Techfastly Feb 2022 by Techfastly

FEB | 2022

w w w. t e c h f a s t l y. c o m

w ith

ADITI INSIDE THE TANK

GUPTA Founder of Menstrupedia

MARS EXPLORATION EDITION

Elon Musk’s Multi-Planetary Dream for Humans

The Space Economy: A Gateway to Opportunities for Innovators

by Sarah Shams

by Srivani Mandapaka

What’s Inside p.4

Mars Exploration Timeline – From Then to Now by Saipriya Iyer

p.20 Elon Musk’s Multi-Planetary

Dream for Humans by Sarah Shams

p.30

James Webb Space ObservatoryA New Horizon in Human History by Rehan Husain

p.40 In Conversation with Aditi Gupta,

founder of Menstrupedia

p.46 Entry, Descent, And Landing

Technologies for Perseverance Rover and Other Details by Yash Modi

p.58 Exploring Mars - An Insight into

The Missions to The Red Planet by Toulika Das

p.68 Journey towards the Colonization

on the Red Planet by Bharggavi Ssayee

p.90 The Space Economy: A Gateway

to Opportunities for Innovators by Srivani Mandapaka

Editor’s note

Dear Readers The first human beings to land on Mars should not come back to Earth. They should be the beginning of a build-up of a colony/settlement, I call it a permanence- Buzz Aldrin. Mars has intrigued humanity since we first saw it in the night sky as a star-like object. Initially, the planet's crimson tint distinguished it from its gleaming siblings, each captivating in their way, but none forming a ruddy arc across Earth's skies. Then, in the late 1800s, telescopes revealed a fascinating surface replete with patterns and landforms that scientists initially mistook for evidence of a busy Martian civilization. We now know that Mars is devoid of artificial structures. However, we have discovered that the arid, poisonous planet we see now may have been as livable as Earth until 3.5 billion years ago. Since the 1960s, humanity has sought to learn what Mars has to teach us about the growth and evolution of planets and if it has ever harbored extraterrestrial life. Only uncrewed spacecraft have traveled to the red planet thus far, but that may soon change. NASA hopes to place the first humans on Mars by the 2030s—and many additional missions are scheduled to launch before that date to further exploration. We can use space exploration to verify or refute scientific hypotheses created on Earth. For instance, studying the solar system has provided insight into gravity, the magnetosphere, the atmosphere, fluid dynamics, and the geological development of other worlds. Space exploration has resulted in several advancements in domains ranging from metals and alloys to biology and medicine. Specific applications — such as ceramic coatings in our kitchens, air purification systems, smoke detectors, and scratch-resistant glass — have already been ingrained in our everyday lives. We have interviewed, Aditi Gupta, Founder of Menstrupedia, who recently appeared on Shark Tank, India and impressed all the sharks with their mission. She talked about her experience and shared some advise for young entrepreneurs. As always, we would appreciate your feedback, and if you have any topics that you would want us to cover, do let us know. Here is your edition. Read it, enjoy it, and nourish in the knowledge. Happy reading!

Srikant Rawat

Chief Operating Officer, Techfastly

Missed an Issue? Subscribe and access our Digital issues anytime. www.techfastly.com

Exploration Timeline From Then to Now

? by Saipriya Iyer

I S E A R T H T H E O N LY P L A N ET T H AT H O US ES L I F E ? D OE S L IF E E X I S T I N T H E OT H ER PL A N E T S I N T H E S O L A R SYS T EM ?

AR E T H E CON DI T I O N S O N OT H ER PL A N E T S, PA R T I C U L A R LY M A R S, SU ITA BL E F O R L I V I N G B EI N G S ?

There has been a consistent burning curiosity behind the answers for these questions that has formed the crux of major space explorations for more than a century. Ever since the Soviets launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into space in 1957, space explorations have become a major area of research. Post Sputnik 1, the U.S. launched Explorer 1 in 1958, and from then on commenced a series of spaceflights, from

FEB 2022

the Vostok series to the Apollo series, and satellite launches to discover the further marvels of space. While a lot of these missions have been centered on orbiting the Earth and setting foot on the moon, the Mars mission considerably varied in its goals. Targeted at finding out if life existed on the Red Planet, numerous vital programs have been planned for Mars exploration since 1960.

www.techfastly.com

In the paragraphs below, we enumerate an extensive timeline of the various Mars exploration missions, from the first to the latest, with a tentative scenario of what the future holds.

Quick Snippets The United States, the European Space Agency, the Soviet Union, and India are the ones that have successfully launched spacecraft to enter Mars' orbit. The Soviet Union made a Mars landing in 1971 and 1973. So far, there have been nine successful U.S. landings on Mars – starting from Viking 1 and Viking 2 in 1976, Pathfinder in 1997, Spirit and Opportunity both 2004, to Phoenix in 2008, Curiosity in 2012, InSight in 2018, and the latest, Perseverance in 2021. The Soviet Union and the United States are the only two nations that have landed a spacecraft on Mars.

When did it all Begin? Scientists have been sending numerous missions to Mars since 1960, in a bid to unearth more information about the planet that used to be seemingly aplenty with water. Naturally, it has been considered as the next best equivalent to our planet. Not surprisingly, it was the Soviet Union that made numerous attempts in the 1960s to reach Mars, soon followed by NASA.

Beginning October 10, 1960, the Soviet Union launched the Marsnik 1 spacecraft, which was unfortunately destroyed and failed to reach Earth orbit. Within a mere 4 days, another spacecraft called Marsnik 2 was launched on October 14, 1960, which again got destroyed during the launch. On October 24, 1962, the USSR launched Sputnik 22 for an intended Mars flyby. This one, unlike the previous two, at least made it to Earth’s orbit, however it was destroyed soon after it did. A week later, on November 1, 1962, the Soviet Union launched Mars 1 that achieved the Earth’s orbit and even travelled beyond. However, communication with the aircraft was lost on March 21, 1963, when it was around 106 million kilometers away from Earth. Another spacecraft, Sputnik 24, was launched on November 4, 1962, that achieved the Earth orbit but exploded during the change of trajectory toward Mars. After Sputnik 24, 1963 did not witness the launch of any new spacecraft until Mariner 3, which the U.S. had launched on November 5, 1964. Merely an hour after the launch, Mariner 3 faced an issue with its solar panels. Eventually, its batteries died and exploration failed.

FEB 2022

www.techfastly.com

The Timeline since the First Successful Mars Mission:

1965-1976 After several of these unsuccessful missions, the Mars exploration program tasted success for the first time in July 14, 1965, when Mariner 4 flew by Mars – around 9,650 kilometers of the planet. The spacecraft was the first to take close-up photos of Mars’ surface – reportedly, about 21 photos of the planet were sent back to Earth at the time. Though the mission was successful in 1965, Mariner 4 was launched on November 28, 1964. The USSR sent a spacecraft Zond 2, almost immediately after, however, it lost radio communication and the mission failed. The next successful mission was in 1969, when Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 passed through within about 4,000 kilometers of Mars and transmitted valuable information. It is interesting to note that these missions recorded cratered areas of the planet, enabling scientists to conclude that Mars’ appearance of very much like the moon. Post this mission, the next couple of years saw a lull in the Mars exploration program – the USSR launched Mars 1969A and Mars 1969B in March and April 1969 respectively, both of which failed. Further, on May 8, 1971, U.S.

Photo: Abstract Mariner 10, A19830006000, (Smithsonian Photo by Eric Long), Source: www.flickr.com

launched the Mariner 8, while on May 10, 1971, the USSR launched the Kosmos 419. Both the missions failed due to technical issues. After these programs, NASA launched the Mariner 9 on November 3, 1971 – this turned out to be successful and the spacecraft touched the Mars orbit on November 24.

FEB 2022

www.techfastly.com

The USSR then launched Mars 3 on December 2, 1971 – yet another successful mission for 1971.

Mars 3 was the first successful lander for USSR, having transmitted data for 20 seconds before failing. The year 1973 turned out to be very successful for the Soviet Union. It launched Mars 4 on July 21, 1973, which flew by Mars on February 10, 1974. Ironically, Mars 4 was only intended to orbit the red planet; however, it did keep going. Further, on July 25, 1973, the Soviet Union launched Mars 5 that orbited the planet on February 12, 1974, albeit for a few days. On August 5, 1973, the USSR launched Mars 6 with a flyby module and lander that touched Mars on March 3, 1974. Unfortunately, the lander exploded on impact. Merely 4 days later, the USSR sent out another spacecraft, Mars 7, again with a flyby module and lander. This one arrived on Mars on March 3, 1974 as well, though the lander missed the planet. The next spacecraft to make history were Viking 1 and Viking 2 in 1975, sent by NASA. Viking 1’s lander touched Mars’ surface on July 20, 1976, while Viking 2’s lander touched Mars on September 3, 1976. While both sent their landers to the planet’s surface, the orbiter was functional above. The launch of the Vikings was profoundly significant, given that they both remained there for years and had been transmitting substantial amount of information back to Earth.

THE 1990s The period after 1976 until the late 1980s represented a not-so-significant time for the space community. Somewhere in the 1980s, the USSR attempted to reach one of Mars’ moons, Phobos; unfortunately, both its missions failed. The 1990s however, was a period of major change. Enhanced technological advancements led to better spacecraft production; increasing penetration of electronics and better chip manufacturing ensured that more space missions would now be on the cards. The first Mars mission in the 1990s was on September 25, 1992, when NASA launched the Mars Observer. Unfortunately, NASA lost contact with the spacecraft in August 1993. The general consensus regarding the reason was a fuel tank rupture that may have caused the spacecraft to lose contact with Earth. It was quite a setback for that time, since the Mars Observer mission cost a mammoth USD 813 million back at the time. Come November 1996, the Mars Global Surveyor was launched, that reached the planet nearly a year later, on September 1997, and commenced its orbit. The last time it was heard from, was on November 2, 2006. On July 4, 1997, the Mars Pathfinder landed on the Red Planet post six months of travel. It explored the planetary surface for four months and returned photographs to Earth. After that, the next mission of the 1990s was on December 11, 1998, when the Mars Climate Orbiter was launched. However, the spacecraft

FEB 2022

was lost on arrival in September 1999. Possibly, this happened due to a measurement error. After the December launch, the Mars Polar Lander was sent to the Red Planet on January 3, 1999. Unfortunately, it lost communication by December that year. As per NASA, the spacecraft is likely to have been destroyed on impact with Mars’ surface.

www.techfastly.com

On July 4, 1997, the Mars Pathfinder landed on the Red Planet post six months of travel. It explored the planetary surface for four months and returned photographs to Earth.

THE YEARS POST THE MILLENNIUM:

2000-2021

Beagle 2 Lander

Mars Odyssey Orbiter

After the disastrous end of the Mars Polar Lander, the Mars Odyssey Orbiter was launched on April 7, 2001. It reached Mars’ surface on October 24 that year.

FEB 2022

Spirit Rover On June 2, 2003, the European Space Agency launched the Beagle 2 lander and the Mars Express Orbiter. The former was expected to land on Mars on December 25, 2003; however, it never made contact with the planet. The Mars Express Orbiter entered the Mars orbit and was expected to study Mars for two years.

