CHAPTER II: PRESIDENT BARBICANE'S COMMUNICATION
On the 5th of October, at eight p.m., a dense crowd pressed toward the saloons of the Gun Club at No. 21 Union Square. All the members of the association resident in Baltimore attended the invitation of their president. As regards the corresponding members, notices were delivered by hundreds throughout the streets of the city, and, large as was the great hall, it was quite inadequate to accommodate the crowd of savants. They overflowed into the adjoining rooms, down the narrow passages, into the outer courtyards. There they ran against the vulgar herd who pressed up to the doors, each struggling to reach the front ranks, all eager to learn the nature of the important communication of President Barbicane; all pushing, squeezing, crushing with that perfect freedom of action which is so peculiar to the masses when educated in ideas of "self-government."
On that evening a stranger who might have chanced to be in Baltimore could not have gained admission for love or money into the great hall. That was reserved exclusively for resident or corresponding members; no one else could possibly have obtained a place; and the city magnates, municipal councilors, and "select men" were compelled to mingle with the mere townspeople in order to catch stray bits of news from the interior.
Nevertheless the vast hall presented a curious spectacle. Its immense area was singularly adapted to the purpose. Lofty pillars formed of cannon, superposed upon huge mortars as a base, supported the fine ironwork of the arches, a perfect piece of cast-iron lacework. Trophies of blunderbuses, matchlocks, arquebuses, carbines, all kinds of firearms, ancient and modern, were picturesquely interlaced against the walls. The gas lit up in full glare myriads of revolvers grouped in the form of lustres, while groups of pistols, and candelabra formed of muskets bound together, completed this magnificent display of brilliance. Models of cannon, bronze castings, sights covered with dents, plates battered by the shots of the Gun Club, assortments of rammers and sponges, chaplets of shells, wreaths of projectiles, garlands of howitzers-- in short, all the apparatus of the artillerist, enchanted the eye by this wonderful arrangement and induced a kind of belief that their real purpose was ornamental rather than deadly.
At the further end of the saloon the president, assisted by four secretaries, occupied a large platform. His chair, supported by a carved gun-carriage, was modeled upon the ponderous proportions of a 32-inch mortar. It was pointed at an angle of ninety degrees, and suspended upon truncheons, so that the president could balance himself upon it as upon a rocking-chair, a very agreeable fact in the very hot weather. Upon the table (a huge iron plate supported upon six carronades) stood an inkstand of exquisite elegance, made of a beautifully chased Spanish piece, and a sonnette, which, when required, could give forth a report equal to that of a revolver. During violent debates this novel kind of bell scarcely sufficed to drown the clamor of these excitable artillerists.
In front of the table benches arranged in zigzag form, like the circumvallations of a retrenchment, formed a succession of bastions and curtains set apart for the use of the members of the club; and on this especial evening one might say, "All the world was on the ramparts." The president was sufficiently well known, however, for all to be assured that he would not put his colleagues to discomfort without some very strong motive.
Impey Barbicane was a man of forty years of age, calm, cold, austere; of a singularly serious and self-contained demeanor, punctual as a chronometer, of imperturbable temper and immovable character; by no means chivalrous, yet adventurous withal, and always bringing practical ideas to bear upon the very rashest enterprises; an essentially New Englander, a Northern colonist, a descendant of the old anti-Stuart Roundheads, and the implacable enemy of the gentlemen of the South, those ancient cavaliers of the mother country. In a word, he was a Yankee to the backbone.
Barbicane had made a large fortune as a timber merchant. Being nominated director of artillery during the war, he proved himself fertile in invention. Bold in his conceptions, he contributed powerfully to the progress of that arm and gave an immense impetus to experimental researches.
He was personage of the middle height, having, by a rare exception in the Gun Club, all his limbs complete. His strongly marked features seemed drawn by square and rule; and if it be true that, in order to judge a man's character one must look at his profile, Barbicane, so examined, exhibited the most certain indications of energy, audacity, and sang-froid.
At this moment he was sitting in his armchair, silent, absorbed, lost in reflection, sheltered under his high-crowned hat-- a kind of black cylinder which always seems firmly screwed upon the head of an American.
Just when the deep-toned clock in the great hall struck eight, Barbicane, as if he had been set in motion by a spring, raised himself up. A profound silence ensued, and the speaker, in a somewhat emphatic tone of voice, commenced as follows:
"My brave, colleagues, too long already a paralyzing peace has plunged the members of the Gun Club in deplorable inactivity. After a period of years full of incidents we have been compelled to abandon our labors, and to stop short on the road of progress. I do not hesitate to state, baldly, that any war which would recall us to arms would be welcome!" (Tremendous applause!) "But war, gentlemen, is impossible under existing circumstances; and, however we may desire it, many years may elapse before our cannon shall again thunder in the field of battle. We must make up our minds, then, to seek in another train of ideas some field for the activity which we all pine for."
The meeting felt that the president was now approaching the critical point, and redoubled their attention accordingly.
"For some months past, my brave colleagues," continued Barbicane, "I have been asking myself whether, while confining ourselves to our own particular objects, we could not enter upon some grand experiment worthy of the nineteenth century; and whether the progress of artillery science would not enable us to carry it out to a successful issue. I have been considering, working, calculating; and the result of my studies is the conviction that we are safe to succeed in an enterprise which to any other country would appear wholly impracticable. This project, the result of long elaboration, is the object of my present communication. It is worthy of yourselves, worthy of the antecedents of the Gun Club; and it cannot fail to make some noise in the world."
A thrill of excitement ran through the meeting.
Barbicane, having by a rapid movement firmly fixed his hat upon his head, calmly continued his harangue:
"There is no one among you, my brave colleagues, who has not seen the Moon, or, at least, heard speak of it. Don't be surprised if I am about to discourse to you regarding the Queen of the Night. It is perhaps reserved for us to become the Columbuses of this unknown world. Only enter into my plans, and second me with all your power, and I will lead you to its conquest, and its name shall be added to those of the thirty-six states which compose this Great Union."
"Three cheers for the Moon!" roared the Gun Club, with one voice.
"The moon, gentlemen, has been carefully studied," continued Barbicane; "her mass, density, and weight; her constitution, motions, distance, as well as her place in the solar system, have all been exactly determined. Selenographic charts have been constructed with a perfection which equals, if it does not even surpass, that of our terrestrial maps. Photography has given us proofs of the incomparable beauty of our satellite; all is known regarding the moon which mathematical science, astronomy, geology, and optics can learn about her. But up to the present moment no direct communication has been established with her."
A violent movement of interest and surprise here greeted this remark of the speaker.
