Mars

Starship already has its first client to go to Mars: the government of Italy

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The CEO of Spacex, Elon Musk, and the president of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, They became such good friends Last year that Musk had to Go out to deny That he had a romance with her. Then it was she who got into trouble with the rest of Europe for Consider Starlink as an option for Italian army communications. Finally, Italy will collaborate with Spacex differently. The first Starship ticket to Mars. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) has signed an unprecedented agreement with Spacex to transport scientific experiments developed by Italy in the first missions of the Gigantic Starship ship To Mars. The agreement, revealed by the President of the LI, Teodoro Valentewithout intervention by the European Space Agency, ensures a seat for Italy in the new space race towards Mars, this time with a strong commercial partner. Spacex president, Gwynne Shotwellhe described collaboration as a “unique agreement in its gender”, and promised that there would be others to come. The experiments. He ESPO He mentions, without going into details, three “Made in Italy” charges that will fly with Starship to Mars. The first is an experiment on the growth of plants that will investigate how to design future greenhouses and life support systems. The second and third are a weather station and a radiation sensor to thoroughly document the space climate during the interplanetary flight of six months to the red planet. Your goal is Improve the safety of future astronauts Let Mars fly. Six months of interplanetary trip. Starship is the highest and most powerful launch system in the world. Still in the development phase In Spacex facilities southeast Texasit consists of a propeller of more than 70 meters and a ship of more than 50 designed to fly to Mars and land on its surface after reposting in orbit. Elon Musk hopes to send The first five starship to Mars in 2026. Any delay would force flights to the next launch window, scheduled for 2028. All initial flights would be without crew until the system is already tested. With this agreement, Italy would have a preferential place in the first private rocket that aspires to reach Mars. Image | Spacex In Xataka | Elon Musk has revealed what Starship V3 will do: to “take all creatures” to Mars as an ark of Noah

We know more than Mars than the seabed. An expert helps us to understand why it is still an enigma and what mysteries keep

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What if we told you that there is such a tiny creature that it can hunt generating a bubble at more than 100 km/h, with a temperature similar to the sun? What if the orcs were smarter than we believe, even capable of having bait traps or hunting the very blue whale? The bottom of the sea It is still a place full of mysteries. We think we know him because we have seen documentaries or movies, but we have barely scratched his surface. Science and separate With a new episode On our YouTube channelalso available as Podcast on Spotify and Ivoox. A space in which we address scientific issues from a close and informative approach. In this second installment, our partner Ángela Blanco talks with Álex Avelloethologist and disseminator, to explore the amazing behavior of marine animals and everything we still do not know about the ocean. The pistolera gamba is one of those animals that costs to believe that they really exist. It is tiny, but its way of hunting has nothing subtle: it closes one of its tweezers to more than 100 km/Hy generates a bubble whose temperature, according to some studies, could approach the surface of the sun. “This always caught with tweezers too, a little above, a little below,” says Alex. The click is so brutal that it can be detected by the sound of a submarine. If the puppets can submerge up to 3,000 meters is not only because of their size or strength, but by a fascinating biological mechanism. “It has an organ that is called sperm … I always say it is like a bag full of wax, a wax -full supermarket,” explains Álex. When they prepare to descend, they let cold water into that organ, which solidifies the wax and turns their heads into a natural ballast. “In this way they go down to every tablet,” he adds. While they descend, they emit clicks that bounce with everything they find, as a kind of sound. There is an idea that is repeated throughout the episode: we barely know what is in the depths. “We know 4% of all oceans,” says Alex. And that leaves a lot of room for imagination. “Today, to me someone comes to make sure Megalodon is impossible for it to exist …”Every time he gives a talk in schools, children ask him about mythical sea creatures. And his answer is not a resounding. Because the truth is that we have not yet reached there. Are dolphins smarter marine animals? Álex clarifies: “Orca is within the family of dolphins … but the orca is superior to the dolphin. In fact, the orcs hunt dolphins, the dolphins do not hunt orcas.” What comes later in the conversation ends up clarifying why. And it is worth listening. Not all animals eat what they are in front of them. Some know how to wait. “Have that ability to say: ‘Ok, I have this that I can eat it right now, But I can use it as a tool… ”, Recalls Álex when talking about an orca who saw in a video as a child. What he did with that fish is difficult to forget. He tells him in detail in the episode. This is not all. In the second episode of science and apart there are more stories that surprise, that make them think and that remind us of everything we do not know yet. You can see or listen to it. Where do you prefer. Images | Xataka In Xataka | There are thousands of people hooked to streaming. One to 3,900 meters deep full of marine curiosities (and memes)

