Exploration of Space Test 4

What is the main purpose of most radio telescopes?

"Traditional Astronomy", meaning looking for natural radio light from planets, quasars, black holes, etc.

What are the 5 challenges to terraforming of Mars?

1. Atmosphere 2. Low Magnetic Field 3. No Moon to stabilize climate 4. Life Support System 5. Radiation hazards.

What are the two things something must have to be considered alive?

1. Be able to reproduce 2. Ability to evolve into other forms.

What are the 4 ways to detect extrasolar planets?

1. By noticing a slight wobble in the parent star's position in the sky, due to the presence of a planet whose gravity is tugging a bit on the star 2. By noticing a slight periodic shift in the parent seat's wobbling back and forth along our line of sight because of gravitational tugs from a planet. 3. By being lucky enough to see a planet's orbit edge-on, and observing the star's brightness decrease slightly during the planet's transit across the star's disc 4. By catching an effect from general relativity called gravitational lensing, whereby a planet passes in from of a star and focuses (and therefore intensifies) the light from the star gravitationally

What are the two possible Mission Plans or Modes to get to Mars?

1. Is to go to the Moon first then get Helium 3 from the Moon to go to Mars from the Moon, but this would be very expensive as you would have to first set up shop on Mars. 2. Robert Zubrin's Mars Direct mission which he has been promoting since 1990.

What are the 3 key aspects of ISECG Mission and is is growing and ultimate goal?

1. Knowledge gain, 2. economic development using space resources 3. Investigate habitability of potential human destinations etc. There are currently 14 space agencies coordinating and more still joining, private agencies are also expecting to collaborate , with most mission plans wanting to first go into Low Earth Orbit, then to Moon and then to Mars.

What are the 8 ways we could possibly deflect an NEO?

1. Nuclear Explosive Device (vaporize and deflection option) 2. Stand-off Approach (If the object is very large but is still a loosely held together rubble pile, you don't want to break it, you want to change its direction using number of explosions at suitable height) 3. Surface and Subsurface Use ( Create Kinetic Impactor to create an initial crater for a follow up subsurface nuclear detonation within that initial crater) 4. Comet Deflection Possibility (Design a 1 gigaton nuclear explosive device, equivalent to the size of a 1 km asteroid, Russian and U.S. signed a deal that includes an intent to cooperate on defense from asteroids.) 5. Kinetic Impact (An object with a high mass close to the Earth could be sent out into a collision course with the asteroid.) 6. Asteroid Gravity Tractor (Alternative to explosion, use a tiny constant thrust accumulates to deviate an object sufficiently from its predicted course.) 7. Use of Focused Solar Energy (Focusing solar energy onto its surface to create thrust from the resulting vaporization of material, and deflect it. 8. Mass Driver (An (automated) system on the asteroid to eject material into space thus giving the object a slow, steady push and decreasing its mass.)

What are the five human spaceflight hazards that need to be considered for any deep space exploration mission?

1. Radiation 2. Isolation 3. Distance from Earth 4. Gravity 5. Environment.

What would a human-tended facility in the lunar vicinity enable (3 things)?

1. Reusability 2. Testing 3. Accessibility.

What are the 3 planetary requirements for life and explain each further?

1. Right Mass (If its too small, there is no atmosphere, if its too large, a thick atmosphere can rise to prohibitively high temperatures and pressures like Jupiter. 2. Right Temperature (Temperature has to be in range of 0 to 100 degrees celsius, range of temperature has to remain a liquid 3. Zone of habitability (range of orbital radii that permit a planet to have a liquid water, in this solar system, a bit inside Earth's orbit and extends out beyond Mars' orbit.)

What are 4 advantages to building a space colony at the L5 point instead of on the surface of the Moon and Mars?

1. You can control the amount of artificial gravity the colonists will experience. 2. You have more control over the climate in your habitat 3. You can move the colony to other locations in the solar system if you want. 4. You don't have to deal with the problem of Moon or Mars dust.

How many amino acids and nitrogen basis are there?

20, all proteins made of these 20, only 5 nitrogen basis, all DNA and RNA constructed of these 5.

