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Christopher McKay
Dr Christopher P. McKay (born 1954) is an American planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, studying planetary atmospheres, astrobiology, and terraforming. McKay majored in physics at Florida Atlantic University, where he also studied mechanical engineering, graduating in 1975, and received his PhD in astrogeophysics from the University of Colorado in 1982. Career McKay has done research on planetary atmospheres, particularly the atmospheres of Titan and Mars, and on the origin and evolution of life. He is a co-investigator on the Huygens probe, the Mars Phoenix lander, and the Mars Science Laboratory. He also performed field research on extremophiles, in such locations as Death Valley, the Atacama Desert, Axel Heiberg Island, and ice-covered lakes in Antarctica. McKay is the Principal Investigator of the proposed Icebreaker Life astrobiology mission to Mars. In 2015 he received the Nevada Medal. He was a member of the board of directors of the Planetary Society a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florida Atlantic University
Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Florida, Dania Beach, Davie, Florida, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, Florida, Jupiter, and Fort Pierce, Florida, Fort Pierce. FAU belongs to the 12-campus State University System of Florida and serves Miami metropolitan area, South Florida. Established as Florida's fifth public university in 1961, FAU has quickly grown to become one of the largest institutions in the state by enrollment. Florida Atlantic University is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". Florida Atlantic offers more than 180 undergraduate and graduate degree programs within its 10 colleges. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). FAU opened in 1964 as the fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Death Valley
Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. During summer, it is the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth. Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the point of lowest elevation in North America, at below sea level. It is east-southeast of Mount Whitney — the highest point in the contiguous United States, with an elevation of 14,505 feet (4,421 m). On the afternoon of July10, 1913, the National Weather Service, United States Weather Bureau recorded a high temperature of 134 °F (56.7 °C) at Furnace Creek, California, Furnace Creek in Death Valley, which stands as the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, highest ambient air temperature ever recorded on the surface of the Earth. This reading, however, and several others taken in that period are disputed by some modern experts. Lying mostly in Inyo County, California, near the border of California and Nevada, in the Great ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David S
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the third king of the United Kingdom of Israel. In the Books of Samuel, he is described as a young shepherd and harpist who gains fame by slaying Goliath, a champion of the Philistines, in southern Canaan. David becomes a favourite of Saul, the first king of Israel; he also forges a notably close friendship with Jonathan, a son of Saul. However, under the paranoia that David is seeking to usurp the throne, Saul attempts to kill David, forcing the latter to go into hiding and effectively operate as a fugitive for several years. After Saul and Jonathan are both killed in battle against the Philistines, a 30-year-old David is anointed king over all of Israel and Judah. Following his rise to power, David ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthropocentrism
Anthropocentrism (; ) is the belief that human beings are the central or most important entity in the universe. The term can be used interchangeably with humanocentrism, and some refer to the concept as human supremacy or human exceptionalism. From an anthropocentric perspective, humankind is seen as separate from nature and superior to it, and other entities (animals, plants, minerals, etc.) are viewed as resources for humans to use. Anthropocentrism interprets or regards the world in terms of human values and experiences. It is considered to be profoundly embedded in many modern human cultures and conscious acts. It is a major concept in the field of environmental ethics and environmental philosophy, where it is often considered to be the root cause of problems created by human action within the ecosphere. However, many proponents of anthropocentrism state that this is not necessarily the case: they argue that a sound long-term view acknowledges that the global environment mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Zubrin
Robert Zubrin (; born April 9, 1952) is an American aerospace engineer, author, and advocate for human exploration of Mars. He and his colleague at Martin Marietta, David Baker, were the driving force behind Mars Direct, a proposal in a 1990 research paper intended to produce significant reductions in the cost and complexity of such a mission. The key idea was to use the Martian atmosphere to produce oxygen, water, and rocket propellant for the surface stay and return journey. A modified version of the plan was subsequently adopted by NASA as their "design reference mission". He questions the delay and cost-to-benefit ratio of first establishing a base or outpost on an asteroid or another Apollo program-like return to the Moon, as neither would be able to provide all of its own oxygen, water, or energy; these resources are producible on Mars, and he expects people would be there thereafter. Disappointed with the lack of interest from government in Mars exploration and after the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethics Of Terraforming
The ethics of terraforming has constituted a philosophical debate within biology, ecology, and environmental ethics as to whether terraforming other worlds is an ethical endeavor. Support On the pro-terraforming side of the argument, there are those like Robert Zubrin and Richard L. S. Taylor who believe that it is humanity's moral obligation to make other worlds suitable for Terran life, as a continuation of the history of life transforming the environments around it on Earth. They also point out that Earth will eventually be destroyed as nature takes its course, so that humanity faces a very long-term choice between terraforming other worlds or allowing all Earth life to become extinct. Dr. Zubrin further argues that even if native microbes have arisen on Mars, for example, the fact that they have not progressed beyond the microbe stage by this point, halfway through the lifetime of the Sun, is a strong indicator that they never will; and that if microbial life exists on Mars, it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biocentrism (ethics)
