The Titan Saturn System Mission, a joint endeavor between NASA and the European Space Agency, hopes to launch probes to Titan by 2020 with the aim of better understanding the seas, atmosphere, surface composition and subterranean dynamics of Saturn's largest moon. One of the probes would be a seagoing vessel, designed to sail on Titan's hydrocarbon lakes. Since the surface of Titan is so wildly varied, though, TSSM is also planning to set a hot-air balloon drifting for six months at an altitude of 10 kilometers, recording as it goes.

Proposals for sending a balloon to Titan have existed for a few years now. NASA reports use the term "montgolfiere" to describe the craft, a reference to the hot-air balloon design pioneered by the Montgolfier brothers in 1873. Like these nineteenth-century airships, Titan's balloon would achieve loft by capturing heated gas in a bulbous overhead bag, called an envelope. While the first hot-air balloons kept live fires burning in their gondolas, the heat for Titan's balloon would be generated by an onboard plutonium isotope.

"Hot-air" is a relative term in this case. Titan's mean surface temperature is about -290 Fahrenheit, so a balloon flying over Titan would require only about 1 percent of the heat it would need on Earth. This is one reason a ballooning mission makes sense, though there are others: Titan's slow rotation produces generally calm weather, and a system of trade winds would carry a drifting aircraft all the way around the moon. Just in case the wind doesn't do the trick, the team at TSSM is considering a mechanical propeller to help guide the balloon.

Titan features some of the most diverse terrain to be found anywhere in the solar system. Aside from the massive lakes (the only stable bodies of surface liquid in our system besides Earth's own), Titan also sports deserts, craters, cryovolcanoes and mountains of water ice. A terrestrial rover would be impractical on a world with such eclectic geology. It's hoped that not only could a balloon cover more ground than a wheeled vehicle, but it might even be able to land and scoop a bit of surface material for study.

Most current projections don't put the balloon or the boat on Titan sooner than 2029. An overview of the Titan Saturn System Mission's plans and goals is available online.

The Mars-500 pseudomission will take place next year at the Russian Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow. The 520 days is meant to copy the length of an actual Mars mission, including the journey to and from the planet and a 30-day stay on the surface. The ESA is currently seeking six volunteers (English and Russian speakers ages 20-50 in good health with specific science backgrounds) to simulate the less fun parts of being an astronaut. Before you send in your application, New Scientist points out some possible downsides:

Boredom: The major complaint from participants in this year's 105-day mission of isolation was severe boredom. Maybe the ESA could let you take a Kindle on board, or you and your fellow fake astronauts could play a long-running RPG. But be prepared to go pretty stir-crazy.

Hating Your Podmates: In 1982 two Soyuz cosmonauts, Valentin Vitalyevich Lebedev and Anatoli Berezovoi, hated each other so much that they spent their 211-day mission in almost complete silence. 520 days is more than enough time to start hating the way someone else mouth breathes or chews their food.

Sexual Harassment: During a simulated space station mission in 2000, a Russian man tried to forcibly kiss one of the women on board. Eventually, the Russian "cosmonauts" had to be separated from the rest of the crew.

Not Actually Accomplishing Anything: Peter Suedfeld of the University of British Columbia wrote a study that suggests these faux missions aren't ideal for simulating actual mission conditions. He suggests that it would be better to study exploratory missions on Earth, such as research expeditions in Antarctica.

What's the point of a fake 500-day Mars mission? [New Scientist]

In the plans drafted by geologist Ellen Stofan, with funding from NASA, a capsule would splash down in one of these northern lakes — probably Ligeia Mare or Kraken Mare — with a "Lake Lander," known as the Titan Mare Explorer (or TiME for short.) Because solar power is in short supply in Titan's atmosphere, which is full of methane rain and far from the Sun, TiME would use a new kind of nuclear power cell known as the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG). The lander wouldn't need sails to zoom along, pushed by Titan's nitrogen winds, but it would have a crow's nest supporting a camera, to gain a better vantage point.

Titan's average temperatures of -292 Fahrenheit are enough to keep those methane/ethane/propane seas liquid. Stofan told Space.Com:

It's very cold, but the technological challenges aren't as big as you might think. Landing in liquid is a lot more forgiving than on land.