What is Earth's Crust made of?

47% Oxygen 28%Silicon 8.1% Aluminum 5% Iron and a small amount of H, C, and N

What are Human Beings made of?

61% Hydrogen 26% Oxygen 10.5% Carbon 2.4% Nitrogen

What is Earth's atmosphere made of?

78% Nitrogen 21% Oxygen 0.63% Argon 0.03% Carbon

What is the Sun made of?

90.99% Hydrogen 8.87% Helium 0.078% Oxygen 0.033% Carbon 0.011% Neon 0.01% Nitrogen

What is New Horizons?

A Pluto probe.

What did the spacecraft design from the 1950s known as Project Orion use to make an interstellar trip at 5%?

A series of small nuclear explosions.

What did the Bussard Ramjet use?

An onboard nuclear fusion reactor.

What happened with the Chelyabinsk Meteor?

Asteroid Impact, 10 meters wide exploding with the power of 20-30 Hiroshima Bombs, "Large Fireball", more than 3,000 buildings damaged, may happen every few decades rather than once a century like we originally believed, may have been related to 80639 asteroid in 1999, occurred on February 15, 2013 and was over Siberia Russia, NOT PREDICTED

How big would a space colony have to be and why?

At least a kilogram in radius, this is so they can support large populations of at least 10,000 people and so they are big enough to the point where they can produce artificial gravity even with slow rotation, this would allow for people on board to not get dizzy.

Why use L4 and L5 points for Space colony?

Because L1, L2, and L3 all turn out to be unstable Lagrange points perhaps due to Jupiter's pull, L4 and L5 are stable Lagrange points.

What are biomarkers?

Chemical indicators that biological processes are taking place.

Where is the largest single-dish radio telescope in the world?

China.

What would be a key to establishing a colony on Mars?

Complete recycling of resources, we would need to bring seeds that you could possibly plant in the Martian soil, you would also have to grow vegetables hydroponically.

Problems with techniques regarding deflecting NEOs?

Deflecting certain NEOs away from Earth may bring other objects closer to Earth, gravitational tractor may cause the NEO to not hit or effect Earth as a whole but could impact smaller countries of regions on Earth, Nuclear explosion may just not work (?).

What are the two main strategies for collision avoidance?

Delay and Destruction.

Terraforming and what would we need to do to make it happen?

Done on Mars, its the hypothetical process of planetary engineering by which the surface and climate of Mars would be deliberately changed to make large areas of the environment hospitable to humans, it would be done by increasing atmospheric Co2 to enhance the green house effect. We would need to develop different technology to preserve atmosphere, and grow plants and life.

How often do launch windows to Mars open up?

Every two years.

Enzymes?

Extremely reaction specific catalyst's, with only 20 amino acids to work with there is a lot of possible ways to make protein hundreds of amino acids long, but a small number of proteins, fewer than 100,000, are actually produced and used by organisms on Earth.

What is the Allen Array?

Financed by Microsoft founder Paul Allen, largest single-dish radio telescope in the world, it is located in California and will be used mainly to search for radio signals from alien civilizations a.k.a. SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence).

Microgravity and its effects?

Human body is adopted to 1 g environment, microgravity can cause very adverse philological effects and psychological effects like loss of muscle and bones, cardiovascular problems, etc.

What is Breakthrough Starshot?

If it works, it will be the first unmanned interstellar mission, but manned missions to other star systems would be extremely difficult and probably won't happen this century.

What is the George E. Brown, Jr. Near Earth Object Survey Act and NASA Authorization Act of 2005?

Introduced program to detect and stop NEO's from hitting Earth.

Why in some space colonies is farmland located in separate cells outside the main habitat?

It allows for more living space in the main habitat, allows for a wide range of different climates for growing different crops, and prevents the spread of crop diseases.

What is the Big Falcon Rocket?

It is Elon Musk of Space X's plan to build a rocket capable of carrying 100 people at a time to Mars. It would use Space X's patented vertical-landing reusable rocket stages.

What is the B612 Foundation and what are the innovations and goals?

