Scientific American: “New Space Radiation Limits needed for NASA Astronauts, report says”

Everybody is planning trips to the moon and Mars, and these missions could have high radiation exposures, says Hedvig Hricak, lead author of the report and a radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Using current spaceflight-proved technologies, long-distance voyages—especially to the Red Planet—would exceed the proposed threshold, she says.

That could be a big problem for NASA’s Artemis program, which seeks to send astronauts to the moon in preparation for future trips to Mars. Another problem for the space agency is that the epidemiological data it uses mostly come from a longevity study of Japanese survivors of atomic bomb blasts, as well as from the handful of astronauts and cosmonauts who have endured many months or even years in low-Earth orbit. NASA’s current space radiation limit, which was developed in 2014, involves a complicated risk assessment for cancer mortality that depends on age and sex, yet more relevant data are necessary, Hricak argues. In the atomic bomb survivor study, for instance, women were more likely to develop lung cancer than men, suggesting a greater sex-based vulnerability to harmful radiation. But with the knowledge we presently have, we know we cannot make a comparison between high exposure versus chronic exposure, Hricak says. The environment is different. There are so many factors that are different.

Ramin Skibba

Another indication of NASA’s increasing risk aversion around human space flight. Setting a fixed limit for radiation exposure is a blunt solution to a very complex problem; NASA should instead concentrate efforts into finding ways to extend safe human presence in space, by researching better shielding, faster propulsion methods to reduce transit times in deep space, and treatments to prevent cancer and alleviate radiation side-effects – something that could drastically improve many lives on Earth as well! At this rate though, others will set foot on the Moon and Mars well ahead of the US – maybe Elon Musk, utterly unconcerned about the safety of travelers, possibly Jeff Bezos on the Moon, but more likely China…

IEEE Spectrum: “How NASA designed a Helicopter that could fly autonomously on Mars”

Tim Canham: Since Ingenuity is classified as a technology demo, JPL is willing to accept more risk. The main unmanned projects like rovers and deep space explorers are what’s called Class B missions, in which there are many people working on ruggedized hardware and software over many years. With a technology demo, JPL is willing to try new ways of doing things. So we essentially went out and used a lot of off-the-shelf consumer hardware.

There are some avionics components that are very tough and radiation resistant, but much of the technology is commercial grade. The processor board that we used, for instance, is a Snapdragon 801, which is manufactured by Qualcomm. It’s essentially a cell phone class processor, and the board is very small. But ironically, because it’s relatively modern technology, it’s vastly more powerful than the processors that are flying on the rover. We actually have a couple of orders of magnitude more computing power than the rover does, because we need it. Our guidance loops are running at 500 Hz in order to maintain control in the atmosphere that we're flying in. And on top of that, we’re capturing images and analyzing features and tracking them from frame to frame at 30 Hz, and so there’s some pretty serious computing power needed for that. And none of the avionics that NASA is currently flying are anywhere near powerful enough. In some cases we literally ordered parts from SparkFun [Electronics]. Our philosophy was, this is commercial hardware, but we’ll test it, and if it works well, we’ll use it.

Evan Ackerman

Interesting background on NASA’s most recent mission to Mars, particularly the large gap in computing power between the processors installed on the Perseverance rover and on the Ingenuity helicopter. It highlights the fast and steady pace of consumer chip technology, with updates coming yearly, in contrast to the long and laborious process of planning and executing a space mission (Perseverance was announced eight years ago). Hopefully NASA and other space agencies can accelerate this process, or at least combine large and complex missions with smaller and more flexible experiments, such as this first Martian drone.

Ars Technica: “Inside Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week—and settle Mars”

Compare that to NASA and its Space Launch System, the big rocket that the space agency has been developing for a decade and for which Boeing only recently completed a single core stage. This core stage is about 15 meters taller than Starship but lacks its complexity. NASA will, in fact, toss each SLS core stage into the ocean after a single use. And Boeing doesn’t have to make the engines, as the rocket uses 40-year-old space shuttle main engines. Despite this, and with nearly $2 billion in annual funding from NASA, Boeing’s stretch goal for building core stages is one to two per year… some time in the mid-2020s.

SpaceX’s stretch goal is to build one to two Starships a week, this year, and to pare back construction costs to as low as $5 million each.

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A high production rate solves many ills, he said. If you have a high production rate, you have a high iteration rate. For pretty much any technology whatsoever, the progress is a function of how many iterations do you have, and how much progress do you make between each iteration. If you have a high production rate then you have many iterations. You can make progress from one to the next.

