Life on Mars

No, we haven't discovered life on Mars.  Yet.  But hopes are high, as the rover Curiosity and earlier rovers have confirmed the Red Planet does indeed have signs of conditions that would have supported life there at one time.  It may be a matter of time before we discover the proof we're looking for.  Until then we can only speculate.  But instead of speculating if it had life, let's try and look at what kind of life it might have had.

Public Domain image

One of the first things we need to determine is the temperature and climate necessary for life.  It is in what some consider to be the Habitable Zone.  But since Mars is half again further from the sun than Earth, it's a lot colder, and one of the trickier parts of this problem is creating a convincing climate model at any time in its history that produces conditions above freezing.  The temperatures on Mars are estimated by infrared thermal mapper data at between 81 °F and −225 °F.  And while life can exist in conditions below freezing, it does prove problematic, especially if there was no warmer time for them to evolve and adapt to less than optimal conditions.  Being able to support life and being favorable for life are two vastly different things.

We have seen signs which point to the presence of water there in the past.  We've seen clouds in Mars' atmosphere, and seen snow falling.  Finding water-formed minerals including calcium carbonite, hematite, jarosite, and goethite on its surface also points to larger quantities of water at some time in its history.  As water is a basic component of life as we know it, these are big steps toward confirming the presence of life there.

Just the hint of water is hardly an ideal situation for life.  About 70% of Earth is covered with water.  About 226,000 forms of life on Earth live in our lakes, rivers, streams, and oceans.  Life is dependent on water, and far more than just having trace amounts of it around.  So how would Mars have gotten that amount of water?

Size of Tharsis Volcanoes, by the Lunar and Planetary Institute

Some scientists theorize that the Tharsis Montes, a volcanic bulge containing the largest volcanoes in the solar system, is large enough to have caused changes to the climate of the entire planet.  Since these volcanoes are so huge - the tallest has a whopping summit elevation of 59,000 feet - they could have spewed enough water vapor and carbon dioxide to create a much thicker and warmer atmosphere in a series of eruptions.  Some estimate the amount of gasses released into the atmosphere could have given Mars a thicker atmosphere than Earth's.  And because of the size of this bulge, it's theorized it has affected the spin axis and changed geographic locations of the planet's poles.  Based on the picture above, it's not hard to understand why.

The Mars of today and the Mars of eons ago could look drastically different.  What is now frozen desert wastelands could have once been fertile plains and forests, and the cradle of life such as we have never seen on Earth.  Would life on Mars have been that dissimilar to Earth's?  We can probably assume the evolution of carbon-based life forms, but from there all bets are off.

Throughout Earth's history, the predominant phylum has changed several times.  Fossil records indicate mammals weren't always the top dog.  At one point plants, fish, amphibians, and dinosaurs were all top forms of life here.  At one point, so were arthropods.

What if a similar phylum to Earth's arthropoda became dominant?  We know from experience they can be very successful, and it's not hard to imagine a Martian landscape covered in giant bugs.  Spiders, ants, scorpions, and the like are quite successful in arid lands and severe climates, and cockroaches live goddamn anywhere they want.  It wouldn't be the first time someone envisioned bugs living on Mars.

Camel Spider © by Scott

Life on Mars could also be on a much different scale than Earth's.  While larger life is more impressive and makes for better stories, my bet would be on smaller life.  It's easier to imagine them surviving on less water and in more hazardous climates.  Larger animals require so much more to be right in their environments, from food sources to temperatures to available space, that it's hard to see them surviving on a planet more hostile and extreme than our own.  But given enough time, and assuming you believe in the theories of evolution, it's not hard to visualize a society of intelligent arthropods, at a fraction of our own size, living comfortably in the lands of ancient Mars.

One would, however, assume a completely different evolutionary chain to have happened in the event of life on Mars.  Even a small change in environment can produce drastically different results.  It's not hard to see where life on Mars would have taken a very different turn from that on Earth.

