TO THE MOON, MARS, AND BEYOND

Many folks would like to see us back on the Moon and developing its resources.

Showing posts with label moon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label moon. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Here is to looking up.

It has been a couple of weeks already since I saw "The Martian" and I was waiting for the book to arrive.  It has arrived! Reading!
I also bought The Sentinel Hardcover – 1983 by Arthur C. Clarke and Golden Apples of the Sun, The Paperback – November 1, 1997 by Ray Bradbury, so I must admit I have had my head in books rather than looking up.

Paul.Slootweg sent me a reminder that you can never be too young to look up. (see below)

I think this is great and certainly what will help us to really make it happen if the kids don't lose the dream by the time they grow up.

Hopefully your school system has some teachers that will help them learn how to turn their dreams into reality.

Build the electric motor out of nails and bell wire. :-)  [as we did in my fourth grade class with Mr. Peavy]


- LRK -
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Per Paul Slootweg -

My son (James) went to a parents evening at my grandson's (Dylan)
nursery (preschool) today.
Dylan will be 3 come next February.

Anyway, one reported exchange with one of the staff goes as follows:

Dylan: "I'm going to the Moon on my rocket."

Staff: "What will you see on the Moon?"

Dylan: "The Earth."

I think it's profound that he can handle that concept already.

(Mind you, he can also name more dinosaurs than you or I can think of!)

By all means share this little tale with the others Looking Up. I'm
mightily proud of both my son and his!
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If you have too much light pollution to actually look up and see much then maybe a substitute is look on-line.

- LRK -

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Inline image 1
The Martian is good and having seen the movie first was enjoyable..
It was fun seeing more detail in the book and the 3D imaging in the Movie was helpful as well.
I hope we get as much detail from real missions to the Moon and Mars, should I live that long. :-)

- LRK -

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5 Big Differences Between The Martian Book And The Movie
BY MIKE REYES

If you're looking for a good time at the movies, The Martian is a steely eyed missile man of entertainment. With a nearly record breaking opening for the first weekend in October, the Ridley Scott directed / Drew Goddard written adaptation of Andy Weir's best-selling novel is pretty faithful to the text. But despite Mark Watney's smart-assed humor and scientific prowess still making the grade, along with the scores of other details most inferior adaptations would forget, there are still five major changes that the film adaptation has made. While these changes don't ruin The Martian at all, they are still big enough that they should be discussed.
  

The Epilogue
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Images from Google search.
- LRK -

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More images of Earth
- LRK -

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Thanks for looking up with me, 
- LRK -
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The Sentinel Hardcover – 1983

by Arthur C. Clarke  (Author), Lebbeus Woods (Illustrator)
The story that inspired 2001: A Space Odyssey and other masterworks of science fiction.
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http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0380730391

Golden Apples of the Sun, The Paperback – November 1, 1997


 Ray Bradbury is a modern cultural treasure. His disarming simplicity of style underlies a towering body of work unmatched in metaphorical power by any other American storyteller. And here, presented in a new trade edition, are thirty-two of his most famous tales--prime examples of the poignant and mysterious poetry which Bradbury uniquely uncovers in the depths of the human soul, the otherwordly portraits of outre fascination which spring from the canvas of one of the centurys great men of imagination. From a lonely coastal lighthouse to a sixty-million-year-old safari, from the pouring rain of Venus to the ominous silence of a murder scene, Ray Bradbury is our sure-handed guide not only to surprising and outrageous manifestations of the future, but also to the wonders of the present that we could never have imagined on our own.
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

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Wednesday, October 07, 2015

The Martian movie vs book

Well the movie, "The Martian" is out and I have seen it twice.  (science errors and all)
I am still waiting for a copy of, "The Martian: A Novel" to arrive by snail mail. :-)

I have received heads up notes about "The Martian" and how 20th Century Fox version might have been entertaining but strayed some from good science.  Not having read the book yet, I don't have any first hand information how much Andy Weir followed scientific rigor.  His pre-release interviews admits to a few slights for entertainment license so thought I would ask the Internet for some other opinions.

Hmmm, you may find some of the reports of interest.

What I am interested in is seeing what might interest folks that would help in developing the Moon in preparation for being Spacefaring 
Do we want to look in on how we can engineer the problem or look for an Indy 500 car crash.

It wasn't long after Apollo 11 landing that the audience interest dropped off.
Come Apollo 13 problem and much interest.  
Will they make it back, will they be lost, tune in for the 6 o'clock news.
Much like the Saturday Matinee's I attended as a kid, will Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon save the world?