On June 10, 2003, the rover called Spirit was launched by NASA, as a part of its Mars Exploration Rover Mission. It landed on Mars on January 3, 2004 and returned photographs back to Earth.

www.techfastly.com

On February 2, 2004, both rovers, both Spirit and Opportunity were fully operational and were noted to collect soil samples on Mars in addition to taking photographs of the planetary surface. Both were able to find evidence of ancient environments that were habitable. Spirit however, lost all communication on March 22, 2010, while the last communication heard from Opportunity was on June 10, 2018.

Phoenix Mars Lander Opportunity Rover

A month later, on July 7, 2003, NASA launched the rover named Opportunity from Cape Canaveral, again, as a part of its Mars Exploration Rover Mission. It landed on Mars in early 2004 and commenced its mission to study the planet for signs of water and life.

NASA launched the Phoenix Mars Lander on August 4, 2007, at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The spacecraft was launched with the intention to analyze soil samples on Mars and scan the planet’s atmosphere. It was expected to take around 10 months to reach Mars. On May 25, 2008, it landed near the planet’s North Pole, successfully completing a 296-day journey. It was said to have conducted scientific investigations for around 149 days out of its 152-solar-day lifetime. On September 10, 2010, scientists unveiled some of the information they received from the Mars Phoenix Lander, which indicated that water has been a part of the Martian environment through ages. The data also claimed that the carbon dioxide content on Mars has been replenished on account of the volcanic eruptions on the planet.

MAVEN Spacecraft Curiosity Rover

On April 6, 2011 Curiosity, another rover, much larger than its predecessors, Spirit and Opportunity (it weighed around 900 kilograms) was unveiled and launched on November 26the same year. It landed on Mars on August 6, 2012. 14

FEB 2022

On September 21, 2014, NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission) spacecraft entered Mars' orbit after 10 months of launch. This was the first Mars mission that was dedicated to studying the upper Martian atmosphere so as to provide a better understanding of the planet’s environment, climate patterns, and habitability.

Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) On September 24, 2014, India successfully launched the Mars Orbiter Mission. It became the first Asiancountry to send a spacecraft to Mars and also the first nation to reach the Red Planet on its very first attempt. As of 2015, it completed its 160day mission and was still operational. www.techfastly.com

On June 7 2018, NASA announced that Mars contains organic matter – this was detected in the soil samples collected from the mudstone (which is incidentally as old as 3 billion years) in the Gale crater by the Curiosity rover. Curiosity has also detected methane in the Martian atmosphere.

ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter

On March 14, 2016, the European Space Agency launched a module called Schiaparelli with its ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, to detect atmospheric gases on Mars that may possibly indicate that biological life exists on the planet. Schiaparelli was originally expected to enter Mars' orbit on October 19; however, it crashed while landing.

InSight lander

On May 5, 2018, NASA launched the first outer space robotic explorer – InSight (for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport), on a twoyear exploration mission, to study the interior of Mars. InSight landed on the north of the Martian equator on November 26, 2018, where five other spacecraft launched by NASA had already been hovering on and above Mars.

On January 16, 2015, NASA announced that Beagle 2, launched in 2003 and believed to have lost contact, had been spotted on Mars. Apparently, its solar panels had not opened up upon landing, thereby hindering communication. 15

Perseverance will be exploring the Jezero Crater, which incidentally, was the site of an ancient lake that was in existence more than 3.9 billion years earlier.

MARSIS

On July 25, 2018, scientists from the Italian Space Agency published a study which claimed that the southern polar ice caps of Mars had a lake of liquid water beneath. This was detected thanks to the European Space Agency's MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding) instrument. While communication with Opportunity was already lost in June 2018, NASA made it official only on February 13, 2019, thereby ending the Opportunity mission.

Perseverance Rover

On July 30, 2020, NASA launched the Perseverance rover and its Ingenuity helicopter into space, with the aim to look out for microfossils in the rocks and soil on Mars. It landed at the Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, 2021 and began taking photographs. Perseverance will be exploring the Jezero Crater, which incidentally, was the site of an ancient lake that was in existence more than 3.9 billion years earlier. Ingenuity helicopter on the other hand, successfully completed its first ever powered, controlled flight on Mars, on April 19, 2021. On July 25, 2021, during its tenth flight, it completed its first mile, setting a new record height.

Hope Probe

Last year on February 9, 2021, the UAE (United Arab Emirates) launched its first mission to Mars. The Emirates Mars Mission, called Hope Probe, successfully entered the orbit of Mars on its first attempt and sent back a signal to confirm the same.

Zhurong rover

On May 14, 2021, China landed its Zhurong rover on Mars, becoming the second nation to have a rover on the planet. The year 2021 was more noteworthy for the participation of the UAE and China in space missions and the successful landing of Perseverance that will continue collecting samples on Mars and return them via further follow-up missions. 17

FEB 2022

www.techfastly.com

What Does the Future Hold? In the years to come, many more missions to Mars have been planned, majorly revolving around how habitable the planet is for human civilization to flourish. There have already been several reports from these earlier programs that claim the existence of water and other elements on this planet. On September 26, 2013 for example, the Science journal published around five articles pertaining to Mars, revealing information that indicated the planet’s surface to contain about two percent water by weight. Reconfirming the theory, on September 28, 2015, NASA announced that life-giving water still flows across the planet’s surface periodically – thereby reigniting hopes that at some point,

humans may be able to thrive on the planet. On September 29, 2017, Elon Musk, at the International Astronautical Congress in Australia, said that his company SpaceX plans to land at least two cargo ships on Mars in 2022 with the aim of creating a life support ecosystem on the planet, complete with power and mining, to be of convenience for future spacecraft. The ships carrying the crews may arrive by 2024, he further added. Another exploration program scheduled for 2022 is the ExoMars Program – a couple of missions, led by the Roscosmos State Corporation and the European Space Agency. One of this is to discover if life existed on Mars, and the second mission is the 2022 ExoMars Rover and Surface Platform that may be launched between August and October of 2022 from Kazakhstan. It is scheduled to land on Mars around nine months later and will deliver a European rover called ‘Rosalind Franklin’, through a Russian lander called ‘Kazachok’. How successful the space research community will be in determining the surety of life existence on Mars, is yet to be seen. Soon enough though, it is expected that there will be missions carrying the first humans into space. If indeed, our planetary neighbor is truly capable of being habitable for mankind, it will change the entire course of human civilization and what we perceive to be normal. 19

ELON MUSK’S

Multi-Planetary Dream for Humans by Sarah Shams

"We don't want to be one of those single-planet species; we want to be a multi-planet species," – Elon Musk.

FEB 2022

www.techfastly.com

We all must have wanted to visit the other planets and live among the stars every time we watched movies like Interstellar and Martian. What if that dream came true? Except that SpaceX will lead the mission of colonization, and you would be expected to travel to the new planet and live there while creating history. Elon Musk has the same dream, and he is undertaking all attempts to make that dream a reality. He is on his own mission to make humanity a multi-planet species. Elon Musk and SpaceX started the Mars initiative to make it easier to colonize Mars in the future.

Parts of the MARS

COLONIZATION

(Spaceships), built in a way that they can be used more than just once

MISSION include: 2

CREWED LAUNCH VEHICLES

PROPELLANT TANKS that would orbit the planet Mars

LANDING PLATFORMS on both Planets as Space trips will become a regular thing

UTILIZATION OF RESOURCES found in Mars for the generation of Rocket fuel. 21

SpaceX has set a lofty goal of landing the first humans on Mars by 2024. However, in October 2020, Elon Musk set 2024 as the deadline for an unmanned launch. At the Axel Springer Award 2020, Elon Musk seemed very confident about the first crewed trips to Mars scheduled in 2026. SpaceX's Starship, a fully reusable superheavy lift launch vehicle, has been under construction since 2018. The Starship will be a crucial component of the mission. The spacecraft would first enter Earth's orbit to carry a huge payload; it would be refuelled before heading to Mars. The spaceship would be loaded with locally manufactured propellants after landing on Mars to return to Earth. The Starship launch vehicle is expected to deliver between 100 and 150 tonnes (220,000–330,000 lb) to Mars. SpaceX plans to focus its resources on the transportation component of the Mars colonization project, including the design of a Sabatier-based propellant plant that will be deployed on Mars and used to synthesize methane and liquid oxygen as rocket propellants from atmospheric carbon dioxide and ground-accessible water ice. However, since 2016, Musk has advocated for a broader set of long-term Mars settlement goals. The success of Mars colonization would require many financially beneficiary agents—be it individuals, companies, or governments. This will become necessary to smoothen the growth of the human presence on Mars faster than is being planned by SpaceX.

FEB 2022

www.techfastly.com

THE “TIMELINE” Musk proposed "Mars Oasis," a project to land a miniature experimental greenhouse containing seeds with dehydrated gel on Mars to grow plants on Martian soil. Musk stated, "so this would be the furthest that life has ever travelled." This project will also raise public awareness in space exploration and increase NASA's budget. However, even with a considerably greater space budget, Musk understood that getting to Mars would be extremely expensive without a fundamental breakthrough in rocket technology. Musk travelled to Moscow in October 2001 with Jim Cantrell (an aerospace supplies fixer) and Adeo Ressi (his college best friend) to purchase refurbished ICBMs (Dnepr) that could launch the envisioned payloads into orbit. Elon Musk expressed a personal goal of enabling human exploration and settlement of Mars as early as 2007, despite his interest in Mars dating back to 2001. Between 2011–2015, more details regarding the mission design were revealed. In 2014, it was announced that the first settlers would arrive on Mars no earlier than the mid-2020s. In mid-2016, company plans indicated that the first humans would arrive on Mars no earlier than 2025.

