#mars university

[futurama-in-color]

FUTURAMA 1.11 - Mars University

[fishout-of-water]

I absolutely love how Mars University was designed in the show and was really excited to add onto it for the comic! Since I'm starting off the new chapter at the MU stadium, I of course needed to start designing it since I don't think we ever got to see that part of the campus.

I used Panatheniac stadium and Harvard's stadium as references for this pass.

I've hardly ever done concept art for settings before so this is a learning experience. If anyone wants to give suggestions, I'll gladly hear them.

[the-wandering-waif]

Can someone please tell me how Fry was able to enroll at Mars University when he literally didn't have a high school transcript and there wouldn't even be any records of his existence at all in the 31st century.

[hitchell-mope]

Poor Leela.

[spacewonder19]

The First Full Moon's Occultation of Mars © astronycc

[deep-space-netwerk]

So Venus is my favorite planet in the solar system - everything about it is just so weird.

It has this extraordinarily dense atmosphere that by all accounts shouldn't exist - Venus is close enough to the sun (and therefore hot enough) that the atmosphere should have literally evaporated away, just like Mercury's. We think Earth manages to keep its atmosphere by virtue of our magnetic field, but Venus doesn't even have that going for it. While Venus is probably volcanically active, it definitely doesn't have an internal magnetic dynamo, so whatever form of volcanism it has going on is very different from ours. And, it spins backwards! For some reason!!

But, for as many mysteries as Venus has, the United States really hasn't spent much time investigating it. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, sent no less than 16 probes to Venus between 1961 and 1984 as part of the Venera program - most of them looked like this!

The Soviet Union had a very different approach to space than the United States. NASA missions are typically extremely risk averse, and the spacecraft we launch are generally very expensive one-offs that have only one chance to succeed or fail.

It's lead to some really amazing science, but to put it into perspective, the Mars Opportunity rover only had to survive on Mars for 90 days for the mission to be declared a complete success. That thing lasted 15 years. I love the Opportunity rover as much as any self-respecting NASA engineer, but how much extra time and money did we spend that we didn't technically "need" to for it to last 60x longer than required?

Anyway, all to say, the Soviet Union took a more incremental approach, where failures were far less devastating. The Venera 9 through 14 probes were designed to land on the surface of Venus, and survive long enough to take a picture with two cameras - not an easy task, but a fairly straightforward goal compared to NASA standards. They had…mixed results.

Venera 9 managed to take a picture with one camera, but the other one's lens cap didn't deploy.

Venera 10 also managed to take a picture with one camera, but again the other lens cap didn't deploy.

Venera 11 took no pictures - neither lens cap deployed this time.

Venera 12 also took no pictures - because again, neither lens cap deployed.

Lotta problems with lens caps.

For Venera 13 and 14, in addition to the cameras they sent a device to sample the Venusian "soil". Upon landing, the arm was supposed to swing down and analyze the surface it touched - it was a simple mechanism that couldn't be re-deployed or adjusted after the first go.

This time, both lens caps FINALLY ejected perfectly, and we were treated to these marvelous, eerie pictures of the Venus landscape:

However, when the Venera 14 soil sampler arm deployed, instead of sampling the Venus surface, it managed to swing down and land perfectly on….an ejected lens cap.

[the-wolf-and-moon]

Mars and the Pleiades

[theofficialastronomy101]

Think we're the only planet with life? 350mp quality. Remember to download to your phone and zoom in. Gets even more beautiful. Yes this is a nebula, yes I know there’s no life in a nebula. Of course these are not real photos. Duh!

[without-ado]

Wolf Moon meets the ISS and Mars l Rami Ammoun

[obsesseddiary]

Mano Futurama é A SÉRIE, né? Eles tem um episódio lançado em 1999 que é onde os personagens principais visitam a Universidade de Marte, onde o professor Farnsworth tenta colonizar o planeta Marte. Depois outro lançado em 2003 que a tripulação da Planet Express é enviada para o Egito Antigo, onde eles ajudam o faraó a construir uma espaçonave para colonizar um novo planeta. Daí em pleno Agosto de 2023 vem os cientistas procurando otimizar a viabilidade de futuras missões colonizadoras no planeta vermelho.

Vai tomar no c*, isso me assusta muito!

[futurama-in-color]

FUTURAMA 1.11 - Mars University

[wonders-of-the-cosmos]

Stormy Mars in opposition in 2018

Credits: NASA, ESA, and STScI  

[jaygeezthechosen]

[hitchell-mope]

Now that was a little racist.

[spacewonder19]

"Planetary Parade"; composite photos that stay true to the angular scale of the objects © cosmic_background

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions anonymously so you don’t have to! Submissions are open on the 1st and 15th of the month.