This from the link.
- LRK -
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[Serials were a popular form of movie entertainment dating back to Edison's What Happened to Mary? of 1912. There appear to be older serials, however, such as the 1910 Deutsche Vitaskop 5 episode Arsene Lupin Contra Sherlock Holmes, based upon the Maurice LeBlanc novel,[1] and a possible but unconfirmed Raffles serial in 1911.[2] Usually filmed with low budgets, serials were action-packed stories that usually involved a hero (or heroes) battling an evil villain and rescuing a damsel in distress. The villain would continually place the hero into inescapable deathtraps, or the heroine would be placed into a deathtrap and the hero would bravely come to her rescue, usually pulling her away from certain death only moments before she met her doom. The hero and heroine would face one trap after another, battling countless thugs and lackeys, before finally defeating the villain.

Many famous clichés of action-adventure movies had their origins in the serials. The popular term cliffhanger was developed as a plot device in film serials (though its origins have been traced by some historians to the Sherlock Holmes stories of Arthur Conan Doyle or the earlier A pair of blue eyes by Thomas Hardy from 1873), and it comes from the many times that the hero or heroine would end up hanging over a cliff, usually as the villain gloated above and waited for them to plummet thousands of feet to their deaths. Other popular clichés included the heroine or hero trapped in a burning building, being trampled by horses, knocked unconscious in a car as it goes over a cliff, crashing in an airplane, and watching as the burning fuse of a nearby bundle of dynamite sparked and sputtered its way towards the deadly explosive (at the beginning of the next chapter the endangered character usually simply got up and walked away with only minor scrapes). The popular Indiana Jones movies are a well-known, romantic pastiche of the serials' clichéd plot elements and devices.]
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It will be interesting to read Andy Weir's "The Martian: The Novel" and see if his interest in Sherlock Holmes comes through.
It will also be interesting to see if maybe the movie industry was interested in making a good "Cliffhanger" movie with maybe a bit more budget.
As of October 4, 2015, The Martian has grossed $54.3 million in North America and $44.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $98.9 million, against a budget of $108 million.[4][59] 
- LRK -

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"The Martian" and real Martians
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The film adaptation of the bestselling novel "The Martian" opened to rave reviews and a big box office take this weekend, days after NASA also announced evidence of liquid water on the surface of present-day Mars. Jeff Foust examines what effect -- if any -- these events could have on NASA's plans for actual human missions to the Red Planet.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2837/1

Inline image 1
The Martian movie vs book

Well "The Martian" movie is out and I am still waiting for a copy of the "The Martian: A Novel"
- LRK -

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Book to Screen: ‘The Martian’ Leaves Science on the Page and Goes for Thrills on Screen

BY MATT GOLDBERG

Andy Weir’s self-published novel The Martian became a huge bestseller, and it was a big hit at the box office this weekend. The film also went over big with critics, and is primed to be a potential player in this year’s Oscar race. But for director Ridley Scott and screenwriter Drew Goddard to translate Weir’s book to the big screen, how much did they have to lose, and what did they choose to keep?

Looking at the skeleton of the story, Goddard kept Weir’s book intact. It’s a movie where there’s plenty of subtraction, especially where Mark Watney’s various duties and missions are concerned (more on that later), but Goddard basically condensed the narrative to fit a 130-minute runtime. However, there are no radical changes. Just subtraction.

The biggest removal comes in the third act when in the book, Watney is driving to the Ares IV landing site, and because he accidentally shorted out his communications, he doesn’t know that a storm is coming to make his journey even more difficult. Goddard removes all of this. Watney never shorts out his communications array, and there’s never a dust storm to avoid on the way to Schiaparelli. It’s the smoothest sailing he encounters until he has to launch himself off the planet.

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Will let you pick the links if interested.
- LRK -

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5 Big Differences Between The Martian Book And The Movie
BY MIKE REYES

If you're looking for a good time at the movies, The Martian is a steely eyed missile man of entertainment. With a nearly record breaking opening for the first weekend in October, the Ridley Scott directed / Drew Goddard written adaptation of Andy Weir's best-selling novel is pretty faithful to the text. But despite Mark Watney's smart-assed humor and scientific prowess still making the grade, along with the scores of other details most inferior adaptations would forget, there are still five major changes that the film adaptation has made. While these changes don't ruin The Martian at all, they are still big enough that they should be discussed.
 

