Category: space.com

Amazing new images show the enormous canyon system on Pluto’s big moon Charon in unprecedented detail.

The photos were captured by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft during its historic flyby of Pluto on July 14. Mission team members combined some of the images into a new video that lets viewers fly over Charon’s tortured surface.

Charon’s huge chasm snakes across the moon’s surface for more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers). It’s at least four times longer than Arizona’s Grand Canyon, and twice as deep in places, New Horizons team members said. (Some parts of the Grand Canyon are more than 1 mile, or 1.6 km, deep.) [See more Pluto photos by New Horizons]

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft obtained this high-resolution enhanced color view of Pluto’s moon Charon just before the closest approach on July 14, 2015.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

The new imagery, spectacular as it is, doesn’t even capture the canyon’s full extent. The series of chasms and fractures probably wraps around onto the backside of Charon, which New Horizons could not see during the close approach, NASA officials said.

“It looks like the entire crust of Charon has been split open,” John Spencer, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said in a statement today (Oct. 1).

“In respect to its size relative to Charon, this feature is much like the vast Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars,” added Spencer, who is the deputy leader for New Horizon’s geology, geophysics and imaging (GGI) team.

Charon is the largest of Pluto’s five moons. At 750 miles (1,207 km) in diameter, Charon is about half as wide as Pluto itself. The two objects share a common center of gravity, so most researchers regard Pluto-Charon as a binary system.

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft used its the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI to obtain high-resolution images of Charon on July 14, 2015, which were combined with enhanced color from the Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC).
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

New Horizons’ flyby revealed Charon to be a surprisingly complex and varied world, complete with canyons, mountains, landslides and many other surface features.

“We thought the probability of seeing such interesting features on this satellite of a world at the far edge of our solar system was low, but I couldn’t be more delighted with what we see!” Ross Beyer, an affiliate of the GGI team from the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute and NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, said in the same statement.

New Horizons also discovered that on parts of Charon there are only a few craters, meaning the landscape has been resurfaced relatively recently. Mission scientists said they think water-blasting “cryovolcanoes” may be responsible.

“The team is discussing the possibility that an internal water ocean could have frozen long ago, and the resulting volume change could have led to Charon cracking open, allowing water-based lavas to reach the surface at that time,” said New Horizons team member Paul Schenk, of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.

New Horizons beamed just a small fraction of its flyby data home on July 14, storing the vast majority for later transmission. That data dump began in earnest last month and will continue through the end of 2016, mission team members said.

Mission scientists received the new Charon images on Sept. 21, and they were published today.

New Horizons is currently about 3.1 billion miles (5 billion km) away from Earth and speeding farther into the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune’s orbit. Mission scientists will soon start positioning the probe to perform a flyby of a small Kuiper Belt object, which would occur in early 2019 if NASA approves an extended mission.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/Stuart Robbins/mash mix: Space.com’s @SteveSpaleta

Credit: Space Telescope Science Institute, Office Of Public Outreach

Artist’s illustration of Moon Express’ MX-1 lunar lander on its way to the moon. Credit: Moon Express

The first private moon landing could be just two years away.

California-based company Moon Express, which aims to fly commercial missions to the moon and help unlock its resources, has signed a five-launch deal with Rocket Lab, with the first two robotic liftoffs scheduled to take place in 2017.

These uncrewed launches — three of which are firmly on the books, with the other two optional at the moment — will blast Moon Express’ MX-1 lander into space aboard Rocket Lab’s 52.5-foot-tall (16 meters) Electron rocket. The goal is to test out the MX-1 and its systems, making sure the spacecraft can land softly on the moon, move about the lunar surface, grab samples and return them to Earth. [Moon Express: A Private Lunar Lander in Pictures]

“The holy grail of our company is to provide, to prove, a full-services capability — not just landing, but coming back from the moon,” said Moon Express co-founder and CEO Bob Richards, who announced the new launch deal today (Oct. 1) at the Space Technology & Investment Summit in San Francisco.  

If the MX-1 nails its landing on the first mission, “we’re going to be inspired to try a sample-return,” Richards told Space.com. “I don’t know if we’ll do that on the second mission, but I sure hope we’re trying it by the third mission, if all is going that well.”

The two optional launches provide some insurance for Moon Express in case the first three flights don’t go entirely according to plan, Richards said.

