Astronomy Log 1

8/8/2019 Astronomy Log 1

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Astronomy log # 1

By Stephen Soljacich



Water on the moon

As of this year large amounts of icehave been found on the moon. Thisfinding has long rangingimplications. This discovery wasmade by N.A.S.A when theypurposely crashed satellites into the

lunar surface in order to view thedebris and determine if there wasice in some of the craters on themoon. The study showed that thereis 40 craters, ranging in size from 1to 9 miles across, with pockets of ice. Scientists estimate at least 600million tons of ice could beentombed in these craters. ( ). Anda new study suggests that there is atleast 100 times that amountunderneath the moons surface.



Beyond the Moon

This is huge news, according to Dr. PaulSpudis, with the Lunar and Planetary Institutein Houston, told the BBC, Now we can saywith a fair degree of confidence that asustainable human presence on the Moon ispossible. It's possible using the resources wefind there. a presence is possible there

because we can convert the water into rocketfuel drinkable water and for plant, and eveninto oxygen. Some countries are in factplanning a moon base. In fact Chinese andAmericans both have plans to set up a moonbase. After a lunar base is established wecould have farther reaching mannedexpeditions. This would be possible becausethe base would act as a refueling station forthe spacecrafts. In fact N.A.S.A has on theirwebsite which states their goal of heading tomars after a moon base is set up.



Moon ambitions

Both the US and china have ambitions for

setting up a moon base. There are many

reasons why nations would want to set up a

moon base. For example there are

economic, political scientific and population

gains. There would be many economic gains

if we would set up a base and start mining

the huge amounts of different metals such

as iron and lunar helium (the helium would

be used for nuclear fusion power plants)

one of the biggest supporters for the mining

operations for china is a man by the name

of Ouyang Ziyuan an expert on geologicalresearch on underground nuclear

testing and non earth materials. The US also

has similar economic aims but are not

currently in effect



Political gains

Through out history recent andancient common goals or threatshave brought countries together forexample the Germans inWWI andWWII brought together the allies, the

Persians brought together Sparta andAthens. In recent times theInternational space station hasbrought many countries togetherwith combine efforts towards acommon goal. An international space

station would do the same thing to agreater extent of previous ambitions.This would happen because it wouldrequire the effort of many differentcountries to complete and maintain



Economic gains

. There are many reasons whynations would want to set up amoon base. For example there areeconomic, political scientific andpopulation gains. There would bemany economic gains if we would

set up a base and start mining thehuge amounts of different metalssuch as iron and lunar helium (thehelium would be used for nuclearfusion power plants) one of thebiggest supporters for the miningoperations for china is a man by the

name of Ouyang Ziyuan an experton geological research onunderground nucelartesting and non earth materials.The US also has similar economicaims but are not currently in effect



Scientific gains

There would be scientific gains from a

moon base, covering many different

aspects of science. If you are looking

for evidence look no further then the

Apollo and Gemini missions.We

gained a unheard amount of information from these missions such

as the high resolution photos taken

from earth which spun off the satellite

photos and studies of weather from

space of today. These programs havecreated a lot of technology and

information imagine what a base on

the moon can discover.



Expansion of the human race

It has been portrayed in many sciencefiction movies books and art a log termcolony on an extraterrestrial planet. Ibelieve The expansion of our culture andpeople is a quintessential part of humannature. To expand our domain to an

extraterrestrial object would be huge. Notto mention for filling to us. Americans inparticular would appeal to this idea of amanifest destiny and new hope. For thisreason alone I believe there will be a Mooncolony in a relatively short period of time.Exploration of the moon is very important.

It would not only would collect valuableinformation about the solar system but itwould lead the way to many different thingssuch as establishing a human presencethere and paving the way for furtherexploration of our solar system and theuniverse.



