Mars exploration

NASA’S rover exploration vehicle on Mars is going about the place sniffing the atmosphere, digging in the dirt and sending back photographs. Fascinating stuff, no doubt, but where is it getting us?

Stargazing correspondent Richard Siedle brings us up to date on the latest and answers some of the questions.

Why, he asks rhetorically, is mankind going to so much trouble and expense to explore Mars and other planets? He cites astrophysicist Carl Sagan.

“While Mars has limited oxygen, no liquid water and high ultraviolet flux, all these problems could be solved if we could make more air. With higher atmospheric pressures, liquid water would be possible. With oxygen we might breathe the atmosphere, the ozone would form to shield the surface from solar ultraviolet radiation.

“This could be achieved if we find a way to vaporise the polar ice caps by heating them.” The best way, Sagan says, would be by planting dark coloured plants such as lichens on the polar caps, which would root and multiply until the polar caps are covered.

“The ice will then slowly melt and irrigation canals could be built for the water to flow into the barren regions and slowly the surface of Mars could be transformed into a habitable environment.

“I don’t know what Nasa are thinking about, but this is a fantastic thought especially if our own world becomes too polluted due to global warming and overcrowding.”

It’s good to know the thing is not aimless; that Nasa have a concrete plan.

But surely they need somebody to oversee on the spot and report back on this no doubt protracted process of lichens melting the polar icecaps on Mars.

Who better than Ju-Ju? He seems to be at a bit of a loose end these days.