Mars and Earth are more alike than we might think.  While many find it easy to picture something quite alien and different from life here, the reality is that Mars is not that dissimilar to Earth.  The image below compares an outcrop of rocks on Earth with a similar outcrop on Mars.  Can you tell which is which?  You can visit NASA's Mars Exploration Program website to find out.  You got it wrong, didn't you?

Rock Outcrops on Mars and Earth, by NASA

Certain functions and structures are the easiest and simplest ways of doing things, and that's critical to evolution.  Many different types of animals all have the same basic components, primarily because that's the best way to do things.  Plants all function in basically the same way.  And they most likely will on Mars too, because the basic foundation for life - the chemicals and elements that make up the structure of Mars - is the same as that of Earth.

So it would be no surprise to find life there.  It may be a matter of time and effort.  Chances are, if we do discover life, it won't be little green men, but rather little green microbes.  It won't be nearly as exciting from a layman's point of view, but for science it will be a discovery of monumental proportions.  One thing is for sure: Ray Bradbury would have been excited beyond belief to know there really was once life on Mars.

Mission To Mars!

As you've probably heard by now, NASA's newest six-wheeled rover Curiosity landed on Mars this month.  No small feat.  There were so many things that could have gone wrong, and didn't.  Instead of disappointment at what might have been, we have an awesome robotic machine tearing up the Red Planet's soil, taking samples, pictures, and data of all sorts.  Outstanding!

Curiosity was launched from Earth on the Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle on November 26, 2011.  It landed in the Gale Crater on Mars on August 6, 2012, after traveling 354 million miles to get there.  Not only did it make it there, it landed within a mile and a half of its target landing spot, which is a damn fine bit of accuracy for something that far away.  Curiosity is scheduled to explore the planet for at least 687 Earth days, or one Martian year, and cover a distance of 3.1 by 12 mi miles.  It's nuclear powered, and has the fuel to function for about four Earth years, so we may see more of it than just what's planned.

Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle © by Official US Air Force

I've put together some links and resources to follow Curiosity's mission there.  NASA (Twitter handle @NASA) is the ultimate source of all things Curiosity, but not the only one.  The NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (Twitter handle @NASAJPL) manages most of the robotic missions exploring Earth, the solar system and the universe, including this one to Mars.  Curiosity itself shares a lot of information, with the Twitter handle @MarsCuriosity, on Facebook, and on Google +.  Of course, it's not live tweeting and posting from Mars, but don't tell it that.

It has already sent back some amazing footage, including the hair-raising decent onto the surface of Mars, and the first 360 degree panoramic shot of the surface.  Even more amazing is seeing ourselves from the perspective of another planet.

Earth From Mars © NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA named Curiosity's landing site on Mars for the late science fiction author Ray Bradbury, calling it the Bradbury Landing Site.  If only he could have seen it happen.  Bradbury was hugely instrumental in sparking and nurturing our interest in the Red Planet.  I think he would have loved to see these wonderful pictures sent back from the planet he wrote so much about.

Wall of Gale Crater © NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

So what's in store for Curiosity in the future?  Well, besides the beautiful pictures of the Martian landscape and the view from there into our galaxy, we can expect quite a bit more.  Its mission is to explore the planet's "habitability," to determine if it ever had an environment that could sustain life.  Most of this research will be conducted with soil analysis, studying rocks, soils, and Martian geology to understand chemical composition and forms of carbon there.  This will help assess what the environment was like there in the past, and could lead to the discovery of life there.  At the very least, it should tell us if life on Mars was ever even a possibility.

Wall of Gale Crater © NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

In addition to exploring the geological and mineralogical composition of the surface and near-surface, it will study and catalog the organic carbon compounds and chemical building blocks of life (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, and sulfur) on Mars, giving us an understanding of the biological processes that have happened there.  It will also study the atmospheric evolution processes from the present state and distribution of any water and carbon dioxide it finds there.  This will go a long ways toward determining if there was ever life on Mars.

