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<br /><ul><li>Astronomers have found the perfect place to place a telescope on Earth for the clearest view of the night sky in East <keyword id="6354781" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Antarctica">Antarctica</keyword>. </li><li>Around 1,200 kilometres inland, on an icy plateau, a study pegs that a telescope on Dome Argus would outperform any other telescope. </li><li>Not only would it be after to see further than any existing telescope but also more clearly.</li></ul>In the far reaches of Antarctica, scientists have found the plateau that offers the clearest view of the stars above Earth at night. The only issue is that it’s one of the coldest and most remote locations on the planet. <br /><br />In a comparison between three domes — Dome A, Dome B, and Dome C — astronomers from China, Australia, and Canada found that a telescope on Dome A would be able to look farther than any other existing telescope on Earth. <br /><br />Located near the centre of East Antarctica, around 1,200 kilometres inland, Dome A is also known as Dome Argus. <br /><br /><strong>What sets it apart from the best telescopes on Earth?<br /></strong>“A telescope located at Dome A could out-perform a similar telescope located at any other astronomical site on the planet,” said astronomer <a href="https://science.ubc.ca/news/astronomers-pinpoint-best-place-earth-telescope-high-frigid-antarctic-plateau#:~:text=Prospective%20students-,Astronomers%20pinpoint%20the%20best%20place%20on%20Earth%20for%20a%20telescope,on%20a%20frigid%20Antarctic%20plateau&amp;text=%22A%20telescope%20located%20at%20Dome,co%2Dauthor%20of%20the%20study.">Paul Hickson</a>, co-author of the study published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2489-0.epdf?sharing_token=nsZZO7SIKiqN2KpF42bkadRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0NCjY3p4nATnIA2D8hQXvRKOtPr2ZvSIhD-OUt5Y1Fk8lBwhj1dpZX_PH_UmoBF4bLbwXImIBIjS0wrVA1V_IR4_pVdo_26T2WX2Bfqo6miJYwDDy3Hhm3gwDKk9YFOQcU%3D">Nature</a>. <br /><br />Currently, the best telescopes on Earth are Chile’s Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA), Hawaii’s WM Keck Observatory, and China’s Five Hundred Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST).<br /><br />They observe outer space in the range of 0.6 to 0.8 arcseconds, which is a way to measure how clearly a telescope can cover the distance. A telescope at Dome A, on the other hand, will have a range of 0.13 to 0.31 arcseconds. <br /><br />According to Hickson, four factors make Dome A the perfect spot for a telescope — the high altitude, low temperature, elongated periods of darkness, and a stable atmosphere. “A telescope there would have sharper images and could detect fainter objects,” he said. <br /><br />Aside from being out in the middle nowhere, there is one more catch to this seemingly perfect spot — frost. According to Bin Ma, co-author of the study, overcoming this particular obstacle could improve the telescope seeing ability by 10% to 12%.<br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/a-sun-like-star-and-two-exoplanets-300-light-years-away-could-reveal-how-earths-solar-system-came-to-be/articleshow/77125097.cms">A Sun-like star and two exoplanets 300 light-years away could reveal how Earth’s solar system came to be</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/us-and-uk-accuse-russia-of-launching-an-in-space-anti-satellite-weapon/articleshow/77149855.cms">US and UK accuse Russia of launching an in-space anti-satellite weapon</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/nasa-and-europes-first-target-to-keep-an-asteroid-from-hitting-earth-has-officially-been-dubbed-dimorphos/articleshow/77149192.cms">NASA and Europe’s first target to keep an asteroid from hitting Earth has officially been dubbed Dimorphos</a></strong><br />

This freezing cold isolated block of ice is the best place on Earth for a telescope

<ul class="summary-list"><li>An <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/iceberg-breaks-antarctica-creating-largest-in-world-2021-5">ice shelf</a> larger than New York City collapsed in East <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/heat-waves-warm-arctic-antarctic-poles-2022-3">Antarctica</a>, scientists announced Thursday. </li><li>The region was previously thought to be stable and mainly unaffected by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ozone-layer-climate-success-story-threatened-by-wildfires-2022-3">climate change</a>. </li></ul><p>An Antarctic <keyword id="12206619" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ice" source="Orion">ice</keyword> shelf larger than New York City — in an area previously thought to be stable — has collapsed.</p><p>The shelf is relatively small, at 460 square miles, but its unexpected disintegration marks the first time in recorded history that East <keyword id="12266096" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="antarctica" source="Orion">Antarctica</keyword> has seen an ice shelf collapse, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/climate-science-new-york-new-york-city-antarctica-4f5f1817bffd632e48e845d4638cc237?utm_medium=AP&amp;utm_campaign=SocialFlow&amp;utm_source=Twitter">The Associated Press</a> reported.