Mission to Mars - an unreachable goal for the forseeable future

Mars composite image - (c) Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Mars, the planet which has conjured many a science fiction movie and not a few novels. Seemingly close, the nearest planetary neighbour to Earth is nonetheless very distant to this planet and travel over such a large distance poses both technical challenges and extreme health risks for humans attempting the voyage.

In terms of orbit around the Sun, Mars is always 48.3 million or more kilometres away from the Earth which equates to around 140 times further than the moon. In terms of transit time, this distance would mean around 210 days to travel from the Earth to Mars depending on the best available launch window and capability in velocity based on the existing propulsion systems or those in the design stages. Once at Mars, a mission team would need to wait around 496 or so days before being able to commence a return flight to Earth.

What sort of space vehicle would be able to both propel the pay load safely to Mars and be able to sustain a flight crew during transit to the planet ? It would need to have sufficient speed to cover the distance with a size and scale to include the necessary life support functions including air and water to sustain the crew. Existing fuel burning engines would not suffice due to the amount of fuel which would need to be carried and a solar powered vehicle would be slow moving indeed. Mounting a nuclear engine on a manned space vehicle carries its own multi-level high risks.

The technology to reach Mars is not insurmountable however the physical health ramifications for astronauts may yet pose an almost impassable barrier. Existing data from Moon missions, Skylab and the International Space Station have demonstrated the punishing effect of long term exposure to weightlessness  on the human body - bones waste away at a rate of one percent of bone mass per month; fluid can collect behind eyeballs and cause blurred vision; radiation from solar flares and cosmic rays (which are high energy particles travelling at close to light speed) pose a direct threat to DNA and human brain cells. These are only the known factors as already identified with potentially many more.

So Mars travel remains a dream at the moment. NASA and private companies such as SpaceX have the intention to reach the red planet but for the now the only visitors will remain remote mobile robotic devices scanning the landscape for, as yet, undetected discoveries.

Strata at the base of Mount Sharp, Mars: (c) NASA Mars curiosity rover

                                                     

2017 - A new year but continuing and increasing challenges

2017 beckons as the end of 2016 draws near. Many of the challenging issues of 2016 will carry through into the new year in areas such as the economy, foreign affairs, terrorism, national identity and disillusionment with traditional politics. The ongoing baseline issue of the environment, climate change and energy needs will continue to pose an extraordinary and existential threat to all of the planet as it has for the past two decades.

In economic terms, the world's overall GDP movement remains patchy with small but incremental growth in the United States, continued slowing expansion in China and a flat line in Europe and Japan. South America continues to experience hard economic conditions and the glut of oil has led to falling revenues for producers in the Gulf. There is little insight into the impact of the United Kingdom exiting the European Union (Brexit) or the influence of Donald Trump in the United States until he takes office from January 2017 onwards. In many respects, it is a watching game.

In terms of foreign affairs and terrorism, the war in Syria and Iraq will progress until one side is finally victorious. The only certainty is the eventual defeat of the Islamic State/Daesh group. All other scenarios are impossible to predict as most professional military and foreign relations commentators have reported.

Traditional political parties will continue to lose support if they operate on a business-as-usual basis. Across the long standing democracies, large segments of society are dissatisfied with the responsiveness and conduct with many of the ruling elites and the political class in general. Elections in 2017 will show whether this is now an established situation or merely a short-lived transit protest. It will also be a watching game.

Wherever you are, all the best for 2017.

Christmas 2016

Christmas - a time when religious and national leaders express their good wishes and desire for a better world, often couched in terms of peace, health and hope for the coming year. The choice of December 25 is associated with the birth of Jesus, the central figure in the Christian faith and part of the Holy Trinity of  Father, Son and Holy Ghost.  The actual date of birth of Jesus is unknown and hence the choice of 25 December originates from the 4th Century AD through the Western Christian Church and recorded in the Gregorian calendar. The Easter Christian Church uses the Julian calendar which would place the date at January 7, however there is little actual disagreement on the date itself. Through the mechanism of the 12 days of Epiphany both the Eastern and Western Churches are, in any case, linked.  The origin of the the use of the 25th December may also be more an influence of the pagan Romans who used this date to acknowledge the start of the Winter solstice. During the early period of the Christian Church, there was various attempts at over-running existing Roman festivals which occured at year-end thus creating an early form of spin doctoring and brand message creation.