Wiggle in the Gravel © NASA/JPL-Caltech

Curiosity is much larger than the previous rovers we've sent there.  It also has over ten times the mass of scientific instruments they had, so its capacity for learning and discovery are far greater than ever before.  It has more missions than they did, and more capacity to send its findings back to its home planet.  Until the next mission is launched in 2016, it's our best shot at discovering life on Mars.

So is there life there?  Was there ever?  Were the conditions ever right for it?  Some folks think so.  In fact, some think life on Earth actually originated from Mars.  With Curiosity, we may soon find out the answers to those questions and many more.

Update:  Found a wonderful film/animation of how Spirit and Opportunity got to Mars.  Well worth a view, preferably full-screen.

Separate Worlds

Atlantis and Earth have encountered one another before, so long ago that neither retains more than faded legends from the event. Now the rift between them has opened again. A collision is inevitable.

For the crew of the Olive Branch, the mission is a venture into never-before-charted territory. Theirs is a voyage to finally connect with intelligent life in space.

For the Atlanteans, the rift brings the actualization of something thought inconceivable - an alien invasion.

The possibilities for bridging the two worlds are virtually endless, but fate has a way of choosing its own outcome. Will harmony result, or will Earth and Atlantis be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past?

Separate Worlds is an 11,000-word novella.


It's finished, folks!  After long last, and more time and painstaking work than I'd like to admit, it's done, and the House of Dalar is ready for a release party.  Champagne is in order tonight.  But before that, my sincere gratitude goes out to several people, without whom this story would not be nearly what it is.

First, I'd like to mention my graphic design artist, Todd Bréda.  He took my random thoughts and ideas and crafted them into a beautiful cover, which very aptly conveys the concepts and feel of the story.  He was also a pleasure to work with, and things went rather quickly once he got the idea of what I wanted for my cover art.  I've heard nothing but praise for the cover art.  Thank you, Todd!

The second person that deserves many thanks is my editor, Karin Cox.  She not only took on the extra workload during an especially hectic time, she not only provided excellent editorial advice and corrections, but did so more quickly than expected.  She also commented on some structural areas in the story, pointing out that the story would be better if I'd flesh them out a bit more.  And she was right - I'm far happier with the result now than I would have been without those edits.  Thank you, Karin!

I'd like to thank David Gaughran, whose blog (and advice) I found extremely helpful.  He's really been a pioneer in the self-publishing world, cutting through some of the stigma and misconceptions, and setting the record straight on a number of different areas.  He's also made it very easy to understand the process, and learn what's really necessary to produce a quality e-book that separates itself from the deluge of others out there.  Thank you, Dave!

I'd also like to mention Guido Henkel, whose incredibly helpful blog series on ebook formatting helped me get through the coding process and turn Separate Worlds from a word document into an actual ebook.  After pouring through his step-by-step advice, I was able to produce a book of far better quality than I otherwise would have been able to.  Thank you, Guido!

I also had a lot of help from family and friends to acquaintances to Navy colleagues, to some wonderfully intelligent folks over at Seahawks.NET.  Without your help and support, this book wouldn't be nearly what it is.  Thank you!

Producing a book of any size requires not only a lot of time, effort, and attention to detail, but it requires more than just the author alone.  After going through this process, that is more glaringly obvious to me than it had been before.  I realize this post has started to sound suspiciously like an Oscar acceptance speech, but I felt it had to be said.

And now I'm throwing the book out there to the wolves, out there for anyone to read.  I've tried to ensure it's as good as I can possibly get it, and that's all I can do.  Look for it from a variety of digital booksellers available soon for 99¢.

Update: Available now at Barnes & Noble for the NOOK eBook reader or on a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, or Android smartphone enabled with their free NOOK eReading software.

Available now at Smashwords for Apple iPad/iBooks, Kindle devices and apps, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, Palm, most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital Editions, PCs, and others.  ISBN: 978-1-4658-4084-4.