Jeff Bezos’s space company has advanced Spacex in a key milestone to go to the moon and Mars: zero evaporation

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One of the biggest obstacles to a mission to Mars is not the distance or travel time. It is the fuel. To send a manned ship, NASA estimates that dozens of Cryogenic propellant tons stored for weeks or months. But those liquids do not behave like on earth: in a vacuum, exposed to heat and without gravity, They are slowly evaporating even if the tank is perfectly sealed. That phenomenon, known as Boil-offforces to release the generated gas so that the pressure does not rise dangerously inside the tank. It is a constant loss that, in a long -term mission, can mean tons of tons of fuel lying to space. Therefore, developing tanks capable of preserving this propellant at safe pressure and without losses, which is known as zero evaporation technology, has become a technical requirement to go beyond the low orbit. Zero evaporation: the technical challenge that separates the orbit low from the rest of the solar system Blue Origin claims to have taken an important step To solve that problem. Jeff Bezos’ company has managed to maintain liquid oxygen and hydrogen in stable conditions, without evaporation, using Hardware flight prototype In earth tests (Blue Origin has not detailed whether it is vacuum thermal cameras or conventional banks). Dave clean announced itits CEO, as part of the lunar permanence program, stating that they already meet all the objectives set by NASA in this area. Click to see the publication in x The result is not less: we talk about conserving hydrogen at 20 Kelvin and oxygen to 90 Kelvin, two extreme temperatures, during sustained periods. This makes Blue Origin – which we know – the first private company that publicly and explicitly communicates a zero evaporation condition in cryogenic propelants. In the absence of this technology to vuele and demonstrate in orbit, what is achieved represents the most tangible advance so far towards tanks capable of storing liquid fuel without losses, a key piece to operate ships on the moon or Mars. Storing loss without space is not just a matter of good materials. It is a constant battle against physics. Even the best thermal insulation ends up giving in. Therefore, the path to zero evaporation goes through active solutions that cool the deposit from within. NASA has investigated two: The sub -housing jet and microgotes injectiontwo methods that allow to reduce the steam temperature and prevent internal pressure. Blue Origin has not detailed which of the two uses, but the logic points to the sub -deputy jet, The only tested method So far in microgravity by NASA. It consists of directing a very cold liquid jet where the steam is accumulated. When condensing it, it is avoided that the pressure rises and it is not necessary to release gas. It is a technologically complex system, but so far it has demonstrated greater efficacy and stability in test conditions. Long before Blue Origin announced its advance, NASA had already tested these systems In space. The ZBOT program, deployed aboard the International Space Station, allowed us to observe how a microgravity propellant tank behaves. One of its main discoveries was that the Interaction between the sub -housing jet and steam It does not follow the classic rules we know on earth. The Blue Origin cryogenic system during the ground tests of its zero evaporation technology In ZBOT-1, not only was it possible to control internal pressure with active mixture. Unexpected phenomena were also detected as cavitation, sudden formation of bubbles or flow alterations that could affect the stability of the system. That information – obtained with sensors, cameras and laser measurement systems – has served several companies, including Blue Origin, to design tanks capable of functioning stable in extreme environments. Spacex has not yet announced a zero evaporation solution as such. But that It does not mean that I am not working on it. In collaboration with NASA, The company has developed A cryogenic architecture oriented to reduced evaporation, which has already been validated in flight. In March 2025Starship made a Internal transfer of liquid oxygen in spacedemonstrating that he could move fuel and control his pressure without losing it excessively. NASA Artistic Recreation Although Spacex and Blue Origin are addressing the same general challenge – almaceinar propelants in space without losses – do not work with the same fuels or face the same level of thermal difficulty. Spacex uses liquid methane and liquid oxygen, while Blue Origin works with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. That difference is key. Liquid hydrogen must be maintained to one much lower temperature than that of methane or even that of oxygen. In addition, hydrogen is less dense, more prone to escape and much more difficult to isolate. Achieving zero evaporation conditions with hydrogen is therefore a major technical challenge. The advance announced by Blue Origin is not only significant by the result, but by the type of fuel with which it has achieved it. When talking about going to Mars, you often think of rockets, habitats or space costumes. But one of the most serious bottleneck is in something much more basic: conserve fuel. In a long -lasting mission, the propellant is not used at once. You have to store it, transfer it and, many times, keep it operational for weeks without being lost by evaporation. That makes zero evaporation technology a key piece for both future interplanetary missions and missions Artemis To the moon. Images | Blue Origin (1, 2) | POT | Xataka with Grok In Xataka | Spain is very excited about the three eclipses that will arrive between 2026 and 2028. The government is worried