Image Source: www.twitter.com/MartianColonist Musk indicated in a 2011 interview that he planned to transport humans to the surface of Mars within 10–20 years. In late 2012, Musk stated that he had imagined a Mars colony of tens of thousands, with the first settlers arriving by the middle of the 2020s. Before 2012, when SpaceX began designing the Raptor rocket engine to power the Starship launch system, development work began in earnest. One of the longest subprocesses in creating new rockets is the development of rocket engines. Musk announced a high-level proposal in October 2012 to develop a second reusable rocket system with capabilities much above the Falcon 9/Falcon Heavy launch vehicles, on which SpaceX has already spent several billion dollars. This new rocket was believed to be "an extension of SpaceX's Falcon 9

FEB 2022

booster substantially bigger [than Falcon 9]," according to Musk. He refused to talk about it publicly until 2013. In June 2013, he reported that he postponed any prospective SpaceX stock market IPO until the "Mars Colonial Transporter is flying routinely." In August 2014, according to the media reports, the MCT's first flight test could take place as early as 2020. This would happen to test the engines under orbital spaceflight conditions entirely. However, any colonization endeavour was said to be "far off in the future." Musk stated in January 2015 that he wanted to reveal specifics of the "totally new architecture" for the system that would allow the settlement of Mars by late 2015. However, those intentions changed, and by December 2015, the date to release additional details had been pushed back to 2016.

www.techfastly.com

Musk stated in January 2016 that he hoped to present the architecture for Mars missions using the next-generation SpaceX rocket and spacecraft during the 67th International Astronautical Congress conference in September 2016. In June 2016, Musk indicated that the first uncrewed MCT Mars journey would take place in 2022, with the first crewed MCT Mars flight following in 2024. Musk announced in mid-September 2016 that the MCT moniker would be dropped because the system would be able to "travel well beyond Mars," and that a new name would be required. This was dubbed the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS), a moniker that would only last a year. On September 27, 2016, Musk revealed significant details of the design for the transport vehicles at the 67th annual meeting of the International Astronautical Congress. This included the size, construction material, number and type of engines, thrust, cargo and passenger payload capabilities, on-orbit propellant-tanker refills, representative transit times, etc. This also included little details of portions of the Mars-side and Earth-side architecture that SpaceX has planned to build to secure the mission. Furthermore, Musk championed a larger systemic vision, a vision for a bottom-up emergent order of other interested parties—whether companies, individuals, or governments—to use the new and radically lower-cost transportation infrastructure to build a sustainable human civilization on Mars, and potentially on many other locations all over the outer space. The system technology was explicitly envisioned in the 2016 iteration to eventually support

exploration expeditions to other regions in the Solar System, including Jupiter's and Saturn's moons. SpaceX announced ideas for an Interplanetary Transport System based on a smaller launch vehicle and spacecraft in July 2017. Since the ITS's articulation in November 2016, the new system architecture has "developed quite a bit." One of the main goals of the new architecture is to make the system suitable for large Earth-orbit and cislunar launches so that it can pay for itself in part through commercial spaceflight activities in the near-Earth space zone.

The Super Heavy is planned to accomplish the Mars transportation goals while also launching satellites, servicing the International Space Station, carrying persons and goods to the Moon, and enabling ballistic passenger transit on Earth as a replacement for longhaul airline trips. Even with the smaller 9-meter architecture, SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell stated in early 2018 that she sees the programme as merely the first step toward the company's interplanetary and interstellar spaceflight ambitions.

How is it Being Funded? Much of the space transportation technology has been extensively developed and manufactured since 2016 and is being privately funded by SpaceX. The entire effort is only conceivable because of SpaceX's multi-faceted approach to lowering launch costs. SpaceX was spending "a few tens of millions of dollars yearly on development of the Mars transport idea, which equates to considerably under 5% of the company's total expenses" as of October 2016, but expected that figure to climb to roughly $300 million per year by 2018. All of the work leading up to the first Mars launch was projected to cost "in the region of US$10 billion," with SpaceX expecting to spend that much before earning any revenue from transportation. After SpaceX moved to the BFR's small launch vehicle design in 2017, there was no public update on total costs before revenue in 2017. In September 2016, Musk stated that the full implementation of the Mars colonization plans would doubtlessly be financed both privately and publicly. Market demand will drive the speed of commercially available Mars transportation for both goods and persons, but it will also be bound by technical development and development financing. 26

FEB 2022

What's The Whole Idea Behind It? Musk wants to create a crewed outpost on Mars for a long-term presence on the surface, which he thinks will eventually turn into a self-sustaining colony. Successful colonization would entail many more economic actors— individuals, businesses, and governments—to allow the expansion of human presence on Mars over many decades. Because the Starships are also reusable, Musk intends to refuel them first in low Earth orbit, then on the surface of Mars before returning to Earth. He plans to launch multiple Starships in the first phase to carry and assemble a propellant plant and begin constructing a base. From subsurface water ice and ambient CO2, the www.techfastly.com

propellant factory would make methane (CH4) and liquid oxygen (O2). Two robotic freight missions, the first of which may be dubbed "Heart of Gold," were set to fly in 2022 with the goal of delivering a vast array of solar panels, mining equipment, as well as surface vehicles, food, and life support infrastructure. In addition, the mission design called for four more Starships to be launched in 2024: two robotic cargo flights and two crewed flights. They would be used to set up the propellant manufacturing facility and deploy the solar power stations and landing strips. They would also assemble the greenhouses. Other than the spaceship's dry mass of 85 tonnes, each landing mass will have at least 100 tonnes of useful payload.

Because they will have life-support systems, the first temporary dwellings will be their own crewed Starships. However, wherever possible, the robotic Starship freight planes will be refuelled for their return trip to Earth. For a long-term base, it is recommended that the landing zone be less than 40 degrees latitude for optimal solar power production, a moderate temperature, and, most importantly, proximity to a vast sub-surface water ice deposit. Water ice must be of sufficient amount and quality. According to a preliminary SpaceX analysis, the propellant plant will need to mine 1 tonne of water ice every day and filter out its contaminants. Based on a 2011 prototype test operation, the overall unit conversion rate is projected to be 27

one metric tonne of O2/CH4 propellant per 17 megawatt-hours of solar energy input.

The entire power required to manufacture a single full load of fuel for a SpaceX Starship is estimated to be around 16 gigawatt-hours (58 TJ) of locally produced Martian electricity. It would take just under one megawatt of continuous electric power to power one load for 26 months. The required area for a ground-based array of thin-film solar panels to produce sufficient power is estimated to be just over 56,200 square metres (605,000 sq. ft); with related equipment, the required mass is estimated to be well within the range of 100–150 metric tonnes (220,000–330,000 lb) for a single Starship Mars transport capability. Alternatively, based on recent NASA research into fission reactors for deep space missions, sufficient fission-reactorbased electric power infrastructure might weigh between 210 and 216 metric tonnes (463,000 and 476,000 kg), requiring at least two Starships to transport. A Mars power system based on solar and vertical axis wind turbine architecture might weigh just over 3.15 metric tonnes (6,900 lb) to generate enough power.

FEB 2022

Wrapping It Up The legal fine print for a Starlink service, SpaceX's system of space-borne satellites poised to offer internet access to Earth, and possibly Mars, eventually, contains a disturbing caveat. The governing law states, "For services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship or other colonization spacecraft, the parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earthbased government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities." In short, SpaceX will disregard all international regulations in favour of creating its own.

JAMES WEBB S P A C E

O B S E R V A T O R Y

A New Horizon in Human History by Rehan Husain

The US space agency says the post-launch set-up of the new James Webb telescope has gone very well. "As smoothly as we could have hoped for."- BBC News

e shall soon enter a new era of astronomy if everything goes according to plan. The James Webb Space Observatory (JWST), the world's most extensive, most costly, most complicated space telescope, has launched into orbit and is on its way to its final destination. The James Webb Space Telescope, also referred to as Webb or JWST, is a massive space-based observatory tuned for infrared wavelengths to complement and expand the Hubble Space Telescope's findings. It will cover a broader range of wavelengths and have much better sensitivity. Webb can now scan further back in time to locate the earliest galaxies that formed in the early Universe, as well as gaze within dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are developing today. For the hundreds of scientists, engineers, managers, and support workers who worked to bring the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope to this point, the launch on Christmas Day 2021 was both exhilarating and scary. After all, JWST's scientific potential is vast, and it can solve some of the universe's most pressing problems.

The Mysterious Early Universe Although the enigmatic JWST is sometimes labeled a replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope, I like to think of it as a successor. Hubble has been operational for more than 30 years, providing us with incredible vistas of the cosmos and tens of thousands of scientific discoveries. We hope and anticipate that it will continue to run for a significant number of further years. However, in comparison to ground-based telescopes, the comparatively tiny 2.4-meter diameter mirror restricts the telescope's sensitivity and capacity to see the faintest objects. Additionally, while Hubble can view in infrared light, it cannot reach the wavelengths of light emitted by the very first stars and galaxies. JWST, on the other hand, will be capable of doing so. It may even observe previously unseen Population III stars (stars produced from primordial material from the Big Bang).

Understanding when the earliest stars originated, just after the Big Bang, and how they became the building blocks of the first galaxies is a critical scientific subject and one of JWST’s key science priorities.

JWST will carry out a variety of scientific missions and study the first stars and galaxies. We know that the elements necessary for life and modern technology, including carbon, silicon, and gold, were eventually formed in early stars - but we do not have a solid grasp of how this occurred. The need to identify faint objects in the distant cosmos had a significant role in the observatory's construction, influencing its size, wavelength coverage, and the requirement to keep it extremely cold to avoid unwanted background light.

FEB 2022

www.techfastly.com

JWST will carry out a variety of scientific missions and study the first stars and galaxies. It is envisioned as a multipurpose observatory where astronomers worldwide may apply for time to do research. For instance, by viewing in the infrared, JWST will be able to peer through the clouds of dust that envelop incredibly young stars, which are opaque to visible light. Unlike Hubble, it will be able to see directly into stellar nurseries, the birthplaces of stars, and their planetary systems. The findings will shed light on how dust and gas clouds collapse to generate stars and how planets develop around them.

Habitability of Exoplanets When the earliest JWST ideas were considered more than two decades ago, no planets other than those in our solar system were known. Since then, countless more planets circling other stars in our galaxy have been found by scientists (exoplanets). A sizable portion of the JWST observational mission will be devoted to studying their atmospheres. JWST's wavelength coverage is optimized for investigating chemicals in extraterrestrial atmospheres and space's low infrared background, providing a significant advantage over Earth-based observatories. There are two approaches available. One exploits the fact that planets can pass before their parent star (a phenomenon known as transit), causing a dip in the light emanating from it. We can investigate the planet's atmosphere with high accuracy by examining the light, split down by wavelength, before and during transit. Another approach uses specialized equipment known as a coronagraph to filter off the light from the parent

star, allowing direct imaging of the planet and research of its atmosphere or surface. This might assist in determining whether a planet is habitable, so justifying additional exploration and the eventual deployment of tiny space missions. The ultimate objective is to discover a planet similar to Earth, but this will take a very suitable combination of conditions, as such planets are anticipated to be uncommon in the solar neighborhood and highly dim compared to the parent star.

JWST is most likely to examine gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn and ice giants such as Uranus and Neptune in our solar system. None of the known planetary systems like ours, with several massive planets in tighter orbits than ours, their atmospheres being more intensely heated, and their weather systems being more active and volatile.

have been a result of bombardment by such bodies early in its lifespan. JWST will also examine the atmospheres and seasonal weather fluctuations of all planets outside Earth's orbit around the sun.

JWST will be able to examine our planetary system in addition to investigating planets outside our solar system. Due to its high sensitivity will identify and characterize comets and other ice bodies in the solar system's farthest regions. These things, which have remained virtually intact since their formation in such a remote region, may provide clues about the Earth's beginnings, notably the source of its water, which may

Detailed planning and concepts for discovery are critical to justifying the cost of developing an ambitious, game-changing observatory like JWST. However, there will be discoveries that no one can predict. When Hubble was started, the concept of exoplanets was primarily speculative, but it became one of the mission’s primary objectives. It has become a curious topic: what surprise science JWST may reveal.