Now that Stofan has funding to draw up her plans, she is crafting a proposal for NASA to fund the mission under its Discovery program — and if that gets approved, our nuclear windjammer could explore Titan's seas as soon as 2022. Strohan's report (PDF) is here. [Space.com and The Register]

This research is based on images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The images show that water carved a 30 mile long canyon and then collected in a delta valley to form a lake. This lake and delta are prime candidate spots for finding buried ancient life.

In this image, the research team has reconstructed what the lake, dubbed Shalbatana Lake, could have looked like in its prime. The lake itself was 450 meters deep (1,476 feet) and contained as much water as Lake Champlain in Vermont.

Just as on Earth, lakes and deltas could provide a habitat for various types of life. The next step is to start digging.

Mars Lake Held as Much Water as Lake Champlain [Discovery News]

(Image: G. Di Achille, University of Colorado)

NASA announced that Space Shuttle Endeavour was being moved to the launch pad in preperation for the Hubble repair mission. However, Space Shuttle Atlantis is the primary shuttle for this mission. According to NASA:

Endeavour will be at Launch Pad 39B in the unlikely event a rescue mission is needed during Atlantis' May flight to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. After Atlantis is cleared to land, Endeavour will move to Launch Pad 39A in late May for its upcoming STS-127 mission to the International Space Station.

Why the need for a backup shuttle? The threat of a dangerous collision with space junk has increased drastically in the area where Atlantis will be operating. And at this point, the International Space Station will be unable to help in case of a problem.

Picture from marshall43402

Engineers discovered a fuel leak, as the orbiter was being refueled with hydrogen fuel. The shuttle mission has already been delayed for two weeks, while problems with the flow control valves were being assessed and repaired, although NASA has said this is an unrelated problem. The AP is reporting that officials are aiming for a Thursday night launch provided that the problems can be solved quickly, and officials are meeting later today to discuss options.

This mission was planned to deliver the Integrated Truss Segment, to expand the size of the station, as well as new batteries and solar panels, which will help to accommodate the larger crew compliment that is planned for later this year.

ISRO reports that at 8:31 pm Indian Standard Time, the Moon Impact Probe performed its “suicide nosedive” onto the moon’s surface. The probe carries a radar altimeter, video imaging system, and a mass spectrometer, which transmits images and data from its landing and stay on the moon to the remote sensing satellite, which will remain in lunar orbit for two years.

But beyond data collection, this represents India’s first toehold in space exploration, and the probe’s decorations reflect that:

The probe had miniature Indian national flags painted on four sides, meant to commemorate the birth of the country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru (known as Children's Day).

It was to "signify the entry of India on Moon," an ISRO official told the Press Trust of India.

The ISRO has reportedly received images from the probe’s crash, but has not yet released them.

[Space.com]

In 1950, German explorers were surprised to discover the rocky peaks far from Antarctica’s shores. As mountain ranges usually appear near the edges of a continent, geologists have been at a loss to explain the presence of the Gamburtsevs. The area also shows no evidence that two separate landmasses may have collided there, nor that volcanic activity has occurred beneath the surface. Commented Dr. Robin Bell of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory:

I like to say it's rather like being an archaeologist and opening up a tomb in a pyramid and finding an astronaut sitting inside. It shouldn't be there.

A highly-coordinated international team of researchers from the UK, US, Germany, Australia, China, and Japan has been assembled to explore the region, in part because it presents such distinct challenges from geological exploration anywhere else on Earth. Said Dr Fausto Ferraccioli from the British Antarctic Survey, "You can almost think about it as exploring another planet - but on Earth."

To reach the mountains, the team will may dig up ice that is over a million years old. But they hope that, by understanding more about the Gamburtsevs and how they formed, they will get a clearer picture of Antarctica’s geological history, and how climate change could impact the continent.

Images from the BBC.

Expedition set for 'ghost peaks' [via Metafilter]

Opening Atlantis by Harry Turtledove: At some point in the Earth’s geological history, the region from Florida to Nova Scotia has broken off from the rest of North America, forming a separate continent. The paradisial continent, named Atlantis, is discovered by English explorers in 1453 and subsequently settled. Atlantis proves a focal point in the English, French, and Spanish struggles for power. The rest of North America, called Terranova, is subsequently discovered, but Atlantis is an impediment for Europeans trying to reach it.