The largest piece on Mars on Earth has just sold for 5.3 million dollars

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A Roca from Mars which was found in the Sahara desert in November 2023 has sprayed all records in an auction in New York. A 25 -kilogram meteorite. The largest piece of Mars found on Earth already owns, and is an anonymous buyer who won the Sotheby’s auction After a bid of 4.3 million dollars. Will pay 5.3 millionif we add taxes and fees, the highest price ever paid by a meteorite. The rock, baptized as NWA 16788, weighs no less than 24.67 kilograms. With its almost 38 centimeters long, it is 70% larger than the previous largest Martian meteor. From Mars to an anonymous collector. NWA 16788 had traveled 225 million kilometers when a meteorit hunter took him in the remote region of Agadez, in Niger. It did not gently detach from Mars. He was torn from his surface due to the impact of such a violent asteroid that liquefied part of his minerals and catapulted him to space. From there, he undertook a trip of about 225 million kilometers before the earthly gravity attracted him. Its reddish cortex and depressions on its surface are the scars of its entrance through our atmosphere. It is now officially a luxury object that shows that it is possible to speculate with Martian soil. The extraterrestrial market is booming. This sale is not an isolated event, but the confirmation of an upward trend. The meteorit market is an active niche where the rarity, size and history of rocks trigger prices, but none has reached a price as high as NWA 16788. The one that was closest was the Fukang meteoritefamous for its embedded Olivino gems. In 2008, the Bonhams house tried to sell it for 2 million dollars. Pujadores preferred to invest their money in the fossilized manure of a dinosaur that was 130 million years old. In 2021, the Christie’s house sold a Martian meteorite for $ 200,000. Who knows if we will see it in a museum. The sale of such a singular meteor has revived, as expected, an old controversy in the scientific community. Many regret that a piece of incalculable value for science and dissemination can end up in a private battleship chamber. Being anonymous, the buyer’s intentions are unknown Fortunately, not all meteorite is lost to science. A reference sample has been preserved at the Purple Mountain Observatory, in China to analyze it. Image | Sotheby’s In Xataka | The largest piece of Mars on Earth is not in a museum, or a laboratory: it is in a auction house

The US wants to give up bringing the most valuable samples collected on Mars. Lockheed promises to do it for less than half

