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Christopher McKay
Christopher P. McKay (born 1954) is an American planetary science, planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, studying atmosphere, 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 wiktionary:astrogeophysics, astrogeophysics from the University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Colorado in 1982. Career McKay has done research on planetary atmospheres, particularly the atmospheres of Titan (moon), 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 201 ... [...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, United States. The university is a member of the State University System of Florida and has 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 was established as Florida's fifth public university and is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". FAU has quickly grown to become one of the largest institutions in the state by enrollment. 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 first public university in the Miami metropol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atacama Desert
The Atacama Desert () is a desert plateau located on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile. Stretching over a strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, it covers an area of , which increases to if the barren lower slopes of the Andes are included. The Atacama Desert is the driest nonpolar desert in the world, and the second driest overall, behind some specific spots within the McMurdo Dry Valleys. It is the only Desert climate, true desert to receive less precipitation than polar deserts, and the largest fog desert in the world. The area has been used as an experimentation site for Mars expedition simulations due to its similarities to the Martian environment. The constant Inversion (meteorology), temperature inversion caused by the cool north-flowing Humboldt Current, Humboldt ocean current and the strong South Pacific High, Pacific anticyclone contribute to the extreme aridity of the desert. The most arid region of the Atacama Desert is s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chris Hadfield
Chris Austin Hadfield (born August 29, 1959) is a Canadian retired astronaut, engineer, fighter pilot, musician, and writer. As the first Canadian to perform extravehicular activity in outer space, he has flown two Space Shuttle missions and also served as commander of the International Space Station (ISS). Prior to his career as an astronaut, he served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 25 years as an Air Command fighter pilot. Hadfield has cited part of his career inspiration to have come to him as a child, when he watched the first crewed Moon landing by American spaceflight Apollo 11 on television. He attended high school in Oakville and Milton in southern Ontario, and earned his glider pilot licence as a member of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets. After enlisting in the Canadian Armed Forces, he earned an engineering degree at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario. Hadfield learned to fly various types of aircraft in the military and eventually became a test p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David S
David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the Kings of Israel and Judah, third king of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions, Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Damascus in the late 9th/early 8th centuries BCE to commemorate a victory over two enemy kings, contains the phrase (), which is translated as "Davidic line, House of David" by most scholars. The Mesha Stele, erected by King Mesha of Moab in the 9th century BCE, may also refer to the "House of David", although this is disputed. According to Jewish works such as the ''Seder Olam Rabbah'', ''Seder Olam Zutta'', and ''Sefer ha-Qabbalah'' (all written over a thousand years later), David ascended the throne as the king of Judah in 885 BCE. Apart from this, all that is known of David comes from biblical literature, Historicity of the Bible, the historicit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthropocentrism
Anthropocentrism ( ) is the belief that human beings are the central or most important entity on the planet. 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. It is possible to distinguish between at least three types of anthropocentrism: perceptual anthropocentrism (which "characterizes paradigms informed by sense-data from human sensory organs"); descriptive anthropocentrism (which "characterizes paradigms that begin from, center upon, or are ordered around ''Homo sapiens'' / ‘the human'"); and normative anthropocentrism (which "characterizes paradigms that make assumptions or assertions about the superiority of ''Homo sapiens'', its capacities, the primacy of its values, rits position in the universe" ... [...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 is also an advocate for U.S. space superiority, writing that "in the 21st century, victory on land, sea or in the air will go to the power that controls space" and that "if we desire peace on Earth, we need to prepare for war in space." 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 wou ... [...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 ethics, 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 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, ... [...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 equal 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. 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 In the simplest of terms as well as form, biocentrism is the belief that all living organisms, without exception, individually possess equal value and the same exact rig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Exploration
Space exploration is the process of utilizing astronomy and space technology to investigate outer space. While the exploration of space is currently carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration 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. Common rationales for exploring space include advancing scientific research, national prestige, uniting different nations, ensuring the future survival of humanity, and developing military and strategic advantages against other countries. The early era of space exploration was driven by a "Space Race" between ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mars Society
The Mars Society is a nonprofit organization that advocates for human exploration and colonization of Mars. It was founded by Robert Zubrin in 1998 and its principles are based on Zubrin's Mars Direct philosophy, which aims to make human mission to Mars, human missions to Mars as feasible as possible. The Mars Society generates interest in the Mars program by garnering support from the public and through lobbying. Many current and former Mars Society members are influential in the wider spaceflight community, such as Buzz Aldrin and Elon Musk. Since its founding, the Mars Society has organized events and research activities. It has hosted its annual International Mars Society Convention and operated research projects such as the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station and the Mars Desert Research Station, both using Mars analog habitats. Both of the stations are placed in remote locations for research. Crew members perform simulated extravehicular activities, carry out resear ... [...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 ... [...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 Christopher P. McKay (born 1954) is an American planetary science, planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, studying atmosphere, planetary atmospheres, astrobiology, and terraforming. McKay majored in physics at Florida Atlantic Univers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
