Planetary Engineering
Planetary engineering, or terraforming as it is sometimes called, is the large-scale modification or manipulation of the environment of a planet to make it more suitable for human habitation. In the case of Mars, human settlers would probably seek to make its atmosphere more dense and breathable by adding more oxygen. Early Martians would probably also attempt to alter the planet's harsh temperatures and to modify them to fit a more terrestrial thermal pattern. Venus represents an even larger...
Voyager Interstellar Mission VIM
As the influence of the Sun's magnetic field and solar wind grow weaker, both Voyager robot spacecraft eventually will pass out of the heliosphere and into the interstellar medium. Through NASA's Voyager Interstellar Mission VIM which began officially on January 1, 1990 , the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft will continue to be tracked on their outward journey. The two major objectives of the VIM are an investigation of the interplanetary and interstellar media and a characterization of the...
Designing an Interstellar Probe
If the development of human crew-carrying starships proves to be an impossible technical feat during the next few centuries, the human race can still search other star systems for alien life and spread terrestrial, carbon-based life around the galaxy with the help of sophisticated robot spacecraft. A modest effort might even be started at the end of this century with a decision by humans to launch one or more interstellar probes. Then, sometime in the 22nd century, our descendants might make...
Bioclean Room
A bioclean room, or clean room, is any enclosed area where there is control over viable and nonviable particulates in the air with temperature, humidity, and pressure control as required to maintain specified standards. A viable particle is a particle that will reproduce to form observable colonies when placed on a specified culture medium and when incubated according to optimum environmental conditions for growth after collection. A nonviable particle will not reproduce to form observable...
Androcells Everywhere
The androcell is a concept that the German-American rocket scientist Krafft A. Ehricke 1917-84 introduced in the 1970s. According to Ehricke, the androcell would be a very large, humanmade new world an independent, self-contained human biosphere not located on any naturally existing celestial object. In his strategic vision, such humanmade miniworlds or planetellas would use mass far more efficiently than the natural worlds of the solar system, which formed out of the original solar nebular...
Mars Outpost and Surface Base Concepts
For automated Mars missions, the spacecraft and robotic surface rovers generally will be small and self-contained. For human expeditions to the surface of the Red Planet, however, two major requirements must be satisfied life support habitation and surface transportation mobility . Habitats, power supplies, and life-support systems will tend to be more complex in a permanent Martian surface base that must sustain human beings for years at a time. Surface mobility systems will also grow in...
Water Hole
Water hole is a SETI term used to describe a narrow portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that appears to be especially appropriate for interstellar communications between emerging and advanced civilizations. This band lies in the radio frequency RF part of the spectrum between 1,420 megahertz MHz frequency 8.3-inch 21.1-cm wavelength and 1,660 megahertz MHz frequency 7.1-inch 18-cm wavelength . Hydrogen H is abundant throughout interstellar space. When hydrogen experiences a spin-flip...
Dyson Sphere
The Dyson sphere is a huge, artificial biosphere that is created around a star by an intelligent species as part of its technological growth and expansion within an alien solar system. This hypothesized giant structure would probably be formed by a swarm of artificial habitats and miniplanets that are capable of intercepting essentially all the radiant energy from the parent star. The captured radiant energy would be converted for use through a variety of techniques such as living plants,...
Extraterrestrial Catastrophe Theory
For millions of years, giant, thundering reptiles roamed the lands, dominated the skies, and swam in the oceans of a prehistoric Earth. Dinosaurs reigned supreme. Then, quite suddenly, some 65 million years ago, they vanished. What happened to these giant creatures and to thousands of other ancient animal species From archaeological and geological records, scientists know that some tremendous catastrophe occurred about 65 million years ago on this planet. It affected life more extensively than...
Laboratory Hypothesis
The laboratory hypothesis is a variation of the zoo hypothesis response to the Fermi paradox. This particular hypothesis stipulates that the reason human beings cannot detect or interact with technically advanced extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy is because the intelligent aliens have set the solar system up as a perfect' laboratory. The hypothesized alien scientists and researchers want to observe and study humans but do not want us to be aware of or influenced by their...
Some Speculations about the Nature of Extraterrestrial Civilizations
According to some scientists, intelligent extraterrestrial ET civilizations in the galaxy might be conveniently characterized as falling into one of several basic levels of societal development or technology use. In SETI activities, one of the most widely used scales is the three types of ET civilizations that were introduced in 1964 by the Russian astronomer Nikolai Semenovich Kardashev 1932- . While examining the issue of interstellar information transmission by extraterrestrial...
Green Bank Telescope
On November 15, 1988, the original 300-foot 91.5-m Green Bank radio telescope collapsed due to a sudden failure of a key structural element. This unexpected loss of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory NRAO 's major observing facility resulted in the construction of a replacement project, called the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope GBT . NRAO operates the Green Bank Telescope, which is the world's largest fully steerable single aperture antenna. In addition to the GBT, there are several...
Deep Space Network DSN
The majority of NASA's scientific investigations of the solar system are accomplished through the use of robot spacecraft. The Deep Space Network DSN provides the two-way communications link that guides and controls these spacecraft and brings back the spectacular planetary images and other important scientific data they collect. The DSN consists of telecommunications complexes strategically placed on three continents providing almost continuous contact with scientific spacecraft traveling in...
First HumanCrewed Expedition to Mars
The human-crewed expedition to Mars will most likely occur before the midpart of this century possibly as early as 2035. Current expedition scenarios suggest a 600- to 1,000-day duration mission that most likely will start from Earth orbit, possibly powered by a nuclear thermal rocket. A total crew size of as many as 15 astronauts is anticipated. After hundreds of days of travel through interplanetary space, the first Martian explorers This artist's rendering shows two astronaut-scientists one...
Titan
With its rich atmosphere of organic molecules, for many exobiologists, Titan, the largest moon of the planet Saturn, is a dream natural laboratory. Titan's atmosphere is composed of nitrogen N2 and methane This artist's rendering shows a proposed ice-penetrating cryobot background and a submersible hydrobot foreground an intriguing advance robot combination that could be used to explore the suspected ice-covered ocean on Jupiter's moon Europa. In this scenario, a lander robot would arrive on...
Some Interesting Facts about Enceladus
Enceladus is a moon of Saturn that was discovered in 1789 by the British astronomer Sir William Herschel 1738-1822 . This relatively small moon has a diameter of approximately 310 miles 500 km and orbits around Saturn at a distance of 147,898 miles 238,020 km with a period of rotation of 1.37 days. The surface of Enceladus is dominated by fresh, clean ice, giving the moon an albedo of almost one. Because Enceladus reflects almost 100 percent of the incident sunlight, the moon has a surface...