russia are in a bit of a race to reach the Moon by 2030. Why? For the expresss purpose of establishing mining operations on it. Why are countries looking to mine the Moon? Because the Moon is rich in minerals that are rare on Earth. They’re called Rare Earth Mineral (REMs).

 

Here’s a few charts:

…As you can see, China controls over half of the REM reserves on Earth. This is a big reason why China outclasses the rest of the world when it comes to Mass Production. China has started tightening control of their reserves and that has the rest of the world very nervous. To say other countries wanting to find other sources of for REMs is a matter of national security goes without saying at this point.

We do know China, India and the ESA sending probes to the Moon in recent years is just the prelude to manned missions expected to begin within the next 2 to 4 years. There is a huge push to establish outposts on the Moon not just for prospecting but future missions to Mars and other places.

Big picture, once this starts happening then we will start to see the costs various electronic goods fall drastically. Can you imagine buying a 50-inch Ultra 4K TV…for $40 instead of $4,000? That’s exactly what we could start seeing once Lunar Prospecting begins.

NASA is partnering with construction vehicle manufacturer Catapillar for the purpose of designing construction vehicles that can operate on the Moon remotely or autonomously. I saw a documentary featuring construction vehicles being operated remotely in Japan on NHK Japan 3 months ago so the tech exists already.

There’s more at stake than most people are aware. The New Space Race may be just the thing that staves off Global Conflict. Time will tell.

 

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