</p><p>"In this part of Antarctica, which is attached to the highest, driest, coldest region, East Antarctica, we really did not anticipate seeing ice-shelf collapse," Peter Neff, a glaciologist at the University of Minnesota, said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/icy_pete/status/1507417102625349633">TikTok video</a> on Friday.</p><p>The shelf broke apart as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/heat-waves-warm-arctic-antarctic-poles-2022-3">temperatures soared in the region</a> last week. It collapsed sometime between March 14 and March 16, according to <a href="https://twitter.com/CapComCatWalk/status/1507137389432434739">Catherine Walker</a>, an ice scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.</p><div type="image" title="satellite image antarctica ice shelf disintegrated" height="875" width="1336" msid="90450484" hostid="261"></div><p>That was just a few days before a research station on the Antarctic plateau registered temperatures 70 degrees Fahrenheit above average. A long column of water vapor, called an atmospheric river, had carried heat from the tropics to the ice continent. At the same time, a high-pressure system called a "heat dome" moved in and sat over East Antarctic, trapping heat and moisture there, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/03/18/antarctica-heat-wave-climate-change/?utm_campaign=Daily%20Briefing&amp;utm_content=20220321&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter">The Washington Post</a>.</p><p>The heat wave was likely "the last straw on the camel's back," Walker told the AP.</p><p>"We probably are seeing the result of a lot of long-time increased ocean warming there," she said, adding, "It's just been melting and melting."</p><p>Global temperatures are rising as humans add more heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, and the poles are warming faster than the rest of the planet.</p><p>Even before the heat wave, Antarctica was at its lowest sea ice coverage since records began, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/23/antarctic-sea-ice-falls-to-lowest-level-since-measurements-began-in-1979">The Guardian</a> reported in February.</p><div type="image" title="two penguins stand on melting iceberg on rocky shelf" height="1648" width="2199" msid="90450486" hostid="261"></div><p>This ice shelf had been slowly shrinking since the 1970s, and its melt sped up in 2020, so that its size was halved roughly every month, according to the AP. The shelf previously stood between two glaciers, called Conger and Glenzer, and warming ocean waters.</p><p>The concerning collapse shows that even areas scientists thought were safe from the effects of the <keyword id="11896310" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="climate-crisis" source="Orion">climate crisis</keyword> are not so unaffected after all.</p><p>"The Glenzer Conger ice shelf presumably had been there for thousands of years and it's not ever going to be there again," Neff told the AP.</p>

An ice shelf previously thought to be stable has collapsed in Antarctica

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/antarctic-flowering-plant-growth-signals-climate-crisis-impact-study-2022-2">Antarctica</a> and the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ancient-arctic-sea-sponges-survive-by-eating-worm-fossils-2022-2">Arctic</a> suffered <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/4-ways-extreme-heat-negatively-impacts-economy-2021-8">heat waves</a> in the past week, reaching 70 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit above normal.</li><li>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/antarctica-thwaites-glacier-ice-shelf-will-shatter-scientists-say-2021-12">poles</a> are in opposite seasons, but atmospheric rivers carried moisture and warm air to them.</li></ul><p>Heat waves blanketed the planet's poles in unseasonably warm temperatures over the past week.</p><p>In parts of the <keyword id="11905238" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="arctic" source="Orion">Arctic</keyword>, temperatures soared to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) above average on Friday, according to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/climate-science-colorado-arctic-antarctica-eda9ea8704108bdab2480fa2cd4b6e34?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&amp;utm_campaign=9faf4287e9-briefing-dy-20220321&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-9faf4287e9-45928806">The Associated Press</a>. The same day, on the other end of the planet, <keyword id="12266096" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="antarctica" source="Orion">Antarctica</keyword>'s Dome C research station registered a record <keyword id="11930978" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="temperature" source="Orion">temperature</keyword> of 13.8 degrees, about 70 degrees above average. Vostok station, sitting 2 miles high on the Antarctic plateau, registered a similarly extreme temperature of 0.1 degrees.