"Permit me," he continued, "to recount to you briefly how certain ardent spirits, starting on imaginary journeys, have penetrated the secrets of our satellite. In the seventeenth century a certain David Fabricius boasted of having seen with his own eyes the inhabitants of the moon. In 1649 a Frenchman, one Jean Baudoin, published a Journey performed from the Earth to the Moon by Domingo Gonzalez, a Spanish adventurer.
At thesame period Cyrano de Bergerac published that celebrated Journeys in the Moon which met with such success in France. Somewhat later another Frenchman, named Fontenelle, wrote The Plurality of Worlds, a chef-d'oeuvre of its time. About 1835 a small treatise, translated from the New York American, related how Sir John Herschel, having been despatched to the Cape of Good Hope for the purpose of making there some astronomical calculations, had, by means of a telescope brought to perfection by means of internal lighting, reduced the apparent distance of the moon to eighty yards! He then distinctly perceived caverns frequented by hippopotami, green mountains bordered by golden lace-work, sheep with horns of ivory, a white species of deer and inhabitants with membranous wings, like bats.
This brochure, the work of an American named Locke, had a great sale. But, to bring this rapid sketch to a close, I will only add that a certain Hans Pfaal, of Rotterdam, launching himself in a balloon filled with a gas extracted from nitrogen, thirty-seven times lighter than hydrogen, reached the moon after a passage of nineteen hours. This journey, like all previous ones, was purely imaginary; still, it was the work of a popular American author-- I mean Edgar Poe!"
"Cheers for Edgar Poe!" roared the assemblage, electrified by their president's words.
"I have now enumerated," said Barbicane, "the experiments which I call purely paper ones, and wholly insufficient to establish serious relations with the Queen of the Night. Nevertheless, I am bound to add that some practical geniuses have attempted to establish actual communication with her.
Thus, a few days ago, a German geometrician proposed to send a scientific expedition
to the steppes of Siberia. There, on those vast plains, they were to describe enormous geometric figures, drawn in characters of reflecting luminosity, among which was the proposition regarding the `square of the hypothenuse,' commonly called the `Ass's Bridge' by the French. `Every intelligent being,' said the geometrician, `must understand the scientific meaning of that figure. The Selenites, do they exist, will respond by a similar figure; and, a communication being thus once established, it will be easy to form an alphabet which shall enable us to converse with the inhabitants of the moon.'
So spoke the German geometrician; but his project was never put into practice, and up to the present day there is no bond in existence between the Earth and her satellite. It is reserved for the practical genius of Americans to establish a communication with the sidereal world. The means of arriving thither are simple, easy, certain, infallible-- and that is the purpose of my present proposal."
A storm of acclamations greeted these words. There was not asingle person in the whole audience who was not overcome, carried away, lifted out of himself by the speaker's words!
Long-continued applause resounded from all sides.
As soon as the excitement had partially subsided, Barbicane resumed his speech in a somewhat graver voice.
"You know," said he, "what progress artillery science has made during the last few years, and what a degree of perfection firearms of every kind have reached. Moreover, you are well aware that, in general terms, the resisting power of cannon and the expansive force of gunpowder are practically unlimited. Well! starting from this principle, I ask myself whether, supposing sufficient apparatus could be obtained constructed upon the conditions of ascertained resistance, it might not be possible to project a shot up to the moon?"
At these words a murmur of amazement escaped from a thousand panting chests; then succeeded a moment of perfect silence, resembling that profound stillness which precedes the bursting of a thunderstorm. In point of fact, a thunderstorm did peal forth, but it was the thunder of applause, or cries, and of uproar which made the very hall tremble. The president attempted to speak, but could not. It was fully ten minutes before he could make himself heard.
"Suffer me to finish," he calmly continued. "I have looked at the question in all its bearings, I have resolutely attacked it, and by incontrovertible calculations I find that a projectile endowed with an initial velocity of 12,000 yards per second, and aimed at the moon, must necessarily reach it. I have the honor, my brave colleagues, to propose a trial of this little experiment."
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
Fiction: From the Earth to the Moon: THE GUN CLUB
From the Earth to the Moon, by Jules Verne, is in the public domain. We;ll share a chapter every other day here.
CHAPTER I
During the War of the Rebellion, a new and influential club was established in the city of Baltimore in the State of Maryland. It is well known with what energy the taste for military matters became developed among that nation of ship-owners, shopkeepers, and mechanics. Simple tradesmen jumped their counters to become extemporized captains, colonels, and generals, without having ever passed the School of Instruction at West Point; nevertheless; they quickly rivaled their compeers of the old continent, and, like them, carried off victories by dint of lavish expenditure in ammunition, money, and men.
But the point in which the Americans singularly distanced the Europeans was in the science of gunnery. Not, indeed, that their weapons retained a higher degree of perfection than theirs, but that they exhibited unheard-of dimensions, and consequently attained hitherto unheard-of ranges. In point of grazing, plunging, oblique, or enfilading, or point-blank firing, the English, French, and Prussians have nothing to learn; but their cannon, howitzers, and mortars are mere pocket-pistols compared with the formidable engines of the American artillery.
This fact need surprise no one. The Yankees, the first mechanicians in the world, are engineers-- just as the Italians are musicians and the Germans metaphysicians-- by right of birth. Nothing is more natural, therefore, than to perceive them applying their audacious ingenuity to the science of gunnery. Witness the marvels of Parrott, Dahlgren, and Rodman. The Armstrong, Palliser, and Beaulieu guns were compelled to bow before their transatlantic rivals.
Now when an American has an idea, he directly seeks a second American to share it. If there be three, they elect a president and two secretaries. Given four, they name a keeper of records, and the office is ready for work; five, they convene a general meeting, and the club is fully constituted. So things were managed in Baltimore. The inventor of a new cannon associated himself with the caster and the borer. Thus was formed the nucleus of the "Gun Club." In a single month after its formation it numbered 1,833 effective members and 30,565 corresponding members.
One condition was imposed as a sine qua non upon every candidate for admission into the association, and that was the condition of having designed, or (more or less) perfected a cannon; or, in default of a cannon, at least a firearm of some description. It may, however, be mentioned that mere inventors of revolvers, fire-shooting carbines, and similar small arms, met with little consideration. Artillerists always commanded the chief place of favor.
The estimation in which these gentlemen were held, according to one of the most scientific exponents of the Gun Club, was "proportional to the masses of their guns, and in the direct ratio of the square of the distances attained by their projectiles."
The Gun Club once founded, it is easy to conceive the result of the inventive genius of the Americans. Their military weapons attained colossal proportions, and their projectiles, exceeding the prescribed limits, unfortunately occasionally cut in two some unoffending pedestrians. These inventions, in fact, left far in the rear the timid instruments of European artillery.