It is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to preventing NEOs from hitting the Earth, their current goal is to invent a privately financed asteroid-finding space telescope SENTINEL, the telescopes infrared vision will help identify NEOs which they can then forward to places like NASA to stop it from hitting Earth. They propose using Gravity Tractors to divert NEOs trajectories away from Earth.

What is HI SEAS and what is its purpose?

It is a series of mock Mars missions in Hawaii, similar to the MARS 500 mock mission in Russia from a few years ago, the purpose is to create as realistic mission to Mars as possible and to see how the crew deals psychologically with the stress and isolation.

What is a Mass-driver?

It is an electromagnetic "gun" which might be useful for moving dangerous asteroids away from collision courses with the Earth, launching valuable materials off the surface of the moon, or propelling a spacecraft.

What is the Breakthrough Starshot?

It is an interstellar mission to the nearest star system, Proxima Centauri, recently proposed by Stephen Hawking, the plan is to launch a small spacecraft at 20% the speed of light, equalling a 20 year journey to Proxima Centauri propelled by a powerful laser array, this is similar to Lightsail 2 but obviously uses a laser array.

What is the likelihood of Near Earth Asteroid impacts during your lifetime?

It is as likely as someone dying in a car crash, this is based off the frequency of hits and near misses over the past century and statistics of Near Earth Asteroid detection by telescopes, its the best rough estimate astronomers generally offer, so we should probably step our game up in detecting Near Earth Asteroids and stopping them.

What is Dawn?

It is orbiting the dwarf planet Ceres.

What is the Planetary Society's Lightsail 2 and what is its ultimate goal?

It is scheduled to launch in August 2018 and is a solar sail-powered spacecraft that will attempt to use the pressure of sunlight to push a large, lightweight, reflective surface, carrying a small, lightweight payload to high speeds changing its orbit. The change of orbit will occur near Earth, if it works, this type of propulsion could be used to launch small probes at high speed into the far reaches of the solar system.

What is the key to the Mars Direct Plan?

It is the Earth Return Vehicle (ERV) used in the plan. It wouldn't bring fuel with it to return home, this would fix the weight problem, it would take CO2 from Mars atmosphere and combine it with Hydrogen, this would create Methane and oxygen allowing the ERV to get home.

What is the Stanford Torus?

It is the space colony design most widely considered for first space colonies, an advantage of the Torus shape is that it can rotate slowly and produce the artificial gravity needed.

What is NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) and what is its purpose?

It rose from the ashes of Project Constellation and also uses the Orion Crew Capsule as well as the Ares V Launch vehicle which is similar to what would have been used on Project Constellation in that it is a heavy lift launch system. Its purpose is to bring people back to the moon to set up a space station in lunar orbit, its first unmanned test flight is supposed to happen in December 2018. The heavy launch system is meant to get places farther then LEO faster and to carry more things, Orion is built to take 4 crew members farther into space then ever before.

How is NASA's relationship with the Russian Soyuz Program?

It wants to stop making use of it because it wants to star making use of private companies like Space X, and the U.S.'s relationship with Russia is a bit rocky right now.

What was Biosphere 2?

It was a sealed habitat in the Arizona Desert that tested if a crew could survive without any exchange of materials from the outside world for two years, the experiment failed. Within the first few weeks, oxygen levels dropped dangerously low and many of the crops died, leading people to grow hungry and feel tired. This proves we need to make sure we can successfully construct a self-sufficient sealed habitat on Earth before we try to do it in space.

What will NASA's Space Launch look like as far as architecture?

It will have a cone shaped capsule like Apollo, an emergency launch abort system like Apollo and Soyuz, and reusable solid rocket boosters like the shuttle, and it will use a capsule instead of Shuttle Orbital type of ladder.

How long would the Mars Direct Mission be?

It would be 30 months in total, the crew would have to spend 18 months on Mars which is the shortest time possible on Mars because of the small window available to properly return to Earth, it would take 6 months to get there and 6 months to get back meaning the whole trip would be 30 months.

How much would a radiation shield take up on a space colony?

