DESTINATION MARS!

   
         Our resources are limited and it may not be possible to live on planet Earth forever. It is therefore imperative for us to search for the possibility of life on other planets and determine whether we can inhabit those territories. Of all the planet explorations taking place, the findings of planet Mars gives us hope to mankind about the possibility of another livable planet. Here are some of these findings.



How Far Is Mars From The Sun?
       Mars has an elliptical orbit around the Sun, so sometimes it is closer to the Sun and sometimes its farther. When its closest, it is approximately 206,600,000 km away






What Are The Gases In The Planet Mars?
       The atmosphere consists of mainly of carbon dioxide (95 per cent), argon and nitrogen. Mars has a very thin atmosphere. The suspicion of life on Mars was supported by the stream beds consisting of water, lava and frozen water ice at the poles. So there might even be traces of hydrogen in the planet's atmosphere.

Is There Water On Mars?
       Evidence shows that water flowed abundantly on Mars during its first 500 million years of history. There are winding channels and great gorges similar to water cut canyons. One such canyon is the Valles Marineris which is 10 times longer and about four times deeper than the Grand Canyon on Earth.

Where Has The Water Gone?
        It is believed that water on Mars dried up, because, at only about half the Earth's diameter, it was unable to retain the heat of its birth for as long. It is the dynamo action of molten material circulating deep inside a planet that creates a magnetic field. This magnetic field shields a planet's atmosphere from the ravages of the million-mile an hour solar wind. Without this magnetic shield, the atmosphere of Mars was quickly stripped away and so liquid water could no longer exist on its surface.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Phoenix mars lander

Did Life On Mars Exist?     
            Advanced life forms require liquid water. Since the mid 1960's, studies have shown the presence of frozen water at the Martian poles. Tn recent years, NASA Rover robots on Mars (Mars Pathfinder, The Spirit and Opportunity Rovers and The Phoenix Mars Lander) coupled with data from Mars orbiters proved the previous existence of liquid water on Mars.

NASA Mars Rover

     



       Also, from images and techniques used to measure ice levels, it appears that at the polar extremes of the planet there are large amounts of ice. If melted, this ice would lead to an average level of water covering the entire surface by 11 meters high, thereby generating oxygen in the atmosphere thus justifying the probability of life on the Planet.

Mars pathfinder

         

Why Is Study Of Mars Important As Compared To Other Planets?
         The existence of Earth-like life should necessarily be restricted to planets where Earth conditions exist or have existed. Taking a closer look at the other planets, we find Mars to be the only planet that can provide answers.

• WHY NOT VENUS? - With its crushingly high atmospheric surface pressure, lead- melting temperatures and thick carbon dioxide atmosphere that is resistant to sunlight, Venus's surface makes for an extremely unfriendly environment for any robotic lander.

• WHY NOT MERCURY? - Though it might be very much like the moon, half the planet and the satellites in orbit around it are subjected to high solar radiation. The heat from the sun could fry a spacecraft and the radiation could destroy all on board electronics. So nobody can ever live there.

• WHY NOT JUPITER? - The giant gas planet Jupiter is very, very, far away. So with our current and near-future propulsion technology, humans can only reach it in huge colony ships. And once we would get there, we would have only some small, dead moons to live on. So if Jupiter is improbable, then life on SATURN, URANUS and NEPTUNE is just impossible! 

              This means we would need a leap in technology to survive on the Venus surface. We would need huge spaceships to get to Jupiter, and nobody would be able to return home for decades. And so Mars is definitely the only planet that we could go out to, explore and probably inhabit in the near future. 

How Similar Is Mars To Earth?

• Each planet has roughly the same amount of land surface area. Atmospheric chemistry is relatively similar, at least as Earth is compared to the other planets in the solar system. Both planets have large, sustained polar caps, which is probably made of water ice. Mountains on Mars are much larger than Earth's mountains.

• Mars does not have the same kind of magnetic field as Earth. But evidence collected by the Mars Global Surveyor(MGS) indicates that the planet may have once had a global magnetic field, generated by and internal dynamo. Evidence suggests that the planet's magnetic field reversed direction, or flipped, several times in its early days as conditions in the mantle and core of the planet changed. But the dynamo faded, leaving only faint traces of its magnetic past locked in the Martian crust.

• On earth much of the planets fresh water is locked up in ice covering the two poles. This polar ice and the vast ice sheet covering Greenland in the north may only represents roughly three percent of the overall water contained on Earth, it represents two thirds of all the available fresh water, that is vital to many of the lifeforms found here. Likewise, data now indicate that Mars's northern polar region may contain as much water as that contained on Greenland's ice sheet, a vast tract of frozen water that's up to three kilometres thick in some places.

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THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

 What is THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION?