It is but fair to add that these Yankees, brave as they have ever proved themselves to be, did not confine themselves to theories and formulae, but that they paid heavily, in propria persons for their inventions. Among them were to be counted officers of all ranks, from lieutenants to generals; military men of every age, from those who were just making their debut in the profession of arms up to those who had grown old in the gun-carriage. Many had found their rest on the field of battle whose names figured in the "Book of Honor" of the Gun Club; and of those who made good their return the greater proportion bore the marks of their indisputable valor. Crutches, wooden legs, artificial arms, steel hooks, caoutchouc jaws, silver craniums, platinum noses, were all to be found in the collection; and it was calculated by the great statistician Pitcairn that throughout the Gun Club there was not quite one arm between four persons and two legs between six.
Nevertheless, these valiant artillerists took no particular account of these little facts, and felt justly proud when the despatches of a battle returned the number of victims at ten-fold the quantity of projectiles expended.
One day, however-- sad and melancholy day!-- peace was signed between the survivors of the war; the thunder of the guns gradually ceased, the mortars were silent, the howitzers were muzzled for an indefinite period, the cannon, with muzzles depressed, were returned into the arsenal, the shot were repiled, all bloody reminiscences were effaced; the cotton-plants grew luxuriantly in the well-manured fields, all mourning garments were laid aside, together with grief; and the Gun Club was relegated to profound inactivity.
Some few of the more advanced and inveterate theorists set themselves again to work upon calculations regarding the laws of projectiles. They reverted invariably to gigantic shells and howitzers of unparalleled caliber. Still in default of practical experience what was the value of mere theories? Consequently, the clubrooms became deserted, the servants dozed in the antechambers, the newspapers grew mouldy on the tables, sounds of snoring came from dark corners, and the members of the Gun Club, erstwhile so noisy in their seances, were reduced to silence by this disastrous peace and gave themselves up wholly to dreams of a Platonic kind of artillery.
"This is horrible!" said Tom Hunter one evening, while rapidly carbonizing his wooden legs in the fireplace of the smoking-room; "nothing to do! nothing to look forward to! what a loathsome existence! When again shall the guns arouse us in the morning with their delightful reports?"
"Those days are gone by," said jolly Bilsby, trying to extend his missing arms. "It was delightful once upon a time! One invented a gun, and hardly was it cast, when one hastened to try it in the face of the enemy! Then one returned to camp with a word of encouragement from Sherman or a friendly shake of the hand from McClellan. But now the generals are gone back to their counters; and in place of projectiles, they despatch bales of cotton. By Jove, the future of gunnery in America is lost!"
"Ay! and no war in prospect!" continued the famous James T. Maston, scratching with his steel hook his gutta-percha cranium. "Not a cloud on the horizon! and that too at such a critical period in the progress of the science of artillery! Yes, gentlemen! I who address you have myself this very morning perfected a model (plan, section, elevation, etc.) of a mortar destined to change all the conditions of warfare!"
"No! is it possible?" replied Tom Hunter, his thoughts reverting involuntarily to a former invention of the Hon. J. T. Maston, by which, at its first trial, he had succeeded in killing three hundred and thirty-seven people.
"Fact!" replied he. "Still, what is the use of so many studies worked out, so many difficulties vanquished? It's mere waste of time! The New World seems to have made up its mind to live in peace; and our bellicose _Tribune_ predicts some approaching catastrophes arising out of this scandalous increase of population."
"Nevertheless," replied Colonel Blomsberry, "they are always struggling in Europe to maintain the principle of nationalities."
"Well?"
"Well, there might be some field for enterprise down there; and if they would accept our services----"
"What are you dreaming of?" screamed Bilsby; "work at gunnery for the benefit of foreigners?"
"That would be better than doing nothing here," returned the colonel.
"Quite so," said J. T. Matson; "but still we need not dream of that expedient."
"And why not?" demanded the colonel.
"Because their ideas of progress in the Old World are contrary to our American habits of thought. Those fellows believe that one can't become a general without having served first as an ensign; which is as much as to say that one can't point a gun without having first cast it oneself!"
"Ridiculous!" replied Tom Hunter, whittling with his bowie-knife the arms of his easy chair; "but if that be the case there, all that is left for us is to plant tobacco and distill whale-oil."
"What!" roared J. T. Maston, "shall we not employ these remaining years of our life in perfecting firearms? Shall there never be a fresh opportunity of trying the ranges of projectiles? Shall the air never again be lighted with the glare of our guns? No international difficulty ever arise to enable us to declare war against some transatlantic power? Shall not the French sink one of our steamers, or the English, in defiance of the rights of nations, hang a few of our countrymen?"
"No such luck," replied Colonel Blomsberry; "nothing of the kind is likely to happen; and even if it did, we should not profit by it. American susceptibility is fast declining, and we are all going to the dogs."
"It is too true," replied J. T. Maston, with fresh violence; "there are a thousand grounds for fighting, and yet we don't fight. We save up our arms and legs for the benefit of nations who don't know what to do with them! But stop-- without going out of one's way to find a cause for war-- did not North America once belong to the English?"
"Undoubtedly," replied Tom Hunter, stamping his crutch with fury.
"Well, then," replied J. T. Maston, "why should not England in her turn belong to the Americans?"
"It would be but just and fair," returned Colonel Blomsberry.
"Go and propose it to the President of the United States," cried J. T. Maston, "and see how he will receive you."
"Bah!" growled Bilsby between the four teeth which the war had left him; "that will never do!"
"By Jove!" cried J. T. Maston, "he mustn't count on my vote at the next election!"
"Nor on ours," replied unanimously all the bellicose invalids.
"Meanwhile," replied J. T. Maston, "allow me to say that, if I cannot get an opportunity to try my new mortars on a real field of battle, I shall say good-by to the members of the Gun Club, and go and bury myself in the prairies of Arkansas!"
"In that case we will accompany you," cried the others.
Matters were in this unfortunate condition, and the club was threatened with approaching dissolution, when an unexpected circumstance occurred to prevent so deplorable a catastrophe.
On the morrow after this conversation every member of the association received a sealed circular couched in the following terms:
BALTIMORE, October 3.
The president of the Gun Club has the honor to inform his colleagues that, at the meeting of the 5th instant, he will bring before them a communication of an extremely interesting nature. He requests,therefore, that they will make it convenient to attend in accordance with the present invitation.
Very cordially,
IMPEY BARBICANE, P.G.C.
CHAPTER I
THE GUN CLUB
During the War of the Rebellion, a new and influential club was established in the city of Baltimore in the State of Maryland. It is well known with what energy the taste for military matters became developed among that nation of ship-owners, shopkeepers, and mechanics. Simple tradesmen jumped their counters to become extemporized captains, colonels, and generals, without having ever passed the School of Instruction at West Point; nevertheless; they quickly rivaled their compeers of the old continent, and, like them, carried off victories by dint of lavish expenditure in ammunition, money, and men.
