Mars (planet)

In September 2019, NASA released the clearest image of Mars ever taken before.

Mountains

Olympus

Olympus on Mars - the highest peak of the solar system - 26 km. By area, a mountain the size of France.

2023

NASA's project to return samples from Mars completely failed

The return from the surface of Mars of about 500 grams of soil samples in its current form is "almost impossible." This was reported to NASA in a public report on the program, published on September 21, 2023. Read more here.

Roscosmos and the European Space Agency agreed on the mutual return of equipment for the Mars exploration project

Roscosmos and the European Space Agency (ESA) have developed a plan for the mutual return of the equipment of the ExoMars-2022 mission. The press service of the Russian state corporation announced this on March 26, 2023.

They noted that in preparation for the return of the Russian material part (landing module with landing platform and scientific instruments) at the Thales Alenia Space Italy enterprise in Turin (Italy), the necessary work is being carried out with the participation of Russian specialists.

Roscosmos and ESA have developed a plan for the mutual return of the equipment of the ExoMars mission

By the end of March 2023, specialists from Roscosmos and the Russian Academy of Sciences are working on the possibility of exploring Mars, taking into account the groundwork created within the framework of the ExoMars project, including the possibility of attracting foreign partners.

The launch of the ExoMars-2022 automatic interplanetary station to Mars, consisting of a European flight module, a Russian landing platform landing module and a European rover, was planned in September 2022 from the Baikonur cosmodrome with a Proton-M launch vehicle with a Briz-M upper stage.

In March 2022, the European Space Agency suspended cooperation with the Roscosmos State Corporation on the ExoMars-2022 mission, and in July 2022 announced the decision taken by the ESA Council of Member States to terminate cooperation on the project by the agency and proposed to organize a mutual return of equipment. Roscosmos' proposals to launch an automatic interplanetary station to Mars in the "astronomical window" of 2024 or 2026 were categorically rejected by ESA, the state corporation said.

ExoMars is a joint program of ESA and Roscosmos to explore Mars, the main purpose of which is to search for evidence of the existence in the past and present of life on the Red Planet.^[1]

2022

More than seven tons of garbage left by humanity on Mars

Humans have been exploring the surface of Mars for more than 50 years, during which time humanity has left more than seven tons of garbage on the planet. This became known on September 22, 2022. According to the UN Office for Outer Space, the countries sent 18 artificial objects to the Red Planet as part of 14 different expeditions.

Over the decades of exploring Mars, humanity has left many fragments of spacecraft and other equipment on the surface of the planet. West Virginia University robotics researcher Cagri Kilic recently considered how much humans have already littered the fourth planet from the Sun.

At the end of September 2022, there are nine spacecraft on Mars: the landers Mars 3, Mars 6, Viking 1, Viking 2, Phoenix, Sojourner, SPIRIT and Opportunity mars rovers plus a lot of fine wind-blown debris, such as a recently found shiny piece of foil stuck in rocks that was once part of a thermal shell.

According to Chagri Kilich, the mass of all earth's iron on Mars is about nine tons^[2]. And if you subtract from this figure the weight of all equipment working on the surface of the planet, then there will be seven tons of garbage (about 7,119 kg)^[3]

Beginning of work on the Russian mission to Mars

At the end of June 2022, it became known about the beginning of work on the Russian mission to Mars. According to Dmitry Rogozin, General Director of Roscosmos, the S. A. Lavochkin Scientific and Production Association (NPO) has begun work on the corresponding flight module.

As Rogozin noted, the flight module of the Martian mission will be an analogue of the one at which in 2019 the Spektr-RG space observatory went to the Lagrange point L2. The developers must analyze what can be taken from the groundwork for the Cossack lander to implement a new national mission.

Work began on the Russian mission to Mars

Against the background of the Russian special operation in Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions, Europe suspended cooperation with Roscosmos on the ExoMars Martian mission. For this project, the Russian landing platform Kazachok and the European rover Rosalind Franklin were developed. The launch was planned to be carried out in the fall of 2022 from the Baikonur cosmodrome with a Proton-M launch vehicle.

In July 2022, a regular meeting of the Council of ESA member states will take place, following which the European side will make a final decision on the fate of the mission. However, the likelihood of further cooperation with Russia is small, Dmitry Rogozin believes. Therefore, by the end of June 2022, preliminary work on its own Martian project began in the Russian Federation.