The contract puts Moon Express in position to possibly win the Google Lunar X Prize, a $30 million competition to land a privately funded robotic spacecraft on the moon by the end of 2017. The first team to do this — and have the craft move 1,640 feet (500 m) and beam high-definition video and images back to Earth as well — will win the $20 million grand prize. (The second team to accomplish these goals gets $5 million; another $5 million is available for meeting certain other milestones.)

Sixteen teams remain in the running for the Google Lunar X Prize, so the outcome remains very much up in the air. For example, one team, Astrobotic, signed a contract in 2011 to launch its lunar lander aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Astrobotic representatives have said they plan to launch in 2016.

The 3.9-foot-wide (1.2 m) Electron rocket is designed to deliver a 330-lb. (150 kilograms) payload to a sun-synchronous orbit 310 miles (500 kilometers) above Earth, according to Rocket Lab’s website. The two-stage rocket is not operational yet; commercial launches are scheduled to begin in 2016, say representatives of the company, which is headquartered in California but has a New Zealand subsidiary. (Moon Express will have the option of launching from Rocket Lab’s range in New Zealand or from a site in the United States.)

“Rocket Lab is pleased to begin working with Moon Express to launch its spacecraft and to provide support to such an ambitious mission,” Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said in a statement. “Moon Express has used advanced orbital mechanics to enable this mission from low-Earth orbit.”

Electron is quite an affordable option as far as orbital launches are concerned, with each liftoff costing just $4.9 million. Falcon 9 launches, for example, cost about $60 million each.

“We think the collapse of the price to get to the moon is going to enable a whole new market — kind of like the 4-minute-mile of space,” Richards said.

The MX-1 landers that blast off atop an Electron will be relatively small, constrained by the rocket’s size.. But the MX-1 is scalable, Richards said, and can be modified as needed to help the company achieve its ambitious goal of opening up the moon and its resources to commercial use.

“As the market responds, we will be able to provide the platforms to support the market,” Richards said. “We’re starting small; we’re starting with the baby steps.”

This story was updated at 3:45 p.m. EDT to add information about Astrobotic’s plans.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

Russia launched an unmanned cargo ship Thursday (Oct. 1) on a speedy mission to deliver tons of fresh supplies to a waiting crew on the International Space Station.

The cargo ship, called Progress 61, blasted off atop a Russian Soyuz rocket at 12:49 p.m. EDT (1649 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where it was late Thursday night local time. If all goes well, the spacecraft will spend six hours in flight, orbiting Earth four times as it chases the space station.

“A flawless climb to orbit for the newest resupply craft en route to the International Space Station,” NASA spokesman Rob Navias said during his launch commentary. [Watch Progress 61 Launch Into Space]

The Progress 61 spacecraft (also known as 61P) is carrying 3.1 tons of supplies for the six-man crew of the International Space Station. The freighter will arrive at the station at 6:54 p.m. EDT (2254 GMT). You can watch the space docking live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV, beginning at 6:15 p.m. EDT (2215 GMT).

Russia’s Progress spacecraft are three-module cargo ships that are similar in appearance to Russia’s Soyuz crew capsules. But in place of a crew capsule, Progress vehicles carry propellant for use in maneuvering the space station. Progress vehicles are also disposable, with Progress 61 slated to be discarded in December so it can burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.

The International Space Station relies on a fleet of robotic spacecraft to keep its crew fully stocked with supplies. In addition to Russian Progress vehicles, unmanned spacecraft from Japan and Europe have delivered goods to the station. A Japanese HTV-5 cargo ship left the space station on Monday (Sept. 28) after completing its mission.

NASA also has agreements with two private U.S. companies, SpaceX and Orbital ATK, for unmanned cargo delivery flights.

SpaceX and Orbital ATK are currently working to return their rockets and spacecraft to flight after separate failures.

On June 28, an unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket broke apart during the launch of its Dragon cargo ship. SpaceX officials have cited a faulty strut as the cause of the failure. In October 2014, an Orbital Antares rocket exploded just after liftoff, destroying its robotic Cygnus spacecraft.

Earlier this year, on April 28, a Russian Progress 59 spacecraft failed to reach the space station due to a malfunction just after launch. A subsequent Progress 60 launch in July successfully flew to the space station.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

A Soyuz rocket launched the cargo ship towards the International Space Station on Oct. 1st, 2015. It blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying supplies and experiments for the ISS. It is scheduled to arrive about 6 hours later.