The Epilogue
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For me, the log book entry scheme let me know what was going without needing to have a third person, talk over announcer.
NASA Mourns Loss of Former Launch Commentator, Jack King
John W. (Jack) King, former chief of Public Information at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, died June 11, 2015 He was 84.
- LRK -

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http://www.space.com/30699-the-martian-movie-space-book-review.html
Does 'The Martian' Movie Do the Book Justice? Yes. Yes, It Does

Movies adapted from successful books don't always capture the magic of the original text — and the calculation- and science-heavy story of "The Martian" seems a particularly tough customer — but the upcoming film does a surprisingly good job conjuring the book's spirit. The new movie, opening Friday, trades some of the book's nonstop danger for glorious Martian vistas and more NASA at work, and I'm not complaining.

As a quick note, this article doesn't spoil major plot points but does discuss the major themes of the book and movie.

The movie "The Martian," is based on Andy Weir's book of the same name, and tells the story of an astronaut who is accidentally left behind on Mars and must struggle to survive. When watching "The Martian," all I could think was that the movie version of protagonist Mark Watney had it easy. Sure, almost everything he does goes sideways and presents a new challenge for him to ponder, calculate and build his way out of. But there are a lot of major problems presented in the book that movie-Watney doesn't encounter while stranded on Mars, and several complicated, clever solutions he never has to devise. [Watch: How to Kill (or Save) a Martian – Author Andy Weir Knows!]

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Another chance to hear from the author of the book.
- LRK -

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Here’s what ‘The Martian’ author had to say about those book-to-movie changes

SPOILERS FOR “THE MARTIAN” BOOK AND MOVIE LIE AHEAD!


Ridley Scott’s adaptation of “The Martian” stays rather true to the novel that inspired the movie. But for you fans of the book about an astronaut stranded on Mars, you may still be wondering about some parts of the book that were altered for the movie.
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Weir told Tech Insider that Goddard and Scott incorporated his feedback into the script.
- LRK -

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http://www.techinsider.io/the-martian-book-versus-movie-scenes-2015-96 amazing plot twists that are missing from 'The Martian' movie
Kelly Dickerson
Oct. 3, 2015, 10:03 PM

When Andy Weir published his sci-fi novel "The Martian," readers praised his attention to detail and scientific accuracy. 
It's arguably the reason the book became a bestseller and, now, a blockbuster movie.

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The Martian is a 2015 American[nb 1] science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon. The film is based on Andy Weir's 2011 novel The Martian, which was adapted into a screenplay by Drew Goddard. Damon stars as an astronaut who is incorrectly presumed dead and left behind on the planet Mars, and who then fights to survive. The film also features Jessica Chastain,Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sean Bean, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, andChiwetel Ejiofor in supporting roles.
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I now waiting for book, "THE MARTIAN", to arrive and will see how print reads.
As for going to the Moon or Mars, I think we need to consider if we just want to be entertained for a short time or whether we are ready take on the opportunity to engineer the many exciting problems to become truly Spacefaring .  

Thanks for looking up with me, and ask that youngster if they would like to help "Make it so!"  :-)
- LRK -
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Mars to Stay missions propose astronauts sent to Mars for the first time should intend to stay. Unused emergency return vehicles would be recycled into settlement construction as soon as the habitability of Mars becomes evident to the initial pioneers. Mars to Stay missions are advocated both to reduce cost and to ensure permanent settlement of Mars. Among many notable Mars to Stay advocates, former Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin has been particularly outspoken, suggesting in numerous forums "Forget the Moon, Let’s Head to Mars!"[1] and, in June 2013, Aldrin promoted a manned mission "to homestead Mars and become a two-planet species."[2] In August 2015, Aldrin, in association with the Florida Institute of Technology, presented a "master plan", for NASA consideration, for astronauts, with a "tour of duty of ten years", to colonize Mars before the year 2040.[3] The Mars Underground, Mars Homestead Foundation, Mars One, and Mars Artists Community advocacy groups and business organizations have also adopted Mars to Stay policy initiatives.[4]

The earliest formal outline of a Mars to Stay mission architecture was given at the Case for Mars VI Workshop in 1996, during a presentation by George Herbert titled "One Way to Mars."[5]
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3030477/Is-Nasa-secretly-planning-moon-Expert-says-agency-mount-lunar-mission-going-Mars.html
Is Nasa secretly planning to go back to the moon? Expert says agency will mount lunar mission before going to Mars
  • Science reporter Eric Berger says Nasa is considering moon mission
  • Previously the agency was planning on going straight to Mars
  • Mr Berger says it signals a shift in priorities for the space agency
  • In recent months experts have weighed in on the moon or Mars debate 
By JONATHAN O'CALLAGHAN FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 10:14 EST, 8 April 2015 | UPDATED: 10:42 EST, 8 April 2015
The goal instead was to visit an asteroid in the 2020s, and then send a crew to Mars in the 2030s - with no mission to another destination in between.