FEB 2022

www.techfastly.com

If a worldwide dust storm engulfs the Red Planet during a moment when Webb can see it, the powerful space telescope will be able to acquire data on the storm, supplementing data from spacecraft on or near the planet's surface.

How JWST Will Explore Mars A dust storm enveloped the whole planet Mars in the summer of 2018. The Sun would have appeared as a small sphere against a dark brown sky from the surface. Dust covered the solar panels of NASA's intrepid Opportunity rover, preventing it from recharging. From their different vantage points, orbiting spacecraft and the Curiosity rover observed the storm, but none of these robotic explorers had a vista large enough to see the whole planet at once. When NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in 2021, reaches its million-mile destination a million miles from

Earth, it will be able to see the whole disc of Mars every two years. Reporting Martian weather is only one of the ways that Webb, which was meant to peer into deep space and unravel cosmic riddles, can work with other NASA missions to investigate Mars. Webb can see Mars in the infrared, a wavelength of light undetectable to human sight and is perfect for analyzing certain compounds found in planetary atmospheres. While Webb's primary mission will be to search for chemical fingerprints on faraway worlds circling other stars, called exoplanets, it will 35

also exploit these capabilities on neighboring Mars. Nonetheless, viewing Mars with Webb will be challenging. "Webb is meant to identify very dim and distant things, but Mars is bright and near," Geronimo Villanueva, Mars scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said. Mars will seem very bright to Webb, and engineers must prepare carefully for any planet studies to avoid overexposure of its equipment to light.

Webb’s first chance to gaze at Mars will be in August 2022. When the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021, it will be the world's preeminent space research observatory. Webb will unravel secrets inside our solar system, explore distant planets orbiting other stars, and delve into our universe's fascinating architecture and beginnings and our role within it. Webb is a collaborative multinational effort headed by NASA in collaboration with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

JWST- Closer Look Launch Vehicle

Vital Information

Ariane 5 rockets were used to launch the James Webb Space Telescope. The European Space Agency provides the launch vehicle and launch site as part of the mission's participation. The Ariane 5 is one of the most dependable launch vehicles globally and was chosen for its reliability (it was the only launch vehicle that matched NASA's standards for launching a mission like Webb) and the value it adds through our international collaboration.

The Launch Segment is composed of three basic components: • The launch vehicle will be an Ariane 5 1 equipped with a cryogenic upper stage. Provided in a single launch configuration, with a large payload fairing measuring up to 4.57 meters in static diameter and 16.19 meters in usable length.

Location of the launch Webb was launched from Europe's Spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, using Arianespace's ELA-3 launch facility. It is advantageous to choose launch locations near the equator because the Earth's rotation might provide more thrust. At the equator, the Earth's surface moves at a rate of 1670 kilometers per hour.

FEB 2022

• 2 Payload adapter consists of the Cone 3936 plus the ACU 2624 lower cylinder and clamp-band and serves as the mechanical and electrical contact between the Webb Observatory and the Launch Vehicle. • 3 Prepare for and launch the campaign. NASA, ESA, Northrop Grumman, and Arianespace are jointly responsible for preparing and executing the launch campaign.

www.techfastly.com

How Large Will Webb Be? The primary mirror diameter is the most critical dimension of a telescope, roughly 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) for Webb. This is about 2.75 times the diameter of Hubble and around six times the area. The Webb will weigh around 6,500 kg, or 14,300 pounds on Earth (everything is weightless in orbit), or little more than half the mass of Hubble. Webb's most significant structure will be its sunshade, which must be capable of shielding both the deployed primary mirror and the secondary mirror tower. The sunshade measures around the same size as a tennis court.

Why Ariane 5 To Launch Webb, Why Not SpaceX? We picked Ariane in the early 2000s for its reliability (it was the only launch vehicle that matched NASA's standards for launching a mission like Webb) and the added value provided by our multinational collaboration. By "value," we mean that the European Space Agency provides us with a launch vehicle and associated services without requiring us to make a financial contribution. In exchange, NASA commits to providing European scientists with a share of Webb's observing time (roughly 15 percent). Because Webb's architectural constraints and international technology constraints (along with industrial capabilities and strategic technology interests) precluded us from requesting a spacecraft bus, sun-shield, or telescope components from Europe, we instead requested the launch vehicle, launch services, and science instruments. Picture: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope from Greenbelt, MD, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons 37

Another reason to avoid switching launch vehicles in the middle of a project is that each vehicle has unique environmental characteristics. While all rockets are similar in specific ways, they differ significantly in their primary vibroacoustic modes. They design anything that meets all environmental criteria, increases cost and mass, and limits capabilities.

FEB 2022

www.techfastly.com

Conclusion The Webb will be able to identify planetary systems in the infrared light of neighboring stars (heat). It will be able to see the reflected light of massive planets the size of Jupiter circling nearby stars directly. Additionally, it will see extremely young planets forming when they are still quite hot. Webb will have coronagraphic capabilities, which will allow it to filter off the light from the planet's parent star. This is necessary because the parent star will be thousands of times brighter than the planets that circle it. Webb's resolution will be insufficient to detect details on the planets; it will be able to detect only a faint light speckle next to the bright parent star. Webb will also research planets that transit their parent star. When a planet passes between a star and Webb, the overall brightness of the system decreases significantly. The amount by which the light decreases indicate the planet's size. Webb can also detect sunlight passing through a planet's atmosphere, measure its component gases, and determine if the planet's surface has liquid water. When the planet passes behind the star, the overall brightness decreases, allowing us to determine more parameters about the planet. Webb can see everything in our Solar System that is further away from the Sun than the Earth. Webb's sensitivity will be particularly advantageous for investigating fragile rocky and ice objects in the far outer Solar System, such as the dwarf planet Pluto and other Kuiper Belt Objects. Webb's observations of these objects will be used to evaluate ideas about the Solar System's formation. Additionally, Webb will examine the moons of gas giant planets, comets, asteroids, and the planets Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

der of Menstruped n u o F ia

Aditi Gupta

FEB 2022

www.techfastly.com

diti Gupta is a social entrepreneur working towards educating women about menstruation, menstrual hygiene, and the myths associated with it. She named her unique initiative, Menstrupedia. Menstrupedia Comic is a complete guide on periods.

Aditi and her partner, Tuhin recently appeared on Shark Tank, India. We talk to her about her experience with the show.

Ms. Gupta is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and made it to the achiever’s list of Forbes India 30 under 30 in 2014 to break the taboo around menstruation. She is an International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) alumni. Her work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, CNBC, and BBC. She aspires to create a future where menstruation is not a taboo but a welcoming change in a girl's life.

Pitching ideas in front of sharks was very heart warming and encouraging. When we went in the tank, the discussions were so friendly and they appreciated us for what we were doing. 41

What we see on television might be just a 10 mins pitch, but it takes somewhere around 45 mins-2 hours for a pitch. Can you tell our audience what goes through into the process to appear on Shark Tank?

The team would guide you with how to move forward. If you qualify for the next stage of the application, I would suggest you to be completely dedicated to the application process.

We received a random call asking us if we were looking for raising funds. In 2021, we were looking for funds and working on our pitch for investors. So, when we received this phone call, we thought okay let’s try it.

The pitch could be cut between 10-20 minutes but you remain in the tank for about 1-2 hours. The sharks need to know a lot of details about you and your business before they invest in you. The team also ensures that they collect information regarding your background story, how your business model works, and all several other aspects. Before you appear in front of the sharks, there is a lot of documentation. A lot of conversation and discussion goes with the sharks.

The whole process was in fact very smooth. After your application, if you go to the next round, they would connect with you again. In case they decide to not take your application forward at any stage, they would not connect with you. They receive a crazy number of application so they demand for you to respond very quickly. The application forms are very elaborative and exhaustive. Applying to shark tank would feel like an 8-hour job. The entire process is very elaborative which shows how much attention they pay to every detail. 42

FEB 2022

To be very specific, the three main stages of the application process before you appear in front of the sharks include: 1. An elaborative application form 2. Two pitch videos, and 3. Audition round www.techfastly.com

For someone who gets to the next round, I would suggest them to be very patient and dedicated towards the entire process. The entire team works very dedicatedly, yet some delays must be expected. Be flexible, take up on their suggestions. One must understand that it is a television show and they would need to present certain things creatively to gain more traction.

Was your experience pitching in front of Sharks any different from pitching to other investors?

Pitching ideas in front of sharks was very heart warming and encouraging. When we went in the tank, the discussions were so friendly and they appreciated us for what we were doing. With other incubators, sometimes they end up bullying us.

chunk of money we receive is via Stayfree. I believe that we don’t need to be a sanitary pad company to sell it. We are one of the most innovative companies in the world to educate about periods. We would never want to change the basic idea for our company i.e., to educate people about things that don’t feel comfortable to talk about in open.

Did you have a specific shark in mind to acquire your investment?

Yes, Namita was our ideal investor and we are glad that she came on board with us. Apart from Namita and Vinita, it would have been difficult for other sharks to understand the importance of this business and of course the limitation of the business.

We have been a part of two incubation program; they brand themselves as a pioneer in India. The mentor they assigned me ended up bullying me. I was so disheartened with the entire experience. After such experiences, we decided to not go for any of such programs. We were bootstrapped for 8 years. But the experience with shark tank was amazing and I am excited to work with the sharks.

What was your reaction when one of the sharks suggested you become a ‘sanitary pad’ company? Is this something you might pursue in near future?

One of our major investors is a sanitary pad company, Stayfree. We help them reach their product to girls via our comic. An important 43

After the airing of the episode, how did it impact the sales or leads for Menstrupedia?

After the airing of the episode, there is a shark tank effect. We saw around 13% of increase in our sale. But we know it would fade away. Apart from the sale, I would like to thank Shark Tank for the recognition we are getting. Our families are now more interested to understand how our business work; it opened up a passage for us to have many discussions with family and friends.

What would be the one factor that candidates wanting to be on the next season of Shark tank must understand?

This was Shark Tank’s first season in India and yet they got more than 62,000 applications. I am assuming that competition will be extremely tough for the upcoming seasons. My suggestion for aspiring candidates would be to respect the deadlines. Since they work with a huge amount of application, if you are 44

FEB 2022

proactive, it might improve your chances of getting in the next round.

Lastly, how would you rate the entire experience?

The entire experience was amazing. What differentiates shark tank from other incubator programs is that it is a very pro-entrepreneur show. Everybody will be rooting for you. The team is extremely talented. Sharks and pitchers are a small part of the process that you see. The team is truly invested in bring entrepreneurs idea out in the world.

They work along with you to improve your story telling skills, presentation skills, language, performance, and many factors that might impact your pitching. www.techfastly.com

Can you share some advice for young entrepreneurs?

I would recommend to go for investors who bring additional benefits to you apart from money. Someone who would help you grow as an entrepreneur, improve your distribution channels, gets you more connections, and how you can multiply the money. An entrepreneur understands his/her business the best. If you get repeat sales and low customer acquisition; it indicates towards profitability. Make sure that you focus on profitability and how you can improve your customer experience. Be obsessed with solving customer issues. As an entrepreneur, I would recommend that instead of focusing on impact and status, focus on profitability. When you start to multiply money, more people would be interested in you and your business. 45

E N T R Y, D E S C E N T, AND LANDING

Technologies For

PERSEVERANCE R O V E R and Other Details by Yash Modi

In February 2021, Perseverance Rover landed on Mars and was set to explore the red planet and uncover traces of ancient life (microbial).