Available now on Amazon for Kindle readers and apps.  ASIN: B0074U3LTQ.

To the Stars Again

Space has always been fascinating to us.  Long before technology allowed us to venture beyond the atmosphere, we've been fascinated with celestial objects.  Ancient cultures made gods out of them.  We've sacrificed our fellow humans to them.  They've affected daily life in numerous ways, from art to superstition to navigation to who knows what else.

I opined recently in a post on Curiosity Quills whether the decline in our space program would significantly alter the type of speculative fiction our children would read from that which we read.  I wondered whether the focus would shift from science fiction about outer space to more virtual reality, cyberspace-oriented science fiction.  It seems plausible, considering the end of the Space Shuttle program and the costs and logistics of a successful mission so a place even as relatively close as Mars.

But I wonder if I may have been a little premature in my pondering.  I've seen a number of interesting scientific discoveries lately that make me consider another alternative, and that is, we won't have to go out into space to continue our fascination with it.  Bringing it home via magnificent telescopes, video recording systems, and digital recreations of what only mathematics sees in space might just be the catalyst.

Hubble Catches Jupiter's Largest Moon Going to the 'Dark Side', © NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Consider the new planet made of diamond that was recently discovered.  Or the Tatooine-like planet that revolves around two suns.  Or the fact the planet Pluto may have oceans hidden beneath it's surface.  All three of these discoveries have been in the news within the last month or so, and all are exciting new developments in space research.  Maybe we'll end up designating poor Pluto as a planet once again.

Crab Nebula, © NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Technology grows in leaps and bounds, and that includes the tech that allows us to expand our reach into space without ever leaving the ground.  We're seeing more and more beautiful photos like these from NASA, allowing us the unique experience of space at a distance.

Hubble Finds Carbon Dioxide on an Extrasolar Planet, © NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

And while it would be überawesome to be an astronaut, and who hasn't dreamed of that as a child, the odds of a kid actually growing up to be an astronaut are well, astronomical.  Precious few actually get the chance to go up in space, unless of course you have large amounts of cash lying around without purpose and want to do it as a tourist.  That's where programs and projects like the Hubble come into play.  They allow that exploration without the travel.  They allow kids who won't have that chance to be actively engaged with the science of space exploration and research.

Hubble Supernova Bubble Resembles Holiday Ornament, © NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

We can see worlds far beyond our own, and even speculate whether they have life on them or even contain livable environments.  We might even be able to detect life on even the remotest of them someday soon.  That's a lot, considering we're looking at objects fifty kajillion light years away from being seen with the naked eye.

We're a curious species, and whether or not we continue or discontinue a program, our curiosity won't be easily sated.  We'll continue to wonder what's out there beyond the boundaries of our vision, and we'll continue to reach out to find it.

Dying Star Shrouded by a Blanket of Hailstones Forms the Bug Nebula, © NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

So who knows, maybe I speculated wrong in my earlier post.  In fact, I'm sure I did.  Not because the premise was necessarily wrong, but because I didn't take into consideration the other aspects of technology we are developing.  And while we will continue to break down the barriers of the cyberspace frontier, it won't come at the expense of abandoning outer space.

Most Earthlike Exoplanet Started out as Gas Giant, © NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

We may be decades or even a century or more from actual space travel to another celestial body besides the moon.  We may never get there as humans, but we aren't going to remain that stationary with the technology that allows us to view it from where we are.  And that's what's going to further drive space age science and the speculative fiction that derives from it.  As more and more of these exciting discoveries are made, our imaginations will remain fueled with thoughts of what's even further out.

Our kids may well see the same space-inspired fiction we grew up reading and watching, but because of the remote technology that allows us to see it from a distance, instead of manned space vehicles exploring the visible space around us.  Rather than shifting focus, this type of fiction will expand its focus.  We've already seen several new sub-genres appear in the last several decades or so, and we'll continue to see more.  Our kids won't abandon the types of speculative fiction we grew up with, they'll just add more to the mix, and that's a great thing.