The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson: In world where 99% of Medievel Europe’s population was wiped out by the bubonic plague, Islamic and Buddhist societies emerge as the world’s dominant powers by the 15th century. Chinese explorers discover North America, which they name Yingzhou. And after the Chinese armies conquer Japan, many Japanese flee to Yingzhou, joining their power with that of the native Hodenosaunee federation.

Conquistador by S.M. Stirling: In 1946, an infantry captain accidentally creates a gate to an alternate universe in which Europeans have not yet journeyed to the New World. North America remains untouched by outside forces, but the Aztec Empire has run its course and is crumbling. The captain takes the opportunity to colonize the alternate California, bringing with him modern technology, disease, and an antebellum mindset.

Lion’s Blood by Steven Barnes: Thanks to the Carthaginian destruction of Rome, an Islamic Africa becomes the dominant political and technological power in the West. Africa develops steam power by the year 1000, allowing it to easily reach and colonize the New World. But, by the 19th century, North America, named Bilalistan, resembles a racially inverted version of the United States we know. Mexico remains the province of the Aztecs, but expansion West by Bilalistanis has led to clashes with the indigenous peoples. The lower class is comprised largely of those of European descent, and African- and Arab-descended Bilalistanis can keep European slaves.

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card: Instead of seeking out the New World, Columbus led an army to Constantinople in the Crusades. This act would, many centuries later, lead to the destruction of the human race. So a group of time travelers diverted him to America, altering the timeline. Unfortunately, Columbus’ discovery of America similarly dooms our own timeline, so another group of time travelers is again sent back to alter the political structure of the Europe’s first dealings with the native peoples of the West.

Don Davis, who painted this piece, has worked at NASA for years, and he's responsible for concept art on everything ranging from these space colonies, to the Voyager program. He's worked at the Ames Research Center, which is the mecca for speculative science fiction/faction at NASA, located in California. When he wasn't working on art like this, he was also collaborating with Carl Sagan, and contributed to Cosmos, for which he won an Emmy. You can check out more of Don's retro-futurist paintings at his website, where he also has an impressive number of Burning Man trip reports as well.

Part of what I like about the Virgle prank is that it's so well thought-out, including a detailed discussion of choosing the correct site for a Mars base, with protective lava tubes, sources of water and climate. And then it dips into total science fiction, predicting "a glistening blue bay" within a couple of generations of terraforming. And here's the funniest part:

Here's the Virgle Pioneer pitch: Things will get better. Eventually. Sure, the work will be hard, the broadband rates low, the commodes decidedly open source, and yes, your life might be extinguished in a fiery instant of catastrophic technological malfunction. But your enriched descendants will appreciate your sacrifice, which should render worthwhile your choice to spend the rest of your (perhaps radically foreshortened) life in deprivation and uncertainty.

• 
  
• The first five missions to Mars were all Soviet flyby attempts, and all of them failed for reasons ranging from "radio failure" to "spacecraft broke apart." Still, it's impressive that they managed so many attempts within only two years in the early 60s.
• 
  
• The first US mission was also a failure when Mariner 3's shroud failed to jettison, leaving it without solar power. It remains to this day in a solar orbit. Mariner 4 ended up being the first successful mission to Mars in 1964 when it was able to return 21 images from a flyby. The ship continued operation until late 1967, when it ran into a micrometeoroid storm which caused severe alterations in trajectory and communications. It was lost forever in December of 1967.
• 
  
• We weren't able to orbit the planet for seven more years until Mariner 9 became the first satellite to successfully orbit the planet, barely beating the Soviets by a couple of months. The spacecraft used up its supply of fuel for adjusting trajectory, and was turned off a year later in 1972. Surprisingly, the satellite remains in a steady orbit around the planet, at least until 2022 when it should plunge into the atmosphere.
• 
  
• Numerous attempts at flybys and orbit resulted in both Soviet and US satellites exploding on launch, crashing back to Earth, or heading deep into the Atlantic Ocean. It would be a bit spooky encountering the remains of Mariner 8 in murky waters off the coast of Puerto Rico.
• 
  
