Among Jupiter and Mars
You may have noticed Mars in the southern night sky. It was much brighter and closer to earth at the end of July. But it is still very bright. This is because it is presently only 33 million miles from Earth. You laugh. Just a drive past the moon. Well, Mars has a varying orbit around the sun, and a Mars circumnavigation of the sun takes two Earth years. It can be as far from Earth as 200 million miles so presently it is in a much closer orbit.
In Friday’s presentation by amateur astronomer Mike Rood, he noted that Mar’s closeness to Earth is pretty rare, every 15 to 17 years.
Mike and Imperial Valley Desert Museum Director Dr. David Breeckner treated us to NASA web pages on Mars exploration. At one point, they pulled up a web page of a live space walk from the International Space Station. It was as if we just dropped in for a quick look. Pretty amazing stuff, and how quickly we take these technological advances for granted. The view of Earth was amazing as the space station orbited the third planet from the sun.
By the way, Mars is the fourth and thus our neighbor. See Mars-in-a minute from JPL and NASA: https:// www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/teach/activity/mars-in-a-minute/
America has lots of worldwide economic competitors. China is in lane two and gaining fast. Yet, America’s technological prowess is second to none. The International Space Station is truly a cooperative effort, but America’s space technology is primo.
But back to Mars. On a good day, it would take 10 months to get there. The rockets exist to make the trip. However, Mars’ atmosphere is hostile to Earthlings as you might remember from the movie, “The Martian.” Matt Damon had a tough time after being mistakenly left behind by the first manned mission to Mars. He became The Martian since he was the first to grow a crop of potatoes, survival food, and thus technically colonize it. Well, he was the first Martian we know of. And, yes, the book, “The Martian,” was even better than the movie, though the cinematic scenes of Damon driving the rehabilitated rover across the planet were out of this world.
Elon Musk of Tesla and Space X fame suggested a few years ago to terraform Mars, making it more earthlike, by exploding thermonuclear weapons at its poles and melting ice. The average Martian temperature is similar to Antarctica in the winter. Sunlight is weaker there.
Ah, but a blogger asks, what to do about all that radiation from an exploded weapon? Another blogger wrote that exploding nuclear weapons would only p*** off the aliens. The White House has already made enough enemies worldwide without extending ill will to other planets.
In the movie, “Independence Day,” the president successfully rallies pilots, including the Imperial Valley crop dusters, to fight the invading space ships. Not sure the rallying cry would work this time. The response might be, America, you can go first!
We looked at a bunch of planets while at the Desert Museum. The skies are clearer in Ocotillo. Less light pollution. Jupiter was close to the moon. Venus was in the western sky. Even with binoculars, the craters of the moon were visible along the line dividing light and dark.
And as Mike Rood had mentioned in his talk, we could see Antares in the southwestern sky. Antares is a dying red super giant star. Like Mars it appears red, but unlike Mars, it is incredibly distant. It is about 620 light years from Earth in the Scorpius constellation. Kinda makes Earth seem like a grain of sand in the universe, a very beautiful grain of sand, when you look up and see billions of stars.
So, as Sinatra sang, “Fly me to the moon. Let me play among the stars. Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars.”