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Since February 2021, The Rover Perseverance patiently travels the Jezero crateran old river basin on the surface of Mars. Over there, where millions of years ago the water flowedNASA Robot It has been collecting fragments of rock and Martian dust With a very specific objective: Find signs of past life. It is not any mission. Is, According to NASA itselfthe first step of an ambitious plan to bring intact samples from another planet. For more than three years, Perseverance has done his job in silence and the samples that Now rest inside of small sealed tubes, carefully deposited on the Martian surface or stored aboard the Rover itself. From space, bread crumbs would look like a trace drawn through a desert planet, hoping to be collected. A truncated promise The plan, known as Mars Sample ReturnI had to send another ship to Mars, launch from there a rocket with the samples and return them to the Earth for analysis in laboratories. But the project began to crumble. An independent review raised the cost estimated until 11,000 million dollars and delayed the possible return of the samples until 2040. In May, the new US administration presented its first budget draft: proposes to cut 24 % of NASA’s financing and cancel Mars Sample Return for considering it an exorbitant cost program. The plan must still go through Congress, but marks a clear turn: the menions manned to deep space are prioritized, such as Artemisand the projects with great budget and scarce immediate return are frozen. With the current budget cut and without guarantees of continuity, NASA decided to reexamine its options. As explained by the former administrator Bill Nelsontwo more viable alternative routes were being evaluated: one that takes advantage of the “Sky Crane” type landing system used successfully in the Curiosity and Perseverance Rovers, and another that opens the door to new proposals from the private sector. Lockheed Martin’s letter Amid the budget uncertainty, one of the great space contractors in the United States has decided to move file. Lockheed Martin, with half a century of experience in missions to Mars, has presented NASA a proposal to execute the Mars Return mission with a radically different approach: for less than 3,000 million dollars and under a fixed price contract. The change is not less. Faced with the traditional model, full of budgetary risks and with multiple public actors involved, Lockheed promises a simpler architecture. Its proposal includes a more compact landing module, based on the ship Insight that already touched Martiano soil in 2018a lighter and lighter ascent vehicle – designed to be the first to take off from another planet – and a system of re -entry to the land derived from missions such as Genesis, Stardust and Osiris-Rex. It is a commitment goes beyond engineering. Being a “Firm-Fixed Price” contract, Lockheed Martin is responsible for absorb any possible extra cost. That is, if something is complicated, the invoice does not rise. According to the company itself, that model has already proven effective in other scientific missions of deep space, where they even managed to return part of the NASA not used budget. The message is clear: if NASA wants to save its most ambitious mission without spending, Lockheed Martin is ready to lead it. Bringing back about thirty small tubes could help us answer one of humanity’s great questions. Was Mars ever inhabited? Scientists do not seek fossils or complex structures. They look for subtle indications that can only be analyzed with the level of precision allowed by land laboratories. And for that, the samples that Perseverance has collected are not any rock. They have been selected one by one depending on their location, their age, their composition and their geological context. Are, In Nasa’s own wordsthe most likely material to contain a Martian “biofirm.” But the value of these samples goes beyond the biological. They can reveal how the wet marte of 3.5 billion years ago was, how its climate evolved, why it became an arid and inhospitable planet, and how the geological, atmospheric and chemical processes interacted for millennia. They will also tell us what resources could take advantage of future manned missions: where it is safer to land, what materials are usable, what areas have risks. Images | Lockheed Martin In Xataka | NASA locked four volunteers one year simulating their life on Mars. What did not miss: an entire PS4 Games Library

We are sending cannabis samples to space. They will be key to knowing if we can colonize the moon or Mars

