Single Site On Mars Advanced For 2016 Nasa Lander

This map shows the single area under continuing evaluation as the InSight mission's Mars landing site, as of a year before the mission's May 2016 launch. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's next mission to Mars, scheduled to launch one year from today to examine the Red Planet's deep interior and investigate how rocky planets like Earth evolved, now has one specific site under evaluation as the best place to land and deploy its science instruments.

The mission called InSight -- an acronym for "Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport" -- is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The launch period runs from March 4 to March 30, 2016, and will mark the first California launch of an interplanetary mission. Installation of science-instrument hardware onto the spacecraft has begun and a key review has given thumbs up to integration and testing of the mission's component systems from several nations participating in the international project.

The landing-site selection process evaluated four candidate locations selected in 2014. The quartet is within the flat-lying "Elysium Planitia," less than five degrees north of the equator, and all four appear safe for InSight's landing. The single site will continue to be analyzed in coming months for final selection later this year. If unexpected problems with this site are found, one of the others would be imaged and could be selected. The favored site is centered at about four degrees north latitude and 136 degrees east longitude.

"This is wondrous terrain, exactly what we want to land on because it is smooth, flat, with very few rocks in the highest-resolution images," said InSight's site-selection leader, Matt Golombek of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

Mars orbiters have provided detailed information about the candidate sites, which are mapped as landing ellipses about 81 miles (130 kilometers) west-to-east by about 17 miles (27 kilometers) north-to-south. An ellipse covers the area within which InSight has odds of about 99 percent of landing, if targeted for the ellipse center. Several types of terrain, such as "cratered, etched" and "smooth" were mapped in each ellipse. The one chosen for final evaluations has highest proportion in the smooth category.

After InSight reaches Mars on Sept. 28, 2016, the mission will assess properties of the planet's crust, mantle and core. The interior of Mars has not been churned as much as Earth's because Mars lacks the tectonic activity that recycles Earth's crustal plates back into the mantle. Thus, Mars offers an opportunity to find clues no longer present on Earth about how rocky planets such as Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury formed and evolved.

In the weeks after NASA's InSight mission reaches Mars in September 2016, the lander's arm will lift two science instruments off the deck and place them onto the ground. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

InSight's primary science will study the planet's interior, not surface features. Besides safety for the landing, the main site-selection criterion is for the ground within reach of the lander's robotic arm to be penetrable for a heat-flow probe designed to hammer itself into the soil to a depth three to five yards, or meters.

Evidence that the ground will be suitable for the probe, rather than rock solid, comes from assessment by the Thermal Imaging System on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter of how quickly the ground cools at night or warms in sunlight, and evaluation of images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The heat-flow probe is a key part of InSight's Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) provided by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Electronics for that instrument were the first hardware from the science payload put onto the InSight spacecraft being assembled and tested at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

"As flight components such as the HP3 electronics become available, our team continues to integrate them on the spacecraft and test their functionality," said Stu Spath, InSight spacecraft program manager at Lockheed Martin. "We're steadily marching toward the start of spacecraft environmental testing this spring."

InSight's robotic arm will also place another science instrument onto the ground. This is the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, or SEIS, from the French Space Agency (CNES), with components from Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

A third experiment will use the radio link between InSight and NASA's Deep Space Network antennas on Earth to measure precisely a wobble in Mars' rotation that could reveal whether the planet has a molten or solid core. Wind and temperature sensors from Spain's Center for Astrobiology and a pressure sensor will monitor weather, and a magnetometer will measure magnetic disturbances.

The project passed its System Integration Review in February. "A panel of experts from outside the project reviewed the system-level integration and test program," said InSight Project Manager Tom Hoffman, of JPL. "For Insight, there are multiple systems being brought together from several countries for final integration and testing in Denver."

InSight and other NASA current and future projects will help inform the journey to Mars, an agency priority to send humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s.

The post Single Site on Mars Advanced for 2016 NASA Lander appeared first on Astrobiology Magazine.

Chances Are Aliens Will Never Invade Earth

In 2010, Stephen Hawking caused a bit of a stir by revealing that he believes in aliens and that the Earth could be in danger of invasion by aliens seeking resources. Recent discoveries however make that increasingly unlikely.

In a recent blog post, NBC News science editor Alan Boyle pretty much destroys that idea.

"NASA's Kepler planet-hunting mission suggests that there could be billions upon billions of alien Earths and super-Earths out there. "What is it we have to offer, aside from some pretty good fish up in Seattle?" Shostak asked NBC News. "The answer is, not much. Just our culture, really. That's the only thing that they won't have at home, where the shipping charges are less."