FEB 2022

The Perseverance Rover happens to be the most expensive and upgraded mobile laboratory sent on a Mars mission ever.

www.techfastly.com

This initiative aims to find evidence of life on Mars and go even beyond that to have a better understanding of the continuously expanding universe. Also, the Rover is supposed to throw light on the future of both manned and unmanned missions to the red planet.

The Rover is expected to begin the drilling work during the summer months. It has been programmed to explore the delta first, move across the lakeshore, and then go for the crater's edges. Let us now explore the technological aspects of the Perseverance Rover.

SEARCHING FOR CLUES

INGENUITY MARS HELICOPTER

The first thing the Perseverance Rover is expected to do is search for microscopic life forms that may be millions of years old. For this purpose, scientists and engineers have fitted the Rover with a PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry). It is a precision x-ray device that runs on AI (Artificial Intelligence). The PIXL has a superior ability to scan rocks through a focussed x-ray beam. In addition, the device can detect chemicals along with their quantity and distribution.

It is attached to the belly of the Rover and has a lot of autonomy while flying through waypoints since it is not controlled from Earth. In fact, it happens to be the first helicopter that would be flying outside Earth. Commands are sent beforehand, and accordingly, the helicopter executes the flight. The most interesting aspect of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is accessing terrain off-limits for the Rover.

DATA COLLECTION FOR FUTURE FLIGHTS AND LANDINGS Scientists have designed MEDLI (MSL Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation) which helps to detect the pressure and temperature of the Rover. The next-gen sensor suite MEDLI2 assists in collecting data from both the backshell and heat shield. It combines the pressure and temperature of the Rover along with the data collected from the Rover's weather station to extract insights and help scientists decide entry, descent, and landing techniques in the future, thereby mitigating risks.

FEB 2022

www.techfastly.com

4 5

TERRAIN RELATIVE NAVIGATION The AI-controlled terrain navigation system ensures that the Rover can safely descend on the surface, like Mars. The terrain relative navigation ensures that the Rover can calculate its position and location with respect to the ground. The accuracy limit is about 40 meters. While descending, the Rover, with the help of LiDAR or similar technology, can create a map of the landing site. The map is then compared with the images of the Rover while approaching the surface, thereby allowing it to redirect if needed. That way, the Rover can figure out and land in the safest spot possible.

FITTINGS The other fittings of the Rover include MOXIE that can demonstrate how oxygen is produced from the Martian atmosphere. The MEDA analyzes and measures the dust with the help of sensors. RIMFAX uses radar waves to scan the surface below the Rover. SuperCam combines camera, laser, and spectrometers to analyze the soil and rocks. 49

How The Perseverance Rover Works The entry, descent, and landing (EDL) of the Rover took only seven minutes in February 2021. Then, it touched down on the surface of Mars, which is now termed as the 'Seven Minutes Of Terror' sequence. The entire process and steps involved precise and careful maneuvering and control. The Mars 2020 mission, the Perseverance Rover, and The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter were given the green signal in July 2020. The objective was to attempt to land on the Jezero Crater, almost 45 kilometers (28 miles) wide. It took nearly six and a half months to reach Mars. The Rover has been programmed to search for evidence of previous microbes and, if possible liveable environments and conditions on the red planet. Samples would be collected from the planet that would be analyzed back on Earth for designing future mission campaigns.

Given below is an account of how the various components work together to assist in the landing of the craft on Mars: The Tover was 2.40 million miles (3.90 kilometers) away from Mars in February. At that time, it was buzzing through space at a speed of 49290 miles per hour (79330 kilometers per hour). In the last three weeks before landing, the mission control focussed on the navigational

The journey and operation of Perseverance Rover to Mars are more or less similar to what Curiosity Rover did in 2012. As the air vehicle cruised towards Mars, the Perseverance Rover, along with the descent stages, were well protected in a capsule called an ‘aeroshell’. It is attached to the ring structured cruise phase. The cruise phase comprises eight thrusters that give power at specific times so that the spacecraft is on its designated course. In addition, the spacecraft is fitted with solar arrays that help to power the craft. Also, it has antennas for communicating with the control center on Earth. 50

FEB 2022

www.techfastly.com

aspects, like whether the craft was following the correct trajectory or not, along with activities related to the preparation of the vehicle for EDL.

from the cruise stage. Thereafter, the aeroshell having the Perseverance Rover and descent stage would descent to the Martian soil on its own.

During the cruise stage, solar arrays could be seen that help to provide extra power to the craft apart from the main power source. It is referred to as the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator.

The aeroshell measures nearly 15 feet (4.50 meters) in diameter. It consists of two parts, namely the backshell and the heat shield. Both protect the craft from getting burned when extreme heat is generated at the initial descent through Mar's atmosphere. The aerodynamic design and property of the heat shield also function as a stopping mechanism that helps slow the craft's pace.

Aeroshell Separation Almost 10 minutes before entering the Martian atmosphere in 2020, the aeroshell separated

Entering The Martian Atmosphere The EDL phase starts when the craft reaches the top of the Martian atmosphere. It is the point where it travels nearly 12,100 miles per hour (19500 kilometers per hour). Then, roughly after 90 seconds after entering the atmosphere, the peak acceleration occurs. During this time, the spacecraft slows to less than 1000 miles per hour (1600 kilometers per hour).

Seven Minutes of Nailbiting EDL will last for approximately seven minutes. Once the EDL phase starts, the craft uses a technique referred to as the guided entry. It takes around 14 minutes or so for radio signals to travel from Earth to the Rover and vice versa. It implies that the spacecraft will land on the red planet without any assistance or intervention from the ground team on Earth.

While descending to the surface of Mars, the speed of the Rover decreases because of the drag generated by the motion in the Martian atmosphere. The aeroshell also releases small thrusters on the backshell. It helps in reorienting and ensures that the heat shield faces the Red Planet as the Rover descends through the atmosphere.

FEB 2022

www.techfastly.com

It is why the landing of the craft has been referred to as the Seven Minutes Of Terror. The spacecraft's heat shield that faces Mars endures peak heating when it enters the Martian atmosphere. This is because the friction of the Mar's atmosphere decreases the rate of descent, thereby increasing the temperature of the heat shield.

The Parachute After about four minutes post entering the Martian atmosphere, the craft deploys a supersonic parachute that comes out from the aeroshell. The diameter of the chute is 70.50 feet (21.50 meters), and it gets deployed at an altitude of 11 km or 7 miles above the surface of the red planet. The craft's velocity at that point is close to 940 miles per hour, equivalent to 1512 kilometers per hour.

The chute helps to slow down the craft's motion to almost 200 miles per hour or 320 kilometers per hour. The chute is deployed using the latest technology called Range Trigger. It helps to narrow down on the intended landing area. According to the engineers who designed the system, the Range Trigger technology can significantly reduce the size of the landing ellipse, which is an oval area around the target landing, by almost 50 per cent. As a result, it implies that it will take the Rover less time to get to its location than previous missions that have landed on Mars. In addition, the Range Trigger will autonomously adjust the timing of the parachute deployment with respect to the position of the craft and distance from the landing target.

The inboard computers work on the images and accordingly calculate the approximate position of the craft with respect to the ground on a fine-scale as compared to previously available systems.

FEB 2022

Rover in the Backshell The Heat Shield separates and drops away from the backshell about 20 seconds post deployment of the parachute. The descent stage and Rover remain tucked in the backshell of the craft as the whole thing slows the dive towards the surface of Mars. When the Rover is exposed to the Martian atmosphere for the first time. As part of the landing system of the craft, the Terrain Relative Navigation System, along with the landing radar of the craft, starts accessing the velocity, position, and altitude to help guide the Rover to a safe landing on Mars. The navigation technology is a new approach and comes with a Lander Vision System. It is equipped with a down-facing camera that can take images when the craft descends. The inboard computers work on the images and accordingly calculate the approximate position of the craft with respect to the ground on a fine-scale as compared to previously available systems. Using this data, the new navigation system can adjust the touchdown of the Rover, thereby averting any unsafe landing. The navigation technologies and the range trigger allow landing on the floor of the Jazero Crater

possible. The area has a complicated terrain since it includes sand dunes, cliffs, boulder areas, and small impact craters.

Powered Decent Phase When the Rover is at the height of 2.10 kilometers (1.30 miles), the Rover and the descent stage separate from the backshell and parachute. The descent phase consists of eight throttleable retro-rockets, also called landing engines. They help to decrease the pace of the spacecraft while preparing for a touchdown on the Martian surface. During the descent stage, the engine fires up at the final moment before Rover lands on Mars. At this point, the craft travels at almost 306 kilometers per hour or 190 miles per hour. The landing engines assist in guiding the craft to the designated landing spot.

It first levels out and then decreases the vehicle's speed to the final landing speed of 2.70 kilometers per hour or 1.70 miles per hour. Touchdown At about 20 meters above the ground (65 feet) or about 12 seconds before touchdown, the Rover is safely lowered to the ground by a sky crane. Three nylon cables are extended almost 25 feet (7.60 meters) below the descent stage, bringing the Rover to the ground. In the meantime, the Rover stretches its legs, bringing the wheels for the final landing.

Once the Rover senses that it has touched the ground, the cables are released automatically, linking the craft to the descent stage. The cables then fly off safely from the Rover. If everything goes as per plan, nothing can stop the Rover from completing its two years mission of exploring the Jezero crater.

Interplanetary Helicopter (First of its Kind) The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is attached to the belly of the Perseverance. It will detach after 30 - 90 post touchdown of the craft on the Red Planet. Thereafter, the helicopter will perform some test flights to demonstrate that robotic flights are no big deal on another planet. Overall, to improve the entry, descent, and landing of the Rover, two key factors need to be taken into account. The first is to know where the craft is headed and, secondly, to divert to a safe place in case the terrain seems hazardous. The most crucial component of the Rover happens to be the navigation system that allows the Rover to make accurate estimates of the position with respect to the ground below. The Rover can know its exact position while descending the Martian atmosphere. Consequently, the Perseverance Rover operates with an accuracy of 40 meters or 130 feet.

FEB 2022

The helicopter will perform some test flights to demonstrate that robotic flights are no big deal on another planet.

Exploring

MARS

An Insight into The Missions to The Red Planet by Toulika Das

Ever since human beings first saw it as a star-like object in the night sky, Mars has intrigued humanity. Early on, the planet's crimson tint was something that set it apart from its gleaming companions, all of which shine in their own bright ways. 58

FEB 2022

www.techfastly.com

fterward, in the latter part of the 1800s, some pretty advanced telescopes were invented. These telescopes revealed a surface brimming with interesting features. Scientists got to see patterns and landforms that they initially mistook for signs of a busy Martian civilization. However, we now know that there are no man-made structures on Mars. But we have also gathered enough evidence that shows that the arid, hazardous planet we see now may have been as livable as Earth until 3.5 billion years ago. Since the 1960s, hundreds of exploration missions of Mars have been launched to discover more about our neighboring celestial body. Some of them were successful, most were not. Apart from Earth, Mars now has more spacecraft at operation than any other planet.