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Throughout our short space race we have sent the most diverse things to space: from golf balls up to 2,000 small jellyfish (that returned being 60,000), going through latea piece of the Wright brothers, an electric car, a gorilla costume and a pizza. Today to this peculiar list we have to add about 150 cannabis seeds. The reasons? Strictly scientific. Mayasat-1. That is the name they receive both the mission (Integrated within Mission Possible 2025) as the incubator on board which have traveled seeds, algae and human DNA, among other things. In total, 980 samples of 11 different customers. The incubator has been developed by the Genoplant Research Institute in Slovenia, but who has decided to send cannabis seeds to space has been Martian Grow. Transport-14 | Image: Genoplant Mayasat-1 | Image: Genoplant Three laps. Before addressing the why of cannabis, it is convenient to understand what the mission has consisted, whose duration has been three hours. Mayasat-1 took off on Monday 23 at 23:50 aboard a Falcon 9 from Spacex from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It reached a height of 520 kilometers (120 kilometers more than the International Space Station) and completed three laps around our planet. Specifically, through polar areas. Because? Because at the North and South poles exposure to radiation is very, much higher than that of Ecuador due to the magnetic field. The objectives. There are several, but they can be summarized as follows: Observe the survival of samples to radiation, microgravity and temperatures of space to have an idea of ​​its ability to resist extreme conditions. Investigate possible adaptations, such as genetic or structural changes, which may have occurred in response to the environmental stress factors. Study the possible implications for the cultivation of plants in space or advances in medicine. Serve as proof of concept for the realization of biological experiments in space. And now yes, cannabis. Božidar Radišič leads the initiative Martian Grow and works as a consultant at the Research Nature Institute in Slovenia. In statements collected by WiredRadišič believes that “sooner or later, we will have lunar bases and cannabis, with its versatility, it is the ideal plant to supply those projects.” In his own words, cannabis “can be a source of food, proteins, construction materials, textiles, hemp, plastic and medicines. I don’t think many other plants give us all these things.” But cannabis … Yes, it is associated with a very different recreational use, but its potential as a plant is tremendous. The Cannabis sativa l produces THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive compound) and CBD (Cannabidiol, has no psychoactive effects), but these are only two of the More than 550 chemical compounds found to date. And although we do not know what effects each and every one of them has, we do know that the plant is surprisingly resistant. Image | Crystalweed Cannabis Hold on what you throw. Cannabis sativa is a plant that resists ultraviolet rays and gamma radiation (in fact, it is used in its industrial production to decontaminate it). It is also extremely versatile, being able to grow both in Mexico and India, Nepal, Netherlands or Afghanistan despite the fact that its origin is in the Himalayas. Nor is it a plant that needs too much water and can be grown in different types of soils. Their ballots to be a successful space crop are, therefore, abundant on paper. And why send seeds to space? We know that radiation and genetic mutation is able to generate new varieties of species with different properties. “So far more than 3,400 new varieties of more than 210 species of plants using genetic variation induced by radiation and improvement by mutations, “they explain from the International Atomic Energy Agency. For Radišič, that is precisely the key: “It’s about finding out if cosmic conditions affect cannabis genetics, and how they do it, and we may only discover it after several generations.” Radiation exposure can cause mutations, not all negative, not all positive. The key is to detect those that can play in favor of humanity. The problem, of course, is that we need more information. Image | Genoplant Further. We have already cultivated lettuce at the International Space Station, Thalian Arabidopsis on lunar soil and Sent seeds to spacebut all radiation exposure has been in low orbit (up to 2,000 kilometers high). The responses to the radiation of a plant at the International Space Station may not be the same as those of a plant on the moon (at 38,400 kilometers away) or on Mars (54.6 million kilometers). One of the projects that seek to explore how plants cultivated on the moon respond is Leafa NASA mission that will travel to our satellite in the mission Artemis III In 2027. Next steps. When the capsule returns, the Božidar Radišič team and the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Ljubljana will study the seeds, their possible mutations and adaptations to obtain results and see which compounds have altered and how. “Whether there are changes as if not, both results will be important for the future, so that we know how to grow cannabis in the space environment,” says Radišič to Wired. An important job. Colonizing the moon or Mars is not only a technological challenge, but also logistics. It is not viable to transport food to keep the population of another planet, so it is capital to learn to cultivate in lunar and Martian soils, completely inhospitable and hostile. There have been advances and research with different proposals For many yearsbut there is still no solution that seems perfect. Images | Genoplant In Xataka | We have found a plant capable of producing 40 cannabinoids. A closer plant evolutionarily to lettuce that to hemp

“Even in a nuclear apocalypse, the earth would be a paradise compared to Mars”