"Shostak complained that the standard motivations have become terribly outdated: "They come here for the water, or they come because something is wrong with their reproduction. People love that sex angle. But I'm not going to go to the insects in the backyard because things have gone wrong with our reproduction - and those guys, at least, have DNA. Most of this doesn't make any sense whatsoever."

"The aliens could be in it for the cultural exchange. Or they might just dig the music, like the clueless extraterrestrials in Rob Reid's comic novel about contact, "Year Zero." But if they come in with ray guns blazing, they'll spoil the atmosphere, in more ways than one."

Read more here.

There are also some stories where aliens come to earth to enslave the populace but those stories also don't stand up to a basic logic test. These are, in theory, aliens capable of interstellar travel. Humans, who are still far from that level of technology are on the verge of not needing workers anymore. The current state of robotics and AI are such that we can automate almost any job. Why would aliens travel half way across the galaxy to gather slaves who will require security, food and shelter when they could simply stay home and build robots?

Alien invasion stories are fun, but the reality is that if visitors from another world ever drop by it will probably be to say hello. There is no logical reason for alien visitors to attack, unless, of course, we act like humans and shoot first.

Erin Ryder Chases Ufos Wants To Believe

You may control seen Erin Ryder, who only goes by Ryder, penetrating for ghosts, monsters, and other moving creatures on SyFy's "Destination Veracity". Maximum recently, she is chasing UFOs on NatGeo's show titled, well, "Chasing UFOs". Chasing UFOs investigation team: (L to R) Ben, Ryder, and James. (Credit: NGT)Ryder's function in the show is to allot the "vague" lean to balance the "disbeliever" lean of her co-host Ben McGee and the "scholar" lean of her co-host James Fox. But as she investigates the UFO phenomenon, she admits that, "weakly but definitely," the evidence is full her to choose "that put forward is no matter which more separation on give or take a few." She consistent recently affirmed, "I'm very limitless minded. I spirit to choose." Having met in the midst of witnesses and investigated UFOs on the show, Ryder explained in a recent seminar in the midst of "Saying" magazine: I expect there's a sad shame to it that if you've seen a UFO or if you talk about a UFO, moreover you wear a tin hat and your windows are covered in the midst of aluminum stop, and that's not correctly the case. We've had Astronauts and Presidents that control seen jam, so we balance spirit people to divulge that it's fine to not easily control these sightings, but to similarly research it and talk about it. The "Chasing UFOs" collect met in the midst of fans of the show in San Diego recently at the rhyme pleasure location communal as Satirist Con. Sermon about the team's link put forward, Ryder imaginary in a recent seminar on the web series Spacing Out!, "We were able to assume a lot of clutch in... we spirit to awaken jade people to be asking these questions and produce a result this research for themselves." Ancestors who choose to research UFOs are well-aware of that needy shame mentioned by Ryder that is attached in the midst of UFOs. And UFO researchers control been lower than nature as soon as reviewing "Chasing UFOs", ridiculing the show's aptitude for be flippant. Addressing this, Ryder states, "Whenever you control an chance to control a stand be on a par with we do in the midst of Universally Geographic, which has been implausible, we spirit to handle profit of it. And sure, there's separation to be pleasure, and sure, there's separation to be the same types of investigations that possibly people don't forever harden in the midst of. But at the identical time, what we spirit to do is our best to get rid of that shame." Period reliable hardened UFO researchers might honor the impracticable reliance that all UFO conceal programs have to be geared towards them, and easily piece of hair new, Meaningful infromation, Ryder explains that "Chasing UFOs" hits "a new age and a new demographic that can moreover get questioning in [UFOs]." Inspection the loaded seminar in the midst of Ryder below:

Woodborough Bridge Crop Formation

JULY 14th 2003THE WOODBOROUGH BRIDGE CROP FORMATION.By Andrew J Buckley, with additional comments by Jim LyonsAndrew J. Buckley has been researching and investigating the UFO and crop circle phenomenon since 1972 and has been a member of the British UFO Research Association [BUFORA] and the Centre for Crop Circle Studies [CCCS]. He has published several articles on crop circles and UFOs in UFO Magazine; UFO Reality and the Circular / Cerealogist magazines and has participated in various documentaries on these subjects including 'Sightings'; 'Contact' by Bert Janssen and 'Crop Circles- Crossovers into another Dimension' by Terje Toftenes. He works as an artist and graphic designer, and is currently living in Cheshire, UK.On the morning of July 14th 2003, I witnessed the creation of a crop formation close to the Kennet & Avon canal, about half a mile due south of Woodborough Hill, near Pewsey, Wiltshire UK. The formation appeared within a period of a few minutes or less, coinciding with the close proximity of two unmarked, probably military helicopters. Some of this incident was captured on film and the following report details what I experienced over a period of three hours.On the morning in question, I had decided to walk to Woodborough Hill, after leaving my car parked in Woodborough village at 09.15 hrs. This walk normally takes about thirty minutes and the route is via the Kennet & Avon canal and Woodborough Barns along a public right of way.On reaching the canal bridge [known as Woodborough Bridge], I stopped to take in the view and scanned the surrounding crop-fields to the north. This I repeated at regular intervals until I reached the summit of Woodborough Hill at 09.45 hrs.I can confirm with absolute certainty that there were no unusual ground markings / crop formations present in any of the fields south of Woodborough Hill, which would have been easily visible either from the canal bridge, the farm track, or the summit of the hill. From this location, at about 10.00 hrs, I noticed two dark coloured helicopters manoeuvring at very low level near Woodborough canal bridge. Through binoculars they appeared to be Apache Longbow 'gunships' as deployed by the Army Air Corps. In order to obtain a closer look, I ran down the track towards the canal, but after a period of only several minutes both helicopters flew off in the direction of Warminster to the south-west.I arrived at the canal bridge at about 10.30 hrs and almost immediately became aware of a very loud rumbling noise which seemed to be approaching from the west. Suddenly, two very large helicopters appeared, black in colour with no obvious markings or serial numbers, and fully armed. I was quickly spotted by the pilots and one of the aircraft flew towards me and took up a very low-level hovering position near the canal bridge. Feeling very vulnerable, I took cover behind some bushes adjoining the bridge. My attention was drawn to the other helicopter which had descended to ground level about several hundred yards over the field to my right. The crop below the helicopter was swirling violently as a result of the downbeat of the rotor blades and I noticed that an unusual apparatus was hanging beneath the fuselage which was about five feet in diameter, black in colour, spherical in shape with a short tube like protuberance beneath it and pointing at the ground.After a few seconds, I was somewhat taken aback to see and hear what appeared to be an explosive updraft of colourless steam or water vapour from the surface of the crop directly underneath the fuselage of the helicopter, which covered an area of approximately one hundred feet. This was accompanied by a loud hissing or sizzling sound, similar to that of rapidly cooling steam under pressure. The effect of this rising 'vapour' was to forcefully hit the underside of the helicopter, causing it to pitch and sway. Perhaps for safety reasons, the pilot rapidly ascended to a slightly higher altitude. After a matter of several seconds, the 'vapour' dissipated leaving an indistinct mark in the crop. I barely had time to deploy my video recorder, which had been packed away in my rucksack. Glancing at my watch, it was apparent that about four minutes had elapsed since the appearance of the helicopters.With my video camera now deployed, I ran down the track in order to obtain a clearer view of the incident. Almost immediately, the helicopter carrying the sphere-like apparatus swiftly gained altitude and moved off in the direction of Pewsey to the east. Meanwhile, the remaining helicopter, which had been making repeated low-level passes, perhaps in order to distract me from observing his colleague, also flew off in the direction of the military ranges over Salisbury Plain to the south. At this point I distinctly remember checking the the time-clock on my video camera which read 10.41 hrs.What happened next is still not entirely clear because the last thing I remember is noticing a new crop formation [the Woodborough Bridge formation] precisely where the second helicopter had been hovering and beneath which the 'water vapour' had risen from the crop. The following forty-five minutes were completely lost to me, because at 11.30 hrs I again found myself standing on the summit of Woodborough Hill without any memory of having walked to the hill from the canal bridge. Interestingly, the time-clock on my video camera inexplicably 'jumps' from 10.41 hrs to 11.24 hrs in a single frame. This is definitely not an edit or as a result of having paused or stopping the camera. The time-clock had been accurately set and tested three weeks previously and I had installed a new lithium battery. Despite this confusion, what is certain is that between 10.30 hrs and 10.41 hrs on the morning of 14th July 2003, coinciding with the presence of two unmarked helicopters, one of which deployed what appeared to be some exotic form of technology over the surface of the crop, a new formation appeared in a matter of seconds, which definitely wasn't there before 10.30 hrs.It is possible that the pilots, whether military or otherwise, were vectored to this location because they had prior knowledge of the imminent appearance of this formation, possibly in order to record or participate in its creation, for reasons we do not yet fully comprehend. Enquiries with the Ministry of Defence would no doubt prove fruitless, although there can be little doubt that the military are implicated in incidents involving the crop circle phenomenon, evidence of which has accumulated over the years through research and video recordings.Later on the morning of 14th July, I was able to make a thorough ground survey of the formation which was fairly typical of other similar 'pictograms', with a neat and tidy ground or floor 'lay' with very little obvious damage or breakage of the crop stems and seed heads. There was no evidence of any mechanical pressure having been applied via the use of stomping boards or garden roller. I would be very interested in contacting other researchers should they have further information regarding this formation, particularly aerial photographs, detailed ground surveys and perhaps more importantly, any results of crop sampling and testing from this formation. I would be happy to exchange research material, and would be intrigued if anyone else has also witnessed the above incident or obtained video footage, or has experienced harassment from low level military helicopters in Wiltshire or Hampshire.I can be contacted at the following email address:andrewjb68 (at) hotmail.comCopyright 2006. AJ Buckley