But the point in which the Americans singularly distanced the Europeans was in the science of gunnery. Not, indeed, that their weapons retained a higher degree of perfection than theirs, but that they exhibited unheard-of dimensions, and consequently attained hitherto unheard-of ranges. In point of grazing, plunging, oblique, or enfilading, or point-blank firing, the English, French, and Prussians have nothing to learn; but their cannon, howitzers, and mortars are mere pocket-pistols compared with the formidable engines of the American artillery.
This fact need surprise no one. The Yankees, the first mechanicians in the world, are engineers-- just as the Italians are musicians and the Germans metaphysicians-- by right of birth. Nothing is more natural, therefore, than to perceive them applying their audacious ingenuity to the science of gunnery. Witness the marvels of Parrott, Dahlgren, and Rodman. The Armstrong, Palliser, and Beaulieu guns were compelled to bow before their transatlantic rivals.
Now when an American has an idea, he directly seeks a second American to share it. If there be three, they elect a president and two secretaries. Given four, they name a keeper of records, and the office is ready for work; five, they convene a general meeting, and the club is fully constituted. So things were managed in Baltimore. The inventor of a new cannon associated himself with the caster and the borer. Thus was formed the nucleus of the "Gun Club." In a single month after its formation it numbered 1,833 effective members and 30,565 corresponding members.
One condition was imposed as a sine qua non upon every candidate for admission into the association, and that was the condition of having designed, or (more or less) perfected a cannon; or, in default of a cannon, at least a firearm of some description. It may, however, be mentioned that mere inventors of revolvers, fire-shooting carbines, and similar small arms, met with little consideration. Artillerists always commanded the chief place of favor.
The estimation in which these gentlemen were held, according to one of the most scientific exponents of the Gun Club, was "proportional to the masses of their guns, and in the direct ratio of the square of the distances attained by their projectiles."
The Gun Club once founded, it is easy to conceive the result of the inventive genius of the Americans. Their military weapons attained colossal proportions, and their projectiles, exceeding the prescribed limits, unfortunately occasionally cut in two some unoffending pedestrians. These inventions, in fact, left far in the rear the timid instruments of European artillery.
It is but fair to add that these Yankees, brave as they have ever proved themselves to be, did not confine themselves to theories and formulae, but that they paid heavily, in propria persons for their inventions. Among them were to be counted officers of all ranks, from lieutenants to generals; military men of every age, from those who were just making their debut in the profession of arms up to those who had grown old in the gun-carriage. Many had found their rest on the field of battle whose names figured in the "Book of Honor" of the Gun Club; and of those who made good their return the greater proportion bore the marks of their indisputable valor. Crutches, wooden legs, artificial arms, steel hooks, caoutchouc jaws, silver craniums, platinum noses, were all to be found in the collection; and it was calculated by the great statistician Pitcairn that throughout the Gun Club there was not quite one arm between four persons and two legs between six.
Nevertheless, these valiant artillerists took no particular account of these little facts, and felt justly proud when the despatches of a battle returned the number of victims at ten-fold the quantity of projectiles expended.
One day, however-- sad and melancholy day!-- peace was signed between the survivors of the war; the thunder of the guns gradually ceased, the mortars were silent, the howitzers were muzzled for an indefinite period, the cannon, with muzzles depressed, were returned into the arsenal, the shot were repiled, all bloody reminiscences were effaced; the cotton-plants grew luxuriantly in the well-manured fields, all mourning garments were laid aside, together with grief; and the Gun Club was relegated to profound inactivity.
Some few of the more advanced and inveterate theorists set themselves again to work upon calculations regarding the laws of projectiles. They reverted invariably to gigantic shells and howitzers of unparalleled caliber. Still in default of practical experience what was the value of mere theories? Consequently, the clubrooms became deserted, the servants dozed in the antechambers, the newspapers grew mouldy on the tables, sounds of snoring came from dark corners, and the members of the Gun Club, erstwhile so noisy in their seances, were reduced to silence by this disastrous peace and gave themselves up wholly to dreams of a Platonic kind of artillery.
"This is horrible!" said Tom Hunter one evening, while rapidly carbonizing his wooden legs in the fireplace of the smoking-room; "nothing to do! nothing to look forward to! what a loathsome existence! When again shall the guns arouse us in the morning with their delightful reports?"
"Those days are gone by," said jolly Bilsby, trying to extend his missing arms. "It was delightful once upon a time! One invented a gun, and hardly was it cast, when one hastened to try it in the face of the enemy! Then one returned to camp with a word of encouragement from Sherman or a friendly shake of the hand from McClellan. But now the generals are gone back to their counters; and in place of projectiles, they despatch bales of cotton. By Jove, the future of gunnery in America is lost!"
"Ay! and no war in prospect!" continued the famous James T. Maston, scratching with his steel hook his gutta-percha cranium. "Not a cloud on the horizon! and that too at such a critical period in the progress of the science of artillery! Yes, gentlemen! I who address you have myself this very morning perfected a model (plan, section, elevation, etc.) of a mortar destined to change all the conditions of warfare!"
"No! is it possible?" replied Tom Hunter, his thoughts reverting involuntarily to a former invention of the Hon. J. T. Maston, by which, at its first trial, he had succeeded in killing three hundred and thirty-seven people.
"Fact!" replied he. "Still, what is the use of so many studies worked out, so many difficulties vanquished? It's mere waste of time! The New World seems to have made up its mind to live in peace; and our bellicose _Tribune_ predicts some approaching catastrophes arising out of this scandalous increase of population."
"Nevertheless," replied Colonel Blomsberry, "they are always struggling in Europe to maintain the principle of nationalities."
"Well?"
"Well, there might be some field for enterprise down there; and if they would accept our services----"
"What are you dreaming of?" screamed Bilsby; "work at gunnery for the benefit of foreigners?"
"That would be better than doing nothing here," returned the colonel.
"Quite so," said J. T. Matson; "but still we need not dream of that expedient."
"And why not?" demanded the colonel.
"Because their ideas of progress in the Old World are contrary to our American habits of thought. Those fellows believe that one can't become a general without having served first as an ensign; which is as much as to say that one can't point a gun without having first cast it oneself!"
"Ridiculous!" replied Tom Hunter, whittling with his bowie-knife the arms of his easy chair; "but if that be the case there, all that is left for us is to plant tobacco and distill whale-oil."
"What!" roared J. T. Maston, "shall we not employ these remaining years of our life in perfecting firearms? Shall there never be a fresh opportunity of trying the ranges of projectiles? Shall the air never again be lighted with the glare of our guns? No international difficulty ever arise to enable us to declare war against some transatlantic power? Shall not the French sink one of our steamers, or the English, in defiance of the rights of nations, hang a few of our countrymen?"