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Elon Musk wants to turn humanity into a multi -purpose species, with Mars as a second home and our “lifeboat”, in the event that a catastrophe occurs on earth. Musk’s vision is the engine after the Starship program, which mobilizes billions of dollars with the aim of building a rocket capable of taking us to the red planet. Adam Becker’s three scenarios Some scientists still do not see clear Elon Musk’s ambition to colonize Mars. And not because the Starship has exploded four times in a row. After all, it is an experimental rocket. “There are many reasons why it is a bad idea,” says astrophysicist Adam Becker. “I do not mean that ‘we will never have the technology to live on Mars’. What I say is that the earth will always be a better option, what happens to the earth.” In a blunt Interview with Rolling StoneBecker doubts some of the “messianic fantasies” of technological oligarchs, starting with Elon Musk’s Martian dream. His argument is as simple as devastating: no matter how bad things are put on our planet, the earth will always be a paradise compared to the icy hell that is Mars. In Becker’s words, Musk’s idea is “one of the most stupid things someone could say.” To illustrate his point, the astrophysicist raises three apocalyptic scenarios: 1) The impact of an asteroid the size of the dipes extinguished. 2) The detonation of all the nuclear weapons of the planet. And 3) the worst possible climate change scenario. “Even then,” he says, “the Earth would remain more habitable. A superficial examination of Mars makes it very clear.” Devastated land vs. Mars as it is Let’s put the data on the table to understand the abysmal difference between a devastated earth planet and the Mars we know today. In order for an environment to be “habitable” for humans without a perfect and autonomous life support technology, basic conditions that we often take for granted are needed. The atmosphere of the Earth would be contaminated, but it would remain dense, rich in nitrogen and oxygen, and with a pressure at the sea of ​​1 bar. On the current Mars, The atmosphere is extremely thin (0.6% that of the Earth) and is composed of 95% by carbon dioxide. It is disappointed and has a pressure on the surface of 0.006 bars, so that liquid water boils instantly (or rather it is sublimated, passing from solid to gas). The Earth’s magnetic field would continue intact, diverting most of the cosmic and solar radiation. The atmosphere, even contaminated, would offer an additional layer. Mars lacks a global magnetic field. Its surface is constantly bombarded with a dose of radiation that becomes lethal for a long -term human. On Mars, the average temperature is -63 ° C. All water is frozen in polar or underground caps. On earth, a nuclear winter or the impact of an asteroid would drastically cool the planet, but the oceans would act as a gigantic thermal regulator. The 1.4 billion cubic kilometers of water would continue here. Contaminated and partially frozen, but accessible and treatable, assuming we had access to some technology. The biosphere would be seriously damaged after a catastrophe, but the land of the earth would contain organic matter and the basic components for life. In addition, there would be geothermal and oceanic shelters, where microbial life would persist although other life forms would have disappeared. Martian soil is toxic. It contains high concentrations of perchlorates, dangerous chemical compounds for human health that complicate agriculture. Can Mars be terraft? Although Spacex renders show a gigantic pressurized base under the surface of Mars, Elon Musk has always fought his vision to the possibility of terrafting the red planet. So we already talk about transport millions of tons of load To build a city inhabited on Martian soil, but of a much more great project. There are many (and very diverse) Ideas to terraphormate Mars, but engineering to Megaescala that would mean any of them presents not a few obstacles. The first step would be to raise the temperature of Mars. The proposals van From nuclear bombs to install gigantic orbital mirrors that concentrate sunlight at the poles. By heating polar caps, water ice and carbon dioxide would sublimize, swelling the atmosphere. In theory, a densest atmosphere would catch more heat, which in turn would release more gas and soil gas. This positive feedback cycle would increase pressure and temperature until water could exist in a liquid state on the Martian surface. However, studies They doubt that Mars has sufficient CO2 To achieve this effect. Even if we could release the entire CO2 accessible in polar caps and trapped in surface minerals, the atmospheric pressure of Mars would only increase to 7% of the thickness of the Earth’s atmosphere. In this context, the affirmation of the astrophysicist Adam Becker charges even more strength. If transforming Mars into a habitable planet is practically impossible, living there would require a Total artificial habitat dependence incredibly complex and vulnerable. The logic dictates that any effort and resource would be better invested in preserving and, if necessary, repair the only life support system that we have and that works perfectly: the planet Earth. In spite of everything, and seeing how the world is going, perhaps a plan B would not be bad, even if it were only for the children of the children of whom they would voluntarily live on a worse planet could return. Images | Spacex In Xataka | An American physicist has found a shortcut to get to Mars in 90 days. It is key to surviving radiation In Xataka | China has just solved two problems for the conquest of Mars: you already know how to turn CO2 into electricity and batteries

An American physicist has found a shortcut to get to Mars in 90 days. It is key to surviving radiation