Credit: NASA

Credit: NASA/GSFC

20th Century Fox is inviting fans of “The Martian” to mail a potato home (or to a friend) with Mark Watney stamps. Credit: 20th Century Fox/collectSPACE.com

It may seem strange at first, but by the time you get done watching “The Martian,” the new movie from director Ridley Scott, you will understand why 20th Century Fox is offering to send you a potato.

Or, if you prefer, you can have a potato sent to a friend.

In the movie, which opens in theatres this Friday (Oct. 2), astronaut Mark Watney finds himself left for dead and alone on Mars. [‘The Martian’ Movie and NASA: Full Coverage]

“This will come as quite a shock to my crewmates, and to NASA, and to the entire world, but I am still alive,” states Watney, played by actor Matt Damon, commenting on his situation. “Surprise.”

To survive, Watney must “science the sh*t” out of the Red Planet, which includes attempting to make his food last for longer than planned.

“Right, let’s do the math,” Watney explains. “Our service mission here was supposed to last 31 sols [Martian days]. For redundancy, they sent 68 sols worth of food, that’s for six people. So for just me, that is going to last 300 sols, which I figure I can stretch to 400 if I ration.”

“So, I’ve got to figure out a way to grow three years’ worth of food here — on a planet where nothing grows,” Watney surmises. “Luckily, I am a botanist. Mars will come to fear my botany powers.”

Enter the potatoes.

Without giving away all of the details, the potatoes play an important role in Watney’s fate on Mars.

As such, 20th Century Fox has partnered with Mail a Spud (yes, that’s a real company) to let fans of the film ship an unpackaged potato through the mail to themselves or to whomever they desire — so long as they live in the United States.

“Send your friend or yourself a potato courtesy of Mark Watney,” the studio promotes on the movie’s website. “Be one of the first 1000 people to follow the link to mailaspud.com and use the discount code ‘MARTIAN’ to send a potato for free.”

(If you’re not quick enough to be included in the first 1,000 fans, Mail a Spud charges $9.99 for each potato.)

But wait, there’s more!

Not only do you get a potato — which you could in theory then use to grow even more potatoes, thanks to growing instructions kindly offered by 20th Century Fox — but the potato will come postmarked with a Mark Watney postage stamp.

The $4 custom stamp features a close-up of Mark Watney (Damon) with the slogan, “Bring Him Home.”

Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) has to grow food on Mars, a planet where nothing grows, in “The Martian.”
Credit: 20th Century Fox

The stamp has a (possibly inadvertent) connection to the movie, too, by way of the book on which the film is based.

In author Andy Weir’s “The Martian,” a stamp contributes to how the world marks Watney’s status on Mars. In the two months that the Ares 3 crew member is thought to be dead, the U.S. Postal Service (in the book) issues thousands of stamps in his memory.

But, of course, Watney isn’t dead.

“We don’t print stamps for living people,” a representative of the Postal Service tells a news anchor. “So we stopped the run immediately and recalled the stamps.”

That prompts the reporter to advise, “If you’ve got a Mark Watney commemorative stamp, you might want to hold on to it.”

But the potato you may want to toss.

See Mark Watney’s potato growing instructions from “The Martian” at collectSPACE.com.

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2015 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

Credit: NASA

A team of rocketeers launched an out-of-this-world Kickstarter campaign today (Oct. 1) to raise $1 million for “Moonspike” – an ambitious project to launch the first crowdfunded rocket to the moon.

The Moonspike project aims to launch a small titanium payload carrying photos and videos from project backers into space, and ultimately crash it into the moon. The resulting dust plume from the impact should observable from orbit, its backers say. While a science return from the mission would be desirable, the main goal is to see if a small group of engineers can create a moon rocket and payload for a reasonable amount of money, Chris Larmour, a co-founder of the project and serial space entrepreneur, told Space.com in an e-mail. It’s the first campaign of its kind, with the Kickstarter page going live at 7 a.m. ET (1100 GMT) today.

“We’ve been working hard to develop our rocket and spacecraft designs over the past few months and today we are opening up our feasibility study document to the public,” Larmour said. The other co-founder is Kristian von Bengtson, also a co-founder of Danish private space travel group Cophenhagen Suborbitals. [Related: How Crowdfunding Helps Spur Space Projects]

While the rocket has yet to be built, and the launch site and date determined, the design is as flexible as possible for different latitudes of launch site, Larmour said. It calls for a 22-ton, two-stage, liquid-fueled launch vehicle that can get a spacecraft (a third stage) of about 331 lbs. (150 kilograms) to Earth orbit to send to the moon, Larmour said. Most of the work will be done in-house by a small team to contain costs, he added.

