SKY IS NOT AT ALL THE LIMIT .. EVEN FOR INDIANS !!!

SKY IS NOT AT ALL THE LIMIT .. EVEN FOR INDIANS !!!

NEXT DESTINATION .. MARS

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 As the deadline for registration nears, over 8,000 Indians have so far signed up for the one-way trip to Mars and settle down on the red planet, as 'Mars One' project is planning to establish a colony there in the next 10 years.

'Mars One', a not-for-profit foundation intends to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars in 2023 and is registering those interested to make it up there. India stands fourth among other countries of the world with 8,107 applicants, as on August 27.

The top 10 countries to enrol are the USA (37,852), China (13,124), Brazil (8,686), India (8,107), Russia (7,138), Britain (6,999), Mexico (6,771), Canada (6,593), Spain (3,621) and Philippines (3,516) as on August 22,  Aashima Dogra of 'Mars One' said.

With August 31 this year being the last date for registering, 'Mars One' has already received interest from more than 1,65,000 people hoping to be the first humans on Mars.

"The Mars One Application Program is turning out to be the most desired job vacancy in the world. People from over 140 countries are looking towards the final frontier and envisioning their life on another planet," she said. 

Mars One believes that human settlement on the red planet was possible with existing technologies and it plans to integrate components that are well tested and readily available from industry leaders worldwide. 

"The first footprint on Mars and lives of the crew thereon will captivate and inspire generations; it is this public interest that will help finance this human mission to Mars," she said.  DC

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 Life on Earth was kick-started thanks to a key mineral deposited by a meteorite from Mars, according to a novel theory aired on Thursday.

The vital ingredient was an oxidised mineral form of the element molybdenum, which helped prevent carbon molecules — the building blocks of life — from degrading into a tar-like goo. The idea comes from Steven Benner, a professor at the Westheimer Institute for Science and Tech­nology in Gainesville, Florida, who was to present it at an international conference of geochemists in Florence, Italy.

“It’s only when molybdenum becomes highly oxidised that it is able to influence how early life formed,” Benner said in a press release.

“This form of molybdenum couldn’t have been available on Earth at the time life first began, because three billion years ago the surface of the Earth had very little oxygen, but Mars did.” In this violent epoch of the Solar System, the infant Earth was pounded by comets and asteroids.

Mars, too, would have come under bombardment, and the impacts would have caused Martian rubble to bounce into space, where they would have lingered until eventually being captured by Earth’s gravity. 

“The evidence is building that we are actually all Mart­ians, that life started on Mars and came to Earth on a rock. It’s lucky we ended up here as Earth is life sustaining” sa­id Be­nner.  .. DC