With such a lai that sounds in Brussels, there can be no talk of this, so we are going to a national mission, there is no doubt about this, "he said.

Rogozin previously stressed that Russia will independently conduct a mission to Mars, although its preparation will drag on for several years and it will have to be implemented without a rover. The launch of the national mission is possible in 2026.^[4]

2021: NASA publishes 3D video of Ingenuity flight on Mars

In mid-May 2021, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) published a 3D video of the third flight of the Ingenuity helicopter over the surface of Mars. The flight itself took place on April 25, 2021. Read more here.

2020

Russian rover of the ExoMars-2022 mission tested

"Bears on Mars" Damir Muratov

On November 29, 2020, it became known that Russian experts conducted experiments with the test model of the Rosalind Franklin rover of the Russian-European ExoMars-2022 mission.

As part of the tests, mission operators simulated operations that the spacecraft will have to perform from the moment the mission starts to the separation of the European rover from the Russian landing platform. In particular, the stages of deploying solar panels, obtaining a panoramic image of the landing site for assessing the landscape, turning and fixing the wheels in the desired position were worked out. The next stage of the tests will be a simulation of the rover's exit from the landing platform.

The ExoMars program is being implemented by Roscosmos together with the European Space Agency (ESA). The ExoMars-2022 mission will include the Russian Kazachok landing platform and the Rosalind Franklin ESA rover.

Earlier it was planned that the launch of this mission will take place in the summer of 2020. The leadership of Roscosmos and ESA decided to postpone the launch until the launch window of 2022 due to technical problems and the coronavirus pandemic, which slowed down preparations for launch^[5]

The launch of the Chinese rover Tianwen-1

On July 23, the Chinese sent a ship to Mars (the Chinese Chang Zheng-5 rocket (长征五号) with the Tianwen-1 rover (天问一号) on board). It is China's first spacecraft to head for the Red Planet. The rover is expected to reach the surface of Mars in February 2021. A week later, the United States should launch its rover ^[6].

The Long March 5 Y-4 rocket, carrying an unmanned Mars probe of the Tianwen-1 mission, takes off from Wenchang Space Launch Center in Wenchang, Hainan Province, China July 23, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

What is the UAE's Martian mission?

How can a small state in the Middle East with a population of only 9 million 600 thousand people launch a mission to Mars? This will happen on July 15, 2020, when the United Arab Emirates launches its Mars probe called Hope, which will go on a seven-month flight to the Forbes Red Planet (USA)^[7]

What is the UAE's Martian mission?

It is a Mars orbiter that was developed at the Muhammad bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai in partnership with the University of Colorado Boulder Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. This orbiter will reach Mars by February 2021 and will begin studying the atmosphere of this planet at the end of 2021. The goal is to create the first complete picture of Mars' climate within one Martian year.

The national task of the UAE government is to reach Mars by December 2021, that is, when this country turns exactly 50 years old.

How does the UAE respond to the launch of its Martian mission?

The UAE is very excited. "These are tough times for everyone, and this has become encouraging news," Sarah Al Amiri, Minister of State for Advanced Sciences and assistant program manager for the UAE's Mars Mission, told Forbes in an interview. - Students bombard us with a huge number of questions regarding the scientific side of the mission and how they can participate. We had to reconsider our attitude towards meetings during the launch of the devices, and we are looking for ways to do something online. "

The impact of covid-19 on the course of preparation

Thanks to the availability of plans prepared in advance in case of a pandemic, this mission was transported from the Middle East to a launch pad in Japan. "We are in the ready-to-launch stage. The spacecraft is fueled and ready to launch, "said Omran Sharaf, head of the UAE's Mars Mission. "We had to get him there earlier than planned because of covid-19, and we had to separate the team, some of whose members have been in Japan for four months."

UAE Mars Mission Launch Window

The launch window of the UAE Martian mission will open on July 15, 2020 and close on August 2, 2020. If you miss this time, you will not be able to reach Mars. In this case, the entire mission will have to be postponed until September 2022.

Why is the UAE going to Mars?

This mission will fill gaps in planetary scientists' knowledge of how Mars' climate affects its atmosphere. However, the UAE made it clear that this space program is aimed not so much at space exploration as at economic development. "In this case, the main task is not to reach Mars. The main task is to strengthen our knowledge economy, making it more innovative, creative and competitive. It's about the post-oil economy, "Sharaf said.

