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  • Colonising Mars: The Future Has Arrived

    Here’s the transcript of my Mars Colonisation speech. ©2009 Rahul Dowlath. All rights reserved.

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    The great inventor and artist, Leonardo da Vinci, once said, “When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return.”

    Ever since mankind developed cognitive ability, the desire to soar has been ever present, unwavering. It’s powerful presence has driven man to dream, and realise dreams. To invent the wheel, and traverse the seas. To fly like an eagle, and land on a neighbour whom he gazed upon for centuries, which may have been one small step for man, but a giant leap for Mankind.

    But now, restlessness stirs once again in this exploring soul. Exploring even our own planet has not become enough for man, who’s very nature is to not be content with what he currently has. And so, after aeons of dreaming, the time has come to realise that dream, of stepping on… the red planet.

    This, ladies and gentlemen, is not a science fiction idea. This is reality. Welcome to the future. Welcome to our new home.

    The colonisation of Mars is not just for the mere advancement of science and technology or to provide a “benchmark” for mankind’s progress. It is, in fact, a need, a necessity, due to the current plight of our own Earth.

    Overpopulation, the detrimental effects on our environment caused by the notorious Global Warming, and depleting natural resources are the fundamental aspects that are pushing us towards establishing a colony on Mars. Furthermore, history tells us that, six times before, the Earth was struck by a large asteroid. The result? Extinction. All six times.
    Do we want the hundreds of years of advancement in society to be lost, crumbling in dust and ashes, if another rock out there with our name on it were to strike?

    And so, as NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale said, “We also hope to discover if Mars can provide a second home for humans—an extension of our civilisation—40 million miles from Earth.”

    Thus, Viking 1 was the first spacecraft to land on the Red Planet, on 20 August 1975. Launched by NASA, it began our journey into the in-depth study of this fascinating planet. Viking 1 studied the soil of Mars, and began the search for life on the planet. Today, four artificial satellites orbit the planet, whilst two exploratory rovers are studying its geography. These vehicles are the first step towards colonising this planet.

    What we currently know about Mars, is that it is relatively similar to Earth. Some of the similarities include: the Martian day being very similar to Earth’s (24 hours and 39 minutes). Mars has an axial tilt similar to Earth’s, meaning that Mars experiences seasons similar to the ones we have here. It has an atmosphere that can aid in aerobraking spacecraft landing on the surface. But most importantly, a recent discovery by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover and the European Space Agency’s Mars Express, points to the presence of water-ice on the planet.

    These discoveries mean that the Red Planet is ready and waiting to support Terrain-base life.

    But the journey to getting life on the planet isn’t going to be easy. It will involve an intricate and colossal process that involves re-engineering the entire planet.

    This process is called terraforming.

    Terraforming will, essentially, transform the planet from looking like this…

    currentMars
    Current Mars

     

    to this…

    Terraformed Mars

    a very inviting, Earth-like planet.

    First coined by science fiction writer Jack Williamson, the term has now become accepted in the world of science. Meaning literally “Earth shaping”, it involves the process of deliberately modifying a planet’s atmosphere, temperature, surface topography and ecology to conditions similar to Earth, in order to make it habitable by humans.

    In order to better understand terraforming, we need to look at why it needs to be done on Mars:

    The temperature and atmosphere on Mars is vastly different to the Earth’s. Where the Earth has 79% nitrogen, Mars has a mere 2.7%. Even more alarming, is that Mars has a whopping 97% Carbon Dioxide — extremely lethal to human beings.

    Furthermore, Mars has a very thin atmosphere, and thus does not retain much heat. Let’s take a look at the average surface temperatures on Earth and Mars. Earth’s average is 14.4?C. Mars… -62.77?C. These factors clearly outline the need for terraforming.

    The process is hypothesised to be conducted in two stages. In the first stage, specialised plants, such as lichen, which are able to withstand extreme conditions such as those on Mars, will be implemented. They would adapt to the Martian climate whilst the second stage is being prepared. In the second stage, additional plants and organic material will be introduced to the planet. These will begin the transformation of the atmosphere into a more habitable one. Lastly, specially developed structures to withstand the Martian weather conditions would be sent, so as to house the first colonisers whilst the planet is being terraformed.

    What’s great about this development in science, is that, with our current technological systems, the process can begin this very minute. However, the cost of terraforming is mammoth. Investors are very sceptical about it, because the process will take about 20 to 40 years.

    While this is the case, our great pioneers of the age — our modern-day Leonardo da Vincis, if you like, are already planning with Project Virgle in 2014, spearheaded by Richard Branson and Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who will be leading hundreds of users on one of the grandest adventures in human history; Project Virgle will be the first permanent human colony on Mars.

    Ladies and Gentlemen… the future has arrived.

  • Presenting the Mars Colonization Talk

    These last few weeks have been a whirlwind for me. That’s not to say it wasn’t exceptionally interesting and exciting – it certainly was.

    It all started with a presentation for English class, where we had to present a 5 minute talk on any (interesting) topic of our choice. One of the requirements was  to utilize digital media to enhance (and subsequently not overpower) the talk.

    Being me, I went all-out, and the resultant presentation was quite hi-tech. I will post the transcript of the speech after this Thursday, when I have presented it at a speaker’s evening.