It would take up about 90% of the colony's mass, the most efficient way to build it would be with large quantities of lunar rock that are left over after smelting metals out of lunar ores.

Why is the L5 point in the Earth-Moon System the most talked about location for a space colony?

Its a stable spot where a colony could keep the same position relevant to both Earth and the Moon, people and some essentials would be brought from Earth but most of the material used would be from the Moon, it is also far from both the Earth and the Moon, so it is never in shadow and has unlimited access to solar energy.

Is shipping materials from the moon to space colony cheaper in the short term or the long term?

Its cheaper in the long term, but a lunar mining colony would soon pay for itself because it is much cheaper to extract and ship materials from the moon due to the low gravity and lack of an atmosphere.

Why is carbon so essential for humans?

Its essential for the existence of complex molecules like DNA, carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins. Has four electrons on the outside of each electron which allows carbon atoms to join with each other.

What space agencies are currently invested into colonizing Mars and when will this happen?

Many private and public organizations including NASA, Roscosmos, Ghinca National Space Administration THESE ARE PUBLIC and Mars One, SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing. Elon Musk is planning for unmanned Mars landing in 2022 and manned Mars landing in 2024.

Moon Dust and problems with it?

Moon dust does not appear to be chemically toxic but its made of tiny bits of very jagged rock, the dust is electrically charged due to bombardment of charged particles so this can cling to space suits and cause damage and leaks and it can also damage your lungs if it gets into your habitat and you inhale it, known as "lunar hay fever". The sample returning was done in a shield but due to dust it was air leaked when checked at earth after return.

The Drake equation is, N= N x fs x Np x fe x fI X L/Lmw, what does each letter mean?

N-The number of stars in our galaxy (about 300 billion) fs-The fraction of those stars that are Sun-like in terms of brightness and lifespan Np-Average number of planets per star Fe-Fraction of those planets that are "Earth-Like" meaning suitable for life fl-Fraction of Earth-like planets on which life actually arises fi-fraction of planets with life where intelligent civilizations arise L/Lmw-ratio of the average lifetime of a civilization with the ability and desire to communicate to the lifetime of our Galaxy (about 10 billion years)

What is Orion?

NASA's new crew capsule.

What was Project Constellation and what were its three goals, why was it cancelled?

NASA's plan to replace the space shuttle program developed from 2006 to 2010. Its goals were 1. to continue to fly astronauts to the space station and 2. returning people back to the moon by 2020 and 3. Crew flight to Mars was the ultimate goal. It was cancelled by the Obama administration for budget reasons.

How did the first protein molecules and DNA molecules get made, billions of years ago? and How protein monomer combine to form polymer and make the complex system called life?

Nature process these things in the accurate environment, protein formed, polymerized, and made the complex system called life.

Is it possible to use conventional chemical rockets to perform interstellar travel?

No, it would take 50,000 years to reach a nearby solar system using conventional chemical rockets, the issue is that we are limited in the amount of propellant we can carry, all the experimental propulsion systems spoken about in class involved ways of boosting a craft to very high speeds without the need to carry a lot of massive fuel.

What does habitable mean in Astrology?

Not too hot or too cold, just right to support large quantities of liquid water on the surface.

What would be the other advantages of Helium 3?

Obviously getting to Mars, but if we established an Helium 3 mining colony on the Moon, it could power fusion reactors to get back on Earth to supply electrical power to the entire world, you would also extract hydrogen and water as a natural byproduct, to be used for fuel, oxygen, and drinking.

What would Zone of Habitability look like on Mars, Venus, and different starts, and what is the one exception?

On Mars orbit, the water vapor would freeze out of the atmosphere and the atmosphere would thin On Venus's Orbit, the surface temperature would rise to the point where enough water vapor would enter the atmosphere to cause a runaway greenhouse effect The size of the star's zone of habitability depends on its brightness-the brighter the star, the larger and farther out the zone will be Jupiter's moon Europa is an exception, it receives its heat from a different source, tidal flexing from Jupiter's gravity.

How would the crew in the Mars Direct Mission prepare for living on Mars for 18 months?

