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Readers!

 

It is now July, time once again to celebrate the start of this webpage in 2010 with my annual July fund-raising campaign.

 

This year I celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black. During that time I have done more than 33,000 posts, mostly covering the global space industry and the related planetary and astronomical science that comes from it. Along the way I have also felt compelled as a free American citizen to regularly post my thoughts on the politics and culture of the time, partly because I think it is important for free Americans to do so, and partly because those politics and that culture have a direct impact on the future of our civilization and its on-going efforts to explore and eventually colonize the solar system.

 

You can’t understand one without understanding the other.

 

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Europe picks landing site for its ExoMars 2020 rover

The European Space Agency (ESA) has chosen the landing site for its ExoMars 2020 rover, a generally flat area with scattered craters dubbed Oxia Palum.

After over 4 years of careful study of HiRISE and more recently CaSSIS images Oxia Planum was chosen because scientists were convinced that its fine grained sediments, deposited during the ancient Noachian epoch were ideally suited for the Exobiology rover. With an enormous catchment area the sediments will have captured organics from a wide variety of environments over a long period of time, including areas where life may have existed. The fine sediments should also be ideal for the ExoMars drill – it aims to get to 2 metres depth.

Remote identification with the Mars Express and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Infrared spectrometers shows the presence of clays and other minerals giving clues to its aqueous history. A large group of scientists have been working on proposing, characterising and down selecting the sites, all of which had fascinating aspects, but Oxia Planum is the clear winner on both science and engineering constraints.

Based on my analysis of the last two candidate sites, I would guess that they also picked Oxia Planum because it is less spectacular, flatter, and thus poses less risk. It also means the images from there will be a bit more boring for the ordinary person.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

2 comments

  • wodun

    After over 4 years of careful study of HiRISE and more recently CaSSIS images

    Four years just to pick a landing site for a rover. How many years would it take for site selection of a base or colony? Whether it is Mars or the Moon, the actual work of site selection for a human presence is more complicated and time consuming than people think. I could see it going something like this imaging>robotics>humans>winnowing>base/village/colony

    Robotic missions will take forever without operators being in the cognitive horizon. So, I could see some sort of temporary outpost created on a site that wasn’t selected very carefully. But I think teleoperation from space would be a cheaper option in terms of construction and operations and would be better in the long term for prospecting and site selection of long term bases and eventually colonies, mines, and research stations.

    Space isn’t a race, its a marathon. We need to balance the urge to just do something with a pragmatic view of timelines over the horizon. Whatever is done needs to be flexible enough to change with changes in technology and knowledge.

  • wodun

    Oh, check out the season 2 trailer for Mars, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMkZtgJxmvU

    Everything was awesome when it was just the priestly scientists but now that dirty commerce has arrived, everything is ruined!

    Anyone who thinks that regular non-government people are going to be allowed to go into space and visit other planets and moons needs to realize there is a significant portion of the scientific community and out society at large that will do everything in their power to stop that from happening.

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