This Moonspike graphic depicts the private project’s mission plan to launch a crowdfunded rocket and slam a titanium probe into the moon’s surface. Moonspike’s Kickstarter crowdfunding project launched on Oct. 1, 2015.
Credit: Moonspike

“If we get backing we will move to a more detailed design as the next phase, and start building components fairly quickly,” he said, but did not specify a date.

As Moonspike is a young company, the founders chose Kickstarter because they felt that traditional angel investors (individual backers with deep pockets) or venture capitalists (companies that invest in startups) would not be interested in taking on the risk, Larmour said.

The crowdfunding campaign will be “all or nothing,” he acknowledged, with no Plan B if they don’t raise the desired million. But if it does end up working out, the group plans to raise several tens of millions of dollars more through more traditional equity financing routes. The initial Kickstarter money will be used for hardware development and other setup to make investors more interested in the product, he added.

This Moonspike graphic depicts the components of the rocket designed to launch the project’s moon probe.
Credit: Moonspike

A team of seven people are working directly on the project, with four other “experienced business people” on the board of directors, Larmour said.

“The team we have gathered have both professional training with organizations like NASA and hands-on experience building rockets at Copenhagen Suborbitals, a private team of amateur rocket builders who designed and built several successful rockets on a shoestring budget during the past 7 years. The vehicles this team have designed and launched include the 9.3m tall [30.5 feet], liquid-fueled HEAT-1X, and the actively guided 5.3m Sapphire rocket,” he wrote.

An artist’s illustration of the private Moonspike rocket launching on a crowdfunded mission to send a titanium probe to the moon. The Moonspike Kickstarter project launched on Oct. 1, 2015.
Credit: Moonspike

As regulations are believed to be one of the key risks to mitigate, the group has already started discussions with the UK Space Agency to learn the ropes.

The Moonspike Kickstarter campaign will run for 30 days. One of the perks offered to backers will be putting their personal images, videos or data on a “memory vault” inside the Moonspike payload. Outside of Kickstarter, a major sponsor will have the option of pressing the launch button.

Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We’re also on Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

Credit: Moonspike

The noted cinema director developed a love of the lonely desert planet – once he got over being terrified of “The Martian” script. Credit: Twentieth Century Fox + Dave Brody

Editor’s note: This story contains spoilers on the new space epic “The Martian.” [So consider yourself warned. If anyone is going to spoil “The Martian” for you, it might as well be the film’s director, right?]

In “The Martian,” stranded astronaut Mark Watney must use his knowledge of science to survive for several years alone on the Red Planet, in a classic castaway scenario created by book author Andy Weir. The film of the same name is directed by Sir Ridley Scott, who began his screen career production-designing the BBC television series “Doctor Who” (1963) and directing the episodic police drama “Z Cars” (1965). Scott gained worldwide attention upon directing the movie “Alien” (1979), and solidified his sci-fi reputation with “Blade Runner” (1982). Scott has since directed 26 feature films and produced more than 100 movies, television series, documentaries and commercials, including the iconic “Apple Mac 1984” TV spot.

Space.com’s Dave Brody spoke with Scott about the many filmmaking challenges of “The Martian,” which premiered Sept. 14 at the Toronto International Film Festival. [“The Martian” and NASA: See Our Full Coverage]

Ridley Scott Directs Matt Damon: Discussing a pivotal plot point, revolving around a piece of equipment penetrating an EVA suit.
Credit: Giles Keyte, Photographer

Space.com: At the premiere of “The Martian,” you told us that the script — as written on the page — completely intimidated you. But, if I may, Sir, you’re Ridley Scott! How can any film script scare you?

Sir Ridley Scott: Well, it’s actually the science. I wasn’t very good at it in school. I was disastrous at mathematics, algebra, trigonometry and geometry — anything academic, in fact. I wasn’t stupid. I just couldn’t retain anything. I just had a block. At Grangefield Secondary School, class of 1952, I was in position 31 out of a class of 31.

I think it had something to do with the fact that I was a “war baby” and my dad became Army. So I was charging around schools. I did no less than 10 schools; most people do two. So I was totally “gaga.” I was out to lunch by the time I’d done my 10th school. I “clock-watched” for five years. I kept getting my head slapped. In those days, parents didn’t pay attention like they do today. [Surviving “The Martian”: How to Not Die on Mars (Infographic)]

But what helps me is — I’m a bit like a caveman, you know — I draw everything.

