Everything About Mars Is The Worst

This is a good article about how screwed we would be if we tried to move to Mars right now, from fivethirtyeight.com-

Story By Rebecca Boyle

ILLUSTRATION BY TUCHI

At first glance, Mars seems pretty nice. The sun warms its rusty surface to a balmy 70 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, and gentle breezes ruffle its dirt. Spacecraft touch down and either plant their legs, so they can scrape and till its umber soil, or roll away, so they can trundle over rocks, up hills and down craters. Eventually, humans may be able to stake their flags in that solid ground, and build habitats, and maybe grow food.

No other world in the solar system offers us this chance. Mercury is way too close to the sun. Nearby Venus has far too much atmosphere, whose pressure and noxious gases would crush and choke visitors from Earth. Jupiter spews bullets of radiation, which will endanger human and robot exploration on its rocky or watery moons. Our own moon is airless, and it’s dark for two weeks at a time. So Mars is pretty much it, at least for the foreseeable future.

Too bad it’s such a jerk...(Continue reading Everything About Mars is the Worst)

FIVE DAYS and some news about earthquakes...

We are down to 5 business days until the launch of Ravens of Mars!

Next Friday is THE day.  So stay tuned for what's coming up next week!

In the meantime, it turns out that hydrogen can be released by Earthquakes, meaning earthquakes on Mars may create the stuff that could sustain organisms...

The islands of Barra and Uist share an important similarity with Mars Jeff J Mitchell/Getty

Rocks found in the Outer Hebrides might suggest that there’s life on Mars. 

A major new study has looked at the landscape in the islands of Barra and Uist and suggests that Mars – which shares an important similarity – could be capable of sustaining alien life.

Read Article from the Independent

What we'd see on Planet Proxima b

There is an interesting article on Quartz.com about the new Earth-like planet called Proxima Centauri b that has been discovered:

Imagine a permanet sunset on planet Proxima b. (ESO/M. Kornmesser/Handout via Reuters)

Since at least the time of the Greek philosophers, humans have speculated about the existence of other worlds. Today we know our night sky is literally teeming with exoplanets—planets that orbit the stars outside our solar system. And it was with great excitement that the world greeted the announcement on Aug. 24 that scientists had detected a planet orbiting not just any star, but the star nearest to our own sun, Proxima Centauri...

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