Exploration of Mars

“All the Ares missions use Hermes to get to and from Mars. It’s really big and cost a lot so NASA only built one.” Pg 2. Hermes is the large spaceship used for the trip to Mars in the Ares 3 mission. It carries the Ares 3 crew from Earth to Mars’ orbit. “Hermes is powered by ion engines. They throw Argon out the back of the ship really fast to get a tiny amount of acceleration. The thing is, it doesn't take much reactant mass, so a little Argon (and a nuclear reactor to power things) let us…

There are many legends/stories surrounding the discovery of Saturn. According to mythology, the Assyrians were the first people to record sightings of Saturn. They spotted Saturn as a bright light and named it the Star of Ninib, in honor of the Assyrian sun god of springtime. Later the Greeks and Romans had their own ideas of this strange wandering planet. The Greeks named it Cronus, ruler of the Titans. The Romans later changed the planet’s name to Saturn. Both cultures identified Saturn as the…

Mars’ Secret The vermilion terrain that the rover had wandered over in its short life was the planet Mars. MER-D Gypsy, the 2014 NASA Mars Rover, rolled over its cold sands, then turned its spherical, cycloptic head and looked over the trench before it. The camera on its orbicular crown began snapping photos almost immediately. It was beautiful, a rich, orange coloured valley that seemed bottomless. Markings and natural carvings into the scarlet flesh of the planet showed that water had once…

Invasion! This is summary from John Wyndhams the Kraken Wakes. This will be three hundred words. The story of the invasion from outer space by alien’s trying to destroy the human race. Phyl and Mike were relaxing down by the little harbour listening to a distant guitarist. When all of a sudden they heard the noise of the guitar drop and a voice call out. There was an increasing sound in the distances, People started asking questions from one to another. Half a dozen soldiers arrived, then…

a multitude of themes. However, the main theme lies within Mark Watney, a botanist and mechanical engineer who was left behind on Mars during an intense storm. Weir uses Watney’s character within the novel to show that success will come after hard work. In this scenario, success equates to survival for Watney, therefore his goal is to escape the barren planet of Mars. There were many steps in which Watney took to succeed, each were executed properly whilst exhibiting qualities of determination…

ASTROPHYSICS Methods used to search for extrasolar planets Lucky Ruangsiri 24.02.2016 Extrasolar planets are planets that revolves another star apart from our solar system. The human race has found nearly 2000 confirmed extrasolar planets by the year 2016, and this has fuelled the search for extra-terrestrial life as we scour the universe for anything out there. How do we discover these planets that are light years away from the earth? An extrasolar planet detection technique is the…

For years, astronomers have debated if Pluto is a planet or not. Pluto has been taken off the list of planets, and has now been classified as a Dwarf Planet. According to IAU.org, “A dwarf planet is classified as an object in orbit around the Sun that is large enough to have its own gravity pull itself into a round shape... A dwarf planet may also orbit in a zone that has many other objects in it.” Pluto now falls into the dwarf planet category because of its size and because it is in a zone of…

Pluto is known as “dwarf planet” in the planetary system. Also, it’s called the “Dwarf Planet” because of its size. It could be called a “plutoid” because it’s farther out into space. Pluto is occasionally closer to the sun than other times because of the oval orbit. Pluto has five moons, which are Kerberos, Styx, Nix, Hydra, and Charon. Because of the New Horizons information and pictures this data has helped scientists learn more about Pluto. Pluto was discovered in 1930 by an astronomer…

isolation, survival and the role of science can be explored in connection to a change in setting. Written in 2011 The Martian is a science fiction novel written by Andy Weir. It follows the survival story of Mark Watney, an astronaut left behind on Mars, after his mission was aborted. In comparison Moon, a film released in 2000 by director Duncan Jones explores chosen isolation through the astronaut Sam Bell completing a three year job overseeing the mining of helium on the Moon. Similar themes…

Primack (2013) led a study that shows the effects of warming temperatures on winning times in the Boston Marathon. He and his three co-authors, Dr. Abe Miller Rushing, Dr. Nathan Phillips and Dr. Robert Kaufmann, examined the timing of the Boston Marathon runners from the years 1933 to 2004. They found that when warmer temperatures and headwinds occurred the day of the race, the runners were indeed slowed down. The reasoning for this research was to further their focus on climate change from…