       The International Space Station (ISS) is a large and special kind of spacecraft floating in space. It is a large research facility with people on-board who run science experiments that can only be done in space. It orbits 250 miles above the Earth flying through space at around 17,000 miles per hour. This means the ISS goes around the Earth approximately once every 90 minutes.

WHO BUILT THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION?

         The ISS deigned so that many countries all over the world could cooperate and have a place on-board to perform their science and technology experiments. The two primary countries involved with the ISS are the United States with NASA and RUSSIA with the Russian Space Agency (RSA). Other countries involved with the construction and ongoing activities on the ISS are The Canadian Space Agency, The European Space Agency, Japan, Brazil, and many others.

WHEN WAS IT MADE?

          The first piece of ISS was launched in 1998. Over time, the US space shuttle and Russian rockets were primarily used to get materials, parts, and people back and forth from the Earth up to the Space station. The first crew arrived in October 2000. People have lived on the space station ever since. Over time more pieces have been added. NASA and its partners around the world finished the space station in 2011.

HOW BIG IS THE SPACE STATION?

       The Space Station is as big as a house with five bedrooms. It has two bathrooms, a gymnasium and a big bay window. Six people are able to live there. It weighs almost a million pounds. It is big enough to cover a football field.

WHAT ARE THE PARTS OF THE SPACE STATION?

        The Space Station has many parts. The parts are called modules. The first modules had parts needed to make the Space Station work. Astronauts also lived in those modules. Modules called "nodes" connect parts of the station to each other. Labs on the Space Station let astronauts do research. On the sides of the Space Station are solar arrays. These arrays collect energy from the Sun to convert into electricity. Airlocks on the Space Station are like doors. Astronauts use them to go outside on spacewalks. Docking ports are like doors, too. The ports allow visiting spacecraft to connect to the space station. New crews and visitors enter the station through the docking ports. Astronauts fly to the space station on the Russian Soyuz. The crew members use the ports to move supplies onto the station.

WHY IS THE SPACE STATION IMPORTANT?

         The Space Station is a home in orbit where crew members do research. This research could not be done on Earth. Scientists study what happens to people when they live in space and how to keep a spacecraft working for a long time. These lessons will be important in the future.

WHAT TYPES OF EXPERIMENTS ARE DONE ON ISS?

          Experiments with space medicine, gravity's affect on life, future space travel, biology in space, discovery of new materials, and various technology experiments are being conducted on ISS. Studying materials like fluids, flames, metals, and different objects in space helps us gain a better understanding of all these things on Earth. From the ISS, we have a great window to watch the Earth, watching weather, climate, agriculture trends, natural disasters, pollution, deforestation, etc. We can even have a more clear view of all the galaxies out in the universe and we can even study the very nature of space itself.

HOW IS INFORMATION FROM THE ISS COMMUNICATED TO EARTH?

         The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRS) is a series of satellites that the ISS uses to communicate with the ground. Using TDRS with its satellites positioned all around the Earth, the ISS can communicate to the Earth any time it needs to. The Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) is the NASA network that controls TDRS.

WHO IS ON BOARD THE ISS NOW?

       The Expedition 32 crew is on board the ISS. Crew members are from the USA, Russia and Japan. On July 14, 2012 Indian born astronaut, Sunita Williams was launched in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to join the Expedition 32 crew. She will stay on and become the commander of Expedition 33

LIFE INSIDE THE ISS:-

    Once a person is inside the INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION, they can float around without needing a spacesuit. The only time an astronaut would need a spacesuit is if they are doing a spacewalk, which means they are going outside the space station to work on something. As for Oxygen, there are life support systems on the ISS which provide oxygen and remove carbon dioxide so astronauts can do their job on board and breathe normally. Much of this oxygen comes from a process where the electricity from the ISS solar panels is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gas. On the ISS, meals often come in a meal tray, and the meal tray becomes a sort of dinner place with several foods to choose from. The tray holds the foods down so they don't float away. The food and drink come in cans or dehydrated so things don't have to be refrigerated. As for sleeping, astronauts are weightless and can sleep in any orientation. However, they have to attach themselves to a wall, seat or bed so they don't float around and bump into something.

ISS TRIVIA :-

• The Space Station is the largest manned object ever sent into space. It is a research facility that measures 290 feet in length and 356 feet in width. It weighs more than 1 million pounds.
• It is being powered by solar energy. This energy is necessary to power the six laboratories and all the living space on board.
• The ISS was designed and built with the collaboration of 100,000 people, sixteen nations, and hundreds of companies.

HERE IS A VIDEO:-

Was Is Informative? Being an astronaut is amazing, isn't it? We get to see our Earth, various planets, especially the Sun and much more! I wish I was an Astronaut..! What do you think? :D