</p><p>As of Tuesday, the Antarctic <keyword id="11947988" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="heat-wave" source="Orion">heat wave</keyword> was subsiding, but temperatures remained about 50 degrees above normal, according to Robert Rodhe, lead scientist at the environmental data nonprofit Berkeley Earth.</p><p>"This event is rewriting record books and our expectations about what is possible in Antarctica," Rodhe <a href="https://twitter.com/RARohde/status/1505867257104187403">said</a> on Twitter. "Is this simply a freakishly improbable event, or is it a sign of more to come? Right now, no one knows."</p><div type="image" title="two penguins stand on melting iceberg on rocky shelf" height="1648" width="2199" msid="90404839" hostid="261"></div><p>The poles are in opposite seasons — it's fall in Antarctica, just starting to chill, while the Arctic is emerging from the dark depths of winter. But the mechanisms driving their respective heat records are the same. Atmospheric rivers — long, flowing columns of water vapor, like rivers in the sky — carried large amounts of moisture and warm air to both poles, causing the double-whammy polar heat wave.  </p><p>In Antarctica, a high-pressure system called a "heat dome" also moved in and sat over the eastern side of the continent, trapping heat and moisture there, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/03/18/antarctica-heat-wave-climate-change/?utm_campaign=Daily%20Briefing&amp;utm_content=20220321&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Revue%20newsletter">The Washington Post</a>.</p><p>"Are these two heat waves linked? We don't know yet, and it's most likely a coincidence," Antarctica researchers Dana Bergstrom, Sharon Robinson, and Simon Alexander <a href="https://theconversation.com/record-smashing-heatwaves-are-hitting-antarctica-and-the-arctic-simultaneously-heres-whats-driving-them-and-how-theyll-impact-wildlife-179659">wrote</a> in The Conversation on Tuesday.</p><p>Still, they added: "Modeling suggests large-scale climate patterns are [becoming] more variable. This means this seemingly one-off heat wave may be a harbinger for the future under <keyword id="11896311" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="climate-change" source="Orion">climate change</keyword>."</p><h2>The poles are warming faster than the rest of the planet</h2><div type="image" title="penguin stands on iceberg in ocean" height="1666" width="2222" msid="90404841" hostid="261"></div><p>While scientists can't directly attribute these warming events to climate change, it's possible that later studies will allow them to do so. Just a week after a record heat wave killed hundreds of people across the Pacific Northwest last June, World Weather Attribution published a <a href="https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/wp-content/uploads/NW-US-extreme-heat-2021-scientific-report-WWA.pdf">study</a> that concluded the event would have been "virtually impossible" without human-caused climate change.</p><p>Global temperatures are rising as humans add more heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, and the poles are warming faster than the rest of the planet.</p><p>Periods of warmth during the winter are a natural part of the Arctic climate, but <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2605/arctic-winter-warming-events-becoming-more-frequent-longer-lasting/">research</a> shows they're happening more frequently and lasting longer as the planet warms. In Antarctica, a lack of historical records makes it difficult to contextualize this weather.</p><div type="image" title="water drips from iceberg" height="1651" width="2201" msid="90404843" hostid="261"></div><p>"The first of the precise temperature records start in the late 1950s, so it's really hard to work out what's remarkable and what's not," Matt King, director of the Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic <keyword id="11896083" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="science" source="Orion">Science</keyword>, told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/21/extremes-of-40c-above-normal-whats-causing-extraordinary-heating-in-polar-regions">The Guardian</a>. "Sometime down the track, depending on what we do with our carbon emissions, we might see these types of temperatures much more regularly."</p><p>Alongside the heat wave, and possibly because of it, Arctic <keyword id="13451070" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sea-ice" source="Orion">sea ice</keyword> coverage dropped suddenly this month, according to data from the <a href="https://cryo.met.no/en/sea-ice-index-sval">Norwegian Meteorological Institute</a>.</p><p>At the other pole, even before the heat wave, Antarctica was at its lowest sea ice coverage since records began, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/23/antarctic-sea-ice-falls-to-lowest-level-since-measurements-began-in-1979">The Guardian</a> reported in February.</p>

