When we began the blog, and even at times before when the “articles” were not officially titled blog entries, I used to share and discuss a little more space news. I did this because I find space exploration exciting and interesting (and a blogger is supposed to write about things that interest them – in general) and also because some people who read the articles told me they enjoyed reading about space. Lately, we don’t blog too much about space unless there is a big headline like the meteor over Russia last month. We don’t get much feedback about space-themed entries plus there are dedicated space websites where people can get more detailed and frequent information.

Still, I wonder if the lack of interest has a strong generational component. I grew up near the end of the classic “space age”, so I still got the vibe from older generations. Today’s youth have never seen anything more exciting than astronauts hanging out in the ISS. Even potential trips to Mars or bases on the Moon don’t seem to drum up much enthusiasm. It is all the older generations still pushing more human space exploration (whether privately or through NASA).

Would the discovery of life generate a buzz? It would for me, but maybe not for many other people. This recent article asked the same question. Would the discovery of life on Mars make headlines? Probably not as much as one would think. Part of the reason is generational, but maybe part of the reason can be tied to the fact that NASA has sent several crafts/rovers to the red planet and each time (even back to the Mariner and Viking programs) they have trumpeted “signs” and “evidence” that Mars might have supported life at some time in the past.

Viking craft on Mars

It has been said so many times that perhaps is just doesn’t register on anyone’s radar screens anymore. Plus, if there were signs of past life on Mars, even as far back as the 1970s, then why have we sent so many crafts to the red planet WITHOUT the capability of directly sensing biological material – remnants of that past life? Maybe there is some frustration as well.

I know that I am frustrated about the slow pace of private space development and tourism, but I still have hope. I am grateful that some people and companies with deep pockets are thinking long term about human space travel. I will continue to update the blog with any big developments.

Have a good Thursday! Meteorologist Justin Loew

Posted under Space

In yesterday’s blog I mentioned the race to discover what life might exist in Antarctic lakes trapped for millions of years under miles of ice. For those wanting a few more details, lo and behold, here is a good article today in Newscientist about the 2 expeditions I mentioned yesterday plus a third. I have been following this story for years and it is exciting to see that later this year we will finally find out if life can exist in these environments.

Finding out whether life does exist or ever existed on the planet Mars is a bit tougher, but this is a story I have been following as well. The 2 Mars rovers Opportunity and Spirit provided some tantalizing clues but nothing definitive. Amazingly, the Opportunity rover is still plugging away and NASA has released a new video of it’s journey over the last three years. Another rover will be headed to Mars on – the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL – nicknamed Curiosity). Disappointingly, it is not constructed to look for direct evidence of life, only to analyze the chemistry of Mars in greater detail to further bolster the case that the red planet could have supported life. It has suffered cost over-runs but I seriously doubt it would get the budget axe at such a late stage. The best part about the MSL is that it will have high definition imaging capability.

Have a good Tuesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Arctic climate, Space

It is getting to the point where the snowmelt contest requires a daily trip to Rib Mountain in order to observe the day when it finally melts. I was up there yesterday of course and got some new video. The main pile of snow was about half the size it was on Monday. I suspect we will have a winner later this week. It would be quite interesting if we ended up with a winning date of May 28th as that is the day that most people predicted. 101 people predicted May 28th. It is always exciting when it gets down to the wire and we draw the top winners. This year we have 5 R-store gift cards to give away as well as car wash coupons. We will hold a drawing to see who wins the gift cards and everyone else who predicted the correct date will get car wash coupons.

One thing that might help get rid of the remaining snow is some heavy rain. Yesterday heavy rain fell west of Wausau. As forecast, there were pockets of downpours that produced over an inch of rain. The highest report I saw was 2.9 inches, although I cannot fully vouch for the number because it was only scribbled on a post it note in the weather office, most likely a phone call from yesterday. Radar estimates also showed some higher rain amounts between Athens and Stetsonville (where the report was from) so that lends credence to the report. There were also reports of trees down and sporadic power outages around Medford, Spencer, Loyal, and Neillsville.

