I’m looking forward to The Martian, the new film starring Matt Damon which opens this week. The word is that if you like your science fiction with the emphasis on science, rather than fiction, it promises to be a rewarding experience. Yesterday, NASA announced the results of research which shows that liquid water has been observed on the surface […]
I’ve written about Mars One before. In principle it’s a reasonable idea. Sensationalist headlines have focused on the one-way, lifetime commitment required of the participants but, under the right circumstances, it doesn’t seem like an unreasonable sacrifice in order to make history. That’s probably what Dr Joseph Roche was thinking when he signed up. A serious scientist, Joseph was in it for […]
One of the topics in our house this weekend was the possibility of interstellar travel using generation ships, among other things (it’s that kind of house). We had watched a documentary about the planets discovered by the Kepler mission, which prompted the question: how would you even get there? My eldest was horrified at the prospect of a […]
Marooned on Mars! It sounds like a 1950s pulp sci-fi title, but in reality over 200,000 people volunteered to do exactly that, and 1,058 have now gone through to the next phase of selection. Irish scientist Dr Joseph Roche is one of them . You might have heard him on Morning Ireland this morning – […]