• However, not being content to just fly past the planet or orbit it and send back images, plans were made to begin landing objects on Mars that could send data back to us. The Soviet Mars 2 achieved orbit back in 1971, but the Lander portion of the mission didn't go quite so well, and it crashed onto the surface of the planet. However, it has the dubious distinction of being the first manmade object to reach the surface of Mars.
• 
  
• The US Viking MIssions to Mars were some of the most successful Mars explorations ever launched. Viking I was launched in 1975, and after a 10 month journey to the red planet, it was successfully inserted into orbit. Then on July 20th 1976, the Viking Lander was launched from the ship, and landed on the planet and continued to operate for over six years. It was accidentally deactivated in 1982 when ground control sent a faulty command that caused the Lander to overwrite its own antenna pointing software, and all contact was lost. It still sits, alone and waiting, on the surface of the planet.
• 
  
• Viking 2 was launched a few months after Viking I, but its batteries failed early, and it was shut off in 1980. It's harder to think of a more lonely image than the two Viking Landers sitting abandoned on the face of Mars.
• 
  
• The Soviet Union tried again to launch Mars missions in the late 1980s, still stinging from the general failure of their Marsnik program from the 1960s, and the Mars program of the 1970s. However, both Phobos 1 and Phobos 2 suffered critical failures. Phobos 2 was lost when its transmitter failed to turn back on (it was shut off when the spacecraft was taking photos), and Phobos 1 was lost when a command sent from Earth left out a single character and caused the ship to go into a spin from which it never recovered.
• 
  
• The United States decided to return to Mars in 1992 with the Mars Observer. However, that ship was lost just three days before it was to be inserted into Mars orbit, and no one knows what happened to it. Theories state that there was an explosion in a propellant line, although we'll never know for sure.
• 
  
• The Russians tried again in 1996 with Mars 96, a ship based on the Phobos designs, but it failed to exit the Earth's atmosphere, and the ship crashed off the coast of Chile.
• 
  
• The US also decided to try again that same year with the Mars Global Surveyor which successfully orbited the planet and returned images for ten years. In 2006 it was determined that the vehicle had gone into "safe mode," and NASA officially ended the mission in January of last year.
• 
  
• NASA also had much success with the launch of the Mars Pathfinder, and its Sojourner Rover, which became the first Martian Rover. It was able to transmit 16,500 images in three months, although we lost contact with it in 1997, and NASA officially shut it down in 1998. Interesting fact: the landing zone for the Pathfinder was designated the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, in honor of the man who said beelyuns, a billion times.
• 
  
• Japan decided to get into the race for the red planet in 1998 with the launch of Nozomi (Japanese for "Hope"), although it failed to achieve the proper trajectory, used too much fuel, and was damaged by severe solar flares. Although the ship didn't achieve its mission, it remains operational in solar orbit.
• 
  
• One of NASA's most massive failures came in 1998 when it launched the Mars Climate Orbiter. This was the famous ship that burned up in the Martian atmosphere, due to the fact that a technician at Lockheed Martin had used Imperial measurements instead of the Metric system. Ouch.
• 
  
• NASA launched the Mars Polar Lander a year later, and it suffered a severe failure moments before landing on the planet. Although it supposedly crashed to the surface, attempts to locate wreckage have failed, and it remains lost. Spooky, eh?
• 
  
• NASA also tried to launch two probes in the Deep Space 2 mission in 1999 that would penetrate the surface of Mars, but they were never heard from once they slammed into the surface. Nothing like angering the red planet, is there?
• 
  
• In 2001 NASA launched the 2001 Mars Odyssey, named after 2001, A Space Odyssey, and it remains in action to this day, with its current mission extended to September of this year.
• 
  
• In 2003 NASA launched the Mars Exploration Rovers Opportunity and Spirit within a month of each other, and they both remain in operation to this day. In fact, Spirit was just narrowly saved from being shut off. Last summer, both rovers endured dust storms on the planet that blacked out the sky and nearly forced them to run out of power due to their separation from the sun, but they both lived through it.
• 
  