Today the highest chance of thunderstorm activity (40%) will be through early afternoon. The heavier downpours will again be hit or miss. If we don’t have any rain or thunderstorms by 3pm then the cold front has likely moved through the area dry and we will have to wait until Sunday for the next chance of thunderstorms. Right now I am calling for a 40% chance of storms during the late afternoon or evening hours on Sunday, otherwise most of the holiday weekend is looking quite nice. Get-away Friday and Saturday should both be sunny with high temps around 80 on Friday and in the low to mid 80s on Saturday. Most of Sunday should be nice until the chance of thunderstorms arrives. Monday is looking cooler but dry with high temps in the low to mid 70s.

Space News:

How about a couple follow-ups to some recent space exploration stories. If you remember, NASA was trying to re-establish communication with the Phoenix lander to see if it survived the Martian winter. They were not successful. They did however get a good photograph of the lander which seems to show significant damage to the solar panels.

In other Mars exploration news, it looks like the newest probe (the Mars Science Laboratory, named Curiosity) will launch in 2011 and arrive on the red planet in August of 2012. While that seems like forever, it is probably worth the wait since the robot will have a high definition color video camera. My only other hope is that it will be able to move faster than the current rovers on Mars – which poke along at a snail’s pace.

Off to Rib Mountain to check on the snow!

Have a good Wednesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Severe Weather, Snowmelt 2010, Space

The weather still appears tranquil and mild for Northcentral Wisconsin for the foreseeable future (at least the next 7 days). As we have been detailing this week, the temperature forecast has been tricky, and we have not yet hit 30 degrees here in Wausau.

No Change in WI Drought

Many other locations have been above 30 but not Wausau (the Dells hit 38 just yesterday). It looks like this will change over the weekend as temps should hit the mid 30s. If there is enough sunshine then a few spots could hit the upper 30s. No good news for snow lovers. No large snowstorms or colder weather is predicted for the next 7 days. Beyond this time frame, it still looks like a greater chance of rain or sleet than snow. With no significant precipitation in the forecast, our drought status will not improve. Check the latest U.S. Drought Monitor here.

Blame it on El Nino.

A lot of blaming will be going on in California over the week or two. The big story last week was the record cold in the east. The big story next week (and maybe the next 2 weeks) will be heavy precipitation in California. All the weather “talking heads” will be out west (mostly in California) reporting on flooding rain, mudslides, heavy snow, and avalanches. Being the weather nerd that I am, I would love to be out in the mountains for this event. Several feet of snow are possible in the Sierra Nevada range. I always wanted to see and snowshoe through many “feet” of snow. The snow is great here in Wisconsin but the snow depth rarely gets above 20 inches except in the snowbelt areas.

Not much going on in the weather so time for a couple of updates. First to outerspace:

The poor Spirit Rover is still stuck in Martian sand and time is running out. It will soon be winter and the rover might not be able to generate enough power through its solar panels to stay “alive”.

Closer to the north pole of Mars, the Phoenix lander has been dormant for a few months and likely did not survive the winter. Just in case it did, NASA will start listening for signals next week. It was not designed to survive the cold winter temps on Mars, but you never know. I’ll keep you up to date if Phoenix “rises from the ashes” (er, maybe “from the frost”).

Also on Mars, the MRO recently snapped some very interesting pictures of what look like trees. Scientists are quite sure they are not trees but rather some geologic formations comprised of basaltic sand. They sure look like trees as first glance, don’t they? Large picture here.

Farther out in the solar system, it was 5 years ago today that the Huygens probe landed on Saturn’smoon Titan. I remember blogging about the event and I can’t believe it was 5 years ago. Seems more like a couple years ago. I was disappointed that the probe did not last very long on the surface. Hopefully we gained enough knowledge about the chemistry and surface conditions of Titan that the next probe can look around a bit more.

