background: illustration for Scratching the Surface by Luis Peres
The beginning of history…
Here’s the latest talk from Robert Zubrin. He discusses some of the key points from his book, The Case for Mars, and how recent advances in the space industry affect them.
“We’re living at what future ages will regard as the beginning of history, and I would suggest we get on with it.”
Video clip 07: Unpredictable but certain
background: Dawn Colony mission badge
Water on the Moon
I want to quickly follow up that Moon vs Mars video with this. With the recent confirmation of water ice on the surface at the Moon’s poles, some interesting possibilities open up.
Here’s a fascinating study that explores the logistics and economics of water mining on the Moon. Once again: these things are going to happen sooner than we expect.
Video clip 06: Mars has what we need
Not to mention a 24 hour day and enough atmosphere to provide some modest protection from solar radiation and stabilize daytime temps to between -50C and 10C.
It’s not a paradise, but we can work with it.
background: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Moon Direct
We don’t need to go to the Moon in order to go to Mars. But, if we’re going to go to the Moon, then let’s go to the Moon, not an orbit around it. And let’s dig in and make it stick.
Here’s a plan for doing just that with existing tech.
The New Atlantis Video clip 05: Luck
We need a backup.
background: NASA/JPL-Caltech animation showing known asteroids from 1999 to the present.
https://images.nasa.gov/details-JPL-20180716-ASTRDSf-0006-All%20Known%20Asteroids%202018-Feature%20version.html
Creepy sounds…
A collection of creepy sounds from throughout our solar system.
NASA Video clip 04: Mars is waiting…
background: NASA/JPL/MSSS; processing and mosaic: Olivier de Goursac, 2013 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Martian-Sunset-O-de-Goursac-Curiosity-2013.jpg)
Space mining
The dry matter-of-fact tone of this article, and the report it refers to, reinforces that this stuff is coming sooner than we all expect.