Recently, Nasa revealed how they plan to do the asteroid mission - by picking up a boulder from a larger asteroid, placing it in lunar orbit, and having astronauts go and visit.

But Mr Berger says that Nasa has been ‘quietly’ considering going back to the moon before going to Mars.

He said that Nasa is, ‘in internal studies, reconsidering the moon, including the lunar surface, for human activities as a significant stepping stone to Mars.’

He continued: ‘William Gerstenmaier, the chief of human exploration for Nasa, does not see the existing plan of a direct, 900-day mission to the red planet as achievable.’

In a tweet Nasa’s Head of Communications, David Weaver, seemingly quashed the significance of the news, saying: ‘Nothing new about #NASA plan to use Moon on #JourneyToMars.’

However, Mr Berger says it is significant, as the agency had previously shied away from saying it was returning to the moon.
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

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Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Moon, lunar resources, space economy, space exploration - Is anyone looking up?

Have been reading Ian A. Crawford's paper and he mentions the names of several companies that have stated an interest in the lunar resources and that more information could be found at their websites so I asked Google to find some of them. 

 [ Recently, there has been renewed interest in these possibilities, with several private companies established with the stated aim of exploiting extraterrestrial resources (these include companies with the names Astrobiotic Technology, Deep Space Industries, Golden Spike, Moon Express, Planetary Resources, and Shackleton Energy Company; details may be found on their respective websites).]

Being lazy I used the whole list of names of the companies above and Google mentioned that Astrobiotic might be Astrobotic. :-)

Astrobiotic Technology, Deep Space Industries, Golden Spike, Moon Express, Planetary Resources, and Shackleton Energy Company


The first link I saw was for NewSpace (see below) and the list of company names, active and not so active is rather long.  
It looks like I have a bit of reading to do.
Let me get back to that.
Maybe you will see something of interest.

One thought, I remember back in the 1980s as new PCs were offered you often had to place an order with money to get a kit because the company needed your money to put the kit together.  Software got the name, "Vaporware" 

[In the computer industry, vaporware is a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is never actually manufactured nor officially cancelled. Use of the word has broadened to include products such as automobiles.]

We may need to watch for some of the same with those saying they are planning to go to the Moon,- soon -.  :-)

LRK.

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Lunar Resources: A Review
Ian A. Crawford
(Submitted on 25 Oct 2014)

There is growing interest in the possibility that the resource base of the Solar System might in future be used to supplement the economic resources of our own planet. As the Earth's closest celestial neighbour, the Moon is sure to feature prominently in these developments. In this paper I review what is currently known about economically exploitable resources on the Moon, while also stressing the need for continued lunar exploration. I find that, although it is difficult to identify any single lunar resource that will be sufficiently valuable to drive a lunar resource extraction industry on its own (notwithstanding claims sometimes made for the 3He isotope, which I find to be exaggerated), the Moon nevertheless does possess abundant raw materials that are of potential economic interest. These are relevant to a hierarchy of future applications, beginning with the use of lunar materials to facilitate human activities on the Moon itself, and progressing to the use of lunar resources to underpin a future industrial capability within the Earth-Moon system. In this way, gradually increasing access to lunar resources may help 'bootstrap' a space-based economy from which the world economy, and possibly also the world's environment, will ultimately benefit.

http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1410/1410.6865.pdf
Lunar Resources: A Review 
Accepted for publication in Progress in Physical Geography 

(Note that, to comply with the publisher’s policy, this preprint is the originally submitted version. The accepted peer-reviewed version, which differs from this only in minor respects and includes some additional references, is available from the author on request). 

Ian A. Crawford, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX. 