Perseverance Rover / Ingenuity Helicopter (MARS 2020) Is there any evidence of evolution on Mars? NASA's Mars Exploration Program has been diligently trying to discover for years. The agency's Spirit and Opportunity rovers discovered evidence of liquid water on the surface. On the heels of that finding, NASA's Curiosity rover discovered that circumstances on Mars 4 billion years ago may have supported life as we know it. Perseverance would then go straight for indications of a prior life.

FEB 2022

The Perseverance Rover or I launched on July 30, 2020, against the backdrop of the worldwide COVID-19 epidemic. It landed at the Jezero crater on February 18, 2021, the place of an old lake and river delta. The rover will look for microbial remains in rocks generated during Mars' warm and wet past. It will also look out for hydrocarbons, that is carboncontaining chemicals that are the building blocks of life on Earth. Since 1976, when the twin Viking landers conducted long-shot chemical analyses that yielded unsatisfactory findings, NASA has not explicitly looked for life on Mars.

www.techfastly.com

The Ingenuity Helicopter, on the other hand, is a tiny robotic helicopter that is part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission, which landed on February 18, 2021, along with the Perseverance rover. On April 19, two months later, Ingenuity achieved the first motorized interplanetary voyage by an aircraft, lifting off vertically, hovering, and landing for a total flight time of 39.1 seconds. The helicopter has completed 18 effective flights as of December 15, 2021.

The rover will look for microbial remains in rocks generated during Mars' warm and wet past. It will also look out for hydrocarbons, that is carbon-containing chemicals that are the building blocks of life on Earth.

InSight - NASA’s Discovery Mission InSight, which stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport, was flown to Mars in May 2018 and arrived in November of the same year. Its goal is to understand more about the layers that make up Mars' interior so that scientists may correlate it to what we understand about the other planetary systems and Earth. Since the terrain at the landing location was different than expected, one of InSight's key research equipment, a heat-flow probe known as the mole, failed to perform. InSight is now on a longer mission, listening for Marsquakes to learn more about what lies under the Martian surface. Over the course of the project's lifespan, NASA will spend $814 million on InSight.

Mars Atmospheric and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) It arrived at Mars on September 22, 2014, and was placed in an elliptic orbit about 6,200 kilometers (3,900 miles) above the planet's surface, with a radius of 150 kilometers (93 miles). 62

FEB 2022

MAVEN (Mars Atmospheric and Volatile Evolution) is NASA's second Mars Scout mission, which is a competition for smaller, more economical missions led by a principal scientist. MAVEN is acquiring key indicators of the Martian atmosphere to better comprehend tremendous climatic change on the red planet during its history, in response to highpriority research goals outlined in the National Academy of Science's 2003 decadal study on space missions. www.techfastly.com

MAVEN presents insight on when and how rapidly atmospheric elements are lost to space presently, as well as drawing conclusions as to what actually occurred from those precise examinations. Examining how the Martian atmosphere ceased to exist can offer information on the influence that transition had on the Martian temperature, geology, and geochemical conditions over time.

In 2017, MAVEN detected a tangled magnetic tail behind the planet, which was disclosed at the time. The MAVEN mission of NASA has detected "layers" and "rifts" in Mars' electrically charged upper atmosphere (ionosphere). The phenomenon is pretty prevalent on Earth and causes radio communications to be disrupted in unanticipated ways.

‘Curiosity’ Rover or the Mars Science Laboratory The Mars Science Laboratory, which includes the Curiosity rover, can be deemed as NASA's most ambitious Mars mission to date. In 2012, the rover landed on Mars with the primary aim of determining if Mars is or was favorable for life. Another goal is to understand more about the environment on Mars. Curiosity's size is one of the things that makes it so unique: it's approximately the size of a compact SUV. It's roughly 7 feet high (2.1 m) and is 9 feet 10 inches long by 9 feet 1 inch

FEB 2022

broad (3 m by 2.8 m). It is 2,000 pounds in weight (900 kilograms). The wheels of Curiosity are 20 inches (50.8 cm) in diameter. It traveled from Gale Crater to Aeolis Mons (commonly known as Mount Sharp) in March 2018 to commemorate 2,000 sols (Mars days) on the planet, looking at geological information hidden in the mountain's strata. It has also discovered considerable traces of water and geological change along the way.

www.techfastly.com

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) The most sophisticated camera ever flown on a planetary research mission, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, was launched in August 2005. It is intended for focusing on certain aspects of the Martian landscape with unprecedented clarity. Older cameras on Mars orbiters could only detect items the size of a dining table, but this camera can detect anything as small as a dinner plate. This capacity not only gives an incredible level of data about Mars' geology and configuration but also aids in identifying hazards that might compromise the stability of subsequent landers and rovers. During its EDL phase, the orbiter sailed over Gale crater, the landing site of the Mars Science Laboratory mission, on August 6, 2012 (sol 2483). It acquired a photograph of the Curiosity Rover falling with its backshell and supersonic parachute using the HiRISE camera.

Mars Odyssey Ever since 2001, NASA's Odyssey spacecraft has been circling Mars, thus setting the record for the longest continuously operating spacecraft orbiting a planet other than Earth. The mission's initial objectives were to look for traces of water, create precise maps of the planet's ground elements, and evaluate radiation levels for human researchers.

The Odyssey orbiter serves as a communications relay for the Mars Exploration Rovers "Spirit" and "Opportunity," as well as the Mars Phoenix Lander and the Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity rover. Mars Odyssey's images and other measures aid in the identification of prospective landing locations for space probes.

The Hubble Space Telescope All we know about our universe came from findings with the naked human eye from the start of humanity until around 400 years ago. Eventually, in 1610, Galileo pointed his telescope towards the stars. The world was about to be changed radically. The Hubble Telescope is named after Edwin Hubble, who discovered galaxies beyond our own in the 1920s at the Mt. Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, California, using the greatest telescope of his day. Hubble has been used by scientists to study the most distant stars and galaxies, as well as our solar system's planets. In April 1990, Hubble was launched and deployed, marking the greatest important achievement in astronomy since Galileo's telescope. In today's world, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is capable of taking very close-up images of Mars. In 2008, and again in 2016, a beautiful snapshot of Mars was published. HST can detect objects up to 8 km in size at its maximum resolution. In April 1990, Hubble was launched and deployed, marking the greatest important advancement in astronomy since Galileo's telescope. Our perspective of the cosmos and our existence within it has not been the same ever since all due to the five servicing missions and more than 30 years of its operation.

66 66

FEB 2022

Future of Mars Exploration Missions NASA successfully managed to land the Perseverance rover on Mars in 2021. Its objective is to look for evidence of life and gather rocks and soil samples in preparation for a return to Earth mission in the future. Following NASA missions, in collaboration with the European Space Agency, spacecraft would be sent to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for further research. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration strategy, which includes Artemis Moon missions that will aid in the preparation of the first manned exploration trip to Mars. Humans are likely to inhabit Mars by the year 2050 if automatic mining methods prove commercially feasible rapidly. Professor Serkan Saydam of UNSW Sydney thinks so, following NASA's Perseverance rover's incredible landing on Mars. Perseverance is intended to reveal answers as to whether life ever existed on Mars, as well as address the obstacles that future human expeditions would face there.

Journey towards the Colonization on the

RED PLA by Bharggavi Ssayee

Conquering Mars Man, arriving on Mars, will mark the beginning of a new era, that of an interplanetary species. Will humanity overcome what divides it, or, on the contrary, will it sink into conflicts inherent to its nature? It is a Martian sequence that we are going through. Finally, after several months of travel, three satellites arrive at the Red Planet. Perseverance, the NASA mission, and the United Arab Emirates' Hope' and China's 'Tianwen-1' probes have scientific and political dimensions. Global interest in the colonization of Mars is growing. The space race of the early 1960s between the United States and the former Soviet Union is history. Today, all nations are learning to collaborate to develop the technological intelligence necessary for Mars.

FEB 2022

ANET

As a result, countries worldwide, including some that were not expected to work with the United States, are thinking, talking, and pushing forward the spaceship project - and ultimately humans – on planet Red. For example, collaborations between Europe, Russia, China, and India, with the United States, bring together forces that will make this Mars conquest project possible, financially and technologically. As for the private sector, the research it carries out is so exciting that it could bring us even closer to accomplishing this conquest.

Why Explore Mars? Discoveries made on Mars over the past century suggest that the Red Planet could host ecosystems and may still harbor microbial life forms. The fourth planet from the Sun, Mars, is located just after Earth. About half the size of the blue world, the red planet has a gravity equivalent to only 38% that of its neighbor. So if it takes longer to orbit the Sun than the Earth, it rotates around its axis at an almost similar speed. This is why a year lasts 687 Earth days on Mars, but the days are only 40 minutes longer than on Earth. Despite its smaller size, its area is roughly equivalent to that of all Earth's continents

FEB 2022

combined. Mars, therefore theoretically, has a similar living area. But there is a problem: it is now enveloped in a refined atmosphere of carbon dioxide and cannot harbor life forms on Earth. Methane is also periodically released into the atmosphere of this arid world, while the soil contains chemicals toxic to life as we know it. If liquid water does not exist on the surface of Mars, this resource is trapped in the planet's frozen polar caps and the ground, perhaps in large quantities. When scientists today observe the Martian surface, they see features unmistakably the work of ancient flows, namely rivers, river valleys, basins, and deltas. These observations suggest that the planet once

www.techfastly.com

Despite its smaller size, its area is roughly equivalent to that of all Earth's continents combined. housed a vast ocean, which covered its northern hemisphere. Elsewhere on Mars, thunderstorms would have watered the landscape, grouping lakes and causing rivers to flow, which would then have sculpted the Martian surface. The red planet was also probably enveloped in a thick atmosphere capable of maintaining liquid water at Martian temperatures and pressures. During its evolution, Mars went through a period of dramatic transformation. Once similar to Earth, it has evolved into the dusty,

arid world we know today. What happened? What happened to these liquids? And what happened to the Martian atmosphere? Exploring Mars is helping scientists learn more about momentary climate changes that can fundamentally alter planets. It is also an opportunity to research biosignatures, signs that may reveal whether life forms were abundantly present on the planet in the past and whether they still exist today. The more we learn about Mars, the more armed we will attempt to colonize the Red Planet shortly.

