Moon Illusion

In addition to the illusions involving the apparent backwards movement of mars and the humanoid face in Cydonia, there is another illusion in space a little closer to home: the moon illusion. The Moon illusion is a visual illusion in which the Moon appears larger near the horizon than it does while higher up in the sky. The moon seems larger in angular size when it is near the horizon than when it is high in the sky. Some people judge it to be as much as twice as large, but the average estimate is 50% to 75% larger.This optical illusion can also occur with the Sun and star constellations.

There are some simple ways to prove that the moon is not actually changing size including photographs of the moon at the horizon and higher up reveal that they are exactly the same size (if taken with the same camera settings).

Another way of demonstrating that the effect is an illusion is to hold a small coin at arm's length with one eye closed, positioning it next to the seemingly large moon. When the Moon is higher in the sky positioning the same coin near the moon will reveal no change in size.

The moon illusion occurs primarily through visual angle illusions. Click here for a more in depth discussion with multiple approaches to explaining this phenomenon.

Prep Time for Mars

The Mars Society is making sure that people are ready when the first human mission leaves for Mars. Two Mars simulation sites have been created, one on the Devon Island in the arctic and the other in the desert in Utah. Astronauts at these sites live and study the environment as if they were on Mars. Aside from monitoring the Martian day by adding 39minutes to their routine days, astronauts abide by the following rules:

• "They cannot leave the unit without donning a simulated space suit
• They cannot communicate directly with anyone outside of the unit without a built-in time delay in the communication - the distance between Earth and Mars makes direct conversation impossible
• They can only use the equipment, tools and food available to them inside the habitat."

While some of these measures may seem extreme, it appears that people are getting serious to make the actual push for sending humans to the Martian surface.

http://fogonazos.blogspot.com/2007/11/arctic-astronauts.html

Face on Mars

One of the more famous controversies surrounding Mars was spurred in 1976, when the viking orbiter radioed back images from mars. One particular image, from the Cydonia region, depicted a rock formation that strongly resembled a human-like face.

Many cited these images as proof of life on mars and that it was undoubtedly a sculpture carved by sentient (intelligent) Martians. There were (and there probably still are) many people that believe the face is real and NASA is just trying to cover the whole thing up.

However, advances in image capturing and resolution have yielded new images of the face that, in fact, look nothing like a face at all.

Furthermore, the interpretations of the original image can be explained by Pareidolia, a type of illusion or misperception involving a vague or obscure stimulus being perceived as something clear and distinct. Specifically,

“There is an universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object, those qualities, with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious.” --David Hume

(this is the same reason why people "see" Jesus in a tortilla)

With the new images, it seems pretty clear that the old images were simply an optical illusion fueled by Pareidolia. But, check it out and judge for yourself!

Cosmic Illusion: Mars to Move Backward

Optical illusions are characterized by visually perceived images that are deceptive or misleading.

Most people are familiar with optical illusions on earth, including the famous illusion of M.C. Escher's Ascending and Descending, and the Rubin Vase. Space, not to be left out, has a few illusions of its own. One in particular is the period of time where mars appears to reverse its orbit and move backwards. Astronomers attribute this illusion to retrograde motion, but it is none the less a fascinating phenomenon. The 'illusion' will be visible starting November 15, when mars will begin to loop back towards the west. this will continue until the end of January and from then on Mars will loop back to the east. So check it out!

Spaceland!

It isn't a new theme park, but rather an education and research campaign at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Spaceland is designed to emulate zero-gravity, moon-gravity, and Mars-gravity. The project has been opened up to the general public and NASA has expressed interest in helping create a sub-orbital program with them. The next Spaceland missions are in December 2007 and February 2008.

http://www.touristime.it/index.php?method=section&action=zoom&id=2667

NASA Considers Policy On Sex and Death During A Mission

In May of 2007 the Associated Press acquired some documentation which discussed several of the more taboo questions facing mission policy developers through a Freedom Of Information Act request. With the prospect of sending people on a 3 year round trip mission to Mars within the next 30 years NASA has begun to ponder these questions. Issues like how to deal with sex in mixed-sex crews on the 3 year trip to Mars and back are very difficult to talk about. Even more difficult is the topic of critical illness and life support. When do you pull the plug on someone who is not going to make it and is using up critical oxygen and endangering the rest of the crew/mission in other ways? What do you think? NASA is also looking into DNA screening for candidate astronauts however this is not currently allowed due to the protections against limiting potential career and employment opportunities. If you want to read more follow this link:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/01/tech/main2749619.shtml

MARS Program Simulates Life on Mars, Here on Earth

Even though the space agencies of the World are far from sending humans to Mars, the MARS Program is already preparing for the journey. The Mars Analogue Research Station (MARS) simulates life on Mars here on Earth in order to "test out protocols and procedures that will be required for human operations on Mars, and to test equipment that may be carried and used by human mission to the Red Planet." Crews spend between two weeks and a month living in a habitat simulating the conditions on Mars. The crews have to use only the equipment and materials inside the habitat and while wearing space suits can only communicate with scientists through a channel that has a built-in time delay to simulate that of a mission to the far away Red Planet. The simulations are conducted in two locations. The first is on Devon Island in the Arctic Circle, which is the largest uninhabited island in the World. The second is the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. Scientists are currently working on expanding the experiments to two more locations, with one currently under construction in Iceland. These experiments will tell a lot about how humans will be able to sustain life on the Martian surface.