"No such luck," replied Colonel Blomsberry; "nothing of the kind is likely to happen; and even if it did, we should not profit by it. American susceptibility is fast declining, and we are all going to the dogs."
"It is too true," replied J. T. Maston, with fresh violence; "there are a thousand grounds for fighting, and yet we don't fight. We save up our arms and legs for the benefit of nations who don't know what to do with them! But stop-- without going out of one's way to find a cause for war-- did not North America once belong to the English?"
"Undoubtedly," replied Tom Hunter, stamping his crutch with fury.
"Well, then," replied J. T. Maston, "why should not England in her turn belong to the Americans?"
"It would be but just and fair," returned Colonel Blomsberry.
"Go and propose it to the President of the United States," cried J. T. Maston, "and see how he will receive you."
"Bah!" growled Bilsby between the four teeth which the war had left him; "that will never do!"
"By Jove!" cried J. T. Maston, "he mustn't count on my vote at the next election!"
"Nor on ours," replied unanimously all the bellicose invalids.
"Meanwhile," replied J. T. Maston, "allow me to say that, if I cannot get an opportunity to try my new mortars on a real field of battle, I shall say good-by to the members of the Gun Club, and go and bury myself in the prairies of Arkansas!"
"In that case we will accompany you," cried the others.
Matters were in this unfortunate condition, and the club was threatened with approaching dissolution, when an unexpected circumstance occurred to prevent so deplorable a catastrophe.
On the morrow after this conversation every member of the association received a sealed circular couched in the following terms:
BALTIMORE, October 3.
The president of the Gun Club has the honor to inform his colleagues that, at the meeting of the 5th instant, he will bring before them a communication of an extremely interesting nature. He requests,therefore, that they will make it convenient to attend in accordance with the present invitation.
Very cordially,
IMPEY BARBICANE, P.G.C.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Asteroid 2005 YU55 will zip by Earth next week
From USA Today News: Asteroid 2005 YU55 will zip by Earth next week
A close encounter of the harmless kind comes next Tuesday when an aircraft-carrier-size asteroid races past Earth.
The asteroid, dubbed 2005 YU55, will come within 202,000 miles of Earth, closer than the moon, before zipping farther into space. Carbon-colored and dark, the asteroid measures some 1,300 feet wide. It will be the closest visit by a space rock this size in more than three decades.
"This is not a potentially hazardous asteroid, just a good opportunity to study one," National Science Foundation astronomer Thomas Statler says. NASA and the NSF plan a series of radar telescope and other observations starting Friday, aimed at mapping the asteroid's surface and chemistry.
MORE: Science and space news
"The radar measurements should be pretty spectacular," Statler says.
"A lot of asteroids are out there, so the more we know about them, the better," says astronomer Phil Plait of Discover Magazine's BadAstronomer blog. "This one is a clean miss, but we are going to learn a lot of science from it passing by."
In July, NASA's Dawn mission went into orbit around the 330-mile-wide asteroid Vesta in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. "Right now is a pretty good time to be an asteroid scientist," Plait says.
An asteroid similar in size to 2005 YU55 won't come this close to Earth again until 2028. Some 1,262 "potentially hazardous" asteroids, ones larger than 500 feet across, circle the sun in Earth's neighborhood, according to NASA. Asteroid 2005 YU55 (the name indicates it was found in late December of 2005) is one of them, but it stands no chance of hitting Earth, at least for this century. It comes closest, within about 167,000 miles, in 2094, based on where it's likely to cross Earth's path on its elongated, 446-day orbit around the sun.
"We want to study these asteroids so if one does look like it may hit us someday, we'll know what to do about it," Statler says.
An asteroid of 2005 YU55's size landing in the ocean would trigger a magnitude-7.0 earthquake and 70-foot-high tsunami waves some 60 miles away, says Jay Melosh of Purdue University in Indiana. Such impacts are thought to come about once every 100,000 years.
Asteroid 2005 YU55 is in the common but little understood "C" class of asteroids, extremely porous carbon-colored objects, says Don Yeomans, NASA asteroid expert.
A close encounter of the harmless kind comes next Tuesday when an aircraft-carrier-size asteroid races past Earth.
The asteroid, dubbed 2005 YU55, will come within 202,000 miles of Earth, closer than the moon, before zipping farther into space. Carbon-colored and dark, the asteroid measures some 1,300 feet wide. It will be the closest visit by a space rock this size in more than three decades.
"This is not a potentially hazardous asteroid, just a good opportunity to study one," National Science Foundation astronomer Thomas Statler says. NASA and the NSF plan a series of radar telescope and other observations starting Friday, aimed at mapping the asteroid's surface and chemistry.
MORE: Science and space news
"The radar measurements should be pretty spectacular," Statler says.
"A lot of asteroids are out there, so the more we know about them, the better," says astronomer Phil Plait of Discover Magazine's BadAstronomer blog. "This one is a clean miss, but we are going to learn a lot of science from it passing by."
In July, NASA's Dawn mission went into orbit around the 330-mile-wide asteroid Vesta in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. "Right now is a pretty good time to be an asteroid scientist," Plait says.
An asteroid similar in size to 2005 YU55 won't come this close to Earth again until 2028. Some 1,262 "potentially hazardous" asteroids, ones larger than 500 feet across, circle the sun in Earth's neighborhood, according to NASA. Asteroid 2005 YU55 (the name indicates it was found in late December of 2005) is one of them, but it stands no chance of hitting Earth, at least for this century. It comes closest, within about 167,000 miles, in 2094, based on where it's likely to cross Earth's path on its elongated, 446-day orbit around the sun.
"We want to study these asteroids so if one does look like it may hit us someday, we'll know what to do about it," Statler says.
An asteroid of 2005 YU55's size landing in the ocean would trigger a magnitude-7.0 earthquake and 70-foot-high tsunami waves some 60 miles away, says Jay Melosh of Purdue University in Indiana. Such impacts are thought to come about once every 100,000 years.
Asteroid 2005 YU55 is in the common but little understood "C" class of asteroids, extremely porous carbon-colored objects, says Don Yeomans, NASA asteroid expert.
Women at the helm of a spaceship?
From ioL SciTech.com: Women at the helm of a spaceship?
Moscow - Half a century after the first human space mission involving legendary cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, Russia's space programme is still dominated by men.
Gagarin once called female cosmonauts the “Amazonians of space” and even though Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in orbit when piloting the Soviet Vostok 6 in 1963, women cosmonauts continue to be the exception rather than the rule.