On the six month journey to Mars, the crew habitat module would have a mile long cable attached to the spent upper stage of the launch vehicle, the whole thing would then rotate slowly at the proper rate to stimulate the gravitational pull of Mars.

Explain Polymers and monomers?

Polymers are chain of smaller units called monomers. Polymers are made of a surprisingly low number of monomers, DNA and RNA are made of monomers called nucleotides, proteins are made of monomers called amino acids.

What is NEOShield and what are its 2 main goals?

Project funded by the European Union, analyzes realistic options to prevent NEOs from hitting Earth, goals are: 1. Technological development on essential techniques and instruments needed for guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) in close vicinity of asteroids and comets. 2. Understanding the makeup of NEOs better

Where is the nearest potentially habitable planet?

Proxima Centauri B, this is very exiting because it is the closest star to our solar system, which is why it makes it interesting to send a probe there.

What could a object larger than 1 km hitting Earth do?

Result in human extinction.

What is the Space X's Dragon 2?

Second version of the Crew Dragon, it is one of the leaders to take over as the next spacecraft to bring humans to the ISS. It is made by a private company and for the first time in history, NASA is letting private companies take the lead. It is set to perform its first unmanned mission to the ISS in August 2018, and its first manned mission in December 2018. Its fist version made history when it became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the space station, it was previously only done by the government.

According to Elon Musk, what is Space X's ultimate goal?

Send 100 people to Mars in the next decade, most likely using the Big Falcon Rocket.

What is TESS?

Similar to Kepler, it will be searching nearby star systems for transiting (eclipsing) Earthlike planets.

If you could travel to a nearby star system at nearly the speed of light, how would you age in comparison to those on Earth?

Slower, Einstein taught us you can't actually travel at or beyond the speed of light, but getting as close as possible (99.999999 or something) the stronger this "stretching" of time gets, if you get to this speed you can travel to the other side of our galaxy and back again (round trip of 200,000 years) within your lifetime, but everything else on Earth will be 200,000 years in the future.

What was the Tunguska Event?

Small asteroid impact, Occurred on June 30, 1908, probably 50-60 meter wide asteroid exploding with power of about 1000 Hiroshima Bombs.

Stony NEAs and Metallic NEAs?

Stony NEAs-smaller than 150 meters don't survive to impact the ground. Metallic NEAs-As small as 25 meters sometimes do survive to impact.

What caused the end of Dinosaurs?

The Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, 10 km wide object struck Earth 66 million years ago.

When would the crew and the Earth Return Vehicle leave in the Mars Direct Mission?

The Earth Return Vehicle would leave two years prior to the crew because it would want to get to Mars before the crew so that it could arrive and fuel up so nothing goes wrong when the crew gets there, also the launch window to Mars is every two years. Once the crew leaves you could send another Earth Return Vehicle so you could send another crew two years later.

What is the current human vicinity in Low-Earth orbit and are there any future ones?

The ISS and the Chinese Space Station, future designs are being created and rely heavily on the life of the ISS.

Why are Carbon and Nitrogen in humans?

The carbon atom has the right combo of characteristics to make it the idol basis for life at the molecular level and Nitrogen has the additional ability ro form stable gas that aids in cycling this element between organisms and their environment.

How are we protected from the most harmful radiation on Earth?

The molecules in our atmosphere can stop energetic solar particles and cosmic rays, degrading them into showers of less energetic particles and therefore less damaging particles, our magnetic field also acts as a shield from these particles.

What is an advantage to having the Moon as a staging point for a mission to Mars?

The moon's lack of an atmosphere an its low gravity, this makes leaving from the moon much easier than leaving from the Earth.

What would human life look like on Mars?

The surface of Mars is closer to the conditions on Earth than any other planet in terms of temperature and sunlight, but surface is not hospitable to humans or most known life forms because of reduced air pressure and an atmosphere of only 0.1% oxygen, human survival on Mars would require complex life-support measures and living in artificial environments.

What does the Bernal Sphere have that the Stanford Torus and the O'Neill Cylinder doesn't?