Biocentrism (from Greek βίος ''bios'', "life" and κέντρον ''kentron'', "center"), in a political and ecological sense, as well as literally, is an ethical point of view that extends inherent value to all living things. It is an understanding of how the earth works, particularly as it relates to its biosphere or biodiversity. It stands in contrast to anthropocentrism, which centers on the value of humans. The related ecocentrism extends inherent value to the whole of nature. Biocentrism does not imply the idea of equality among the animal kingdom, for no such notion can be observed in nature. Biocentric thought is nature-based, not human-based. Advocates of biocentrism often promote the preservation of biodiversity, animal rights, and environmental protection. The term has also been employed by advocates of "left biocentrism", which combines deep ecology with an " anti-industrial and anti-capitalist" position (according to David Orton ''et al.''). Definition Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Exploration
Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. While the exploration of space is carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration though is conducted both by robotic spacecraft, uncrewed robotic space probes and human spaceflight. Space exploration, like its classical form astronomy, is one of the main sources for space science. While the observation of objects in space, known as astronomy, predates reliable recorded history, it was the development of large and relatively efficient rockets during the mid-twentieth century that allowed physical space exploration to become a reality. The world's first large-scale experimental rocket program was Opel-RAK under the leadership of Fritz von Opel and Max Valier during the late 1920s leading to the first crewed rocket cars and rocket planes, which paved the way for the Nazi era V2 program and US and Soviet activities from 1950 onwards. The Opel-RAK program and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mars Society
The Mars Society is a nonprofit organization that advocates for human Mars exploration and colonization, founded by Robert Zubrin in 1998. It is based on Zubrin's Mars Direct plan, which aims to make human mission to Mars as lightweight and feasible as possible. The Mars Society aims to garner support for the Mars program by lobby the United States and other governments. Since its founding, the Mars Society has hosted its annual International Mars Society Convention and operated Mars analog habitats, named the Mars Desert Research Station and the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station. The organization also hosts university robotics competitions, named the University Rover Challenge and the European Rover Challenge. Many Mars Society members and former members are influential in the wider spaceflight community, such as Buzz Aldrin and Elon Musk. History Background and founding NASA had made technical studies for a human mission to Mars since the early 1960s. Early NASA miss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Planetary Society
The Planetary Society is an American internationally-active non-governmental nonprofit organization. It is involved in research, public outreach, and political space advocacy for engineering projects related to astronomy, planetary science, and space exploration. It was founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman, and has about 60,000 members from more than 100 countries around the world. The Society is dedicated to the exploration of the Solar System, the search for near-Earth objects, and the search for extraterrestrial life. The society's mission is stated as: "Empowering the world’s citizens to advance space science and exploration." The Planetary Society is a strong advocate for space funding and missions of exploration within NASA. They lobby Congress and engage their membership in the United States to write and call their representatives in support of NASA funding. In addition to public outreach, The Planetary Society has sponsored solar sail and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nevada Medal
The Nevada Medal was established in 1988 by the Desert Research Institute. It is awarded for "outstanding achievement in science and engineering", and is presented by the Governor of Nevada. The previous recipients are: # Verner Suomi # Dwight Billings # James A. Van Allen # Benoit Mandelbrot # Carl Djerassi # Margaret Bryan Davis # John N. Bahcall # Charles Elachi # Hector F. DeLuca # F. Sherwood Rowland # Lynn Margulis # Wallace Broecker # Harold Mooney # John H. Seinfeld # M. Gordon Wolman # Charles Goldman # Fakhri A. Bazzaz # Farouk El-Baz # Donald Grayson # Walter Alvarez # Susan Lindquist # James E. Hansen # Francis Collins # Robert Ballard # Steven Squyres # Nina Fedoroff # Albert Yu-Min Lin # Christopher McKay # Missy Cummings # Marcia McNutt # Kathryn Sullivan Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan (born October 3, 1951) is an American geologist, oceanographer, and a former NASA astronaut and US Navy officer. She was a crew member on three Space Shuttle missions. A grad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Icebreaker Life
''Icebreaker Life'' is a Mars lander mission concept proposed to NASA's Discovery Program. The mission involves a stationary lander that would be a near copy of the successful 2008 ''Phoenix'' and InSight spacecraft, but would carry an astrobiology scientific payload, including a drill to sample ice-cemented ground in the northern plains to conduct a search for biosignatures of current or past life on Mars. The science goals for ''Icebreaker Life'' focus on sampling ice-cemented ground for its potential to preserve and protect biomolecules or biosignatures. ''Icebreaker Life'' was not selected during the 2015 or 2019 Discovery Program competitions. Mission profile The ''Icebreaker Life'' mission has been designed based on the successful 2008 ''Phoenix'' lander in terms of platform and northern landing site. The ''Icebreaker Life'' will also be solar-powered and will be able to accommodate the drill and the rest of the payload with only minor modifications to the original lande ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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