Bizarre heat waves strike Arctic and Antarctic poles, raising them 50 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit above normal

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Tom Hatfield, 74, has been to every state and is set to visit his last few national parks this year.</li><li>Hatfield put Utah and California as his favorite states and Mississippi and Nevada as his least favorite.</li></ul><p>Tom Hatfield, 74, spent the first 60 years of his life living in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/louisiana-company-processes-4-million-pounds-of-crawfish-a-year-2023-12">Louisiana</a>. However, after traveling extensively over the last few years, the retiree has visited <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/50-states-ranked-according-to-frequent-traveler-2024-8">all 50 states</a> and is set to visit his last few <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-worst-national-parks-states-financial-independence-retire-early-fire-2024-7">national parks</a> this year.</p><p>Hatfield has been to over 75 <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/visited-went-to-every-country-in-the-world-favorites-2023-11">countries</a>, and he plans to continue his frequent travels while he's still healthy. The former chemical engineer said hitting all the states and all seven continents has been a point of pride, given he and his wife have found <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/see-the-world-on-a-budget-2024-7">economical ways</a> to travel in their retirement.</p><p>Hatfield said they had saved money by grouping national parks within one road trip, cooking most of their meals, rarely paying for accommodations, and avoiding larger cities.</p><p>"We'd rather go out and visit the scenery than in big cities, so we tend to stay away from the cities as much as we can," Hatfield said.</p><p>Hatfield ranked his top five favorite and least favorite states and national parks.</p><h2 id="51876166-691f-4ee2-8cec-11ca89001cf1"><strong>Embarking on travel in retirement</strong></h2><p>Hatfield has spent most of his life in Louisiana. He was born in a small town 20 miles north of New Orleans, got a chemical engineering degree at Louisiana State University, and moved to Lake Charles for his job. He worked as a chemical engineer for 43 years and was a manager for the last decade of his career.</p><p>Hatfield <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/woman-retired-to-italy-at-55-despite-reducing-pension-2024-8">retired</a> 11 years ago, but he knew he wanted to explore the world after spending nearly all his life in the same state. He and his wife had a large nest egg, and they learned to be frugal on their past trips. They have a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennial-couple-moves-maryland-florida-buys-mobile-home-trailer-renovates-2024-1">mobile home</a> that uses a lot of gas, but they use an app that tells them the cheapest gas stations along their route.</p><p>To escape the heat, he and his wife took longer trips during the summer, often to the Western US. They also tried to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-states-ranked-by-travel-blogger-visited-each-multiple-times-2024-3">hit every state</a>, taking shorter trips across the US to knock off the remaining ones. A few years ago, they hit their last two states: North Dakota and New Hampshire.</p><p>Hatfield said he and his wife cut costs by cooking most of their meals on their trips and staying in as much as possible.</p><p>"When we go on most of our trips, unlike some of our friends, dining is not at the top of the list," Hatfield said. "The state parks or regional parks in Canada don't cost as much, and they usually have some very nice scenery, though sometimes, they're a little bit off the beaten path."</p><p>The couple also went on various international trips, hitting over 75 countries. They took a bus trip through the Bavarian Alps, explored Dubai, took a cruise across the Greek islands, and went on an expedition to Antarctica. They spent two weeks driving across Ireland, took a river cruise from Basel to Amsterdam, and went on a mission trip to Egypt.</p><p>Over the last four years, they have concentrated on hitting <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-worst-national-parks-usa-from-man-visited-each-one-2024-4">all national parks</a>. They hit 17 during trips in the 1990s and mid-2000s, though they visited over half of them starting in 2020. One of their first national parks-focused trips was to Alaska, where they hit all but two. They also took a road trip through California, hitting all but Redwood National Park due to RV trouble; they flew to Redwood earlier this month.