Space.com: You predominantly think visually?

Scott: Yeah. I can really draw. I had seven years of art school. So I can literally do a very, very good storyboard. I will sit down and draw the thing out and make decisions. It’s not stick men; it’s really drawing — wide shots, medium shots, close shots, detail, and on and on.

It makes me understand something, or makes me prepare the scene. I’m pre-filming it on boards. My boards are thick stacks on every film, especially on a film like this, where so much is done long after principal photography.

Mars On A Soundstage? Or a soundstage on Mars? Actor Matt Damon concentrates on lonliness while surrounded by many film crew members.
Credit: Peter Mountain, Photographer

Space.com: So you were doing pre-visualization before animatics and other previsual techniques existed?

Scott: Oh yeah — for a long time, and every time! I do pre-visualizations all the time! I do it before I start principal photography. It’s great because every morning, going in, there’s a reappraisal of what I’ve done for that day for those scenes. And then they’re printed and redistributed to the first A.D. [first assistant director], lighting, cameraman, production designer — and they know what we’re in for that day.

Space.com: Do you think of yourself as an orchestrator?

Scott: Yeah, yeah! Totally. You’re completely accurate.

Human Footfall On Mars: Sir Ridley Scott suggests the nuance of movement in Martian gravity to Matt Damon
Credit: Aidan Monaghan, Photographer

Space.com: How do you go about convincing a studio executive that you can put butts in theater seats by making a smart movie?

Scott: Well, I’ve always gotten away with smart movies, really. Some of them have played well. Some haven’t. And at the end of the day, I’ve got to get off the thing of saying I’m going to go for something I really love. Smart or not so smart, the thing has to entertain. I’ve gotten my head slapped a few times when they didn’t.

Space.com: Would you have made “The Martian” if Alfonso Cuarón hadn’t been successful with “Gravity”?

Scott: Oh yeah, sure! Yes, definitely. I thought “Gravity” was a great film. It was visually very engaging. Particularly with Sandra [Bullock], who was able to hold the screen by herself for all that kind of time. It was also a marvelous orchestration of visual effects.

But I think what we’ve got [with “The Martian”] may be an even bigger palette, bigger vista. You’ve got all four quadrants, really, don’t you? We’ve got great drama. You’ve got a lot of humor — which comes out of the drama, out of the reality of the situation. We’ve got truthful machines and technologies. And I think we’ve got pretty good visuals.

Space.com: Which of the machines and technologies in “The Martian” gave you the most concern?

Scott: Well, it was really only the computer code bit, because it’s like math. That has always been a block to me. And, therefore, when I had to shoot the sequence about ASCII [American Standard Code for Information Interchange, a coding scheme], I went: “Whaaat?! How am I going to show this?”

I was much more into the physical aspects of what the character Rich Purnell, “steel-eyed missile man,” [played by Donald Glover in the film] was doing, which was saying, “Don’t slow down” as you approach Earth. Instead, use it [orbital velocity] as a slingshot; use the gravity and shoot back out [to Mars] after you’ve picked up the supplies. I got all that. [Watch this Rich Purnell scene from “The Martian”]

But ASCII code, fundamentally, I couldn’t get my head around easily. So we just blocked it out the way the book had it.

Space.com: Andy Weir’s book is such an engineering manual of how you survive on Mars that I imagine suspending the audience’s disbelief was not your problem, was it?

Scott: Right!

Space.com: But did you have the opposite challenge? Did you have to work against the “geek factor” to make this entertaining?

Scott: No! I LOVED the “geek factor.” Andy is a very amusing man. His entire book is rooted in a tongue-in-cheek reality. The whole bloody thing is funny! The engine of it is humor. That’s what I saw.  And Drew Goddard, the screenwriter, kept that integral to the story.

Space.com: Plus, you have Matt Damon, who, while not known for being a comedic actor, has incredible comedic timing and wit.

Scott: Yeah, he’s great! The funniest stuff came from keeping him in the moment. He knows how to play against the drama. And, you know, the best humor comes from straight. And the “straight” is reacting against the present conditions of the person, the difficulties they’re actually dealing with. Finding out about all the obstacles —  that’s where the humor lies. [Video: Matt Damon on “The Martian” and Education]

Ingenuity = Survival: The Martian astronaut Mark Watney – played by Matt Damon – never stops innovating, no matter what. And so he lives on, as has the human species; that’s the metaphor of “The Martian”
Credit: Giles Keyte, Photographer

Space.com: You have Matt Damon’s character talking to the camera a lot and also a bit of “Blade Runner”-style voiceovers.

