Monthly Archives: August 2012

Daein Ballard Terraformed Mars (with Musk Quotes)

“Mars is the only place  in the solar system where it’s possible for life to become multi-planetarian. We could make Mars like Earth… it’s more than our life raft, it’s like backing up the biosphere.”

“In his vision of colonizing Mars, musk isn’t looking to send highly trained astronauts to perform science and return to Earth. He’s looking to send people like you and me, at a price a corporation could subsidize.”

“I think it would be the most difficult thing that humanity has ever tried to do. The Earth has been around for four billion years and in all that time, it’s been confined to one planet. That’s a long time… And now for the first time in almost four billion years, it’s been possible — very difficult, but possible — for life to extend to another planet. If we can take advantage of that opportunity, who knows how long that window will be open?”

(Gorgeous) Image by Daein Ballard:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TerraformedMarsGlobeRealistic.jpg

Artist’s conception of a terraformed Mars. This portrayal is approximately centered on the prime meridian, 30 degrees north latitude. The hypothesized oceans are depicted with sea level at approximately two kilometers below average surface elevation. The ocean submerges what are now Vastitas Borealis, Acidalia Planitia, Chryse Planitia, and Xanthe Terra; the visible landmasses are Tempe Terra at left, Aonia Terra at bottom, Terra Meridiani at lower right, and Arabia Terra at upper right. Rivers that feed the ocean at lower right occupy what are now Valles Marineris and Ares Vallis, while the large lake at lower right occupies what is now Aram Chaos.

"We Are All Made of Stars", Moby

Growing in numbers, growing in speed
Can’t fight the future, can’t fight what I see
People they come together, people they fall apart
No one can stop us now cause we are all made of stars

Efforts of lovers left in my mind
I sing in the reaches, we’ll see what we find
People they come together, people they fall apart
No one can stop us now cause we are all made of stars

People they come together, people they fall apart
No one can stop us now cause we are all made of stars

Slow slow slow, come come
Someone come come come
Even love is going around
You can’t ignore what is going around

Slowly rebuilding, I feel it in me
Growing in numbers, growing in peace
People they come together, people they fall apart
No one can stop us now cause we are all made of stars

People they come together, people they fall apart
No one can stop us now cause we are all made of stars

People they come together (People they come together)
People they fall apart (People they fall apart)
No one can stop us now (No one can stop us now)
‘Cause we are all made of stars (We are all made of stars)

We are all made of stars (People they come together)
We are all made of stars (People they fall apart)
We are all made of stars (No one can stop us now)
‘Cause we are all made of stars (We are all made of stars)

People they come together….

Kees Veenenbos, Mars Renderings with NASA Data, Terragen Software, and Imagination

Ius Chasma (Valles Marineris)
Contemporary Mars
Southern Ridge of Holden Crater
Terraformed Mars
Elysium Mons Sunrise
Gusev Crater (Landing site of the Spirit MER2003 rover.  “Ancient view after duststorm.”)
Misty sunrise at the Tharsis. The volcano Olympus Mons seen from the Lycus Sulci.
Low sunlight doesn’t reach the western ridge of Schiaparelli Crater (450k in diameter). 
View from Cave at the Northern Ridge of Gale Crater (Cone of the Crater at Left)
 To the Right the Ridge of the Heimdall Crater (Phoenix Landing Site)
Ancient Watery View of the Chryse South Region, Outflows of the Ares Valles and Valles Marineris. 
Northpole (left) & Vastitas Borealis. At top Korolev Crater (85 km in Diameter).
A Misty Morning on the Slopes of One of the Eroded Mountains in the Valles Marineris
Concept for National Geographic: Mars during the period of loosing it’s water some billion years ago.
Salty deposits, cracks in the mud, forming of hematite, dust devils and falling meteors. 
Sunset at the Terra Cimeria. The Gale Crater, landing site of the Curiosity Rover, 
as seen from the Aeolis Mensae.
Mars about 4 billion years ago. The Vastitas Bolearis filled with water, the large lake at 
the bottom right is the Meridiani. The Opportunity Rover found evidence of such 
an inner sea. Made for National Geo. July 2005 issue.

Foster + Partners: Virgin Galactic Spaceport New Mexico

“…we must all evangelize an exploration society predicated on settlement. This ultimately is the real cause of the exploration that we seek. To create a spacefaring civilization, a civilization of vibrant communities living and working beyond Earth. This is the crucial link which ties together space exploration, private enterprise, and public participation. Settlement is the destination for exploration’s efforts. Without it exploration is dead.” 
George Whitesides, CEO and President, Virgin Galactic 
Location: New Mexico, USA
Client: New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) 
Tenant: Virgin Galactic
Architectural Lead Design: 
Norman Foster 
Grant Brooker 
Antoinette Nassopoulos-Erickson 
Joon Paik 
Hiroyuki Sube 
See Teck Yeo 
Kristine Ngan

“…what NASA seemed to forget was that we all wanted to go. We all wanted to go and somehow we lost that. We all wanted to go and it was almost taken away. How many people believe that they can go? And until we get that excitement back, nothing much is going to change…we all wanted to go and we were forgotten about. Those who wanted to go were forgotten.” Anthony Tether, DARPA

More Music for Mars: Misfits to Flaming Lips

‘Life on Mars’ by David Bowie (1971)
‘Ballrooms of Mars’ by T. Rex (1972)
‘Teenagers From Mars’ by The Misfits (1978)
‘Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon’ by The Flaming Lips (2002)
‘Bird Dream of Olympus Mons’ by Pixies (1991)
‘Blues on Planet Mars’ by Sun Ra (1968)
‘Journey to the Polar Cap’ by The Martian (1993)
‘Send Me Shivers’ by Mouse on Mars (2004)
‘A Martian’ by Ennio Morricone (2000)
‘An Ending (Ascent)’ by Brian Eno (1983)

Depicting Earth Coordination Rooms

Hopefully we will move away from referring to space travel as “missions” and Earth-based facilitators as “Control”, but in any case, these are such real and depicted facilities (…speaking of which it’s about time people who travel, tour, or work in space are referred to as “people or person or folks or guy or girl” rather than corny “astronauts” right?…let’s make space commonplace…isn’t everyone an astronaut nowadays?)

 

SpaceX
JPL Curiosity
Apollo 13
Armageddon
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