Los Angeles Times reporter Deborah Netburn writes about how MIT engineers have analyzed the feasibility of the Mars One colonization plans. "The claim they make is that no new technology is required for their mission," says graduate student Syndey Do. "Our numbers show that is not feasible."
Rafi Letzter of Popular Science writes that a team of MIT researchers has published a study debunking Mars One’s plan to establish the first human colony on Mars by 2025. The team found that “without dramatic improvements in equipment life, the space colonists, who would have no way to return to Earth, could starve to death,” writes Letzter.
An MIT study indicates that plans for settling on Mars could put colonists in danger of starvation, reports Thor Benson for UPI. "Our habitation simulations revealed that crop growth, if large enough to provide 100% of the settlement's food, will produce unsafe oxygen levels in the habitat,” the researchers explain.
Huffington Post reporter Thomas Tamblyn writes that a team of MIT scientists has found that the Mars One colonization plans are flawed. The researchers found that Mars colonists are unlikely to survive as the production of crops will over saturate the living environment with oxygen, Tamblyn writes.
Researchers from MIT have detected the brightest pulsar ever recorded, reports Brook Hays of UPI. “Despite its small dimensions and modest mass, the pulsating dead star is burning with the energy of 10 million suns,” writes Hays.
Macrina Cooper-White of The Huffington Post writes that MIT researchers have found evidence that the giant basin on the moon was created by ancient volcanic eruptions and not from an asteroid impact. An asteroid would have created a circular basin, but researchers found that the basin is actually more rectangular in shape, Cooper-White reports.
Jonathan Amos of BBC News reports that MIT researchers have identified a large rectangular feature on the moon. “The 2,500km-wide structure is believed to be the remains of old rift valleys that later became filled with lava,” writes Amos.
Washington Post reporter Rachel Feltman writes that researchers have found evidence that the moon’s basin was formed by magma flows. "For anyone who's ever looked up at the moon and wondered why it has this pattern on its surface — now we have an answer,” says MIT Vice President for Research Maria Zuber.
“MOXIE itself will be a reverse fuel cell, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, converting CO2 into oxygen and carbon monoxide via solid oxide electrolysis,” writes Andy Extance in a piece for Scientific American. MOXIE is slated to be deployed on NASA’s next Martian rover.
Carolyn Johnson of The Boston Globe reports that a device designed by MIT researchers to demonstrate that it is possible to produce oxygen from carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere will be included on NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. “When humans go to Mars, we’d like to get them there, but we’d also like to get them home,” explains Dr. Michael Hecht.
Sky News reports that a device developed by Dr. Michael Hecht of MIT to turn carbon dioxide on Mars into breathable oxygen will be included on the rover NASA plans to send to Mars in 2020. The device, “aims to see if Martian air could be converted for astronauts to breathe,” Sky News reports.
“Designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Mars Oxygen ISRU (in situ research utilization) Experiment (MOXIE) aims to see if Martian air could be converted for astronauts to breathe,” the AFP reports. MOXIE will be one of the systems aboard a robotic vehicle slated to go to Mars in 2020.
The Associated Press reports that MOXIE, an MIT device designed to turn carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere into oxygen, will be included on NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. MOXIE will “make about three-quarters of an ounce of oxygen an hour," Dr. Michael Hecht explains.
Wired reporter Klint Finley writes about how a team of MIT and NASA researchers broke the networking speed record from the earth to the moon. “The technology could soon send scientific research data between earth and the moon far more quickly,” Finley explains.
“Researchers at NASA and MIT have figured out how to beam wireless connectivity from a ground base in New Mexico to the moon using telescopes and lasers,” writes Timothy McGrath in a piece posted on Salon.