</p><p>To get the remaining <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-unique-national-parks-in-us-according-to-frequent-traveler">national parks</a>, they went to Isle Royale National Park in Michigan en route to the two in Alaska they missed — Gates of the Arctic and Kobuk Valley. On their way back to Louisiana, they plan to hit Great Basin in Nevada. They also have a cruise scheduled to American Samoa, home of the National Park of American Samoa, their last national park.</p><h2 id="07d2ff34-af5d-4449-9449-32673cfcc5ba"><strong>Favorite and least favorite states</strong></h2><p>Hatfield acknowledged his favorite states were also the ones with the most diverse national parks. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moving-california-utah-cost-of-living-san-diego-weather-slc-2024-7">Utah</a> took the top spot, boasting five national parks — including his two favorites. His favorite sites, besides the national parks, are the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, the Great Salt Lake, and downtown Salt Lake City.</p><p><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-national-parks-to-visit-instead-of-yosemite-from-local">California</a> ranked second on his list, as it has eight national parks with their own character. He noted that he stayed away from the major cities on his trips to California.</p><p>He ranked <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alaska-mistakes-to-avoid-from-local">Alaska</a> third for similar reasons, admiring the vast outdoors and wildlife. He said it's not cheap to get to Alaska, though taking an RV cuts some costs because "there are a lot of places where you can pull over on the side of the road and sleep in your vehicle." He added that driving through Canada en route to Alaska saves some money because of conversion rates.</p><p>He said he visits <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/living-in-colorado-after-traveling-to-all-50-states">Colorado</a>, his fourth favorite, nearly every summer, pointing out Colorado's expansive mountains, fairly consistent temperatures with low humidity, and strong infrastructure.</p><p>His last pick for the top five is Montana, which he acknowledged is a polarizing state given its "big and wide open" nature. Still, he said he treasures Montana's scenery and serenity, as well as its national parks, including Yellowstone and Glacier.</p><p>On the flip side, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/economic-boom-south-poorest-states-us-mississippi-west-virginia-arkansas-2024-7">Mississippi</a> is his least favorite, noting there wasn't much there that Louisiana didn't also have. He also said the heat is sometimes overwhelming.</p><p>He ranked Nevada as his second-least-favorite state, explaining there was little to do outside Las Vegas. He said Las Vegas also didn't live up to his expectations.</p><p>Many people save North Dakota for last on their journeys to reach all 50 states, and Hatfield said it's because there was little to do between the major cities, which he acknowledged were quite nice and calm. He also said the same about Nebraska, which was monotonous and fairly flat, and Indiana, which he viewed as "nothing special."</p><h2 id="6c0af6c5-9653-40f2-a119-5dd7eeb9c34c"><strong>Favorite and least favorite national parks</strong></h2><p>Hatfield said he enjoyed every national park, though some have more to offer than others. He and his wife try to take five-mile hikes in each park to see the top destinations.</p><p>His favorite park is <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/favorite-us-national-parks-according-to-former-ranger-2024-4">Zion</a>, particularly hiking The Narrows, aptly named because it is the narrowest section of the canyon. The hike has no trail, as it traverses the Virgin River. Hatfield also praised Angels Landing, a strenuous and steep hike with chains offering some of the best views of the park.</p><p>His second favorite is <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/national-parks-biggest-mistakes-people-make-on-first-visit-guide">Bryce Canyon</a>, noting he greatly enjoyed The Needles, a series of zebra-striped sandstone spires. He said the hikes weren't too difficult, and the scenery was stunning.</p><p>"All five national parks in Utah are fairly close, and you could hit all five in a week easily," Hatfield said, noting this is one of the most economical options for knocking a few of the parks out.</p><p>One of his earliest and most memorable national parks was Yosemite, which he visited 15 years ago. His hikes took him through the wilderness and snow-capped mountains, and he saw sites like Half Dome and El Capitan.</p><p>His fourth and fifth favorites are Crater Lake and North Cascades, both in the Pacific Northwest, both on the same trip. He said he couldn't believe how blue Crater Lake was and how pristine North Cascades' mountains and hills were.</p><p>Conversely, their least favorite so far has been Congaree in South Carolina, which he said was "just a boardwalk that went through a cypress tree." He said that because Louisiana has a lot of cypress trees, there wasn't anything in the park that impressed him.</p><p>He wasn't a fan of Hot Springs in Arkansas, which he said was too small with few hiking opportunities. He also thought some of the park's amenities were somewhat run-down.