“There is a lack of female cosmonauts,” admitted Vitali Davydov, deputy head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
Media experts covering the area have speculated that the lack of women in the Russian space programme is as much to do with male chauvinism as any perceived lack of technical enthusiasm among potential female applicants.
Yelena Kondakova was the last female cosmonaut to make it into space 14 years ago and a successor is nowhere in sight.
Numerous men are currently in training with Roscosmos, but there isn't a single woman in the programme.
“No candidates have applied,” said Davidov before conceding that there were few role models for women to look up to. So far, over 100 men have made it to space under the Soviet and Russian space programmes compared with just three women.
The European space programme is similarly weighted in men's favour while the US space agency Nasa has a much more favourable record, sending 12 women into space since Sally Ride became the first American women to enter space in 1983.
“Women cosmonauts have no real advocates in Moscow,” commented the Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) radio station, noting that, as far back as 1966, Russian scientists decided to send two dogs into space rather than two women.
Veterok and Ugolyok were launched on February 22, 1966 on board Cosmos 110, and spent 22 days in orbit before landing unharmed on March 16.
German space expert Oliver Knickel believes that the wish to have children can be a hindrance to a woman's career as an astronaut.
“Training lasts eight years so certainly isn't of interest to women who have reached the age of 30,” he said.
John Clark, a doctor with Nasa, believes women have to sacrifice so much more than men if they want to make it as an astronaut.
“A female astronaut has to constantly try and strike a balance between career and family,” said Clark, whose wife Laurel died in the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003.
Gagarin once argued that mothers shouldn't be allowed to fly into space as the loss in the event of an accident would be too great.
Advocates and opponents of female cosmonauts are currently engaging in heated discussions about the issue on the internet.
“Every human quality is needed if space is to be conquered, and that requires the participation of men and women,” wrote one user on a Russian website.
“Women at the helm of a spaceship? They can't even park a car on Earth,” was the reply of another.
“Women certainly can't be considered worse astronauts,” Sonja Rohde told dpa.
The 36-year-old German paid 200,000 dollars for a ticket into space under billionaire Richard Branson's private space project.
“No other way is possible at the moment,” added Rohde, who is hoping to become the first German woman in space.
Tereshkova's flight into space on June 16, 1963, at the height of the Cold War, was presented as a political triumph by the Soviet Union.
The achievement followed on from the success of Sputnik becoming the first spacecraft to orbit the Earth in 1957 and Gagarin becoming the first human in space in 1961.
Kremlin leader Nikita Khrushchev declared Tereshkova's space flight as “proof of the equality of the sexes under socialism,” but it took almost another two decades before Svetlana Savitskaya became the second woman in space, in 1982.
The Soviet Union may have collapsed but it seems many of the old beliefs about women in space are still alive and well.
The next Soyuz space capsule is scheduled for launch into space on November 14 with three men on board. - Sapa-dpa
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
St. Louis, MO: Star Trek: The Exhibit at the St. Louis Science Center
From Examiner.com: Star Trek: The Exhibit at the St. Louis Science Center
Gene Roddenberry’s vision of Star Fleet, the future incarnation of NASA*, has been the subject of a series of books, a series of movies and a whole series of TV series. Now his vision is being expressed as an exhibit at the St. Louis Science Center that hopes to inspire the ‘next generation’ while offering a satisfying dose of nostalgia to Trekkies.
The exhibit is loaded with familiar props and costumes from all the TV shows and films. In fact, it’s the largest collection of Star Trek props and artifacts ever collected for public display.
You’ll begin your visit by sitting in Captain James T. Kirk’s iconic chair from the original series. Thumb through original screenplays and study artists’ concept drawings for the series. Then move on to see filming models of the Enterprise and other starships; tribbles; Romulan pistols; Vulcan robes; Seven of Nine’s formfitting uniform; communicators; Klingon swords and dictionaries. Some of the items are marked ‘replica’ but don’t be disappointed. All of them were made by the original set builders, model makers and prop builders, at the same time as the ones that appeared onscreen. If the item displayed never appeared onscreen, the exhibitors have opted for the ‘replica’ label.
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One wall of the exhibit is covered by a giant timeline that puts the events of the series and films in order and dates them. This piece of the exhibit will be especially fascinating to diehard fans, as it orders such political, interplanetary and personal events as the birth of Captain Janeway, first contact with the Borg and the Q, the Cardassians’ abandonment of Deep Space Nine, and the marriage of Dax and Worf.
The heart of the exhibit is the starship bridge from the set of the Next Generation series. The set is completely interactive — you can sit in Captain Picard’s chair, take the helm, or launch the photon torpedos, as you choose. Bring some friends and act out your favorite scenes.
There are more full-size, interactive exhibits in store for you beyond the bridge. You’ll be able to step onto the transporter pad with your away team, or visit the Holodeck and enjoy the movie magic of green-screen technology.
In the Planetarium, a new Space Show has been designed to accompany the exhibition. The new Space Show, Seeking New Earths, explores the real knowledge of planets orbiting other stars and where current space exploration is inthe hunt for these planets and the possibility of life elsewhere in the Universe.
Other special programming includes Star Trek First Fridays. Visitors are invited to come in costume and enjoy special science-fiction themed activities and demonstrations throughout the Science Center.
Friday, November. 4, 2011: Star Trek costume contest
Friday, December 2, 2011: Special guest Star Trek makeup artist Jeff Lewis
Friday, January 6, 2012: Star Trek trivia contest
Friday, February 3, 2012: Special guest Robert Picardo from Star Trek: Voyager
The exhibit will be at the Science Center from October 28, 2011 until May 28, 2012.
Tickets are $17.50 for adults, $15.50 for seniors and college students with an ID and $13.50 for children and members of the military. Science Center Members receive half-price tickets. Tickets and more information at slsc.org
Information on related programs at the Science Center will be available at boldlygoexplore.org
Gene Roddenberry’s vision of Star Fleet, the future incarnation of NASA*, has been the subject of a series of books, a series of movies and a whole series of TV series. Now his vision is being expressed as an exhibit at the St. Louis Science Center that hopes to inspire the ‘next generation’ while offering a satisfying dose of nostalgia to Trekkies.
The exhibit is loaded with familiar props and costumes from all the TV shows and films. In fact, it’s the largest collection of Star Trek props and artifacts ever collected for public display.
You’ll begin your visit by sitting in Captain James T. Kirk’s iconic chair from the original series. Thumb through original screenplays and study artists’ concept drawings for the series. Then move on to see filming models of the Enterprise and other starships; tribbles; Romulan pistols; Vulcan robes; Seven of Nine’s formfitting uniform; communicators; Klingon swords and dictionaries. Some of the items are marked ‘replica’ but don’t be disappointed. All of them were made by the original set builders, model makers and prop builders, at the same time as the ones that appeared onscreen. If the item displayed never appeared onscreen, the exhibitors have opted for the ‘replica’ label.