None of this is cheap. Boca Chica is a fairly remote location to ship materials into. And the company has gone really fast, sparing few expenses. How long can it go like this, and how is he paying for all of this? Musk declined to offer specifics.

We’re just paying for it internally, he said. Then he paused and added, Success is not assured.

Eric Berger

Interesting insight into the concrete aspects of Elon Musk’s plans to reach, and eventually colonize, Mars. Considering both test flights of his new Starship prototype have ended with a bang, I wouldn’t say he is making much progress between iterations just yet. In this case, I tend to agree with his approach of building up a production line and reducing manufacturing costs – although he doesn’t seem to have learned much about micromanagement from his awful Tesla experiences – but I suspect there are less wasteful ways to test prototypes than shooting them up into the sky and hoping for the best. It certainly makes for exciting headlines – and stokes Musk’s huge ego, no doubt.

Völkerrechtsblog: “Sorry, Elon: Mars is not a legal vacuum – and it’s not yours, either”

On October 28^th, Elon Musk’s company SpaceX published its Terms of Service for the beta test of its Starlink broadband megaconstellation. If successful, the project purports to offer internet connection to the entire globe – an admirable, albeit aspirational, mission. I must confess: Starlink’s terrestrial impact is a pet issue of mine. But this time, something else caught my attention. Buried in said Terms of Service, under a section called “Governing Law”, I discovered this curious paragraph:

Services provided to, on, or in orbit around the planet Earth or the Moon… will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California in the United States. For Services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship or other colonization spacecraft, the parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities. Accordingly, Disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith, at the time of Martian settlement.

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Three primary concerns emerge from this picture. First, non-appropriation is cardinal for a reason – if breached, international peace and security in space hangs in the balance. Second, even signalling the implementation of a provision so contrary to US obligations without censure risks the international rule of law. Finally, and most pragmatically, American vulnerability to future claims by other states should concern American citizens; it is their money, their national reputation on the line.

Commercial actors in space present great innovative and developmental potential for all mankind (Aganaba-Jeanty, 2015), but their so-called ‘self-regulatory’ or administrative role should be taken with a healthy scepticism. We already know how that story ends. As Bleddyn Bowen put it, [t]he continuation of the term ‘colonies’ in describing the potential human future in space should raise political and moral alarm bells immediately given the last 500 years of international relations. Will billionaires run their ‘colonies’ the way they run their factory floors, and treat their citizens like they treat their lowest paid employees?

Cristian van Eijk

Good overview of the legal aspects of Elon Musk’s latest stunt. Practical implications are fortunately far removed; despite Musk’s grandiose claims, Mars is not going to be colonized for decades at least. While legally a corporation cannot declare Mars outside the jurisdiction of Earth laws, Elon Musk has a history of discarding rules when he feels they do not apply to him, of marching on with projects despite opposition and without considering the consequences – Starlink itself makes a good example. The US government has put little effort into curbing the power of its home-grown corporations, and abides by international law only when it sees fit, so I wouldn’t expect proper enforcement of the Outer Space Treaty on their part.

Wired: “The Food we’ll eat on the Journey to Mars”

Psychologists have no idea how the so-called break-off phenomenon—the sense of detachment that can arise when our planet slips from view—will affect future astronauts’ mental state. What’s more, any communication with the now-invisible Earth will be subject to as much as a 45-minute lag. Kelley Slack, one of the experts on NASA’s Behavioral Health and Performance team, recently told NBC, It will be the first time that we’ve been totally disconnected from Earth. Since the summer of 1975, when NASA convened a group of experts to discuss permanent settlement in space, researchers have warned of a psychological condition called “solipsism syndrome”, in which reality feels dreamlike and lonely astronauts become prone to self-destructive mistakes. Mars could be the theory’s first real test.

Food assumes added importance under all conditions of isolation and confinement because normal sources of gratification are denied, Jack Stuster, an anthropologist and NASA consultant, wrote in Bold Endeavors, his 1996 book on the behavioral issues associated with extreme environments. Usually, the longer the confinement, the more important food becomes. Managers of offshore oil rigs, supertankers, and Antarctic research stations all appreciate the importance of food to maintaining group morale and productivity in isolated, remote, and confined situations. Stuster noted that food has become such an important element onboard fleet ballistic missile submarines that, for years, meals have been served at cloth-covered tables in pleasant paneled dining rooms.