Scott: Oh, the GoPro. You’ve got to have the GoPro. To me, it’s the “black box.” It’s his companion, his man Friday [the human companion of protagonist Robinson Crusoe in Daniel Dafoe’s classic novel, published in 1719]. In a real human Mars mission, you’d have a GoPro everywhere. If he died on the spot, you’d want to know why, how and what blew.

And the other thing is, we have him talking straight to the camera when he’s doing his log.

Playing Pain, Living Loneliness: Sir Ridley Scott directs Matt Damon through years of on-screen isolation in “The Martian”
Credit: Giles Keyte, Photographer

Space.com: Mr. Damon told me that a lot of acting is actually reacting to the other actor. Did you go in with a game plan for directing him through these long stretches when there’s no other person in the scene?

Scott: No, just basic blocking [the filmmaking technique of pre-arranging the locations of certain action and dialogue, usually by director and actor stepping through a scene]. You’ve got to rely on your intuition and his. Just make a choice as you see it. As a director, any decision is better than no decision. Later on, alone in your trailer, you tremble in terror that you’ve got it wrong. But Matt completely understood the character and nailed him perfectly. [Watch Space.com’s exclusive interview with Matt Damon about “The Martian.”]

Space.com: Years ago, I spoke with director Ron Howard just before his “Apollo 13” premiered, and he said it was a challenge to make a movie with no sex, no violence and no villains. You don’t really have a human baddie in “The Martian” either, do you? Is the villain of this movie Mars itself?

Scott: Yes! Mars is the monster that can kill you in a heartbeat! It just doesn’t care. It’s a majestic monster, though. I wanted to make Mars out to be very, very beautiful, if only because we really don’t know yet what it’s like for people.

Wadi Rum Stands In For Mars: Located in southern Jordan, near the Saudi Arabian border, the Wadi Rum desert looks like a lot like Mars. But it has been inhabited by humans for more than 12,000 years.
Credit: Giles Keyte, Photographer

Space.com: Author Andy Weir says he left a lot of landscape description out of the book because it’s boring for the reader. So he was especially excited to learn that you were directing; he loves your penchant for panorama and establishing a strong sense of place.

Scott: We shot exteriors at Wadi Rum [in Jordan]. To me, it’s the Eighth Wonder of the World. It’s incredible. It’s only about 100 square miles [259 square kilometers]. And I didn’t do anything but shoot it at the right time, from the right positions, then added a bit of red dust to everything. So our film world looks pretty accurate — at least I’m hoping Mars looks a little like that.

Ridley Runs Lines With Matt: Director and lead actor confer on location in the Jordanian desert.
Credit: Giles Keyte, Photographer

But there must be massive rocks there. You’ve got one dormant Mars volcano [Olympus Mons] that is 59,000 feet [18,000 meters] tall. That’s 20,000 feet [6,000 m] higher than Everest! So I thought we’d be OK going to Wadi Rum to film.You know, what we see of Mars from [NASA rovers’] pictures sent back looks pretty boring: flat ground, reddish tundra, dust … That’s because you’re not going to land a piece of equipment in a rough mountain region. You couldn’t bloody move! And you might have it go into a crevasse and — bang — a couple billion dollars is out the window. So you’ve got to start, at least, on pretty boring ground, right?

I cheated a bit on the skies. On Mars, they are not H2O skies; they are not condensation skies. They are dry particles. What you’ve got a lot of on Mars is dust! You haven’t got a lot of high winds, because there’s very little atmosphere — so we cheated on a lot of that. But we needed to drive the story. [Watch this scene from “The Martian”]

On Mars, there’s dust on the move constantly, spiraling dust all the time. Twisters, I think they’re called?

Space.com: Dust devils. They actually help sweep the dust off the solar panels on NASA’s real Mars rovers.

Scott: Right! They’re not truly dangerous. The atmosphere is too thin to carry much force. But besides not being able to breathe, the truly treacherous thing on Mars — I’ve learned from the guys at NASA — is temperature: When you hit dark, you’re at minus 90 degrees Fahrenheit [minus 68 degrees Celsius] at the surface. You go up top, you’re at minus 150 F [minus 101 C]. Either way, you’re dead. That, too, is because of the thin atmosphere. [The AstroCritic: What “The Martian” Gets Right About Astronauts]

Space.com: And the plot depends on that thin atmosphere, especially in getting Watney off of Mars, yes?