Why do I cover space news in the blog? Some of it does revolve around the interesting weather that occurs on other planets, but the main reason is that a couple of readers asked for and enjoy space news. I have only heard from a couple of readers. Not a big sample. Let me know what you think? Do we cover enough interesting topics, share enough cool pictures and links? Do I cover the space angle too much? What other science or weather related information would you like to see in the blog?

One of the more interesting engineering developments over the last couple years is the creation of cloaking materials. Yes, cloaking similar to what was theorized on Star Trek. It has only been demostrated on the microscale and at single wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, but it is a dramatic development none-the-less. The latest update is the possibility of developing a tunable liquid cloaking device.

Have a fine weekend! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Drought, Space

I have been focusing quite closely on the developing El Nino in order to get a handle on upcoming winter trends in the U.S., particularly here in the Midwest. Many people could use a more accurate long term outlook in order to plan, energy bills, vacations, or major purchases.

Weak El Nino so far this year

A moderate to strong El Nino will usually give us a little more certainty. It would typically mean wetter and colder weather for the southwestern U.S. and California could really use a wetter than normal winter. Here in the upper Midwest, a moderate to strong El Nino usually means a milder and drier winter. A weak El Nino does not affect our winter weather too much. 

Mega El Nino of 1997-98

The current El Nino pattern has not yet reached a moderate level. Here is a recent discussion about this year’s El Nino, where a couple El Nino experts are hedging their bets as to whether this El Nino will grow in strength. If it does not, then it is more likely (though not guaranteed) that we will have more normal winter conditions. In the article are images comparing the strength of this year’s El Nino and the El Nino of 1997-98. The contrast is quite dramatic. The monthly El Nino discussion will arrive in a week to 10 days and we will get a better read on any strengthening.

In the short term, it will surely feel more like winter outside today. The weather has changed quickly and it looks like we will have our first hard frost of the Fall season tonight. A FREEZE WARNING is in effect for areas north of Marathon county for tonight. A FROST ADVISORY is in effect for the rest of central and southern Wisconsin. We might have a touch of frost on Wednesday night into Thursday morning as well. Overall, it looks like cooler than normal weather will continue for the next week to 10 days.

Space News:

NASA’s LCROSS probe is aiming for a different lunar crater. The original crater was judged to have too many “negatives” for getting a good result of water detection. The new crater increases the odds of a “good find”. In case you were unaware, the LCROSS mission includes sending an impactor into the lunar surface. Instruments will then analyze the ejecta (debris that flies into the air) and see if there is water. This event is planned for October 9th. Hopefully they will get some good video and pictures. There is nothing like smashing objects into one another. The Deep Impact mission was spectacular.

When it comes to humans traveling to Mars, one of the main negative factors is time. Most experts estimate it will take a little more than 500 days. Here is an old concept “the two burn” that could cut the time of the trip in half. However, it does require fueling up in space (near the moon), and then there is the matter of getting back to earth.

This story about a potential new dark matter/energy detector brought up some old question marks (in my mind anyway), about the nature and evolution of the universe. I am willing to mostly accept the standard theory of the universe and its evolution (Big bang and expansion), however, when 95% of the universe is still undetectable, even after years of searching with our most advanced instruments, it doesn’t boost my confidence very much. Lingering in the recesses of my mind is the elegant “constant creation” theory proposed by Fred Hoyle. For those who are a bit skeptical, another theory has been proposed to explain away the “95%-of-the-universe-is-undetectable-for-years-on-end” problem. This one, proposed by mathematicians, claims a large wave in space-time is making distant galaxies appear to speed up.

Have a good Tuesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under ENSO Update, Freeze, Space

It has been a couple weeks since I last looked at the U.S. Drought Monitor. Given that we have had nearly zero precipitation since then, you would think the drought situation would have gotten much worse. So far it hasn’t, but I expect this recent dry spell to show up big time in the drought calculation before the end of the month. So far we have only seen a slight increase in the moderate drought category. It certainly is dry and if it continues then we might have a slightly early fall color season. I have read in the past that a little extra stress on the trees causes them to turn a bit early.

