Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Yeti Tracks: Invisibility Update

A short update on the quest for the invisibility cloak I mentioned in an earlier article. In this article at New Scientist, it mentions that some researchers believe total invisibility would be impossible due to the infinitely large electrical and magnetic properties required of some of the cloaks electrical components, but that it should still be possible to have something cloaked appear as only a thin ray of light.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

A Human Mission to Mars?

Not yet (you knew I was going to say that, didn't you?), but if you're interested there is no need to sing the blues (or is that the reds?). I thought I would put together an article on the subject of a Human (Manned) mission to Mars in light of some recent developments in that area. It looks like the old rivalry that started the moon race may come into play again. Here is a recent story from the Telegraph about Russia's intentions to build a moon base and from there move on to Mars. It was January this year when US President George W. Bush announced his Vision for Space Exploration which included reference to a return to the moon and a mission to Mars on an earlier timetable than the current Russian plans.

An exciting new mini-series is premiering on the Discovery Channel in Canada very soon (September 23rd) entitled "Race to Mars". The producers consulted with hundreds of scientists to create the most accurate portrayal possible of what could be expected on this magnificent journey. This site has a ton of cool things on it as you might expect from the Discovery Channel including some interesting games oriented around Mars exploration, definitely worth checking out as is the mini-series.

Related to the mini-series is "Earth to Mars: The Great Space Debate" hosted by Daily Planet's Jay Ingram in Toronto on September 15th 2007. Tickets are sold out, but you can watch the live webcast online.

Also key to this issue is the Mars Society, a non-profit organization advocating human exploration and settlement of Mars. Their annual convention just wrapped up and their experimental mission in the Canadian arctic (the FMARS 11 Long Duration Mission) just came to a close at the end of August.

For a look at all things Mars from the NASA perspective, this site is a great place to start. It is hard to find any mention of a human mission here though. If you are wondering about the role the International Space Station might play in such a mission, there is a relevant "Ask an Expert" article at Scientific American here.

Going back in time a little,"The Case for Mars" conferences were interesting and share the title of a book by Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society.

You may also want to have a look at what the ESA (European Space Agency) is up to with their Aurora program or at the Russian Mars-500 project, another project intended to simulate on Earth a manned flight to Mars. To round all this out, there is a great list of just about every plan ever proposed here, and this subject has an article on Wikipedia that will point you in a lot of good directions. See you out there!