Wherever you may be, happy holidays.

Exhibition review - Nude: art from the Tate Collection - Art Gallery of NSW

Pablo Picasso
Nude woman in a red armchair

(Femme nue dans un fauteuil rouge) 1932
oil paint on canvas

For this year's major Summer exhibition, the Art Gallery of NSW has partnered with the Tate Gallery in London to bring a selection of over 100 works representing the nude image over two centuries of art. The exhibition is titled, not surprisingly, Nude: art from the Tate collection.

The exhibition’s main highlight, placed centre-stage is Auguste Rodin’s sculpture The kiss 1901-04 which is being displayed for the first time outside of Europe. Other works of note include Pierre Bonnard’s The bath 1925, Picasso’s Nude woman in a red armchair 1932 (very standard abstractive Picasso), Sylvia Sleigh’s Paul Rosano reclining 1974, Ron Mueck’s Wild man 2005 (as with most Mueck works it's an enormous semi life-like sculpture) and Rineke Dijkstra’s Julie, Den Haag, Netherlands, February 29 1994.

The exhibition is themed in nine rooms in the Gallery with titles such as The Historical Nude, The Private Nude, The Modern Nude, Real and Surreal Bodies, Paint as Flesh and so on. The titles of each segment predominantly correspond to periods of time demonstrating the evolution of the nude through different art interpretations and representations. Given the scale and depth of the Tate collection, this is a relatively small, thin veneer selection of works of major artists worldwide who have used the nude human form.  Although much lauded, Rodin's sculpture, the kiss, is quite underwhelming, as quietly whispered by many members of the Art Gallery of NSW Foundation at a private viewing. Its more representative of the general physical movement of a man and woman kissing whilst in the thralls of an embrace but an awe inspiring sculpture it is not.

The exhibition runs from 5 November 2016 to 5 February 2017.

Donald J Trump's America - 10 reasons why Americans should think about moving to..... Australia

Donald J Trump  - President-elect of the United States

With the election of Donald Trump to be the 45th President of the United States, its understandable that many Americans may be considering where they may wish to spend the next few years. The Canadian immigration website crashed in the first few hours of the election result, but there is another option available and that is - Australia. There are ten good reasons to think about moving to Australia if you're an American of good heart and sound mind -

1.  Australia's political system is understandable to Americans. We have two Houses of Parliament for our National Government - the House of Representatives and the Senate. In fact, this was based on the US system and Congress which we copied. Our national capital, Canberra, was designed by an American, Walter Burley Griffin. We have States and State Governments, just like the US, only smaller and less crazy. 
2. Our voting system is compulsory and if you don't vote, you get a fine. None of this voter registration stuff and the need to get people out to vote. We have a very high turn-out and the silent majority can vote, all the time, so absolute surprises are rare. 
3. You can own a gun here but we have gun control laws - there is no Constitutional Right-to-Bear Arms and assault rifles are banned. You can have a firearm but you're on a register and the police can find you.
4. We have a public health care system called Medicare which is the envy of many people in the US. If you work here and pay taxes, you also pay a contribution called a levy to fund Medicare but everyone is covered. The Democrats in the US wanted the Australian system and even used it as an example in Congress but were unable to get Republican support.
5. We use the metric system like most of the rest of the World. The US does not, so you would need to learn how to measure things differently.
6. We have Australian Dollars which are similar to the US Greenback currency.
7. We have our own football codes and occasionally watch American football but it's not as big here. Our national summer sport is cricket which also uses a bat and a ball similar to baseball - except our bat has a flat surface and the batters don't have to run around a diamond shaped field.
8. We have public transport systems of rail, light rail and buses. Many US cities have similar services but many cut back on this public spending but we think its essential to have it.
9. We have national parks just like the US. In fact, Australia was the second country after the US to establish national parks and protect our flora and fauna.
10. Our official language is English, not so different to American English but its our own version with its own local words. Not too hard to learn

So there it is..... ten reasons why Australia is a good option if a Trump America does not appeal. Our politicians can be a bit silly but nothing compared to the parties with an elephant and a donkey as their logos.