Keywords Moon, lunar resources, space economy, space exploration 
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Help me out here.  See if there are any companies you would like to know more about and we can check with our favorite search engine.  :-)  (or as the granddaughter tells me, "Ask your phone."  :-)
- LRK -

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NewSpace
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Well take a look at what is being taught at the THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO
DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY.
- LRK -

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THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO
DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY
GEOGRAPHY 2090a (Space Exploration)
Fall 2014
COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course concerns the exploration of 'outer' space, past, present and future, and looks at many ways in which space exploration interacts with our lives and our culture. We will look at space as a place, as a newly accessible part of the domain of human activity. In ancient times Geography was the study of different lands, territories which could be reached only after undertaking a voyage. Now we can look to new lands, new continents far away, but within reach of our senses, our robots and we ourselves, if we choose to make the journey. We will look at these new places as geographers, studying their physical characteristics, their resources and hazards, and the ways we can interact with them: scientifically, politically, economically, legally, artistically, or just as interested spectators. Many of my attitudes to this subject are expressed in Carl Sagan's book Pale Blue Dot - not a text for this course, but well worth reading.

It is important to note that this is not an astronomy or planetary science class. We will look at topics related to these fields, but not in great detail. NOTE: the old designation for this course was GEOG 136.

The objective of this course is to demonstrate the wide range of human activity now associated with space, including connections to all our lives. The many links from lecture pages serve in place of a text book. Students are expected to spend time browsing among these links. It is impossible to read everything, but the lectures indicate the more important topics to be looked at. Students are expected to attend all classes, and to be suitably prepared for the in-class tests. Preparation for classes should include having read through the lecture page for that week before class.
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http://instruct.uwo.ca/geog/2090/contents.htm
Contents
http://instruct.uwo.ca/geog/2090/lectures.htm
Lectures
Lecture 9: Space commercialization: a new era
Space commercialism - a new era

Space exploration was at first so expensive that it was limited to the global superpowers of the 1960s. It cost a lot because everything was being done for the first time, and on an unrealistic schedule. But like a lot of other things, space has become much cheaper. Now many nations large and small want to launch and operate satellites for economic or security reasons, and individuals or companies want access to space for science, commerce, and even tourism. Private companies and individuals are beginning to commercialize space, and at this stage we can't tell how far they will go. Will the first people to return to the Moon be NASA astronauts, or Chinese Taikonauts, or employees of a private company?

Making money in space - big business

First, of course, no money is spent in space. Apollo went to the Moon, but all its funds were spent here - on the people who mined the iron, aluminum and titanium ores the rockets were made from, or cleaned the offices where the spacecraft were designed, as well as all the salaries of the scientists, engineers and managers. Big businesses also make money from space activities, primarily building launch vehicles or satellites for communications and remote sensing. NASA spreads its work out all over the United States so the maximum number of electoral districts depend on NASA jobs and funding. Companies like Lockheed Martin and Boeing build or operate launch vehicles, and other companies like Spot Image (now called Airbus Defence and Space), Intelsat and Digital Globe fly satellites to provide TV broadcasts or to sell images for research, press use etc. Businesses and countries around the world are part of this story, making money, or trying to, in space or from space. The links below are just a few of the many possible ones.
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Others are writing about who is doing what so when I get distracted just ask your search engine and wake me up with a link or two that you found interesting. Some of you have been doing that for years and much appreciated.
- LRK -

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Private Sector Seeks Profit, Adventure Beyond Earth Orbit

Posted
by Doug Messier

on February 25, 2013, at 9:42 am

in News
Tags: asteroids, deep space industries, eric anderson, eric schmidt, esther dyson, golden spike company, google, google lunar x prize, inspiration mars foundation, jim french, larry page, mars, mars one, max vozoff, moon, northrop grumman, peter diamandis, planetary resources, rick tumlinson, ross perot jr., shackleton energy company, soyuz, space adventures.

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

With human flights beyond Earth orbit not expected to occur for at least eight years, the private sector is increasingly eying deep space for a series of ambitious robotic and human missions for both adventure and profit.

Nine programs are currently underway that include robotic and human landings of the moon, human flybys of the moon and Mars, the mining of the moon and asteroids, and even a settlement on Mars. Backers of these initiatives include the X Prize Foundation, Google and its executives, and the world’s first space tourist, Dennis Tito.

The table below show the deep space initiatives now being pursued by the private sector.
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A lot of reading to do to see just what is happening in the now.  It may be that others that are a bit younger will be the ones to actually see the boots on the Moon again, but robots will do for now.  That I may see. Anyone ready to launch?

Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -
World Public Library
LIST OF PRIVATE SPACEFLIGHT COMPANIES ...
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Private Space Industry:
http://www.spaceagepub.com/links-private.html

Space-Related Links:

Space Age Publishing Company
http://www.spaceagepub.com/
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -
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