Saturday, March 11, 2006

Science Saturday I: The Mars Orbiter Arrives

Whoopie!

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the most sophisticated spacecraft ever sent to Mars, is now in the Red Planet's orbit.

After a journey of seven months and 310 million miles, the two-ton Orbiter is being readied for a close-up look for signs of life and possible landing sites during a mission that could last two years.

The Orbiter began its journey last Aug. 12 when it left Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard an Atlas rocket. The flight path was so precise that controllers were able to cancel some rocket firings that had been planned to correct its trajectory, thereby saving fuel and extending the life of the mission.

For updates and more info, including some neat orbital simulations, go to the Orbiter's JPL-NASA website.

2 comments:

Alcuin Bramerton said...

There is an advanced intelligent civilisation based on Mars, but it is not a surface population. It is based in cavern-cities underground.

This is known by various human governments, including those in the UK and the USA.

There was, originally, a surface-living population on Mars. They developed an energy technology which used water. The hydrogen and oxygen in water were separated and then used for combustion-drives. The eventual result was that all standing water on the planet was exhausted and the planet's surface became arid and inhospitable.

The Martians are vastly more advanced than us, technologically and spiritually, but they are not as advanced as the Venusians with whom they work on various Earth-related projects such as agriglyph energisation (crop circle phenomena).

Martian UFOs are often seen in our skies. In the fourth century BC, Alexander the Great saw a fleet of them emerge from a river in India. He spent a lot of time using diving bells to search for the source of these “otherworldly vessels”.

Martian UFOs are occasionally seen, or sensed, around crop circle sites during their formation phase.

There are several Martian UFO bases on Earth, most of them thousands of years old and sited in remote subterranean or suboceanic locations. Their craft are multidimensional and can blink in and out of visible physicality.

Martian UFOs were seen in the skies above Emley Moor, West Yorkshire, in the north of England, on 14 June 2004. What appeared to be five objects flying in perfect formation were captured on film at about 3pm. Mark Windle, who took the photographs, said: “It looked to me as if they were objects that were burning up in the atmosphere. There was another plane in the sky and it looked different.”

Another onlooker said that as soon as she saw the lights she went to get her camera. But the objects were traveling fast, and by the time she returned with her camera they had disappeared. “We usually have planes flying past but not in such a regular formation,” she said. “It was very strange.”

Shaun Mullen said...

Well, it certainly would be most exciting if the Orbiter were able to confirm that there was indeed life on (or under) Mars.