Ufo Sighting In Williams Bay Wisconsin On October 19Th 2013 Two Orange Balls Of Light Travelled Towards Me

UFO SIGHTING IN WILLIAMS BAY, WISCONSIN ON OCTOBER 19TH 2013 - TWO ORANGE BALLS OF LIGHT TRAVELLED TOWARDS ME, MAKING NO NOISE. THEN THEY ALTERED PATHS AND CONTINUED A PATH UNTIL THEY WERE OUT IF MY SIGHT. THEY WERE INTENSELY BRIGHT.I was just leaving my job at 9 pm, Saturday, Oct. 19th. As I walked towards the driveway that led to the parking lot, I saw 2 orange balls of light traveling towards me, from over Geneva Lake, at Williams Bay. They were traveling slowly towards me, I kept listening for copter blade noise, but there was none. I then thought the glowing brilliant orange globes are larger then a helicopter would be, so I felt very perplexed what it was, I was seeing. The orange balls of light then made a 90 turn, and continued to move away from me until I could no longer see them. I was astonished at how blazing orange they were, and left wondering what I had just seen.LATEST UFO SIGHTINGSCredit: MUFON- - - People are raising thousands of dollars a day using Crowdfunding at GoFundMe.Raise Money for:Healthcare, Medical Bills - Funeral Expenses, Memorial Gifts - Crisis/Emergency Money Needed - Mission Trips, Faith, Church - Education, Tuition, Books - Vet Bills, Animals in Need - Dreams, Hopes and Wishes - Accept Charitable DonationsAny duplication, in part or in whole, is forbidden without permission of copyright holder. Email Site Admin for inquiries, comments or questions.

Mapperley Park Nottingham A Red Orange Yellow Pulsing Rugby Ball Shape Ufo

Posted: June 21, 2008

Date: June 21, 2008

Time: 12.40 a.m.

Location of Sighting: Mapperley Park, Nottingham.

Number of witnesses: 1

Number of objects: 1

Shape of objects: Round from distance, more defined closer up.

Full Description of event/sighting: Walking up Richmond Drive towards Woodborough road, at approx 12.40am, looked up through the trees and saw a red/orange/yellow pulsing rugby ball shape in the sky moving slowly and silently - hard to judge distances as it was dark, passed virtually overhead. Watched it for approx: 30 seconds as it went slowly overhead then moved behind trees and obscured from view. Weird.

Thank you to the witness for their report.

Brian Vike, Director HBCC UFO Research and host of the Vike Report UFO Eyewitness radio show. email: hbccufo@telus.net Website: http://www.hbccufo.org http://www.brianvike.com, http://www.hbccufo.com, http://www.hbccufo.net HBCC UFO Research International: http://www.hbccufointernational.org/

Just added, the Vike Report Radio Show Blog. You can check the blog out for archived radio shows and all the new and upcoming programs I do.

http://thevikereport.blogspot.com/

HBCC UFO Research, Box 1091 Houston, British Columbia, Canada - VOJ 1ZO

Ufo Sighting In Bridgton Maine On November 16Th 2013 Something Falling Through Our Atmosphere

UFO SIGHTING IN BRIDGTON, MAINE ON NOVEMBER 16TH 2013 - SOMETHING FALLING THROUGH OUR ATMOSPHERE

I was walking my dog when I looked at the sky and saw a bright fireball with a tail falling to earth. I assume. It was pink, yellow, and orange. My dog and I ran all the way home, and I told my husband, and I called a friend, and even emailed a sort of expert. I did not realize I could report it on here till now. It was falling towards New Hampshire. I live in Maine. My husband and I watched it fade out of sight. Likely a meteor, but it was pretty big looking. I never found any reports on it.

LATEST UFO SIGHTINGS

Credit: MUFON

- - - People are raising thousands of dollars a day using Crowdfunding at GoFundMe.

Raise Money for:

Healthcare, Medical Bills - Funeral Expenses, Memorial Gifts - Crisis/Emergency Money Needed - Mission Trips, Faith, Church - Education, Tuition, Books - Vet Bills, Animals in Need - Dreams, Hopes and Wishes - Accept Charitable DonationsAny duplication, in part or in whole, is forbidden without permission of copyright holder. Email Site Admin for inquiries, comments or questions.