Scott: Yeah, where there’s an argument within NASA near the film’s end, where Watney will be asked to take the nose off the MAV [Mars Ascent Vehicle] to lighten it — because it weighs 400 lbs. [181 kilograms] or something, and they need to make every ounce of fuel count. So what are they going to do? He’ll put a canvas over it. So they’re going to fly him up to orbit in a convertible!

Space.com: It’s a very cute scene. But could the pilot onboard the orbiting mother ship actually control Watney’s MAV from the ground up?

Scott: NASA [the real NASA] said, “Yes, if they leave the right components in the ship.” So Watney dismantles a lot of the ship, but leaves the communications in there so they can fly him up.

We tried to be authentic wherever we could. I kept in the docking just the way it’s really done. We modeled the ports on the way ESA [the European Space Agency] delivers to the International Space Station.

The Martian Plants A Seed: Sir Ridley Scott’s film, starring Matt Damon, may kindle the Concept of planetary colonization for many viewers
Credit: Peter Mountain, Photographer

Scott: No, I don’t think it’s entirely down to the risk. It’s also the cost. There are plenty of people who are lunatic enough to go up there. Why? I wouldn’t go up there, particularly as we can probably reconstruct it.

Space.com: Mars is a risky place to be. Do you think humanity has become too risk-averse to actually send people there?

Scott: Many say space travel will be “the thing.” But incredibly detailed digital reconstruction is probably what’s going to happen. We got probes with sensors.

We got one vehicle that’s been on the move since 1977 [Voyager 1], and others that send back incredible pictures [Curiosity]. They’re not film photographs. They’re radio data, which NASA then takes, reconstructs and conforms into a digital picture. And the images are fantastic, but they’re not artistic — it’s real.

Space.com: But do you think we’re going to send people back to the moon, to the asteroids, to Mars, maybe to the moons of Jupiter?

Scott: It’s a hard thing. They’ve got to do so much on their own. The moon is close, like three days’ travel; beyond that is tough. Mars — if you go by radio signals at the speed of light — at its closest position to Earth takes about four and half minutes. At the longest position — because Earth overtakes Mars orbiting around the sun — it takes about 22 minutes [for radio communications, travelling at the speed of light]. The distance ranges from about 40 million miles [64 million km] to over 140 million miles [225 million km]. And that’s just a heartbeat — just a blink — in comparison to everywhere else!

That means you’ve got to look very closely at whether we’re going to be able to “hypersleep,” or essentially hibernate. And most of all, how the hell are we going to be able to approach light speed?!

Space.com: Speaking of light speed and beyond, earlier, you referenced that scene near the end of “The Martian,” where Watney is violently blasting off in the MAV. And you have his head shuttering and bouncing around inside his helmet. Was that a knowing homage to [filmmaker Stanley] Kubrick and [character] Dave Bowman [of “2001 – A Space Odyssey”] going through that psychedelic space-time transition? Or was that just vintage Ridley Scott fast-shutter-speed, strobe-y “staccato” camera technique?

Scott: (Laughs) I wish I’d thought about it that much! Actually, what happened is that the lights went wrong! But I liked it. In the physical vibration [put onto Damon], they started to lose the light. And I thought, “Wow, that looks terrific!” So I used the take where the shot went simply wrong.

And the final touch was, I used all the nuts and bolts that must have come loose or been left during demolition. So now, they’re in their own orbit, floating around his helmet.

Space.com: So it’s a way of saying, “He’s back in space. He made it clear of “Mars, the monster”?

Scott: “Precisely!”

Check out Space.com’s full coverage of “The Martian” Ridley Scott’s sci-fi film, based on the novel by Andy Weir, which opens October 2.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

Inventor Dan Slater uses remote acoustic sensor (RAS) technology during a test-firing of the five-segment rocket motor headed for use on NASA’s Space Launch System booster. Credit: Sandy Slater

PASADENA, California — Spacecraft may one day be able to detect alien life by listening to the sounds microbes make.

Scientists are testing a new microphone technology called the remote acoustic sensor (RAS), which is capable of capturing sounds within extreme and often inaccessible aerospace environments. A miniaturized version of the device could theoretically make its way to Mars or to Jupiter’s ocean-harboring moon, Europa, to listen for signs of life, researchers said.