The UAE produces approximately 2 million 900 thousand barrels of oil per day. This country ranks third in the list of the richest countries in the world (second only to Luxembourg and neighboring Qatar), but it wants to go beyond the oil and petrochemical industries, at the expense of which it lived for a long time. "When the upcoming Mars mission was announced in 2014, there was no science council, no science minister or platform for the development of the scientific community in the UAE. Now we have it all, "Sharaf said.

"The UAE government has made it clear from day one that space is a tool to achieve much larger targets," he continued. - We are talking about the need to fundamentally change the system by integrating science and technology into the economy of the UAE. But we'll have to wait 10-15 years to see the results.'

The launch of the Martian probe is part of a larger UAE space program, which began in 2006. Today, there are three UAE satellites in orbit of the Earth.

2019: Psychologist explains failure of Mars colonisation project

The head of the department of psychology, psychophysiology and neurophysiology of the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yuri Bubeev, told what difficulties the participants in the Mars One project on the colonization of the Red Planet would have to face^[8].

According to the expert, since the expedition to Mars assumed a one-way flight - the colonizers would not be able to return to Earth - this would provoke panic and conflicts.

The psychologist also noted the problems of waiting: according to the plan, sending colonizers to Mars would not have happened until 2024, and it would have been difficult for many applicants to wait for this period. Waiting would become a serious demotivator, Bubeev points out.

According to the specialist, most of those who wished to fly to Mars without the prospect of returning back succumbed to depression or romantic mood, not realizing what would really expect them, they write in July 2019. "News

Earlier, one of the leaders of the Mars One program, Bas Lansdorp, said that they plan to land the first settlers on Mars by 2032. Applications for participation in the project were submitted by 200 thousand people, including 14 thousand Russians. However, in the end, Mars One was declared bankrupt: there were no people willing to invest in the project.

2017

Dubai to print Martian city

Mars Science City will be the largest space city to be built on Earth and become a viable model for future applications on Mars, writes^[9] on^[10] Khaleej Times. The walls of the city are printed from desert sand on a 3D printer^[11].

Sunset on Mars, filmed by NASA's InSight probe, May 2019.

According to Muhammad Nasser al-Ahbabi of the United Arab Emirates space agency, the $136 million "dome city" Mars Science City will be the most realistic model reproducing living conditions and habitat on Mars. Several technological domes under which the Martian city will be located will include special laboratories for the study and breeding of crops in the alien environment, as well as for the production of autonomous energy, the creation of food and the provision of water to the city. In addition, a museum will appear here, where they will collect the largest human space achievements on Earth. The infrastructure of the future scientific city will be located on 17 hectares of desert in the UAE, and the initiators plan to complete its implementation in 30 months.

"The project will include advanced laboratories that simulate the Red Planet landscape and harsh conditions thanks to advanced 3D printing and thermal and radiation isolation technology," the Khaleej Times website said.

According to the initiators, the project is aimed not only at studying the conditions of human existence on Mars, but also at solving global problems: for example, providing the necessary resources for humanity on Earth.

Elon Musk: Man will go to Mars in 2024

The head of the space company announced SpaceX's plans for the expansion of Mars during the astronautical congress in Australia.

According to Musk, a BFR cargo rocket will be sent to Mars, the development of which SpaceX will begin in 6-9 months. A trial launch of a hundred-meter vessel capable of transporting up to 150 tons of cargo on board is scheduled for 2022 so that the first astronauts will land on Mars in 2024. According to the founder of SpaceX, from 2024, a spacecraft will be added to the BFR load, on board which can accommodate up to 100 people, 2-3 in each of the forty cabins.

As noted by Elon Musk, "in 2024, four flights will be completed - two cargo ships and two ships with astronauts."

The main mission of the first people on Mars is to search for water and create fuel.

SpaceX - a plan for the future of the Martian city

In September 2017, SpaceX published ideas for the construction of a Martian city.

The founder of the company, Elon Musk, detailed plans to colonize Mars in 2016. According to him, the first person will arrive on the surface of the "red planet" in 10 − 20 years. At first, the company planned to land a Dragon drone on the surface of Mars in 2018, the flight dates were postponed several times, and then completely abandoned the rocket landing of the ship.

1924: Lecture "Mars - Planet of Riddles"

Notes