On Interplanetary Dating

We on Earth have always had our eye on that redhead in the next row over: Mars. Named after the Roman god of War it is one of five planets visible to the naked eye and was known to Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Chinese, and Indian astronomers in ancient times. It was first seen through a telescope by Galileo in 1610 CE and had its first surface features mapped by Christiaan Huygens later that century. In the late 19th century the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli named many of Mar’s geographic features and was the first to claim to observe vertical features he called channels. After other astronomers including the American Percival Lowell claimed to observe more of these features, now called canals, speculation grew on the possibility life on Mars and of a Martian civilization. These ideas leaked into pulp comics and sci-fi novels like Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars as well as into the scientific culture of the early 20th century. The possibilities of Mars have had a hold on the modern imagination ever since.

Not content with merely observing our planetary neighbour from afar we have always longer for for a closer look. In July 1965 Mariner 4 gave us that chance becoming the first spacecraft to orbit Mars and the first spacecraft to take pictures of the surface of another planet. Since then we have sent dozens of missions to the red planet including the first landers Viking 1 and Viking 2, orbiters like Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey, rovers like Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity, and a even a (failed) sample retrieval mission Fobos-Grunt. Fobos -Grunt isn’t the only failure either. In fact something like 52% of all Mars missions ultimately or partially fail each costing billions of dollars. And yet these missions have been and continue to be sent by every space faring nation or organization on Earth. A failed mission to Mars might represent a loss of a few billion dollars but we have to remember what some of our martian successes have gained us. The rovers Spirit and Opportunity were both launched in 2003 and successfully landed on the surface of Mars for missions that were designed to last 90 days. NASA lost contact with Spirit after 2269 days and Opportunity is still going strong after 3336+ days. That’s almost 10 years of strong extraterrestrial science. This potential to learn means that the idea of Mars as an object of scientific interest and as a destination continues to hold strong and even grow. Plans continue for missions involving people, whether in a fly-by and return or actual landing mission at some point in the future.

Mars_Valles_MarinerisSo why spend all this money? What is it exactly that makes Mars so attractive? Well to begin with it’s the nearest thing to Earth, besides our own Moon, which we could conceivably land on and explore. Venus, for various reasons mostly having to do with an average surface temperature in excess of 450C, is right out and the interesting moons of the outer solar system (like Europa or Titan) are just too far away at this time. A journey to Mars, by current technology takes only about a year. Mars also has some pretty cool tourist destinations including the largest mountain in the solar system Olympus Mons and canyon systems like the 4000km long Valles Marineris. The most fascinating thing for most people is that there is a possibility that at some point in the past conditions on Mars were conducive for the formation of life. There is already conclusive evidence that Mars was once covered in oceans, seas, and rivers and the rover Curiosity is currently examining rocks to determine what kinds of action water has had on the geology of Mars.  Even if no evidence of life is ever found on the planet, Mars is the first opportunity we have had to see many of the geological processes we take for granted here on Earth on another comparable celestial body. Mars will also have its own processes and secrets We’ve already learned that under the oxidized red covering that Mars is famous for lies a surprising amount of information about the formation and disposition of martian rocks and the former presence of water.

If we were to discover any evidence of life on Mars, even as little as the fossil of a microbe or even proto-microbe, our knowledge of how life forms, works, and develops will change dramatically. It has the potential to be the biggest discovery humankind has ever made. Everything we currently know about how life originated and developed is based on the one kind of DNA based life that we have here on Earth. Anything found on Mars would most certainly be different and any differences or similarities would give us a huge insight into how life develops in the universe at large. Some scientists have even postulated that microbial life could still exist in water deep under the surface where it might be warm enough to still be liquid and safe from the constant radiation bombardment of the sun.

PIA16239_High-Resolution_Self-Portrait_by_Curiosity_Rover_Arm_CameraThe future of Mars exploration remains bright even as bodies like NASA face more budget cuts and space exploration agencies must realign priories and tighten budgets. Russia and China are planning another Grunt mission that will return a sample of Martian soil to Earth. Russia will also be working with the ESA on ExoMars in 2016-2018. NASA and ESA both have orbiter and lander/rover missions on the books for the next 5-10 years and even India has an orbiter mission planned to launch in November this year. ESA has stated plans to send people to Mars in 2030-35 and NASA has mentioned a possible manned Moon mission in 2020 with an eye to Mars beyond that. Perhaps most interesting are the announcements that private individuals and non government agencies are also planning Mars missions. Last month millionaire Dennis Tito has announced a plan to send two people to do a flyby of Mars in 2018. More recently was the announcement that Netherlands-based Mars One is moving ahead on plans to send four people to the surface of Mars in 2023 at an estimated cost of 6 billion dollars.

Mars has clearly captured the imagination of humans the world over and will continue to do so in the future. As more discoveries are made and more missions are planned and executed I look forward to being able to see people land on the red planet in my lifetime. Is there anything about Mars that catches at your imagination? Are you following any of the exciting Mars news?

D.

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