“If there’s life, and if it moves, it may make RAS-detectable sounds,” said RAS lead technologist Dan Slater, an independent consultant based in La Habra Heights, California. Slater presented a review of his work on the RAS concept here Sept. 2 at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ (AIAA) Space 2015 meeting. [6 Most Likely Places for Alien Life in the Solar System]

Capturing sounds

A ground-based long-range remote acoustic sensor (RAS) telescope provided visual and audio views of the September 2013 launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This example shows main-engine cutoff, stage separation and second-stage engine start high above the Earth.
Credit: Dan Slater

The RAS detector assembly is sensitive to small audio-frequency variations in electromagnetic energy, Slater said. The technology becomes even more interesting and useful, he added, when combined with time-synchronized high-resolution imagery of the same scene.

To showcase his idea, Slater has used a ground-based, long-range RAS telescope to obtain visual and audio recordings of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch that took place in September 2013. He also monitored a test earlier this year of a rocket motor that will be incorporated into NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket.

RAS technology has also recorded the sound of a plane landing at Los Angeles International Airport, capturing the audio from the summit of Mount Wilson, some 28 miles (45 kilometers) away. A spectrogram produced from the recording shows several descending tones that were produced by the landing jet, Slater said.

Slater has turned his attention to the microbial world as well, recording the acoustic activity produced by a 75-micron (0.003 inches) rotifer, a type of protozoan, of the genus Cothurnia.

Acoustic observables

As for his rocket-recording work, “generally, anything with flames tends to produce strong RAS audio,” Slater said.

The flames and exhaust plumes produced by rockets, both liquid- and solid-fueled, are therefore usually very strong RAS emitters. Similarly, strap-on solid-rocket motors will produce very strong RAS audio with interesting stereophonic sound behavior at the burnout, jettison and post-jettison stages.

RAS technology could also observe a number of other rocket phenomena, including engine-bell vibrations and turbo-pump oscillations, Slater said.

Ears wide open

Work is underway to tie RAS to a flight camera, said Rex Ridenoure, CEO of Ecliptic Enterprises Corporation in Pasadena.

A remote acoustic sensor (RAS) view of the acoustic activity generated by a rotifer of the genus Cothurnia, a protozoan that uses whirling cilia to pump food and water through its digestive system. RAS can detect the low-frequency modulations produced by the spinning cilia.
Credit: Dan Slater

Ecliptic, a space-avionics and sensor-systems company, builds “RocketCam,” which is widely used on board rockets, spacecraft and other remote platforms.

The idea is that RAS/RocketCam should be able to hear rocket-stage shutdowns and various spacecraft separation and deployment events.

“Insertion of RAS into Ecliptic’s RocketCam product family is progressing well, and we’re actively seeking near-term demonstration opportunities on rockets and spacecraft,” Ridenoure told Space.com. “RocketCam provides eyes for a wide variety of space activity … RAS adds ears.”

RAS could also likely detect the high-speed entries into Earth’s atmosphere of spacecraft and asteroids. And a space-based RAS/RocketCam may also be able to discern many objects and phenomena at night, such as cities, urban activity and lightning. Daytime detections could include lightning and possibly distant aircraft.

RAS-equipped spacecraft could also be useful beyond Earth orbit, Slater said, potentially capturing natural sounds at asteroids, comets, planets and moons — including, potentially, vibrations produced by alien life on Mars, Europa or Saturn’s ocean-harboring moon, Enceladus.

It’s feasible to listen for such sounds of life from an orbiting spacecraft, Slater said. A miniature RAS sensor could also be added to a spacecraft that lands on an alien world.

Disruptive technology

All of these possibilities are intriguing, said David Klumpar, a research professor of physics and director of Montana State University’s Space Science and Engineering Laboratory in Bozeman.

“We are actively pursuing these and other science applications at Montana State University for implementation on cubesats,” Klumpar told Space.com.

RAS has the potential to be “one of the most disruptive new technologies of the late space age,” Klumpar said. “One can imagine applications in many arenas.”

What excites Klumpar the most, he said, are the potential science applications. For example, RAS could help scientists listen remotely to natural phenomena such as lightning, the northern and southern lights, and solar eruptions, to name only a few, he concluded.

Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is former director of research for the National Commission on Space and is co-author of Buzz Aldrin’s 2013 book “Mission to Mars – My Vision for Space Exploration” published by National Geographic with a new updated paperback version released in May 2015. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.