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One wall of the exhibit is covered by a giant timeline that puts the events of the series and films in order and dates them. This piece of the exhibit will be especially fascinating to diehard fans, as it orders such political, interplanetary and personal events as the birth of Captain Janeway, first contact with the Borg and the Q, the Cardassians’ abandonment of Deep Space Nine, and the marriage of Dax and Worf.
The heart of the exhibit is the starship bridge from the set of the Next Generation series. The set is completely interactive — you can sit in Captain Picard’s chair, take the helm, or launch the photon torpedos, as you choose. Bring some friends and act out your favorite scenes.
There are more full-size, interactive exhibits in store for you beyond the bridge. You’ll be able to step onto the transporter pad with your away team, or visit the Holodeck and enjoy the movie magic of green-screen technology.
In the Planetarium, a new Space Show has been designed to accompany the exhibition. The new Space Show, Seeking New Earths, explores the real knowledge of planets orbiting other stars and where current space exploration is inthe hunt for these planets and the possibility of life elsewhere in the Universe.
Other special programming includes Star Trek First Fridays. Visitors are invited to come in costume and enjoy special science-fiction themed activities and demonstrations throughout the Science Center.
Friday, November. 4, 2011: Star Trek costume contest
Friday, December 2, 2011: Special guest Star Trek makeup artist Jeff Lewis
Friday, January 6, 2012: Star Trek trivia contest
Friday, February 3, 2012: Special guest Robert Picardo from Star Trek: Voyager
The exhibit will be at the Science Center from October 28, 2011 until May 28, 2012.
Tickets are $17.50 for adults, $15.50 for seniors and college students with an ID and $13.50 for children and members of the military. Science Center Members receive half-price tickets. Tickets and more information at slsc.org
Information on related programs at the Science Center will be available at boldlygoexplore.org
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
NASA Pursuing 'Tractor-Beam' Technology to Gather Samples
From PCMag.com: NASA Pursuing 'Tractor-Beam' Technology to Gather Samples
Science fiction and real science could converge if a NASA-funded study of "tractor beams" that could be used to trap and gather material in space bears fruit. The U.S. space agency has committed $100,000 for the Goddard Space Flight Center to study three different methods of using lasers to gather samples on future space missions.
"Though a mainstay in science fiction, and Star Trek in particular, laser-based trapping isn't fanciful or beyond current technological know-how," said Paul Stysley of the group in the NASA-run Goddard Space Flight Center that was awarded the research funding, according to Space.com.
NASA had originally been investigating "tractor beam" technology as a way to clean up the space junk in Earth's orbit that poses a problem for orbiting satellites and spacecraft.
"But to pull something that huge would be almost impossible—at least now," said Stysley, a laser engineer. "That's when it bubbled up that perhaps we could use the same approach for sample collection."
Instead of capturing large objects like the space debris in Earth's orbit, NASA now hopes to use laser-based trapping to capture much smaller particles in space for analysis.
Stysley said his team was eying the technology as a way for automated rovers and orbiting spacecraft to gather samples from Mars' atmosphere, and for deep-space probes to collect particles beyond the reach of their robotic arms.
The three approaches for using lasers to trap samples are employing a set of "optical tweezers," a more tractor-beam-like method using optical solenoid beams, and a third, as yet untested technique using a "Bessel beam."
The tweezers method would utilize two overlapping laser beams going in opposite directions to create a ring that traps particles, according to Space.com. The particles would be drawn back towards a waiting probe by changing the intensity one of the beams relative to the other.
That method is geared for sample collection in a planetary atmosphere, while the use of optical solenoid beams capable of pulling particles back along their length would be more suitable for deep space missions.
The "Bessel beam" technique involves scattering laser light, which would theoretically "create electric and magnetic fields in the path of a particle that pull the object backward against the beam's own movement," according to Space.com.
NASA's current methods of sample collection—which include the traditional use of scoops, scrapers, and robotic arms but also a material called aerogel used to trap samples in the outer atmosphere of comets—could eventually be supplanted by the laser-based methods now being studied, Stysley said.
"An optical trapping system, on the other hand, could grab desired molecules from the upper atmosphere on an orbiting spacecraft or trap them from the ground or lower atmosphere from a lander," he said. "In other words, they could continuously and remotely capture particles over a longer period of time, which would enhance science goals and reduce mission risk."
Science fiction and real science could converge if a NASA-funded study of "tractor beams" that could be used to trap and gather material in space bears fruit. The U.S. space agency has committed $100,000 for the Goddard Space Flight Center to study three different methods of using lasers to gather samples on future space missions.
"Though a mainstay in science fiction, and Star Trek in particular, laser-based trapping isn't fanciful or beyond current technological know-how," said Paul Stysley of the group in the NASA-run Goddard Space Flight Center that was awarded the research funding, according to Space.com.
NASA had originally been investigating "tractor beam" technology as a way to clean up the space junk in Earth's orbit that poses a problem for orbiting satellites and spacecraft.
"But to pull something that huge would be almost impossible—at least now," said Stysley, a laser engineer. "That's when it bubbled up that perhaps we could use the same approach for sample collection."
Instead of capturing large objects like the space debris in Earth's orbit, NASA now hopes to use laser-based trapping to capture much smaller particles in space for analysis.
Stysley said his team was eying the technology as a way for automated rovers and orbiting spacecraft to gather samples from Mars' atmosphere, and for deep-space probes to collect particles beyond the reach of their robotic arms.
The three approaches for using lasers to trap samples are employing a set of "optical tweezers," a more tractor-beam-like method using optical solenoid beams, and a third, as yet untested technique using a "Bessel beam."
The tweezers method would utilize two overlapping laser beams going in opposite directions to create a ring that traps particles, according to Space.com. The particles would be drawn back towards a waiting probe by changing the intensity one of the beams relative to the other.
That method is geared for sample collection in a planetary atmosphere, while the use of optical solenoid beams capable of pulling particles back along their length would be more suitable for deep space missions.
The "Bessel beam" technique involves scattering laser light, which would theoretically "create electric and magnetic fields in the path of a particle that pull the object backward against the beam's own movement," according to Space.com.
NASA's current methods of sample collection—which include the traditional use of scoops, scrapers, and robotic arms but also a material called aerogel used to trap samples in the outer atmosphere of comets—could eventually be supplanted by the laser-based methods now being studied, Stysley said.
"An optical trapping system, on the other hand, could grab desired molecules from the upper atmosphere on an orbiting spacecraft or trap them from the ground or lower atmosphere from a lander," he said. "In other words, they could continuously and remotely capture particles over a longer period of time, which would enhance science goals and reduce mission risk."