Across the rest of the country, things are looking pretty good. Even the exceptional drought in south Texas is improving. The worst impact from drought continues to be in California, where environmental water restrictions implemented to protect the Delta Smelt fish, has caused crops to die off and unemployment to rise up to 40% in some central valley communities.

Special Note: I forgot to bring my digital pictures from my trip to Europe to post here in the blog today. Will have to wait until early next week.

Space News:

Now some follow up stories on exciting happenings in space exploration and travel. Many of you are probably aware that the Spirit Rover is stuck in some soft sand on Mars. Engineers on earth have been trying different extraction methods with a test rover here on earth. They seem to have a couple moves planned out but are still unsure if they will work because they can not simulate all of the conditions on Mars. After all, the red planet has about one third the gravity of earth. The first attemps to move the rover will be in October. Engineers are now admitting that the rover might be permanently stuck.  If so, no need to cry. Spirit has out-lived its life expectancy by several years.

Closer to home, there has been some trouble with recent lunar craft and the accompanying sicence experiments but good data is still coming in. A couple weeks ago the LCROSS orbiter unexpectedly burned up a significant portion of its fuel. Also around the moon there was some international cooperation. India’s Chandrayaan-1 paired up with the LRO from NASA in order to explore the surface and find water. Unfortunately it did not last too long. Chandrayaan-1 had been in orbit much longer and failed. The LRO continues to function normally and is returning data and images that suggest the presence of water on the moon. One thing nice about the incident is that it is very nice to see international cooperation in space.

Speaking of images, how about some eye-candy for all you space aficionados out there? Here is a link to a new composite image of the entire Milky Way galaxy. Also, a new high resolution UV image of the Andromeda galaxy is available.

In the arena of competitive prizes, it probably comes as little surprise that Team Armadillo has won cash in NASA’s lunar lander challenge. They have shown great dedication and engineering skill in winning the prize after faltering a couple times in the beginning.

Have a nice weekend! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Drought, Space

It appears Jupiter took one for the team. A big buzz among astronomical circles last week was the appearance of a new large spot on the planet Jupiter. It has all the hallmarks of a large asteroid strike. The last time it was struck by something this big was in 1994 when fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy9 put on quite a show. This might lead some to wonder if the Earth could soon be struck by a massive asteroid, comet, or other space object. The odds are slim but many people are in constant vigilance looking for the potential earth-killer. Thankfully, Jupiter (and the sun) are so massive that they collect a lot of solar system debris and thus have taken many “for the team” (the other planets).

Keeping track of asteroids and comets can be handled by small to medium sized telescopes. For looking deeper into the universe and getting higher resolution pictures we need to think big, much bigger. That is why a new 30 meter telescope (TMT) is being built in Hawaii. Once completed, the TMT will be the largest ground-based optical telescope ever built. For reference, 30 meters in diameter is nearly 100 feet. Think of the biggest RV you have ever seen (probably close to 50 feet) and then double that to get an idea of the size of this telescope. It is too bad we still do not have the capability to build something that big in space. Thu Hubble Space Telescope has a mirror only 2.4 meters in diameter and the new JWT (yet to be launched) is only 6.5 meters in diameter. The problem with ground-based telescopes is that the atmosphere gets in the way. Astronomers have done a great job using software techniques to filter out atmospheric distortions but nothing beat the vacuum of space.

On the human spaceflight front, I am rather disconcerted that the X-prize was won 5 years ago. I can’t believe it was that long ago. Here we are 5 years later and Virgin Galactic has not yet sent tourists into space (or at least the edge of space). This article paints an even more depressing picture about private spaceflight. I was unaware of how fast a vehicle has to travel in order to reach orbit – Mach 25. Or at least I was unaware of how far we have yet to go with private ships in order to reach orbit. SpaceShipOne – which won the X-prize – only travels Mach 3! Ouch. It looks like we will have to rely on ballistic launches for some time to come. At least until scramjets can be perfected.