Nicola Twilley

A vital topic for humanity’s long-term space exploration plans, food is inextricably linked with morale, since other sources of satisfaction will be severely limited. In some sense we experienced a lighter form in recent months during the lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic – and cooking was a source of comfort for many people. Somehow I doubt Elon Musk is taking any of this into consideration when drafting his grandiose plans to colonize Mars…

Kim Stanley Robinson – The Martians

Când se discută despre colonizarea planetei Marte, e aproape inevitabil să menționezi trilogia Marte Roșu a lui Kim Stanley Robinson, care a imaginat întregul proces la o scară realistă, incluzând caracterul uman pe lângă aspectele tehnologice și ecologice. Colecția de față completează saga cu o serie de viniete, momente din viața oamenilor trăind pe Marte care la momentul scrierii n‑au fost incluse în textul principal. De vreme ce sunt numeroase și, multe dintre ele, extrem de scurte, nu le voi discuta separat, ci pe diferitele teme care reies din întreg.

Câteva dintre ele relatează evenimente legate de Primii O Sută, în special din perspectiva Mayei și a Coiotului, care, din câte țineam eu minte, nu au fost în centrul nici unui capitol din Marte Roșu (am verificat între timp, Maya e punctul de vedere care descrie călătoria spre Marte, ceea ce implică că evenimentele din trilogie sunt cel puțin incomplete, de vreme ce aici se afirmă că ea știuse încă de atunci de călătorul clandestin). Altele, mai puține și scurte, ating tangențial prima generație de coloniști născuți pe Marte, descendenții celor O Sută. Partea cea mai consistentă a colecției urmărește, de‑a lungul a patru povestiri, relația dintre Roger Clayborne și Eileen Monday, de la întâlnirea lor în timpul unei excursii în primele decenii ale planetei, când aceasta era încă sălbatică și neexplorată, la o lungă și dificilă ascensiune pe Muntele Olympus, până spre final, când ambii ajung la vârsta critică de 300 de ani și ecosistemul marțian e pus în pericol de o răcire accentuată a mediului.

Altele, mai stranii, relatează povești din folclorul marțian, despre ficționalele bacterii care ar fi existat de la formarea planetei și Uriașul care a deformat suprafața cu pașii lui, dând naștere la marile forme de relief din prezent. În final, câteva explorează o realitate alternativă în care expediția originală a celor O Sută din 2026 nu ar fi avut loc, Pământul mulțumindu‑se să trimită regulat echipaje științifice pe perioade determinate, fără a încerca o colonizare permanentă.

Engadget: “Elon Musk’s grand plan to colonize Mars”

Musk estimated that, using traditional methods, it would cost $10 billion per person to travel to Mars, and he wants that figure to drop to roughly $200,000 per person. Eventually, the cost of a Mars move will be below $100,000, Musk said. A large part of lowering that cost is creating spaceships with reusable parts, Musk said. The ITS’ in-orbit refueling stage is crucial to SpaceX’s plans, since it lowers fuel expenditures at liftoff and features fully reusable boosters, tankers and ships. Each booster can be used 1,000 times; each tanker 100 times and each ship 12 times.

Initial trips will take about 100 people to Mars at a time, but Musk said he expected that number (and the size of each ship) to rise in due time. The ITS itself will be a welcoming, fun place, as Musk describes it, featuring zero-gravity rooms, movie areas, a cafeteria and other entertainment options. It’ll take just a few days of training to prepare for a trip to Mars, Musk said.

Jessica Conditt

With each new announcement, Elon Musk reinforces my impression that he’s a megalomaniac who lost touch with reality. I mean, just a year ago he proposed nuking the planet, now he wants to colonize it over the next 10 years?! And all that without any plan for sustainable living on the surface. He will basically send people to death, but hey – they made history, right?

Kim Stanley Robinson - Marte Roșu

După câteva cărți mai puțin inspirate, de ceva vreme am simțit nevoia să recitesc unele romane citite acum mulți ani, și printre primele care mi‑au venit în minte se afla Marte Roșu. Pentru cei familiarizați cât de puțin cu literatura SF nu e nevoie de o altă prezentare; pentru ceilalți, pe scurt, o epopee a colonizării planetei Marte întinsă pe zeci de ani, sute de pagini, mii de personaje.