They allow you to physically walk from the normal gravity parts to the zero-gravity parts, since you're on the inside of a rotating sphere you can start on the equator and walk toward the poles, where the gravity decreases to the point of none when you get to the poles, it feels like a climb as you get toward the poles because gravity is pulling you back toward the equator.

What have all Mars meteorites been made of, what does it mean, and has there been any improvement?

They have all been made of igneous rocks, no organisms on Earth have ever been found in igneous rocks, that means we need to look for other types of rocks like sedimentary rocks, which the Spirit and Opportunity Rovers have found on Mars.

What do the Bernal Sphere and the O'Neill Cylinder have that the Stanford Torus doesn't?

They have the agricultural designs in separate areas besides the main habitat, this is more ambitious, the Stanford Torus has everything in the main interior habitat, including the farmland.

What are just 3 of the risks that astronauts would face if they didn't have adequate radiation protection?

They would have an increased risk of cancer, cataracts and other damage to the eyes, and sterility.

What is the significance of Space X and Orbital ATK and what are their future goals?

They're the first two private companies to launch cargo to the ISS, in the future they want to start launching crews to the ISS. There has been no suborbital space tourism yet, other companies pursuing it include Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin. No Private company has launched a Mars probe yet.

What is the Drake Equation used for?

To find how many Intelligent, Communicating Civiliztions are in our galaxy.

What are the three purposes that DNA serves?

Transmits genetic information from parents to offspring and governs the production of proteins in a cell. DNA provides the molecular mechanism for this evolution mutations (substations of one nucleotide for another in the DNA of the organism).

What could NEO's cause?

Tsunamis, firestorms, instant winters.

How would the Project Constellation compared to the Apollo Missions as far as launching?

Unlike the Apollo Missions, Project Constellation would have been carrying a larger crew of 4 astronauts instead of 3 and would have been staying on the surface longer, so Constellation would have had to have one launch for the crew, and one launch for some of the hardware. Project Constellation would have closely resembled the Earth Orbit Assembly that Wernher Von Braun originally preferred for the Apollo Moon Missions.

Who would be responsible for suborbital tourism?

Virgin Galactic or Origin Blue.

What could be a huge advantage to Helium-3 found on the moon?

We could use it as fuel for a nuclear-fusion-powered spacecraft that could take people from the moon to mars.

Human biomarkers?

We have two forms of all 20 amino acids, a left handed and right handed marker. Non-Biological have bother left and right, biological just in the left because we are more efficient in only one of the amino acids, its left handed most likely by chance.

What would be the goal of building a space colony at the L5 Lagrange point of the Earth-Moon System?

We would be able to obtain raw materials for construction and industry from the surface of the moon and launch material from the moon using a mass driver. It is much cheaper to extract and ship materials off the low-gravity airless moon than Earth, especially using a horizontal-launching electromagnetic mass driver instead of a traditional vertical launching rocket. Launching straight from the moon to L5 is impractical due to the fact that it is dangerous to launch chunks of the moon at L5 at thousands of miles an hour, we would rather need to ship first to L2 point over the far side of the moon and then tow the payload to L5 from there.

How would we make Mars habitable for people with spacesuits?

We would need to introduce oxygen to its atmosphere and increase its greenhouse effect.

Is there any leftover from Project Constellation?

Yes, on NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), they use the Orion Crew Capsule which was originally part of the Constellation and it uses a heavy lift launch system known as the Ares V which was similar to what would be used on Project Constellation.

How would you protect the spacecraft from radiation on a long-duration space mission?

You could either make the walls thick or use a strong magnetic field to deflect charged particle radiation.

How many ExtraSolar Planets are there and how hard are they to find?

there have been 170 ExtraSolar Planets detected, it is difficult to take telescopic images of them because star systems are so far away, the central star is millions and billions times brighter than planets that shine reflected light, very large planets, very close to their parent stars, only those planets will have a big enough effect on the parent star's motion or brightness to be detectable.

What would happen if a meteorite fell from space and had right handed biomarker?

we would assume that came from somewhere alien life had evolved.