So trips to the moon and Mars are still a long way off. I guess that gives future astronauts plenty of time to prepare and think about all the challenges regarding long-duration space flight. One thing future travelers to Mars will need is food and it might be possible to bring some seeds along with the hopes of growing food on Mars. That would be superior to bringing it all along on the trip and might allow for a longer stay on the red planet. The only problem I can see in environmentalist objections. Of course, if they are worried about “contaminating” Mars, then they would probably oppose any human flight what-so-ever to any other planet.

Present Weather

Growing food here on earth in Northcentral Wisconsin has gotten a little easier recently because of nearly adequate rainfall. We are still in a drought but things are getting slightly better. After dry weather today and tomorrow, it looks like another chance of rain will develop on Thursday. Saturday could also be a little wet, so be prepared if you have any outdoor plans.

Increasing rain in the summer generally means an increased chance of severe weather and we experienced a bit of that yesterday in the far southern part of the viewing area. It was a rare severe weather event in a very uneventful severe weather season. A possible tornado was reported in Adams county. This report has yet to be confirmed by survey teams. The NWS in La Crosse did confirm a tornado touchdown in Crawford county – the first one in that county of the state since 1987. See most of the severe weather reports here.

Have a fine Tuesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Severe Weather, Space, Storms

Happy Independence Day Weekend! It looks like nice weather will prevail from today through Sunday. I can’t rule out a stray shower at some point during the weekend, but most locations should be dry. The humidity will be low and the winds will be light. It is all good and fine except for the ongoing drought. We REALLY need rain but it doesn’t look like any in the forecast until the middle of next week at the earliest. I am calling for a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms on Tuesday and a 40 percent chance Thursday evening into Friday. Looks like I will have to spend some time watering the garden today.

Space News:

A little update on the Mars Spirit Rover. If you remember, it got stuck in the Martian sand about a month ago and engineers are still working on ways to get it out. In order to accomplish this the Rover team here on earth has created very similar conditions in the lab. They will test different maneuvers to figure out if it is possible to get Spirit unstuck. I am sad to see the Rover stuck, with the possibility of its mission ending, but it has had a very long and productive life.

A different Mars mission found out that snow and ice form and fall from Martian cloudsmuch like they do on earth. While most people were watching the Phoenix lander dig in the dirt, a Canadian built LIDAR was scanning the sky. The instrument confirmed the expected hydrologic cycle of the Red planet.

It is gettting crowded in space! The record for number of humans in orbit around the earth is 13 and coming up in about a week this record will be tied. In fact, there will be a new record for the number of people in one space habitat. There will be 13 people in the ISS for a short period of time as new equipment is delivered. Now maybe 13 people does not sound like that much. It is a far cry from the predictions of 3 or 4 decades ago, but it is progress. It will be interesting when the space population reaches 20, and then 50, and then over 100. It is interesting to guess when these milestones will be hit. A big help will be private space tourism. If Bigelow Aerospace is successful with its inflatable space hotels then the 20 person mark could be reached in 2 to 3 years. The main obstacle right now is economics. The worldwide recession is crimping budgets and might delay any dreams of taking a vacation to space. Related: Here is an article speculating on what is the “future of human spaceflight”.

Lastly, the largest commercial satellite ever built was launched into space this week. It is an S-band communications satellite called Terrestar-1. It is meant to provide data and voice service to handheld smart-phones. That’s pretty exciting, as long as it is reasonably priced. It will make internet access more reliable for smart phones.