</p><p>He had similar comments about Guadalupe Mountains in Texas, which he viewed as fairly monotonous with little greenery or waterways.</p><p>He enjoyed the scenery of Isle Royale, though he didn't enjoy the two-hour boat ride to get there or the limited hiking trails. He said it would be more worth it to spend the night on the island instead of a day trip to get the full experience.</p><p>Rounding out his least favorites list is Indiana Dunes, which he said couldn't compare to other parks like Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan.</p><p><em>Have you visited every state or national park? Reach out to this reporter at </em><a target="_blank" href="mailto:nsheidlower@businessinsider.com"><em><u>nsheidlower@businessinsider.com</u></em></a><em>.</em></p>

A retired boomer who visited all 50 states ranks his top picks and least favorites

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3849">NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio</a></span></p><p class="caption">A map of Antarctic ice flow speed.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Antarctica is warming faster than most places on Earth, causing surface melt.</strong></li><li><strong>Melt water below the continent's thick ice sheets lubricates their movement toward the ocean.</strong></li><li><strong>A new study backs up the idea that a hot plume of rock in the mantle is sitting below West Antarctica.</strong></li><li><strong>This plume may contribute to higher-than-normal ice losses in West Antarctica.</strong></li></ul><p><br />Antarctica today takes a lot of heat from above, thanks to two hundred years of carbon-belching human activity and the warming this has caused.</p><p>An increasing number of researchers also think the frozen Southern Continent faces significant warming from below: Hot rock pluming upward through Earth's mantle, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/goldilocks-exoplanet-habitability-internal-heat-2016-8">leaking heat</a> through the crust, and melting the bottoms of Antarctic ice sheets.</p><p>The effect, first proposed 30 years ago, seems especially strong in West Antarctica, where <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/antarctica-calves-larsen-c-iceberg-2017-7">ice sheets losses</a> are most dramatic and contributing to sea-level rise. But few scientists believed this was happening, at least initially.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2012/11/Ice_sheet_thickness_from_satellite_observations">ESA/Planetary Visions</a></span></p><p class="caption">Satellite measurements reveal thinning in ice sheets is most dramatic in West Antarctica.</p></div><p></p></div></div>"I thought it was crazy," <a href="https://science.jpl.nasa.gov/people/HSeroussi/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hélène Seroussi</a>, a climatologist and ice researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2017-291" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a press release</a>. "I didn't see how we could have that amount of heat and still have ice on top of it."</p><p>However, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2017JB014423">a new study</a> by Seroussi and others now backs up the idea of a hot mantle plume - and the melting it causes - with advanced computer modeling.</p><p>The work was published September 1 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth.</p><h2>Rising from the depths</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Shutterstock</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Earth's internal heat is always warming up the ground, including rock under ice sheets all over the planet. While this partially melts them from below, snow and ice accumulation on top is usually enough to balance out these losses.</p><p>Over the years, however, researchers who study Antarctic ice melt have detailed an anomaly at West Antarctica. There, ice sheet thinning is more drastic than anywhere else on the continent, according to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/larsen-c-iceberg-satellite-pictures-2017-8">satellite data</a>.</p><p>Since the industrial revolution, the North and South Poles have warmed at a rate many times faster than other locations on Earth. In Antarctica, this is melting ice sheets from above and pooling water on top of them - possibly helping <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/water-cause-of-largest-iceberg-recorded-2017-7">carve off Delaware-size icebergs</a>.</p><p>But a warming climate does not fully explain Antarctica's mounting ice loss. So in recent years, researchers have looked deeper for an answer.