A flight beyond Earth

 

You’ll probably be asking yourself what’s he driving at?  How is it that, with the disaster in international travel thanks to COVID-19, you’ll be talking about flying, when thousands of Australians are still caught up somewhere else far from their homeland as there are simply not enough flights?

 

In fact, I’ll be talking about a fascinating story taking place courtesy of human ingenuity, advanced engineering and lots and lot of money.  The place is Mars, a planet in our solar system, with a  diameter of 6800km (a little above half that of earth), which can be found in an orbit around the sun of 78 million kilometres bigger than earth’s.

 

Mars is a really interesting planet.  Firstly, in the past it was said to contain water canals, a made-up story, but recently astronomers have concluded that in the past, the planet had water, lots of water.  This is thought to have disappeared when the atmosphere of Mars practically disappeared, and what is left are only remnants on the face of the planet, and it’s thought some still also exists under the surface.

 

The presence of water is not only of academic interest, as we know that water is essential to life on our earth, and there is therefore at least the possibility that in the past life developed on Mars as well.  This is one of the main reasons why there is so much interest in Mars by the space agencies of major countries, such as the USA and China, which each have a mission intending to release a rover onto this planet.

 

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the US already has two rovers on Mars: Curiosity, which was lowered in 2011 and is still actively making scientific work, and Perseverance, which has just been lowered in the middle of February of this year 2021.  China is also expected to land its rover, part of its Tianwen-1 mission, in May 2021.

 

One of the interesting aspects of Perseverance is that it was carrying a small autonomous helicopter, about half a metre high and weighing just 1.8kg, which will be the first aeronautical machine to fly in an atmosphere other than that of Earth.1  The conditions of this flight are very difficult.

 

Firstly, this helicopter need to resist the freezing temperatures on Mars, where this regularly plunges to 100 degrees below zero.  A similar temperature (-93C) was the coldest ever recorded on Antarctica in 2010.

 

Secondly, the atmosphere on Mars is very thin, with a pressure less than 1% that of Earth.  This means that the helicopter’s rotors need to rotate about three times as fast as those of helicopters on Earth.  This is necessarily in order to push the little gas they encounter (the atmosphere of Mars is made up of carbon dioxide) downwards to lift the helicopter.

 

It is expected that the helicopter can only fly for about 90 seconds every time, before having to go back to its base, where it would be able to charge its batteries with the energy of the sun.

 

The NASA team in these days is preparing for the first flight, which if everything goes well there will be five of them over a period of about a month.  The intention behind these flights is purely a demonstration that such a thing is possible.

 

The significance of this project is being compared to the first flight by the Wright brothers, when they had flown the Kitty Hawk for the first time on earth in 1903, with a total flight time of 3.5 seconds.

 

The whole world will come to know whether this ambitious step of mankind will be successful or otherwise.  One has to keep in mind that the distance between Earth and Mars is so large, that an electromagnetic signal between them takes between 5 and 20 minutes to arrive, depending upon the relative position of the planets,2 therefore it is impossible for a person to directly control the flights manually from Earth.

 

Therefore, the flight will be automated, and after the button representing ‘fly’ is pressed, mission control will have several nail-biting minutes until they will know whether the helicopter came back down to the surface literally with a bang, or in readiness to fly another day!

 

We will wait and see!

 

 

 

 

1https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/#, retrieved 30/3/2021

2https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/communications/, retrieved 30/3/2021

COVID and Malta

 

In this extended crisis that humanity has been going through for more than a year, many of the decisions, discussions, news and activities of humans and their leaders were completely dominatedb by this new virus.  The administrative authorities in countries around the world are judged on how they kept a balance between the fight against the virus and how alive the economy was maintained (even if on a metaforical ventilator).

 

It seems to me that the majority of the population is probably more interested in prioritising public health, but there would also be those who think one can tolerate a certain controllable level of risk to health with the aim of only minimally affecting the economy.

 

From my side, I’d say it’s futile having a million dollars in your pocket if you’re dead.

 

Many citizens around the world have been over the last months giving a higher attention than usual to political leaders and health authorities, with statistics that might be given, detailed and daily, about how many people are infected, how many tragically succumb, what restrictions are taken and when they may be withdrawn, and how and when we might get out of this purgatory.  The main question: when will COVID-19 become just one of the many diseases that have practically disappeared around the world due to the vast majority of the global population be vaccinated.

 

Some have indulged in speculation without any basis, for example that this virus is nothing except a big conspiracy.  One of the most ridiculous theories I’ve heard was that world governments are working together with the excuse of COVID so that we all lose our freedoms.  Would you have ever guessed that the governments of the United States, China and Russia have actually been working hand in hand?

 

I do listen to everybody, but have no time for frivolities.

 

In the last few months, it was with growing concern hearing the news about the situation in Malta.  Initially, it seems that this was reasonable, but over the last months I couldn’t understand how Malta was reporting hundreds (usually around two hundred) of new COVID cases daily (with a population of half a million) whereas Australia in the same period had many days in which not even a single case was reported in a population of 25 million.

 

With such a small population, the total number of people infected (26748) and dead (358) reported with the World Health Organisation (WHO) until 17th March 2021 aren’t high compared with other countries (Malta in 119th place from 236 countries and territories),1 although each and every death is a tragedy, and an infection can keep affecting you for many months, and we just don’t if for longer than that.  Nevertheless, if you look at the rates of infection per head of population, the situation compared to that of the rest of the world changes, for the worse.

 

In fact, Malta had 6057 infections per 100,000 population, in 33rd place, just behind Great Britain with 6280 which is not considered to have handled the pandemic well at all, and not that far behind the United States with 8808.  The worst performer was Andorra, with 14,610 case per 100,000 population.  Compare this with Australia’s 114 case per 100,000, and New Zealand with 43.

 

A similar situation can be found considering deaths per 100,000 population.  Malta is in 47th place from 236 countries and territories with 80 deaths per 100,000, practically on the same level as Germany on 87, and half that of the United States of America on 160, the UK 2ith 184 and above all other Gibraltar with 279.  Compare this with Australian with 3.5 deaths per 100,000, and New Zealand with 0.5!

 

I was surprised reading some weeks ago about the Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela commenting that Malta was like being in heaven when compared to the rest of Europe.2  Firstly, when compared to just European countries, Malta is found about half the table for both infections and deaths.

 

Secondly, Europe is not considered to have been effective in controlling COVID, with countries such as Italy, the UK and Spain not being mentioned positively in this space.  It is true that when comparing yourself to the worst, you’ll find you’re better, but if you want to be credible when talking about heaven, you need to compare yourself to the best, not the worst.

 

I have family members who have been practically stuck at home in Malta and Gozo due to the fear of a relatively high number of people that are to this day being found infected, and when you’re elderly you could imagine their anxiety these days.  They also are amazed to compare their own news and how live is evolving for them with ours here in Australia when we talk from one side of the globe to the other.

 

It seems to me that the balance between the economy and public health has been more tilted towards the former in Malta than it was in Australia.  I accept that every decision is difficult, but it remains up to each government to defend the decisions taken and when, and to face families of those struck by tragedy.

 

 

1https://covid19.who.int/table, retrieved 17/3/2021

2https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/look-at-the-rest-of-europe-were-in-heaven-here-robert-abela.848577, retrieved 17/3/2021