NASA spills last details of Mars space truck trip
From The Register.com.uk: NASA spills last details of Mars space truck trip
NASA Mars Science Laboratory is buttoned up into its fairing atop its Atlas booster, ready for liftoff on November 25 with touchdown scheduled for August of next year – a reentry and landing that will have NASA space boffins biting their nails.
"Any entry, descent, and landing on Mars is a place where you take pause and bite your nails a little bit," said MSL project manager Pete Theisinger at a NASA press conference on Thursday. "It's not a risk-free environment."
The main nail-biting aspect of the landing will be that it will not be done using the air-bag cushioning scheme perfected in previous Mars missions – the Pathfinder mission with its Sojourner rover, and the the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity of 2003.
NASA's Phoenix lander used a no-airbag landing system, but it was far less complex – and risky – than the MSL, in that it had no rover to deliver.
The MSL rover, Curiosity, is far larger than previous Mars rovers, and will be delivered to its landing site in the Gale Crater by a thrust-based lander from which it will be lowered and placed on the Martian surface by what NASA refers to as a "skycrane"
Curiosity is about twice as long and five times as heavy as previos rovers, weighing in at about 900 kilograms (2,000 lbs.) and standing about six feet tall. Like its predecessors, it has six wheels – but unlike previous rovers, should one wheel's motor fail, it will be able to be set to freewheel, and thus not need to be dragged along as was the failed wheel on Spirit, which was stuck for three years.
Creating an airbag landing system for Curiosity was not an option. "When the agency decided the objectives for this mission and the suite of instruments that would be required to perform the science, and we saw that we had to develop a very large rover," said Theisinger, "it was very clear that that was beyond the scale of airbags to be able to land successfully."
And so NASA decided to go with a propulsive lander. "If you think about it," Theisinger continued, "there's only two ways to land a rover propulsively on the planet: that's to put the rover on top of the propulsion system or put the rover under the propulsive system."
If the rover sat on top of the propulsion system, there's an obvious problem: how to get a 900 kilogram rover off the top of the system and down to the surface. "That was a daunting, daunting thing to do," Theisinger said.
He also noted that the MSL already has built-in landing gear: Curiosity's six wheels. "So the challenge is simply – and I shouldn't say simply – is to put it there softly enough," he said.
Hence the skycrane. "We went to a lot of non-NASA control specialists – the people who actually fly helicopter skycranes, we got them in the game – to talk about not only was this an achievable design system, but whether or not we could put together a test program that would verify it adequately enough."
Although he expressed great confidence in the skycrane system, Theisinger admitted that some uncertainties remain. "You can't do the test in an end-to-end sense," he said, "because you can't land on Mars on the Earth."
Should Curiosity land successfully, there will be plenty for it to do. As explained by MSL Deputy Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada, "What really dominates the design of this rover is the fact that it has the ability to sample rocks and soils on Mars for the first time."
That sampling will be done, he explained, using a drill on the end of Curiosity's six-foot robotic arm. The rover can survey its surroundings and pick tasty samples to, well, sample, both with HD cameras and with a laser that can determine the chemical composition of terrain within twenty feet.
Curiosity also has its own weather station, the ability to sound below itself to determine if there are any minerals below that contain water, and a detector for natural high-energy radation. "This kind of radiation is critical to measure for the day when we do send humans to Mars," Vasavada said.
On the tip of the arm is what Vasavada described as "the meat and potatoes" of the MSL: a "whole bunch of sensors", including a magnifying-glass camera, a sensitive chemical detector, and the aforementioned drill.
The drill will dig into the rock and deliver samples to Curiosity's two internal labs for analysis, "which we've never done before on Mars, and that's really where the science will come from." One of those labs will measure the mineral content of the rocks, and the other, as Vasavada explained, "looks element by element, which chemical elements are there, and looks for any organic material that might be present."
As might be guessed, MSL's landing site has been carefully chosen: Gale Crater and the three-mile-high mountain in its center. "That mountain inside the crater is what caught the eye of the scientists that have been studying Mars for the last decade, and resulted in it being chosen for this mission."
Gale Crater is about 160 kilometers miles wide, and the landing area is 20 kilometers in diameter – which may sound like it offers a high margin for error, but it's by far the tightest landing zone of any previous Mars mission: previous targets were in the 100-kilometer range.
The great opportunity provided by the mountain – which Curiosity will drive towards at its safe-and-sane speed of one-tenth of a mile per hour – is that it has a layered composition, with both ancient and newer rock open for examination.
The entire history of Mars in one mountain
"Probably the entire early history of Mars is here for us," Vasavada said. The goal is to sample and lower levels, then drive up the mountain.
One tremendous advantage that Curiosity has over earlier rovers – in addition to its size and more-sophisticated instrumentation – is its cooperative relationship with the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter, which is able to do 30-centimeter photography of the surface, both guiding Curiosity to interesting sampling sites and determining promising routes for it to follow to and up the mountain.
Curiosity's mission is scheduled to last two years, but all of its equipment, Theisinger said, has been tested to "three times its normal life," and there are no life-limiting consumables onboard – its nuclear power source will last for many years – and he says that the rover is both less susceptible to dust and better able to handle winter than the Mars Exploration Rovers.
With all its capabilities, Curiosity is not on a mission to determine if there's life on Mars, but rather to examine if the conditions are conducive to life, and to gather information that will support efforts to eventually land humans on the Red Planet.
"It's important to know that this mission has the purpose of setting us up for the day when we'll go to Mars and do the life-detection experiments," Vasavada said. "It turns out that those are pretty hard to do, and you actually need to know a lot about Mars to understand where to go to do those experiments."
MSL will provide information about habitable environments, but its follow-on missions – such as the joint NASA–European Space Agency ExoMars rover planned for 2018 – will explore those environments after they have been identified.
Although that NASA-ESA collaboration may be hobbled by budget constraints, NASA's Mars Project Director Doug McCuistion said that MSL and Curiosity are fully funded.
"MSL is an incredibility important flagship mission for this agency," he said. "It's as important to this agency – personal opinion, a little biased, maybe – as Hubble. The funding for MSL is stable."
Even if budget-cutters should try to pull the plug, McCuistion said, the money for MSL has already been set aside. "If there are funding reductions in the 2012 budget once it gets passed by Congress – and in the current budget uncertainties, who knows. But if there are, the MSL operations funding is safe." ®
Bootnote
Tuesday's NASA event came one day after Russia's Phobos-Grunt Mars expedition came a cropper. When asked if NASA were helping the Russian space agency jumpstart their balky probe, McCuistion said, diplomatically: "We have offered assistance, and if they need it, we will provide [it] to the best of our ability with our space communications network."
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