Major Discoveries Since the 1960s, we have sent dozens of probes to study Mars. The first missions consisted of simple reconnaissance flights during which cameras strafed the planet. Subsequently, the investigations have entered orbit around the Red Planet, and more recently, landers and rovers have touched down on its surface. While sending a probe to Mars is a complex exercise, it is even more challenging to land it on the planet. The refined atmosphere of Mars makes the descent delicate; thus, more than 60% of landing attempts failed. So far, four space agencies, NASA, Russia's Roscosmos, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), have placed probes in orbit around Mars. With eight successful landings on the clock, the United States is the only country to have operated an investigation on the surface of the Red Planet. The United Arab Emirates and China could soon join them: the Hope and Tianwen-1 missions, launched last July, placed themselves safely in Mars orbit a few days ago and are expected to land on the planet. red within several months. Many highlights marked the exploration of Mars. One of these was the passage near the Red Planet in July 1965 of NASA's Mariner 4 probe, which took the first closeup images of this alien world.

FEB 2022

www.techfastly.com

Then, in 1971, the Soviet space program sent the first probe into orbit around Mars. Dubbed March 3, the approximately eightmonth mission observed the topography, atmosphere, weather conditions, and geology of Mars. A lander also landed on the surface of the Red Planet, but it only transmitted data for about 20 seconds before ceasing to function. Orbiters transmitted much more detailed information about the Martian atmosphere and surface in the decades that followed. They ended the theory that the Martian channels were built by an alien civilization (many scientists adhered to it since the end of the 19th century). The orbiters have also revealed some truly spectacular features of the Red Planet. It is home to the largest volcanoes in the solar system and one of the longest canyons ever discovered, the distance of which is the size of the United States, from the West Coast to the East Coast.

The Martian plains are often swept by dust storms, while the winds form localized dust vortices.

In 1976, NASA's Viking 1 and Viking 2 probes were the first to operate on the Red Planet and to send us snapshots of the latter until 1982. They also conducted biological experiments on Martian soil, intending to discover signs of life in space. Unfortunately, the results were inconclusive, and even to this day, scientists have not been able to agree on how to interpret the data.

Sojouner, the first freeroaming rover, landed on the Red Planet as part of NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission, launched in 1996. Its successors include the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, which have explored Mars for a long time. Unfortunately, it was longer than expected and sent us over 100,000 snaps before dust storms destroyed their solar panels in the 2010s. NASA has two spacecrafts active on the Martian surface, InSight and Curiosity. InSight, which probes the planet's internal structure, has already taught us that "Mars tremors" regularly shake its feeling. The Curiosity rover launched in 2012 travels around Gale Crater while taking ethereal snapshots and studying the rocks and sediments that have settled in the bed of the ancient crater lake. Several machines in orbit also transmit data. This is notably the case with the MAVEN orbiter and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey probes for NASA; Mars Express and Trace Gas Orbiter probes for ESA; and the Indian probe Mars Orbiter Mission. 74

FEB 2022

These missions demonstrated to scientists that Mars is an active planet teeming with the elements necessary for life as we know it water, organic carbon, and a source of energy. However, it remains to be seen if a life form evolved on Mars in the past and is still present.

The complete list of nations working on this Mars project is extended.

The Arab World

For the Emirates, it is a question of arousing scientific vocations and positioning itself in the Arab world. The Emirati's imagined future is ambitious: build in the desert a scientific city to simulate Martian conditions and develop the technologies necessary for a future occupation. The Emirates also has mining and tourism goals. They signed an agreement for this with Virgin Galactic, Richard Brandson. Please make no mistake, and the UAE did not produce everything itself. The rocket was Japanese, and the probe was made with American institutes. But it was the space 76

FEB 2022

agency that paid for and piloted the project. At its head, the very media Sarah Al Amiri, who has since become Minister of Advanced Technologies and patron of the national space agency. A vast majority of women lead the Hope mission.

Ultimately, the Emirates have a more ambitious goal: to establish a human colony on Mars within 100 years. www.techfastly.com

China's Highly Technological Goals For Beijing, it is about showing that it is becoming, step by step but with the regularity of a metronome, a tremendous spatial power. And without external aid, except that of Russia a few years ago. The Chinese project, named "Tianwen-1" ("Questions to the sky-1"), wants to be paramount. If it succeeds, the country will never have gone so far in the solar system, and it could do in one attempt almost as much as what the United States has achieved since the 1960s. Its goal: to place a probe in orbit, place a lander on Mars, then deploy a 200-kilogram remote-controlled robot responsible for carrying out analyzes on the surface (soil and atmosphere analysis, maps, photos). The Tianwen 1 mission, if successful, will be impressive. It is the first trip to Mars for China, but it tries the trio: a satellite in orbit, arrived this Wednesday, a lander, and a robot of 200 kilos. The landing is the most delicate because the Martian atmosphere is tenuous. The Chinese have never practiced it, and for the record, one in two probes fails to land correctly on Mars: this is called "the seven minutes of terror." So for this step, you will have to wait until May. The craft is expected to arrive next year for the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. The United States has achieved this feat. And precisely, China intends to place itself in direct competition with the United States in the conquest of Mars. Such a rivalry is reminiscent of the space

race between the USSR and the United States during the Cold War. Chinese space officials said plans are underway to send a rover to the Red Planet as early as possible. A small-scale Mars Rover prototype has been shown to the public. The Chinese mission would collect rock and soil samples, with a return to Earth around 2030. China has already launched a robotic lunar exploration mission, which, step by step, will lead to the human exploration of the Moon's surface. The country also manufactures the powerful Long March 5 rocket, intended for various space missions. 77

United Arab Emirates: Getting Out of Oil Dependency This is the first interplanetary mission led by an Arab country. The "Hope" probe was launched Monday towards Mars from the Japanese base of Tanegashima. It is expected to reach orbit in February 2021 for the 50th anniversary of the unification of the United Arab Emirates. Its ambition is to provide meteorological indications of the atmosphere of the red planet by studying the variations of the climate over the seasons during a Martian year (i.e., 687 days). 78

FEB 2022

But Emirates' plans for Mars do not end there. In 2017, Emir Mohammed bin Rachid Al Maktoum presented "March 2117". The project intends to create a "mini-city and a community on Mars." To do this, architects were hired to imagine a future Martian city and build it in the desert, "Science City." A project costing more than 120 million euros. Through this conquest of Mars, the United Arab Emirates is sending a message: they www.techfastly.com

Its ambition is to provide meteorological indications of the atmosphere of the red planet by studying the variations of the climate over the seasons during a Martian year (i.e., 687 days). want to be considered a power, not only regional and not only because of their oil and gas resources. They are thus initiating a movement towards exiting their dependence on exploiting these fossil fuels by turning to investment in science and advanced technologies, particularly aerospace. They plan to launch an orbiter around Mars by 2021 to study the links between current

weather and the past climate of the Red Planet. The probe will be the first to return a global image of the evolution of the Martian atmosphere over a single day and the seasons. In addition, the UAE Space Agency recently launched a national competition to design a habitat for two on Mars. The rules state that the materials can be brought in from Earth or found on the Red Planet.

United States: Consolidating Its Supremacy "Perseverance" is the name of the US $ 1.2 billion mission: NASA's most gradual project in exploring Mars. Its goal is in line with previous missions to the red planet ("Opportunity," "Curiosity"), that is to say, to know more about a possible Martian life. "We will manufacture oxygen on Mars, and with our drone, we will have aerial reconnaissance capabilities," explained in December 2019 to France 2 Matt Wallace, deputy project manager of "Mars 2020". The United States envisions sending an astronaut on Mars in 2034. The takeoff of the probe was scheduled for July 30, 2021, from the Cape Canaveral base in Florida. Then, a robot (a rover) was deployed to establish a base for the astronauts. This wheeled spacecraft is a three-meter-long jewel of technology, weighing a ton, equipped with 19 cameras, two microphones, and two-meter robotic arms. This exploration is a portion of a larger project expected by the scientific world. A collection of samples of Martian soil, "Perseverance," will be in charge of depositing flasks to recover Martian dust. The United States has been the only ambitious country in Mars exploration so far, and it is determined to remain so. When space was a privileged

battleground between the USSR and the USA during the Cold War, the latter demonstrated their advance on Martian terrain. Then, in 1976, the landers of the Viking program and American orbiters provided a first burst of information on Mars (atmosphere, meteorology, first analyzes of the ground on-site). Subsequently, in the 1990s, the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter detected minerals and proved that Mars was not always today's arid planet. Finally, in 2011, the mission of the Mars Science Laboratory rover made it possible to detect the presence of past life on Mars indirectly. "Perseverance" will be the fifth rover (all American) to set foot on Martian soil. This exploration is part of a colossal project expected by the scientific world. A collection of samples of Martian soil, "Perseverance," will be in charge of depositing flasks to recover Martian dust. This robot is the largest ever placed on a planet: it weighs a ton. It was designed on the same chassis as its predecessor Discovery but with fewer instruments. Seven in all, plus 19 cameras, a microphone for the first time, and even a drone! Only five robots, all American, have managed to land on Mars safely

Europe: A Mission That Goes on Forever The large-scale Mars project, ExoMars, is led by the European Space Agency (ESA). The program was inaugurated with the launch, in March 2016, of the TGO orbiter, for "trace gas orbiter" and of an experimental entry, descent, and landing module called Schiaparelli. They reached the Red Planet in October 2016. ExoMars also planned to launch a rover in 2020. This mission paves the way for a future Mars sample return mission in the 2020s. The two ExoMars missions are carried out in cooperation with European and Russian space organizations. This is not the only setback suffered by ExoMars. Launched in 2000, the program had been postponed for budgetary reasons. Then, it was to be done in partnership with NASA, which withdrew from the project; it is finally collaboration with the Russian space agency Roscosmos which was set up. The first part of the mission was nevertheless carried out in 2016, where ESA and Roscosmos deployed a lander and an orbiter to detect the presence of methane on Mars. The device will be used to guide the future probe launched in 2022.

FEB 2022

www.techfastly.com

Land Exactly in a Crater That Contained Water Perseverance is to land in the Jezero crater, formerly filled with water, as evidenced by the riverbed and delta identified from orbit. François Forget, an astrophysicist at the CNRS Dynamic Meteorology Laboratory, compares it to a "small Camargue." The precision aims to reduce the rover's distance to travel. However, Perseverance could travel several tens of kilometers during its mission. This 50 km crater "carefully chosen" according to François Forget, a planetologist at the CNRS, contained water 3.5 billion years ago. Has it stagnated long enough to have seen simple forms of life develop? This is what the

FEB 2022

planetologist community is hoping for—fine sediments, alluvium, which would contain traces of life. "If we see stromatolites on arrival, it will be the jackpot," enthuses William Rapin, a researcher at IRAP, the research institute in astrophysics and planetology. Stromatolites are layered rock structures created by colonies of bacteria on Earth. The oldest is precisely 3.5 billion years old. "We have the indicator minerals to be able to find these traces of primitive life," assures Violaine Sautter, a researcher in planetary geology at the CNRS and the National Museum of Natural History.

www.techfastly.com

Collect Samples That Another Mission Will Come to Collect With a preselection carried out by the SuperCam machine developed by IRAP and Thales in particular, it is planned to collect around thirty soil cores and rocks reflecting several types of rocks present on the planet. These samples "will be placed in small carefully sterilized and sealed containers, and we will leave them there to come back and collect them later," specifies François Forget. For this, a subsequent mission is planned, which will consist of collecting the samples, such as the pebbles from Petit Poucet, and making them take off again to reach a meeting point in orbit. A probe on standby will automatically capture the sample box to return to Earth by 2031.

