Author Archives: FriendlyHelper

Mars Panorama Composite by Stuart Atkinson

“Finally, a spaceprobe takes a picture that shows Mars as it has
burned in my mind all these years,” said Stuart Atkinson via Twitter,
who created this mosaic from four separate raw color images taken
by the rover. The images were taken on Sept. 26, 2012 by the right
MastCam on Curiosity, then uploaded yesterday. They provide a
glimpse at the depth and distances the rover’s cameras can see,
with hills and the rim of Gale Crater off in the distance. (The rover is
looking towards the northeast.)

International Day of the Girl

Important reasons for Mars settlement stem from the cultural change millions of people living on another planet will catalyze here on Earth – simply by the fact of their thriving as a robust vibrant civilization on Mars. Settlements will need to educate every person to their fullest potential. Anticipation of such a society through depictions in film, concept art, mission plans, business proposals, fiction writing, etc., reenforces progressive cultural change now, here on Earth.

"Settling Mars" | A Preview of the Upcoming Documentary

(we really need to STOP USING THE TERM “COLONIZE” – please!)

Also, it is important to note that without several decades of rudimentary, relatively easy terraforming, early settlements will not look like the image above. Surface solar and cosmic radiation will force early settlements underground (either buried beneath several meters of soil or tunneled into mountainsides).  Space activists favoring other destinations than Mars often deride such artists concepts as “fantasy”…the most realistic depictions of early settlements show only airlocks and telerobots on the surface, with cross-sections of extensive subsurface environments.  

A Genuine Intellectual with Integrity, John Lewis on Asteroid Mining and Mars Settlement

“Our first goal is not to settle space, but to make space so economically attractive that it will settle itself.”

 

“Pass carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through electrolysis with what is essentially a ceramic membrane and split it into carbon monoxide and oxygen. Liquify the carbon monoxide and oxygen and you have rocket fuel and rocket oxidizer. The performance of a carbon monoxide/oxygen engine is inferior to that of cryogenic propellants because you’re already using carbon that’s half burned. But – it’s sufficient to get off of Mars. With a single stage.”