Să revii la un roman la câțiva ani după ce l‑ai citit prima oară este cu siguranță o experiență surprinzătoare: impresiile la cald se împletesc cu amintiri fragmentare și incerte, se luptă cu așteptări ridicate, uneori nerealiste, așa cum nu se întâmplă la prima lectură. Eu am fost șocat de primul capitol, probabil cel mai scurt, în care Frank Chalmers plănuiește cu sânge rece asasinarea camaradului său John Boone, primul om pe Marte și într‑un fel imaginea întregului proiect de colonizare. Îmi aminteam rivalitatea dintre ei pe multe planuri, de la viziunea asupra societății marțiene, la influența pe plan politic, la locul în inima și patul Maiei Toitovna, dar nu și acest detaliu esențial. Cruzimea cu care Frank organizează crima și meticulozitatea cu care‑și ascunde urmele sunt un mod neașteptat de a deschide povestea – și o anticipare sumbră a finalului violent. Am așteptat în schimb alte scene de‑a lungul întregului roman (ca de exemplu ascensiunea epică a Muntelui Olympus de către Ann Clayborne) ca să constat că nu fac parte din el, ci mi le aminteam cel mai probabil din continuarea Marte Verde.

ExtremeTech: “Inside NASA’s Curiosity”

At the heart of Curiosity there is, of course, a computer. In this case the Mars rover is powered by a RAD750, a single-board computer (motherboard, RAM, ROM, and CPU) produced by BAE. The RAD750 has been on the market for more than 10 years, and it’s currently one of the most popular on-board computers for spacecraft. In Curiosity’s case, the CPU is a PowerPC 750 (PowerPC G3 in Mac nomenclature) clocked at around 200MHz — which might seem slow, but it’s still hundreds of times faster than, say, the Apollo Guidance Computer used in the first Moon landings. Also on the motherboard are 256MB of DRAM, and 2GB of flash storage — which will be used to store video and scientific data before transmission to Earth. Sebastian Anthony

So basically last year’s smartphone (given the right software) could control the spacecraft and guide it through the atmospheric entry procedure without breaking a sweat. Really puts into perspective how much some technologies, in this case computing, have evolved, while in other areas, like propulsion, space exploration remains stuck in the middle of the 20th century. With cheap propulsion and a light-weight launch system there could be an entire fleet of smartphones zipping around the solar system, orbiting all the major planets, landing on the moons, keeping tabs on near-Earth asteroids and doing deep-space interferometry. And probably so much more.

And, on a related note: Android Phones Will Power NASA's New Fleet of Mini-Satellites.

Edgar Rice Burroughs - A Princess of Mars

Trebuie să mărturisesc că, deși e considerat un clasic al genului, romanul de față m‑a lăsat rece de la primele pagini. Ba chiar l‑am abandonat după un capitol; am revenit la el de‑abia când am dat de o carte și mai greu de digerat (de Philip K. Dick, evident). De data asta am rezistat până la sfârșit, doar pentru ca prima impresie să‑mi fie confirmată din plin. Acțiunea s‑ar putea să vă fie cunoscută în mare, fie din carte, fie din diversele variante de ecranizare: John Carter, un veteran al Războiului Civil American, ajunge în Arizona în căutarea aurului, când partenerul lui e ucis de un trib de indieni. După ce salvează corpul acestuia dintre ei, Carter se refugiază într‑o peșteră, de unde e transportat ca prin magie pe suprafața lui Marte – sau Barsoom, așa cum e cunoscută de localnici. Capturat de Marțienii Verzi, se remarcă printre ei ca războinic și devine protectorul și pretendentul frumoasei Dejas Thoris din rasa Marțienilor Roșii, prințesă a orașului-stat Helium.

Cartea e o combinație eclectică de elemente care acum ar fi disputate de genurile science-fiction și fantasy – de înțeles pentru perioada din care provine. Burroughs are în repertoriu destule explicații științifice plauzibile: gravitația scăzută de pe Marte, care‑i conferă eroului puteri aproape supranaturale (deși amploarea salturilor lui e compatibilă mai degrabă cu Luna decât cu Planeta Roșie), cei doi sateliți (prea luminoși în roman pentru dimensiunile lor reale, iar văzut de pe suprafața planetei Phobos răsare la vest, ceea ce din câte țin minte nu e descris corect în roman), faptul că John Carter trebuie să învețe limba băștinașilor, descrierile vegetației și animalelor locale, cum ar fi faptul că noi-născuții Marțienilor Verzi au capul proporțional mai mare decât adulții, la fel ca în cazul oamenilor. Romanul introduce multe idei care răspândesc mai târziu în literatura SF: automate care pregătesc mâncare, călătorii interplanetare și sateliți artificiali, terraformarea pentru a supraviețui ecosferei în declin, care trebuie menținută la un nivel suportabil cu fabrici atmosferice sofisticate și sistemul de canale marțiene. Probabil de aceea întâlnim referiri la Barsoom în romane SF moderne, ca Steaua Pandorei.