Sending humans on a JourneyTo Mars is hard. Getting to Mars may take up to 6 months and making sure the body is in good condition when it arrives is one of the many challenges.
NASA’s still on track, still gunning to send astronauts in Orion to the far side of the moon in 2021. They’ll be riding atop the biggest, baddest rocket ever: the Space Launch System- an evolutionary rocket that’ll grow as the missions delve deeper into space. A manned mission to Mars is in NASA’s sights for the early 2030’s.
Some off-the-chain eye candy from Orion’s first loop around our globe last year. It was one outrageous test drive as the spacecraft screamed back to Earth at 20-thousand miles an hour, heating up to 4000 degrees and creating this plasma effect. It was unmanned, of course, but here’s the astronaut’s point of view of coming back home all the way to splashdown.
Inside KSC this week, see steps taken to prepare the ground support systems needed by the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft to enable NASA's journey to Mars. Platforms continue to arrive at Kennedy where they will be installed in the Vehicle Assembly Building for the SLS and Orion. Also, one of the umbilical arms for the rocket was installed on a test stand for evaluations before it is installed on the Mobile Launcher.
NUMBER OF WORLDWIDE NAMES ON NASA'S #JOURNEY TO MARS--137996
Robo Glove--Imagine having a robotic hand. Robo-Glove is one of the technologies helping our #JourneyToMars and people on Earth. Robo-Glove is a wearable human grasp assist device to help reduce the grasping force needed to operate tools for an extended time or for repetitive motion tasks. It allows the user to tightly grip tools and other items for longer periods of time without experiencing muscle discomfort or strain.
Robo-Glove Video URL https://www.facebook.com/NASAJSC/videos/979944815360995/
Matt Damon uses science to survive in 'The Martian'
2015-10-01 (pt.3) NASA #JourneyToMars Q&A w/ The #MartianMovie Cast & NASA Scientists--Watch Video--URL-https://youtu.be/a8tXb_jtA4g
Astronauts, engineers, and fans have praised the "The Martian," a bestselling sci-fi novel, for its scientific accuracy.
costume designer for Ridley Scott's movie "The Martian," worked directly with NASA to create spacesuits used in the film.
The movie closely follows the novel and, like the book, is chock full of science — and emphatic, curse-ridden one-liners.
The story follows astronaut Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon, and his struggle to survive on Mars after his crew is forced to leave him behind. How do you survive on an inhospitable planet when you're stranded there alone?
In the opening scene, a Martian dust storm breaks off a communications antenna and part of it gets lodged in Watney's body.
Blinded by the storm, Watney's crew believes he died and escapes without him. Watney wakes up with no choice but to "science the s---" out of Mars to survive.
FEAT OF SCIENCE #1: Watney has to pull out the antenna piece lodged in his torso. He uses a pair of medical pliers, and then staples the wound closed like a professional surgeon.
After staving off immediate death, he turns his attention to longer-term planning — like growing four years' worth of food on a planet where nothing grows.
FEAT #2: He quickly calculates how many calories he'll need each day and how much food he needs to grow from a bin of potatoes NASA sent with the mission.
FEAT #3: He cuts up potatoes, with each chunk containing an “eye” — the growth point that a new potato plant can emerge from — and covers them with Martian soil.
FEAT #4: There's no liquid water on Mars, but he needs water to grow up those potato chunks. So he uses chemistry to make water from rocket fuel.
It takes him a couple tries to get the dangerous chemical reaction right, though.
FEAT #5. Watney also needs fertilizer for the potatoes, so he mixes his and the crew's fecal waste into the soil. Yum.
And voila, a potato farm, all thanks to clever botany.
After buying himself some time, Watney works on science-ing a way communicate with NASA to tell them he's still alive.
FEAT #6: So he soups up a rover with extra solar panels to make the vehicle's battery last longer...
FEAT #7: ...Digs up a radioactive plutonium battery to help power the rover and keep himself warm on Mars' bitterly cold surface...
FEAT #8: ...And then figures out how to drive across Mars to pick up NASA's Pathfinder spacecraft — a relic from the 1990s.
FEAT #9: He gets Pathfinder operating again, then beams a message back to Earth using the spacecraft's rotating camera.
But Pathfinder has no direct communication receiver. It could take ages for NASA to send Watney messages by pointing its camera at signs staked into the ground.
FEAT #10: So Watney comes up with a special code (based on the hexadecimal system) to speed up communication with NASA.
But that's only the beginning of Watney's problems — and his feats of perseverance and ingenuity to solve them.
FEAT #11: Later, he has to mend his space habitat when an airlock explodes and blows a hole in his only shelter.
FEAT #12: He also has to figure out how to dismantle most of a giant spacecraft, wrap some tarp around it, and ride it into space.
Mars is frustrating, and it puts up a good fight.
The Martian. Some realistic-looking scenes of the Red Planet. #MartianMovie
COSTUMES/SPACESUITS
Two different types of spacesuits in "The Martian." First are these bulky white suits that the actors wear for space travel scenes:
"Mr. Dough Boy suits,"
The real thing — NASA's external mobility unit spacesuit — for comparison. The costume suits look very similar.
The main difference is that the movie suits are slimmed down and less puffy than a real NASA spacesuit, below. Apart from that, they're virtually identical.
Martian surface suit. This is the one lead actor Matt Damon donned for most of the film.
Mars is more of a reddish-orange, "but Ridley loved the orange" color for the suit, Yates said. (An earlier gray-white suit design didn't look as good.) So the final product has a lot of flame-orange in it.
Designing the helmets was the most challenging part. Helmets for each suit type had to be much larger than real space helmets, so cameras could get clear shots of the actors' faces.
The actors wore skull caps under the fake helmets that had a microphone-and-speaker system to help the film crew communicate with the actors. Huge lights on either side of the helmet kept their faces visible during dark scenes.Yates put big fans in the back of the helmets to help the actors breathe.
Designed the boots for comfort. "The actors have to be able to use a hammer or whatever they need to do on the surface of Mars, and stand for 12 hours without feeling overwhelmed with the weight,"
THE MARTIAN Movie----Official Trailer: video URL-
https://youtu.be/ej3ioOneTy8
During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring “the Martian” home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible rescue mission. As these stories of incredible bravery unfold, the world comes together to root for Watney’s safe return. Based on a best-selling novel, and helmed by master director Ridley Scott, THE MARTIAN features a star studded cast that includes Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Kate Mara, Michael Peña, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Donald Glover.
NASA Video of Orion Screaming Back to Earth
More Videos by Lucy Noland FOX 29---Video URL--https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=926344290781162
Ref: http://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/orion-first-flight/
http://www.techinsider.io/science-the-shit-out-of-mars-the-martian-2015