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The long flight will be One of the many risks that astronauts who travel to Mars in front. SIX TO NINE MONTHS Broken the safe radiation limit that NASA establishes as acceptable: 600 msv. The problem would be forgotten if you could get to Mars in just 90 days. And you can with current technology, according to recent research. Conventional chemistry, record times. The physicist Jack Kingdon, a researcher at the University of California, has published in the magazine Scientific Reports A proposal that breaks with the provisions of trips to Mars. Normally, a flight to the red planet requires between six and nine months, which raises multitude of challenges for exposure to radiation. With Kingdon’s trajectory, 90 days per path would suffice. The most surprising thing is that their calculations are based on the classic method to optimize interplanetary trajectories (Lambert’s problem) and do not depend on futuristic engines, but on a current chemical rocket: the Spacex starship. Two crew and four loading ships. The proposal is a monumental scale. The mission to Mars would require six ships: two crew and four loads that would travel separately. To put them on the route, they would take about 45 Starship pitches within two to three weeks, a rhythm that, although ambitious, fits with Spacex’s plans to massively climb their operations. A gas station in space. The real logistics challenge would occur in the low terrestrial orbit. There, a starship-cistern fleet (ships dedicated exclusively to transport fuel) would perform a complex dancing of reposses: The two manned starship would need about 15 reposses each to load the 1,500 tons of propellant that will allow them to take the rapid trajectory. The four load starship, aimed at carrying the equipment and supplies, would receive only four reposses each and would be sent to Mars in a slower and lower energy consumption trajectory. The shortcut. Once full of methane and liquid oxygen, the two crew ships would turn on their engines to escape the earth’s orbit. They would cover a high -energy Lambert type trajectory required by an ΔV ≈ 4.6 km/s, which translates into a 90 -day flight time. Just before being captured by the severity of Mars, the ships would make a key ignition to stop, reducing their input speed of about 9.7 km/sa about 6.8 km/s. The Martian atmosphere would be in charge of dissipating the rest of the energy by aerocapture, a maneuver in which the ship “brushes” the atmosphere to stop without spending fuel. Finally, a brief ignition of the engines would allow a propulsive landing on the surface. The study demonstrates that this scheme is mathematically possible for the 2035 launch window, but it depends on Spacex dominating two critical technologies: the cryogenic orbital refueling on a large scale and hyperbolic aerocapture. And the return? An even more complex plan. If the idea is to return, the mission becomes much bold. First, a fuel production plant should be established on Mars (As Sabatier reactors) to manufacture methane and oxygen from CO₂ and the ice of the planet. The return plan implies that the manned ship take off from the surface of Mars and entered orbit. There, the load ships, which arrived previously, would also take off to act as cisterns in the Martian orbit, transferring all the necessary fuel to the manned ship for its 90 -day trip back to the earth. Not everyone shares optimism. The study identifies a viable return window in 2037. However, not everyone shares optimism. The own Paper recognizes that his proposal collides with the vision of agencies such as NASA, which has historically shown preference for nuclear propulsion For fast missions to Mars, a technology that, according to the author of the study, still has a low maturity and great regulatory obstacles. All this, of course, whenever the goal is to return. Recall that Elon Musk’s idea is to send robots first and then volunteers to build a self -sufficient city on the red planet. Image | Spacex In Xataka | All the technical challenges that we must solve if we want to achieve the greatest feat of the human being: get to Mars

The Curiosity Rover has been climbing a mountain of Mars for 12 years. I just sent an impressive video from above

