Hacker News with Generative AI: Mars

Can Musk put people on Mars? (economist.com)
HUMAN LAWS can be changed, waived or broken. Physical laws are less biddable. When it comes to putting humans on Mars, which he sees as the first step towards the planet’s settlement and humankind’s salvation, Elon Musk now has little to worry about from human law.
NASA's Curiosity Rover Detects Largest Organic Molecules Found on Mars (nasa.gov)
Researchers analyzing pulverized rock onboard NASA’s Curiosity rover have found the largest organic compounds on the Red Planet to date.
Musk says first mission to Mars will launch next year (bbc.co.uk)
SpaceX founder Elon Musk has said his Starship rocket will head to Mars by the end of next year, as the company investigates several recent explosions in flight tests.
In contrast to Earth, Mars's middle atmosphere appears driven by gravity waves (phys.org)
A new study by researchers including those at the University of Tokyo revealed that atmospheric gravity waves play a crucial role in driving latitudinal air currents on Mars, particularly at high altitudes.
Have we been wrong about why Mars is red? (esa.int)
The Red Planet’s iconic rusty dust has a much wetter history than previously assumed, find scientists combining European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA spacecraft data with new laboratory experiments on replica Mars dust. The results suggest that Mars rusted early in the planet’s ancient past, when liquid water was more widespread.
What can we send to Mars on the first Starships? – Casey Handmer's blog (wordpress.com)
As of today, it is 601 days until October 17, 2026, when the mass-optimal launch window to Mars opens next.
The Shape of a Mars Mission (idlewords.com)
“From a mathematics and trajectory standpoint and with a certain kind of technology, there’s not too many different ways to go to Mars. It’s been pretty well figured out. You can adjust the decimal places here and there, but basically if you're talking about chemical rockets, there's a certain way you're going to go to Mars.” - John Aaron[1]
Curiosity Mars rover discovers evidence of ripples from ancient Red Planet lake (space.com)
NASA rover discovers liquid water 'ripples' carved into Mars rock (livescience.com)
John Carmack discusses SpaceX strategy and Mars (twitter.com)
Curiosity rover captures colorful clouds drifting over Mars (phys.org)
Red-and-green-tinted clouds drift through the Martian sky in a new set of images captured by NASA's Curiosity rover using its Mastcam—its main set of "eyes."
A Flag on Mars? Maybe Not So Soon (nytimes.com)
NASA to explore two landing options for returning samples from Mars (nasa.gov)
To maximize chances of successfully bringing the first Martian rock and sediment samples to Earth for the benefit of humanity, NASA announced Tuesday a new approach to its Mars Sample Return Program.
"We're going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction." (arstechnica.com)
Although SpaceX founder Elon Musk is known for outspokenness and controversial comments on his social media site X, he has been relatively restrained when it comes to US space policy in recent years.
NASA believes it understands why Ingenuity crashed on Mars (arstechnica.com)
Eleven months after the Ingenuity helicopter made its final flight on Mars, engineers and scientists at NASA and a private company that helped build the flying vehicle said they have identified what probably caused it to crash on the surface of Mars.
Elon Musk has pledged to settle Mars. Prize-winning book offers a reality check (cnn.com)
Musk has pledged to settle Mars. A prize-winning book offers a reality check (cnn.com)
In 1924, the US Turned Off Their Radios to Search for Life on Mars (iflscience.com)
NASA's Perseverance Captures 'Googly Eye' During Solar Eclipse (nasa.gov)
From its perch on the western wall of Mars’ Jezero Crater, NASA’s Perseverance rover recently spied a “googly eye” peering down from space.
Powering the Mars Base (wordpress.com)
A growing Mars base has a prodigious need for power.
Musk's Plan to Send a Million Colonists to Mars by 2050 Is Pure Delusion (2022) (gizmodo.com)
In a recent interview, Elon Musk repeated his stated goal of wanting to transport one million people to Mars by 2050. The SpaceX founder says the future of humanity is at stake, which, okay, but the timeline he offers is ludicrous, and here’s why.
The Origin of Samples from Mars (2023) (samplesfrommars.com)
10 years ago I created this business and 10 years ago I made my first sample.
Stable carbon isotope evolution of formaldehyde on early Mars (nature.com)
Organic matter in the Martian sediments may provide a key to understanding the prebiotic chemistry and habitability of early Mars.
Musk says humans can be on Mars in four years. Many laugh, but some see purpose (theguardian.com)
Almost buried beneath a recent avalanche of rightwing invective posted by Elon Musk on the platform he owns, X, was one eye-popping statement that made space watchers sit up and take notice: an assertion that humans could land on Mars within four years and be living there in a self-sustaining city in 20.
Cloud atlas of Mars reveals an atmosphere unlike our own (newscientist.com)
Using images captured by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft, researchers have created a cloud atlas of Mars, to better understand the climate of the Red Planet
Neither Elon Musk nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars (defector.com)
Mars does not have a magnetosphere. Any discussion of humans ever settling the red planet can stop right there, but of course it never does.
Neither Elon Musk nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars (defector.com)
Mars does not have a magnetosphere. Any discussion of humans ever settling the red planet can stop right there, but of course it never does. Do you have a low-cost plan for, uh, creating a gigantic active dynamo at Mars's dead core? No? Well. It's fine. I'm sure you have some other workable, sustainable plan for shielding live Mars inhabitants from deadly solar and cosmic radiation, forever. No? Huh.
Starships Launch for Mars in 2026. Crewed Flights Possible by 2028 (nextbigfuture.com)
Elon Musk says that uncrewed Starships will be launched to Mars in the Earth-Mars transfer window. The transfer window is about November through December 2026. A mission launched in November would arrive July 2027.
China Will Launch Its Mars Sample Return Mission in 2028 (universetoday.com)
While NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission has experienced a setback, China is still moving forward with their plans to bring home a piece of the Red Planet.
With NASA's plan faltering, China knows it can be first with Mars sample return (arstechnica.com)