Film Review - Sully

Chesley Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) and  Jeffrey Skiles (Aaron Eckhart)

The circumstances of the landing of US Airways Flight 1549 onto the surface of the Hudson River in New York City following the loss of both engines captured public imagination and created aircraft piloting history. This film directed by Clint Eastwood with Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart in the roles as the Captain, Chesley Sullenberger (Sully) and the First Officer, Jeffrey Skiles provides the step-by-step events as they unfolded in the air, the actions taken by the flight crew to save the passengers on the failing aircraft and the consequent inquiry  by the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB).

On 15 January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 left LaGuardia Airport on route to Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina. 3 minutes into the flight, the aircraft collided with a flock of Canadian geese disabling both jet engines. With no engine power, limited altitude and no airports in safe distance, Sully decides the glide the aircraft and execute a controlled ditch into the Hudson River. The aircraft design and Sully's expert piloting achieve the almost impossible with an on-water landing without the loss of any crew and passengers. During the following NTSB investigation, multiple computer simulations with experienced pilots reacting under the same circumstances, all crashed when attempting to land at any airport thus confirming Sully's decision to risk ditching into the Hudson River as the only viable option. Successful water landings are, in fact, virtually unknown in aviation history.

Tom Hanks convincingly portrays the quiet, experienced Captain Sullenberger with Aaron Eckhart as the younger but equally professional First Officer Jeff Skiles. The calmness of the flight crew and focus on landing the aircraft successfully was confirmed by cockpit voice recordings which were presented at the NTSB investigation hearing. The live action sequences are augmented  by actual footage of the aircraft itself taken by security cameras on the shoreline and witnesses along the Hudson River as the event occured. Eastwood makes good use of this historical footage merged with the recreated version.

The film has been an exceptional success for Clint Eastwood having the biggest cinema and box office debut in North America and second largest debut world-wide in Eastwood's long career. For Tom Hanks, the film marked the third most successful live-action role he has had career wise. In terms of production costs and investment return, the total cost of $60 million has been more than surpassed by the box office takings which exceed $177.4 million - much to the pleasure of Warner Bros and Village Roadshow.  The film was shot using IMAX cameras and released in both IMAX and standard cinema screen versions.

Sculpture by the Sea 2016 - Exhibition Review

Travelling Bag - Yumin Jing

Sydney's annual sculpture exhibition, Sculpture by the Sea has made is Spring appearance inviting the public to appreciate the dimensional aspects and conveyance of meaning through this art form.

Adaptation - Nihariki Hukku

2016 is its 20th year and perhaps fittingly this year was the first time which the natural elements posed a risk to the exhibition. Unexpected King tides swept onto Tamarama beach and inundated those works located on the beach damaging three and dislodging others from their location. The result was three sculptures were so badly damaged that they had to be withdrawn with  only images on signage remaining where they had once stood. These were not the only ones however which were damaged and other works located on rock platforms close to the seaside also had to be removed.

27 countries are represented this year with entries from India, Germany, Sweden, China, Norway, Italy, Denmark, Brazil, Japan, England, the USA, South Korea, Netherlands, Slovakia, Serbia to name a few. Australia was well represented with roughly half of the entries sourced from this country.  Notably two entries were from sculptors who have passed away. The exhibition is comfortable, predictable and the forms well-executed, however it was safe territory all up. As a free exhibition it is always worth the trip to walk along the coastal path between Tamarama and Bondi Beach.