Have a fine Friday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Space

March 2009 is over-with and it went out like a lion. It was also below normal, making it the 15th out of the last 17 months that have been at or below normal (11 below normal and 4 right at normal). I consider months that are less than .50 degree above or below normal to be “right at normal”. Only 2 months during that time span have been more than a half degree above normal, those were January 2008, andSeptember 2008. March of 2009 was about 1 degree below normal. It was an odd month in that total precipitation was above normal but snowfall was well below normal. March can sometimes be a very snowy month, but this year we ended up with more rain than snow. We ended up with one record and that was a record rainfall of 1.12 inches on March 24th. The best news of the month is that precipitation was above normal by a half inch. Hopefully this trend will continue through the Spring and Summer and end the severe drought we are experiencing. Here are the preliminary stats:

• Average High: 38.3  (normal: 39.8)
• Average Low: 19.8  (normal: 20.5)
• Total Precipitation: 2.44″  (normal: 1.92″)
• Snowfall: 2.5″  (normal: 10.7″)
• Highest Temperature: 62 on the 17th
• Lowest Temperature: -15 on the 2nd

Looking ahead into April, I can’t guarantee above normal precipitation, sorry. It does look like below normal temps will continue through the middle of the month, again, sorry. High temps will be in the upper 30s with cloudy skies, gusty winds, and light rain and snow showers. We will experience a bit more sunshine over the next 3 days so temps should warm up, from the low 40s on Thursday, into the mid 40s Friday, andupper 40s on Saturday. The warmer trend will come to an end on Sunday and Monday as another big storm moves into the Midwest. High temps will drop back into the 30s. Heavy snow andrain is possible with this storm. Right now it looks like the most likely spot for the heavy precipitation will be in the southern half of the state, south of Marathon county. Our team of Storm Trak9 meteorologists will keep you up to date withany changes withthis storm as it will have a significant impact on any late weekend travel plans.

Alternative Energy News:

Here are a couple stories I did not have time to add yesterday. It looks like the Obama administration is going to kill the Chevy Volt. It has to do withthe fact that they do not think the car will be profitable. This is something I touched on yesterday. The projected cost of the Volt will be within a few thousand of the more expensive Tesla Model S. People who can afford a Volt might upgrade to the Model S. Still, if GM is not going to produce the Volt, what will they do to make money? Sell more Hummers? Trucks? Hybrids and electrics are the future. Maybe the government could offer a bigger rebate for purchasing the Volt.

How will you charge up your hybrid or electric car? How about a solar carport.

How about a wind powered car? Not too realistic for most driving conditions but they can really fly. The world speed record for a wind-powered car was recently broken. British engineer Richard Jenkins set the record by hitting 126.1 mph. Now you might be thinking – was the wind blowing at 126 mph? Otherwise how could the car move so fast. It is powered by a rigid sail that acts like an airplane wing (albeit a vertical one in this case). The configuration of the “sail” allows the car to achieve speeds 3 to 5 times higher than the wind speed. Pretty cool.

In the world of AGW, coal power plants that capture and store carbon dioxide are gaining some interest. One such project in the U.S., FutureGen, was put on hold last year because of cost overruns, but it might now be revived. If we are going to accept the AGW greenhouse gas theory, then carbon capture andstorage (CCS) is probably a good idea, since coal is so plentiful. However, CCS takes more energy to work. To me, it just seems to be self-defeating to burn more coal in order to store carbon dioxide under ground. We might as well use that energy to produce more solar andwind components and put them to work.

Space News:

Some interesting events in space recently. The human population in space is currently at a record 13 people. That doesn’t sound like much but it is interesting to dwell upon. As the ISS grows bigger and as the private space tourist companies move forward it is interesting to speculate as to when the record will be broken. Maybe next year? When Virgin Galactic passengers reach the edge of space for 3 to 4 minutes, will they be part of the “space population”? I wonder when the number will reach 20, 50, 100? In order to have 100 people “off planet” we will need some serious infrastructure in place, such as more space stations/hotels and/or settlements on the Moon, Mars, or asteroids.