</p><h2>Hiding under the ice</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2017-291">NSF/Zina Deretsky</a></span></p><p class="caption"> Antarctica's system of sub-glacial lakes (light-blue dots) and rivers (dark-blue lines). The Marie Byrd Land Dome (red arrow) sits below West Antarctica. </p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>One line of research has discovered, documented, and even drilled into and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M22eqFZWGJg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">explored</a> a vast system of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/a-subglacial-lake-has-been-found-beneath-antarcticas-ice-2016-4">sub-glacial lakes</a> and rivers.</p><p>This water helps <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/antarctica-is-stunning-beneath-the-ice-2016-7">lubricate the movement of ice sheets</a> from the snowy mountains to the sea - and certain parts of the Southern Continent, where there's a lot of sub-glacial water - are moving and melting faster than others.</p><p>Scientists have also dug into the mystery of a bulge in Earth's crust below West Antarctica, called the Marie Byrd Land Dome. At first, it was thought the crust was thicker there. But earthquake-like seismic measurements <a href="http://www.geology.cwu.edu/facstaff/huerta/HuertaWeb/Site/Marie_Byrd_Land.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">disproved that idea</a>.</p><p>Something else is buoying the region, and recent seismic imaging - essentially 3D-radar for Earth's crust and mantle - suggests there's a warm plume of rock below West Antarctica. (Just as sound waves travel slower through liquids than solids, seismic waves slow down when encountering hotter, more gooey, and less-dense rock.)</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://doi.org/10.1002/2017JB014423">Helene Seroussi et al./JGR Solid Earth; Business Insider</a></span></p><p class="caption">Seismic measurements suggest a hot plume of mantle rock below West Antarctica.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Since this could just be an irregularity in the mantle, Seroussi and her colleagues borrowed from a computer model used to simulate the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/italys-campi-flegrei-supervolcano-could-erupt-sooner-than-we-think-2017-5">giant plume of hot rock below Yellowstone National Park</a>.</p><p>Researchers plugged in all of the known physics about the mantle, Antarctica, and its ice sheets - including their changing altitude, movement, friction caused by that movement, melting rates, and more - and produced dozens of simulations, according to NASA JPL.</p><p>Those simulations showed that heat spilling from a hot mantle plume could be up to three times greater than it is for a normal, non-volcanic chunk of mantle below the US. And compared to mantle below Yellowstone, the heat output could be 75% that of the volcanically active region.</p><p>When the researchers compared that heat output to basal (or bottom) melt rates in Antarctica, no places matched - except for West Antarctica. At that location, a crack or rift in the crust may be allowing heat to rapidly escape upward, the researchers wrote in their study.</p><p>"Without a plume-like heating source," they said, "our simulations show that intrinsic heating and crustal sources do not provide enough energy to generate significant amounts of basal meltwater."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/biggest-volcano-eruptions-recorded-history-yellowstone-2017-10">The biggest volcano eruptions in recorded history</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Hot rock under Antarctica may be melting some of its ice sheets from the bottom-up

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Anuar Patjane Floriuk</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span>Anuar Patjane Floriuk won a prestigious <a href="http://www.worldpressphoto.org/collection/photo/2016">World Press Photo</a> award for the stunning image above, and he made it on a point-and-shoot camera.</span></p><p><span>The annual World Press Photo awards honor the most amazing photojournalists, sports photographers, and nature photographers working anywhere on the globe. Tech Insider will publish several interviews with 2016's winners in the coming weeks. Floriuk won 2nd prize in the Nature Singles category for this image.</span></p><p><span>We caught up with him to talk about his photography, his gear, and what it's like to shoot underwater.</span></p><h2><span>Undersea photography is incredibly calming</span></h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Anuar Patjane Floriuk</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Anuar Patjane Floriuk</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>At 34, Floriuk has dived for half his life - starting when he was 17 years old.</span></p><p><span><span>"My mom was a marine biologist, so she was always like 'Oh, you should dive, you should try,'" he said.</span></span></p><p><span><span>He took his first classes in the fjords on the Norwegian coast, but spent most of his college years on dry land. He trained as a social anthropologist, and took classes on photography for ethnographers.</span></span></p><p><span><span>"<span>But then five years ago I discovered a group in Mexico [where he lives] that liked to do expeditions to special places."