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NASA is Sending Bacteria Into the Sky on Balloons During the Eclipse (cnbc.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: As the Moon blocks the Sun's light completely next week in a total solar eclipse, more than 50 high-altitude balloons in over 20 locations across the US will soar up to 100,000 feet in the sky. On board will be Raspberry Pi cameras, weather sensors, and modems to stream live eclipse footage. They'll also have metal tags coated with very hardy bacteria, because NASA wants to know whether they will survive on Mars. Every time we send a rover to the Red Planet, our own microorganisms latch on to them and hitch a ride across space. What happens to these bacteria once they're on Mars? Do they mutate? Do they die? Or can they continue living undisturbed, colonizing worlds other than our own? To answer these questions we need to run experiments here on Earth, and the eclipse on August 21st provides the perfect opportunity. The balloons are being sent up by teams of high school and college students from across the US as part of the Eclipse Ballooning Project, led by Angela Des Jardins of Montana State University. When Jim Greene, the director of planetary science at NASA, first heard that over 50 balloons were being flown to the stratosphere to live stream the eclipse, he couldn't believe his ears. "I said, oh my god, that's like being on Mars!" Greene tells The Verge. NASA couldn't pass on the opportunity.
"50 balloons were being flown to the stratosphere to live stream the eclipse, he couldn't believe his ears. "I said, oh my god, that's like being on Mars!""
Wow. He actually said that out loud?
Since our moon cannot get between Mars and the Sun, why is this done now?
They have no ability to grow potatoes on shit.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
lots of aircraft flying through the eclipse along with some nuts who will try to keep up. yeah, they can't, but they're nuts.
Can't wait to hear what the chemtrails loonies have to say about this one.
Of course NASA is releasing bacteria into the sky on balloons during the eclipse. It's the fucking end times.
You are welcome on my lawn.
The Kármán line, or Karman line, lies at an altitude of 100km (62mi; 330,000ft) above the Earth's sea level, and commonly represents the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space.[2] This definition is accepted by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), which is an international standard-setting and record-keeping body for aeronautics and astronautics.
when we haven't even been to the moon yet
follow the money
You want to sell your wacko theories? Stick the word Mars in there somewhere. Did you know that Mars is 100% gluten free?
Seriously, we need to quit with the whole Mars thing. It's just a waste of time, money, and attention span. Nobody alive today will ever relocate to Mars. NASA has said they haven't even started working on landers, habitation, or return vehicles.
They die, because there's nothing for them to eat.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
So that's the new post affirmative action NASA? Instead of sending people to the moon they tie Raspberry PIs to balloons and launch them during an eclipse because the eclipse is special?
Every attempt is made to prevent our contamination of another world with our life. Otherwise, if we find life, could we be sure that we didn't seed it from Earth?
I haven't RTFA so will just jump in with a comment (like everybody else). There might be some science, perhaps inspiring youth can get hands-on experience that includes defining the experiment, gathering resources, arguing with others on payload (balloon can't carry everybody's favorite package), design tradeoffs, performing useful tests, meeting deadlines, pulling a lot of allnighters and not freak-out when things don't go according to plan. But predicting the flight and have the balloon stay in the area of totality, get some awesome pictures ON YOUR OWN (team) CAMERA instead of downloading from high flying airplanes like everybody else. It can all be like a carnival atmosphere. Be sure you have proper viewing googles and put away the phone.
mfwright@batnet.com
Thinking about all the microorganisms we've sent into space and the science fiction stories that could be written about them. Is that how we got to Earth? Another species's planetary bacteria? Is that what we are?
I suspect Earth and Mars cross-contamination by microbes exists even without NASA's help.
...the eclipse presents an environment that is exactly like Mars, so the data is very important. And, no, we're not sending anything else up for any other reasons and not giving details on it, either.
Didn't this ultimately back fire when we tried to get rid of the invading Lizards?