    But I’d like to share the intricacies of the talk, since I thought it was quite interesting to see how all these technologies came together to create a powerful presentation.

    What I Used:

    • Apple Unibody MacBook (Late 2008 edition)
    • Apple iPhone 3G (2008 edition)
    • Ad-hoc Wi-Fi network (to interface the Mac and iPhone)
    • Apple Keynote presentation software
    • Keynote Remote

    As you can see, I’m an Apple fan 😉

    So, the presentation was designed and created in Keynote. I didn’t “auto-time” it, so it could be controlled manually.

    Then, I set up an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network to interface the MacBook with an iPhone. This allowed the MacBook to “talk” to the iPhone via a Wi-Fi network, over a secure connection (so no-one in the audience could interfere with the presentation).

    Keynote Remote, an iPhone App, was then used to control the presentation. It displayed the current slide that was on-screen, as well as my speaker notes. This allowed for me to only have one item, the iPhone, up with me, which gave an “uncluttered” look.

    At the end of the day though, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, it’s not about the technology, but the way it’s utilized, that makes a presentation. Thus, there was certainly a lot of practice put in to ensure the entire process was seemless.

    In a future post I will include the transcript of the presentation, as this topic (colonizing Mars) is something I am quite passionate about.

  • “Give Me Music” and Book Update

    Wow, it’s been such a long time since I last updated! The past few months have been a roller-coaster ride for me. I’ve been to Switzerland and back (in July, shortly after my previous post) and I’ve managed to notch up to over 10 000 words for my novel.

    I’ve also been busy with a number of video presentations for various people – those have went very well. My final video project for the year is our annual SKDSA Awards Evening, and this year the audience will be in for a treat. Over the past three years that I’ve been involved with this line of work, I’ve learnt a great deal and worked with a host of different technologies. This year I’m going to combine all my acquired knowledge and expertise in the field to deliver the best presentation yet!

    I’ve just finished my latest music project – it’s called “Give Me Music” and its five cool tracks of awesome electronic music, just in time for Summer ’09 in South Africa! Look out for it soon – I’m hoping to break into the “underground” music scene in Durban with this CD and I’m hoping it’ll go down well.

    On the subject of my book, I must say that it’s going very well. There is still quite a bit to do, but I’m slowly getting to the finish mark and I hope to finish that by the end of this year – we’ll see how things go.

    I’m running two “commercial” blogs now (don’t worry, Life in Pixels will always remain my “personal” home on the web) and these blogs are: Byte Lounge (www.bytelounge.blogspot.com) and ThatGuitarBlog (www.thatguitarblog.blogspot.com). Go check ’em out!

    Also, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, which I update constantly from wherever I am: twitter.com/RahulDowlath.

  • Three Weeks On… And the Tale Continues

    About three weeks ago, I began work on my latest ambitious venture – writing a full-length novel that I hope to get published once completed.

    Well, three weeks later, I’m glad to report my first update that I’ve promised to chronicle here on Life in Pixels. At the latest word count from last night, I’m currently sitting at around 4140 words. This is the most I’ve ever written on a single narrative in my life! I feel that this is a greatachievement in my young writing career, and I strongly believe that this project will definitely improve my skills at telling tales.

    Unfortunately, whilst I’m dying to tell you all what this novel is about, I can’t. What I can tell, though, is that I’ve decided to divide the novel into three parts. This will make it easier for me to write it, as I can focus on setting smaller, more achievable goals to accomplish this momentous task. But it will also provide for a vastly entertaining, gripping read for you, if ever I get it published…

    You can follow me on Twitter to get the latest updates on my progress. My link is: twitter.com/RahulDowlath.

    All for now! 😉

  • On Ambition (and other things)

    Ah, life. Recently, my perplexing mind has been preoccupied with thoughts on this chaotic thing that we all encounter everyday. More specifically, I’ve been thinking about ambition – after all, I do say that I’m an ambitious person. However, I’ve begun to question the true nature of ambition and come to a clarifying conclusion (don’t you just love the alliteration?! 😉

    Ambition is perfection. And the real truth is that you can never practice to be perfect; only perfect practice makes the cut. I’ve decided to take this philosophy at heart, and implement it into my life. After all, to be an ambitious person you need to work hard.

    So, over the last week I’ve practiced my theory by, well, practicing guitar for around an hour everyday. I’ve always wanted to play stunning lead solos, and so I’ve been practicing pentatonic scales over a hundred times in the space of five days. Guess what? I’m starting to create some stunning, sweet music!

    But this isn’t going to stop here – oh, no! Like I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve been wanting to write a book for quite some time now. Whilst my plans on this book have fundimentally changed since that initial post, I’m going to be practicing writing on a far more frequent level than previously. I hope to update this blog on a more regular basis, but the only problem lies in the face of one vicious, vile villain (ah, sweet alliteration…)

    June Exams.

    To decrypt this conundrum, I unfortunately cannot keep a high frequency on the Internet, as a lot more time is needed to be devoted to my studies. But I am trying my best to manage time more effectively; after all, perfect practive makes perfection achievable. And that’s what I intend to do.

    Watch this space.