Google Mars view from the slopes of the Olympus Mons caldera. Credit: Google Earth

I was sitting at my computer the other day, quietly exploring minute details of the surface of planet Mars, when I realized once again that in my lifetime planetary exploration has gone from telescopic-view-only to robotic rovers poking microscopes close up at Martian geology!

Did I say quietly exploring the surface of Mars? Yes I did—and you can, too. First of all, if you're not familiar with Google Earth, please go and google Google Earth and get your free download today (this is NOT a sales pitch!). A modestly powered computer with a decent graphics card is all you need to probe every nook and cranny of planet Earth, sometimes to the detail of spotting people walking in the streets….

But there's a magic button on Google Earth (it looks like planet Saturn, for some reason) that instantly transports you to planet Mars—Google Mars, that is. It's a simple button click to explore Mars, Google Earth style.

This detailed digital Mars has been created with all of the data collected by the fleet of robots we've sent—from Viking to Mars Global Surveyor to Mars Odyssey to Mars Express to Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and of course Pathfinder, Phoenix, and the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.

First on my itinerary was Olympus Mons, that extinct, Arizona-sized shield volcano that rises 15 miles above the average global terrain. Swooping into the San Francisco Bay-sized caldera, I got a sense of what it would be like to be there, standing on the caldera rim. There were even strips of super-high resolution imagery provided by MRO's HIRISE camera, allowing me to hover maybe a hundred feet above the ground and see rocks and piles of sand!

Next on the list had to be that other famous gargantuan feature, Valles Marineris, the "Grand Canyon of Mars" which, if it were moved to Earth, could stretch from Oakland, California to New York City—putting Grand Canyon National Park within a day's drive of anyone in the US…. Google Earth/Mars has a flight simulation mode that allows you to pilot an aircraft over and through (and into) the terrain.

Like a kid in a science supply shop (okay, that's the kind of kid I was), next I hopped on up to the landing site of NASA's Phoenix lander, on the wide flat plains near the Northern Polar Ice Cap. Yup, those plains are really flat. To my delight, I found that someone had inserted a panoramic picture taken by the orbiting MRO spacecraft when it captured Phoenix descending through the atmosphere.

Onward, planetary explorer…. I had to feel—not just see, but feel—what the landscapes that Spirit and Opportunity have been exploring for 5 years are like. On Spirit's side of the globe, Gusev Crater, I poked about the Columbia Hills, following in the tracks of the robot. Over at Opportunity's digs, I dropped into Victoria Crater, enveloping myself in "Street View"-style panoramas that almost set my feet down on Martian soil.

Okay, I could go on telling you about my adventures on Mars for days—but since you can do it yourself now, I'll let you go to it. Have fun, and send back a postcard! (Which, by the way, you can do from Google Mars….)

Cal Poly's CP-4 mini-satellite in orbit. Credit: The Aerospace
Corporation.

It's a classic engineering story – a garage inventor spends years working in isolation, only to produce something that gets the attention of the world. Ok, the CubeSat story may not be quite as romantic, but it does have a lot of the same ingredients.

Professors at Stanford University and Cal Poly created CubeSats – 10 by 10 by 10 centimeter mini-satellites – as enginneering projects to give their students hands-on experience. Compared to standard satellite missions, which can run hundreds of millions of dollars and take years to complete, CubeSat missions are mean to be done cheaply and quickly.

CubeSat is also a standard – a basic blueprint that any university program can use. CubeSats are actually known as "FedEx satellites," since universities can mail them to Cal Poly to arrange a ride into space. They've created launching devices called P-Pods (a box that fits the CubeSats perfectly) so they can piggyback on larger rocket launches. Once the main cargo is deployed, the P-Pod releases the CubeSats into orbit. Depending how high they are, CubeSats can orbit for more than a decade before they burn up in the atmosphere.

What started at universities has spread – NASA, Boeing and other aerospace companies all have mini-satellite programs. Despite the small size, CubeSats are actually able to do valuable research. They can space test new technology, submitting it to all the rigors of space travel like solar radiation and launch stress. Recreating those conditions on the ground can be very expensive.

CubeSats can also gather scientific data. On Tuesday, NASA will be launching Pharmasat, which they hope will be their second nano-satellite in orbit. It will carry yeast samples, and once in orbit will hit them with an anti-fungal to see if their resistance is increased in space. NASA has previously observed that some bacteria are more resistant to antibiotics in space, something that could be dangerous for future human space travel.

You can tune in on Tuesday evening for the Pharmasat launch. Three other CubeSats from Cal Poly and other organizations will also be getting a lift into space.

Listen to the Do-It-Yourself Mini-Satellites radio report online, and see our Web Extra: Mini-Satellites Slideshow.

Yuri Alexyevich Gagarin, "Columbus of the Cosmos" Last Thursday evening, over 3500 people came to the California Academy of Sciences to help celebrate Yuri. This gathering was not the only celebration of its kind. Two-hundred and eight parties in forty-six countries on eight continents celebrated Yuri's Night between April 6 and 12th of this year.  So who is Yuri and why does he deserve such accolades?

Yuri Alexyevich Gagarin was a Soviet cosmonaut.  He was the first human in space and is often referred to as "the Columbus of the Cosmos".   His spacecraft Vostok-1 orbited the Earth on April 12, 1961 for the duration of 108 minutes.   Yuri's Night, usually celebrated on April 12^th celebrates this historic first flight.

Yuri's Night also celebrates another April 12^th anniversary notable in the annals of space travel.  Twenty years after Yuri Gagarin's historic flight, the first NASA space shuttle flight, STS-1 was launched into space.  STS is short for Space Transportation System.  NASA names each flight STS with the chronological number after it.  STS-1 was launched on April 12, 1981; the shuttle orbited the earth 37 times during a 54.5 hour mission.

Since 1961, our interest in space and the exploration of its depths has magnified.  Recently NASA launched the Kepler mission.  On March 7^th, 2009, the Kepler Mission successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.  Kepler, which is a specialized telescope, was designed to find the first Earth-size planets orbiting stars within a "habitable zone". A habitable zone is an orbit around a star that would enable a planet to formulate and upkeep an atmosphere and the ability for water to form in pools on the planet's surface.  Liquid water is believed to be essential for the formation of life.  Thus from the nascent flight of orbiting our own Earth, space travels has evolved to look amongst other start.  This progress is certainly something worthy of celebration!

An exhibit on the Kepler Mission along with other NASA initiatives like SOFIA, LCROSS and NLSI fascinated guests last Thursday night.  For one guest, meeting Buzz Aldrin in person was the highlight of his night.   My favorite aspect of the evening was a 3-D rendered tour of the moon and neighboring space.  I am anxious to see what will be the new annal of space exploration when April 12^th and Yuri's Night comes around again in 2010.