This mission must also test the ability to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. For future human-crewed missions, and before that, to serve as an oxidizer for rockets that should take off again from the red planet. The MOXIE instrument, the size of a car battery, must produce 10 grams of water per hour. And for the first time on another earth, an attempt to fly a drone will be attempted.

For NASA, the cost of this mission is $ 2.4 billion.

India: Forerunner in Asia The Mars Orbiter Mission, or MOM, a mission to send an Indian orbiter around Mars, is also called Mangalyaan. It sent a probe into orbit around the planet in September 2014 and marked India's first successful foray into interplanetary space. The investigation analyzes the characteristics of Mars and the planet's atmosphere; she is studying the presence of methane, which could indicate that life exists on Mars. This success pushes the Indian Organization for Space Research (ISRO) to consider other interplanetary flights. The NASA-ISRO Mars working group is strengthening cooperation between the two countries.

FEB 2022

Japan The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency plans a mission to one of the two moons of Mars, Phobos or Deimos, with a targeted landing in the early 2020s. Back on Earth, the material collected will be analyzed. The first Japanese probe - Nozomi, or Planet-B, was sent into the orbit of Mars in December 2003, unfortunately without success. The device is now an artificial planet, which will revolve around the Sun for all eternity.

Future of the Mars Exploration Missions Every 26 months, there is an alignment of the Earth and Mars. As a result, travel time and cost are reduced, allowing probes to complete the interplanetary journey in about six months. Space agencies tend to launch investigations during these conjunctions, the most recent in the summer of 2020. Three countries sent spacecraft to Mars during this period: on July 20, 2020, the Emirates United Arabs launched the Hope probe, which will orbit Mars to study its atmosphere and weather conditions; China, which launched the Tianwen-1 probe on July 23; 88

FEB 2022

and the United States, which launched the Perseverance rover on July 30. Perseverance is a rover with six wide wheels and a sophisticated set of instruments. It should land in Jezero Crater. This ancient delta site would be the best place to find old life forms on Mars. Once the landing is successful, Perseverance will study the climate and weather conditions on the Red Planet. These test technologies can help humans survive on-site and take samples from dozens of rocks, which will then be sent to Earth. . One www.techfastly.com

It should not be long before we find out, one way or another, whether our neighboring planet has ever been home to life and whether our species has a future in another world.

of the rover's objectives is to determine whether Mars has been, or still is, inhabited. It is, therefore, a real mission to search for a Martian life form. All of these robotic activities pave the way for human-crewed missions. NASA has set a reasonable goal of sending the first humans to Mars in the 2030s. The US space agency is developing its Orion space capsule, transporting humans to the Moon and beyond.

Mars is also attracting interest from private space companies like SpaceX. Its CEO has repeatedly insisted that humanity must become "a multi-planetary species" to survive. His team is currently working on a project that could allow a million people to live on Mars by the turn of the century. It should not be long before we find out, one way or another, whether our neighboring planet has ever been home to life and whether our species has a future in another world.

The Space Economy:

A Gateway to Opportunities for Innovators by Srivani Mandapaka Space - a boundless extension and humans are well capable of doing business anywhere in the universe. Space travel has been an exclusive province of astronauts and animals (as a specimen) for the past few decades. Thanks to visionaries and emerging technologies, multi-planetary life is now a possibility — a breakthrough. What will you call an industry that is not limited to a state, country, continent, or even the planet? Rather than defining it as an industry, we can call it a medium of commerce where humans conduct business. Why wait? Take a look at the economy and initiatives to increase growth and opportunities for various industries.

FEB 2022

www.techfastly.com

What is Space Economy? Morgan Stanley estimates that the space sector will reach $1 trillion in economic output by 2040. According to UBS (via CNBC), space tourism will be worth $3 billion in markets by 2030. That's the stir the space economy is steaming up. So, how do you define a space economy? The space economy is an ecosystem with which we are all intimately connected. Perhaps, the article you're reading on your smartphone is via a satellite in space. In essence, the space economy is more than just space and surrounding asteroids. It combines all potential industries - manufacturing to telecommunications, energy to technology, health to academics, fashion to travel, and more. They all come under one roof to make seamless modern digital lives possible. Let's explore how various industries are gaming up their levels into the space economy with that buzz. With no spacesuit required, let's fly high into that sky.

How Are Various Industries Taking a Plunge into Space? Did anyone possibly ever imagine that a smartphone would probably replace a calculator, camera, music, and video player? Yes, it did, with advancement in technologies it was all possible. Science and technology are ever-expanding, and there is no limit to it. Visionaries explore the next frontier and find ways to reach places we could only imagine. A space economy might be a budding medium of commerce. Still, it will soon play a vital role in the global economy, with every industry investing and innovating into that sector. Even though most of us won't be flying to the International Space Station or visiting Mars with technology any sooner, we believe businesses can develop innovative ideas to support space-based business. So, what are those industries, and who are those businesses?

Health Industry Astronauts face a myriad of challenges regarding healthcare, diagnostics, and fitness. The smart clothing manufacturer Hexoskin partnered with NASA astronauts to develop lunar and martian mission medical monitoring systems to address such challenges. In early June, a handheld ultrasound device called Butterfly IQ was shipped to the International Space Station (ISS) to facilitate health monitoring. However, despite Jeff Bezos's suborbital trip in July 2021 and Elon Musk's pursuit of immortality on Mars, we non-billionaires will have to stay on the ground; Earth, to be precise, for the time being. Parking that aside, find out how health-tech industries are launching various wearables to aid the healthcare of astronauts.

FEB 2022

VisualDX used a machine learning algorithm and trained it with abundant clinical data. The algorithm supports even a non-healthcare professional to diagnose medical conditions. It needs a picture of the issue and answers to relevant questions; the software helps astronauts diagnose the problem. Their technical team is developing an offline mode for the app. 1Drop Diagnostics developed a portable device that provides point-of-care blood analysis. Space-friendly, the smaller version can test a range of blood profiles like heart, kidney, and liver profiles with just a few drops of blood.

Technology Startups Entrepreneurs often look for new ways to solve problems. Solving the challenge of space travel by enabling the safe reentry of astronauts. Space-tech experts are designing more technologies for sustainable space farming. If we want to thrive in space, we'll need more than potatoes and radishes. Are there any ways to grow leafy greens? In this area, NASA's Vegetable Production System is already proving useful. And what about those fuel stations? Wouldn't rockets need fuel to travel between colonies? Have a look at the emerging technology startups in the space economy.

FEB 2022

Infostellar

Mu Space

Infostellar is a Japanese startup that provides Ground Segment-as-a-Service. Through a single application programming interface (API), StellarStation allows satellites to connect with ground stations worldwide. By sharing surplus capacity on the platform, the third-party ground stations earn revenue. This solution enhances space businesses' services with 99.5% platform availability and security measures.

Mu Space specializes in satellite communication. It uses in-flight connectivity (IFC) and a self-stabilizing antenna to transmit and receive signals while an aircraft is in motion. With this technology, aircraft routes can be tracked via a network of satellites. Aside from satellite monitoring and remote access, the startup offers maritime connectivity and 5G wireless.

Academics

Travel Platforms

Universities worldwide offer programs in aerospace engineering. This curriculum teaches students about aeronautical and aerospace design and development. Nevertheless, what would astronauts do if they wanted to build a colony in space? The new age curriculum should keep the practical syllabus even before theories. That calls for a new curriculum that teaches students various practical difficulties in space. It can be building colonies on Mars or shipping them from the earth. Archinaut has already begun working on large structures in space.

Can a civilian make a trip to space? The answer is yes. We heard names like Make My Trip, Trip Advisor, and Expedia, which are for traveling around the globe. So are the firms like Blue Origin, SpaceX, and Virgin Galactic for humans to explore the boundless area for recreation and amusement. The ticket pricing would be a whopping million dollars, though. As per a report, the richest man on the planet earth, Jeff Bezos's suborbital trip cost him $200,000 for a ride. Although, the price structure is not revealed by Blue Origin yet. The other firm, Branson's Virgin Galactic, announced its 600 reservations made at $250,000 per ride and is all set to take off the spaceflight in 2022. No wonder if these prices come down to a decent amount and civilians can plan vacations beyond earth in a few decades to reach.

FEB 2022

www.techfastly.com

Fashion With the hope of commercial space flights taking off in the years to come, many fashion industries are racing up to make fashionable spacewear. Under Armour, in collaboration with Virgin Atlantic, is in a plan to design and create spacesuits. The apparel industry across countries is now planning to pitch in for creating trendy and comfortable spacesuits, footwear, and other accessories for space tourists. That means the fashion industry needs to integrate various technologies and design firms to bring a safe and commendable output. There is a lot of money to be made.

Media's Aid in Buzz Although there are no space reporters yet, we could see them soon. As more space-related companies and organizations emerge, more publications will devote a beat to space, and there will be an influx of journalists seeking to cover this industry. Therefore, creating the possibility for innovators to become experts in space economics.

Other Industries - Mining, Construction, and Energy. The next growth opportunity awaits companies in various industries, including transportation, exploration, energy, construction, and hospitality. The industries that drive our global economy are increasingly conducting business in space.

ENERGY

MINING

CONSTRUCTION

Globally, energy is the largest industry with an estimated $8.4 trillion market value and a cumulative yearly growth rate of 4.1%. Humans consume a great deal of energy, especially as more humans will travel to space; the energy required to live, work, and move such a large population in space will be substantial. Solar energy will be a useful source since there is no filtering atmosphere in space. Chemical rockets will be the primary mode of transportation to aid such conversions. Another attractive source of human existence in space: mining it.

Global mining has plunged from $1.6 trillion in 2010 to $714 billion in 2016, but this may change as soon as the space resource industry transforms the definition of mining. Celestial bodies can provide space resources, including asteroids and the moon. In a report published earlier this year, Goldman Sachs stated asteroid mining could be feasible at "traditional mining costs." "Asteroid mining has a high psychological barrier, but it has far lower financial and technical obstacles." adds the report.

The first orbital construction systems will be in place by the end of this decade. In addition to assembling large structures in orbit, these robotic vehicles will repair or refuel existing satellites. This technology can be used in conjunction with zero-gravity additive manufacturing technologies to create structures "printed" and erected in space. While there will be no similarities in construction in space to earth, the techniques and services will be equally applicable across space's entire value chain.

FEB 2022

www.techfastly.com

End Note Finally, we are all innovators here on earth, and we can plan ahead and determine what kinds of innovations will take us into outer space. With every industry bearing torches for the way forward, the decade opens possibilities on commercial spaceflights. That gives a gateway to the industries that could make this spaceflight a successful venture, from designing spacesuits to building structures, a zillion ways to add a feather to the cape. That said, it's time for firms to stay abreast with every space opportunity and find their sustainable business ground on earth.

Techfastly enables leaders around the globe to dive deeper into technology insights, to drive results Simpler & Quicker