Mining on the moon

Mining on the moon couldbe vary profitable and costeffective. With thediscoveries of water it is

possible to sustain a lastinghuman presence to maintainthe mining operations andthere would be lessoverhead cost of getting ridof extra materials and no

environmental control. Alsoeverything is lighter on themoon so mining would beeasier



Exploration of Mars

Humans have launched various missions toexplore mars. Dozens of probes haveflown by and taken photos such as theViking program and the mariner programalong with early soviet programs. In fact afew rovers have landed on the surface

studying rocks and other things about thesurface of the planet. Some examples of rovers are Opportunity, Spirit, and phoenixand many others have landed. The lastrover landing was called phoenix and itlanded in area that was very sticky, whichis peculiar for a planet that is supposed to

be consisted of barren desert. Scientistthat studied the results of the phoenixLander concluded that the planet hadevidence of liquid water and volcanicactivity. Further evidence for life.



Building blocks of life on Mars

Mars, the fourth planet from the sun, named after theancient roman god of war. Could this planet hold thesecrets to our beginnings and possibly the future of ourplanet? Could it hold the answer to alien life? Mars

once thought to be an arid inhospitable planet hasproven to be much more than that. It has been found toconsist of many building blocks of life, for example itcontains chemical elements of life such as carbon,hydrogen and oxygen. Water one of the otherfoundations of life has recently been found without areasonable doubt in the form of ice on the both of the

poles of mars. Also there are gullies, canals andriverbeds that might of at one point may have hadflowing water. And scientists believe there is water inliquid form either on the surface or beneath it. Anotherbuilding block of life is a source of energy that

organisms can use. Mars has this with both the sun andpossibly geothermal energy. The idea for geothermalenergy has been reinforced with the discovery of warmwater deep in South African gold mines in which therewas living life excluded from the rest of earth evolution.may have had flowing water.



More evidence of life

More evidence of life came in the

form of an asteroid that shot off Mars

and collided with earth. This asteroid

supposedly had fossilized evidence of

martin life. Although there are some

skeptics to this idea the evidence isquite thought provoking. But this is

not only the first example of Martian

fossils, another one is the pictures

taken by the opportunity mars rover,

this is not a single fossil but multiple

different fossils that are nearlyidentical and have the same triangle

marking. Also these so called fossils

where found miles apart.

Martian asteroid fossil

Opportunity fossils



Methane cycles on Mars

Another indicator of life was found

on mars. This indicator was the

findings of methane gas cycles on

the planet. These methane cycles

spike during the spring andsummer months and sharply

decrees during the Martian winter.

Scientists do say that is to early to

decide weather this is a result of

geology or biology. But they do say

something is creating themethane which strongly indicates

life



Impact of life

If Mars proves to have life or

had life it will have long

reaching implications. If it is

proven it will mean that we

are not alone not only in are

solar system but in the

universe, for the odds of life

and intelligent life vastly

incise if there was life on TWOplanets in our own solar

system. Also if it dose support

life then it could sustain a

lasting human presence



Life on Titan

A new study shows that titan (one of Saturn's moons) may contain the buildingblocks of life. It has in its atmospherehigh energy oxygen ions and heavymolecular ions higher in the atmosphere.When you put these things together you

can have the possibility of complexmolecular structures. A recent studyshows with the high amount of radiationthat hits the planet it can cause themolecules to break apart. When theytested these conditions on earth they gotfive nucleotide bases used by life on

Earth (cytosine, adenine, thymine,guanine and uracil) and two amino acids,glycine and alanine. Scientist say that thisdose not mean that there is life but theysay that titan is that it is possible tomake very complex molecules



Privately funded mars mission

The thought has been put out thata commercially funded marsmission is possible and not onlyprobable proponents of this ideastate that the trip would cost 150billion dollars. This might seem likea lot but, with the selling of merchandise, selling of land onmars and with the promise of return from mining this numberseems not to be such a high value.Opponents of this state thatbillionaire investors would notwant to invest in such a riskyoperation and that anything minedon mars would cost to much toship back for the value



Haybusa capsule contains asteroid

particles.

A capsule sent out by

the Japanese has

returned after a

tedious trek through

space it shot objects

at the asteroid and

collected debris thisdebris could prove

very useful in

researching asteroids.



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Astronomy Log 1