On the subject of Virgin Galactic, Spaceship Two has completed its third flight – its highest speed test flight yet. Wannabe space tourists might have to rely on the private industry for the next couple of years because there might not be any spots on future flights to the ISS. Even billionaires will not be able to find a place – according to this article.

Back to Mars, in a move that shows at least some people are still serious about a manned mission to Mars, a new simulation has begun in order to prepare astronauts for the long journey. An experiment in Russia will confine 6 astronauts in a space similar to the hypothetical size of a future Mars spacecraft. They will try to live in this mock spaceship for 105 days. A real round trip to Mars will be almost 5 times that long. Still, this is a start. The biggest problem will be physical effects from the zero G environment. Perhaps they should wait until a rotating spacecraft can be created, one that can produce artificial gravity – like the spaceship in the movie Mission to Mars.

Until we have the proper vehicle, we will have to make do with robotic explorers – two of which have been exploring the Red planet for an amazing 5 years. The Spirit rover recently uncovered a bright patch of soil. Opportunity keeps moving toward Endeavour crater. Here is an article that lays out the potential future of the two rovers. Also, a nice recap of some discoveries made by the Phoenix lander. Not only are discoveries being made directly on the surface. The MRO is snapping some pretty interesting images from space. Given the recent spate of Martian discoveries you would think attitudes would be positive, but some think the Martian program is in dissarray.

Posted under Alternative Energy, Monthly Recap, Science, Space, Spring

Uh oh! A little update on the space news from yesterday and a correction. It looks like the Opportunity rover has developed a problem with another one of it’s wheels. It had minor trouble with the front left wheel last year and now the front right wheel might be seizing up. If the wheel fails, it will take much longer to reach the endeavour crater, and it might be a sign that the harsh climate on the red planet is finally taking its toll on the rover. They are not going to last forever. One technique mission planners could use to help out the rover is to move backward. This can sometimes redistribute lubricants within the wheel. The correction: yesterday I mentioned that it would take a couple months for Opportunity to reach the rim of the crater (10 miles away). According to the article linked above, it will take at least 2 YEARS! I am willing to bet that the Rover won’t last that long, but I hope I am wrong.

Also, yesterday I linked to an article about speculation that life could exist below Olympus Mons on Mars.

possible mud volcano on Mars

 Today I have found another article about “mud volcanoes” on Mars that could be the source of methane and a place where bacterial life exists. It seem there are plenty of places where future missions to Mars could look to find life.

In other space exploration news, NASA is planning to send a fleet of spacecraft to Venus…in 15 years. Ugg, these things take so long. Venus is interesting because it is almost exactly the same size as earth. I have always thought that Venus would be a better planet to terraform (make like earth) than Mars. Mars has on third the gravity of earth and people residing there would suffer negative health effects from long term settlement.

Venera image of Venus

Venus has almost the same gravity of earth (98%). The problem is that it has a very thick atmosphere. The atmospheric pressure is 90 times what it is here on earth. If we wanted to make the martian atmosphere more like earth (make it breathable) we would have to add oxygen and nitrogen. On Venus we would have to remove most of the gases.

The most recent U.S. Drought Monitor has been released and there is not too much good news. We didn’t have any precipitation here in our area last week so our drought remains the same. There has been some slight improvement in California and the Southeast. With some heavy precipitation moving through California over the next couple of days, perhaps their water situation will show more improvement. We should all be hoping for more rain in California as this is a big food growing region of the U.S. Water restrictions in order to protect the delta smelt fish have already shut down a lot of vegetable growing in the Sacramento Delta. Here in Wisconsin we should have some improvement early next week as heavier rain is possible from Monday through Wednesday. Over a half inch of rain is possible in some areas during this time frame. It will be warm enough for a few rumbles of thunder as well on Tuesday. The only bad part about the upcoming weather pattern is that it looks like there will be a lot of cloudcover and a cooler than normal trend could develop late next week and last into early April.

Have a good weekend! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Drought, Space