• The European Space Agency also launched the Mars Express in 2003, which was a mission in two parts: the Mars Express Orbiter, which is still in use today, and the Beagle 2. The Beagle 2 was an ambitious lander that failed to make contact after it was supposed to land on the planet, and was declared lost in 2004.
• 
  
• NASA launched the Phoenix last August, as part of the Mars Scout Program, and it is due to touch down on Mars in May of this year. It'll use a robotic arm to dig into the polar terrain, and try to find out the mystery of Martian water. Namely: where the hell did it all go?
• 
  
• There are many more Mars missions planned for the next two decades, including another NASA rover, this one three times bigger than Spirit or Opportunity, and another try by the Russian Phobos design team, the first since 1996. No one can resist the pull of Mars.
• 
  

This game is based on a trilogy of novels by Russian author Alexander Zorich, which present an alternate future where the Russians end up dominating outer space. As they struggle to control their extraterrestrial colonies and work with four different alien races, you take command of a ship and help quell uprisings and explore the universe. Complete planetary systems are modeled, and you can take your ships all the way from high orbit down into the atmosphere for your peeping pleasure. Hopefully you've developed some extrasensory abilities along the way as well, because it looks like you'll need them to keep track of everything happening on-screen at once. The Tomorrow War will be out for PC gamers later this year, and with any luck there will be an English translation coming soon after.

The ship will be a small town, generating 55 megawatts of power and housing 120 people. Scientists on board will study the role of the polar waters in global climate change and the movement of contaminants through the water, air and ice. The Aurora also will have two "moon pools" in the bottom of its hull, giving access to the water under the ice for underwater vehicles studying the explosion of life that happens in the polar seas every spring.

The main problem is figuring out who owns this ship. The Aurora Borealis is a joint venture between the ESF, the Germans, the Russians and possibly other European countries. So where does it dock when it's at home? More importantly, who do we sue if (when) it crashes and spills tons of oil all over the North Pole? Hopefully all this uncertainty will make the organizers way more cautious about wreaking damage on the environment they're trying to study. We can only hope. The Aurora Borealis is expected to launch in 2014. [Science Daily]

Newman was able to do away with most of that dead weight, thanks to her studies of how people move in outer space. Among other things, she's studied ways to modify beds and treadmills in space, so astronauts don't lose so much muscle mass and bone density. So the revolutionary BioSuit uses mechanical counterpressure (from tight inner layers) instead of gas to keep the suit pressurized. That way, the next generation of space explorers will look slinky and move easy. Image courtesy of MIT.

Space Age Spacesuit [Helena Independent Record]

Other images show potential landing sites for a Mars Science Lab, alongside chasms that may have formed due to runoff from a lake. The color is enhanced beyond what the naked human eye could see. But it definitely makes you hope we get to put a science station on that part of Mars in our lifetimes.

New Images For 10 October 2007 [HiRISE]

When the space age ended, the alien age began. In the early 1990s, the Disney Corporation decided to close down its Mission to Mars ride, itself a direct descendant of the Rocket to the Moon attraction Werner von Braun had helped to design. In its place came Alien Encounter, in which an extraterrestrial stows away on a spaceship. This made things easier for Disney, as one executive admitted: "One way for an attraction to remain timeless is for it to be based in fantasy, rather than reality."

After we stopped sending people into space, it was easier to spin elaborate fantasies. We no longer had any narratives about actual space travel, with all its challenges, to compete with our magical interstellar ships, DeGroot argues.

[Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest] NYU Press 2006

The Space Age is dead, it died of starvation and neglect, somewhere around 1980. Yes, we fed it and gave it money while it was young, and exciting, and sexy, while our love for it was bright and new, but when it got older, and needed more expensive care and more of our time and understanding we guided it to a comfy chair over on the far side of the room, made it a cup of tea, handed it a magazine and left it to look after itself

Atkinson, who founded the Cockermouth Astronomical Society, says we got distracted by the allure of the Information Age. Soon we were out partying with our shiny iPods and googling ourselves in the corner, while the Space Age faded away. (Mostly I just wanted an excuse to say "Cockermouth.")

John Seiler has another explanation: "Funny how the "Space Age" ended about the time that alien creature burst from the guy's chest in "Alien" in 1979."

Space Age: RIP [via Cumbrian Sky] [Image by Getty Images]