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He Increased Rover Curiosity He has sent to Earth a new Marte video that is simply a jewel: an immersive panoramic view of 30 seconds that transports us directly to the slopes of Mount Sharp. Look at it full screen because this is the closest thing to a walk on the red planet that we will have until Elon Musk puts the starship flights at the balance price. A family world. At first glance, the images captured by NASA’s rover last February could remind us of a desert landscape in Chile or the southwest United States. But do not deceive your eyes: that “saw” that is seen in the distance is actually the edge of the gigantic Gale crater, formed by the impact of an asteroid billions of years ago. Curiosity, a rolling laboratory to the size of a mini cooperation, was then ascending on the slopes of Mount Sharp, an imposing mountain of almost 5 kilometers of height sculpted by the time inside the crater itself. Since its arrival in 2012, the Curiosity Rover has traveled about 32 kilometers on the dusty Martian land, exploring the Gale Crater without rest. What we are seeing. The area where these images were taken, formally known as “sulfate carrier unit”, is full of saline minerals. Scientists believe that these minerals are the legacy of streams and ponds that dried eones, before Mars went from being a world potentially similar to Earth to the ice cream desert we know today. NASA invites us to get carried away by imagination: “You can imagine the silent and dim wind, or perhaps even the waves of a disappeared lake have long licking an old shore.” Rumbo to new mysteries. Although it has been on Mars for almost 13 years, the Curiosity expedition does not stop here. Left behind the Gediz Vallis channel, where about a year ago accidentally discovered elementary sulfur (A disconcerting finding, since on Earth it is usually associated with volcanic gases or bacterial activity). And now he is now heading towards a region with some intriguing geological formations called “Boxwork”. These structures, seen from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter orbiter, seem like a kind of spider web, with ridges extending for several kilometers that will probably need warm groundwater to form. And where there is water, it is already known, there is potential to find past life clues. The researchers wonder If you are “Boxwork” They could have housed old unicellular microorganisms and have sent the Curiosity Rover to find out. The Curiosity Rover seen from above for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter probe Another point of view. While Curiosity covers these long journeys on the Martian surface, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Follow it from above. On February 28, the Hirise Chamber of the ship captured the first orbital image of the rover in full displacement by the red planet In the image, Curiosity appears as a dark mota in front of a long trace of fingerprints that extend about 320 meters. Curiosity’s footprints can remain visible for months before the Martian wind erases them. Images | POT In Xataka | Curiosity continues to send us videos about Mars. Thanks to him we have discovered something weird: his clouds

We are increasingly sure that Mars hides a lot of water underground. The last track has been given to us an earthquake

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There was a remote time in which Mars, today desert, had rivers and seas. We know some of the remnants that have remained, such as the Jezero river delta that explores the Rover Perseverance But that water may have been more than mere traces. A lot more. New tests. A geological study conducted thanks to the propagation of seismic waves on the red planet has obtained new evidence of the existence of water on Mars. Although the study itself does not imply a definitive test, it joins the list of studies that indicate that the neighboring planet is not as dry as it seems. A wet past. The Martian oceans had a short duration In geological terms. According to estimates, these would have disappeared between 4,100 and 3,000 million years ago (our solar system has about 4.6 billion years), in periods called Noeic and Hesperic. The lower gravitational attraction and the lack of a magnetic field that protect the Martian seas of the solar wind left Mars without superficial oceans. But from that water there was more than a handful of marks in the geography of the red planet: the water in solid state lasts ice -shaped either Integrated into its minerals. The enigma of the missing water. Some researchers detected a problem, and it is the difficulty that the sum of evaporated water, frozen or embedded in minerals could represent the total water that was once on Mars, they explain In an article for The conversation Hrvoje Tkalčić and Weijia Sun, co -authors of the recent geological study on water on Mars. Insight, to the rescue. In his recent study, the team took advantage of the data captured by the seismometer that the probe Insight He kept operating on Mars during his activity. During this period, Mars suffered an earthquake and received the impact of several meteorites, events whose seismic waves were recorded by the instrument aboard the now deceased probe. Studying the spread of these leads, the team identified an “anomaly” in a layer of the Martian subsoil located between 5.4 and 8 kilometers under the surface. It is a “low speed layer” that, according to the hypothesis proposed by the equipment would correspond to a layer of porous rock stuffed with water, “like a saturated sponge” or “something similar to the aquifers of the earth.” A lot of water. This layer could hide a significant amount of water, enough to house the water that dfalta in the accounts of the experts. “We have calculated that the ‘aquífera’ in Mars could house enough water to cover the planet in a global ocean of a depth of between 520 and 780 m, several times more water that keeps the Antarctic ice layer.” The details of the study will be published In an article In the magazine National Science Reviewbut for now we have to settle for a draft. Tests accumulate. This It is not the first time that we get evidence of the existence of vast amounts of water in the Martian subsoil. A little over a year agoa study conducted from the data of the European probe Mars Express reached a similar conclusion, that of the existence of huge amounts of water, enough to create an ocean of several hundred meters deep, in the Martian subsoil. In Xataka | We had little doubt that Mars was a habitable planet. The Curiosity Rover has just cleared them Image | POT/GSFC

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