</span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span>He started diving again, taking every opportunity to follow the group.</span></span></span></p><p><span>"Sometimes you feel when you're diving this amazing feeling. You want to share that feeling. You want to keep that feeling," he said.</span></p><p><span>"So what I try to show with the photos is that state of total relaxation. Feeling totally at peace."</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Anuar Patjane Floriuk</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Anuar Patjane Floriuk</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Floriuk's evocative, mostly black-and-white images of underwater realms capture that peacefulness. And making them (along with some landlocked nature shots) is now his full-time job.</p><p>Unlike many nature photographers, Floriuk likes to include people in his images.</p><p>"<span>I am an anthropoligist. I love humanity. I'm very interested in the human being as an animal," he said.</span></p><p><span>"<span>And also, to avoid the human side of the image is like lying. You are never alone. You can take a photo of a lonely lion, but there's people around. There's always people."</span></span></p><p><span><span>That camaraderie is a huge part of the experience for Floriuk. Out on an expedition boat there's no WiFi or cell phone signal. Just miles of open water on all sides, unseen creatures below, and the fellow adventurers on the boat.</span></span></p><p><span><span>"It's a bit like Big Brother," he said. "You get to know each other very well."</span></span></p><h2><span><span>How he made his award-winning shot</span></span></h2><p><span><span>Floriuk wasn't even with his usual expedition group when he made the award-winning image at the top of this story.</span></span></p><p><span><span>In fact, he wasn't supposed to go along at all. His friend called him with just a few day's notice to say there were two spots open on a whale-following mission. He decided to go along, but didn't get his hopes up too high.</span></span></p><p><span><span><span>"You never know if you'll get to see them or not," he said. "You can know 'That's the area they're gonna be,' and you can hear them. But to see them is very, very, very difficult."</span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span>But about 800 kilometers off the coast of Baja California on the western side of Mexico, they spotted three humpbacks - a mother, a calf, and a third along for the trip. He'd never seen whales up close before.</span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span>"<span>They were very comfortable," he said. "It was a very cool thing."</span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span>The massive underwater mammals ended up spending three days alongside the boat, giving Anuar nine hours of dive time to shoot thousands of images. The calf was learning to breathe from its mother.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span>Floriuk said the shot was entirely improvised. He was near the whales when they suddenly turned and swam right at some of the other divers. You can see the commotion on the water as they scrambled out of the creatures' way.</span></span></span></span></p><h2><span><span><span><span>Sometimes small is the best technology for the job</span></span></span></span></h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Underwater, Floriuk shoots with a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sony-DSC-RX100-Sensor-Digital-Camera/dp/B00889ST2G">Sony RX-100</a> digital point-and-shoot camera.</p><p>Now, the RX-100 sits at the top tier of shooters that will fit in your pocket with its f/1.8 Carl Zeiss lens and fairly large one-inch sensor. But it's hardly what you might expect one of the world's greatest underwater photographers to use as his primary device.</p><p>But the RX-100 is light enough to easily carry on a scuba suit, shoots beautiful RAW images, and at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sony-DSC-RX100-Sensor-Digital-Camera/dp/B00889ST2G">$398 on Amazon</a> it wouldn't be too painful to replace if it got waterlogged.</p><p>Floriuk houses his device in a specialized <a href="http://www.nauticamusa.com/news/?category=Sony+RX-100">Nauticam</a> case. When he wants to shoot wide he attaches an <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Inon--UWL-S100-DOME-Mount-52mm-Angle/dp/B00TZ1Y6RI/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1458241538&amp;sr=8-2-fkmr1&amp;keywords=inon+h100+dome">Inon dome</a> (pictured right).</p><p>When shooting nature on dry land, Floriuk's equipment choices get even more idiosyncratic.</p><p>For his more rugged adventures he packs a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sony-DSC-RX1-Cyber-shot-Full-frame-Digital/dp/B0097CXFCC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1458241787&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=sony+Rx-1">Sony RX-1</a>, the RX-100's bigger, pricier cousin.</p><p>At about $2,800, the RX-1's sized just a bit bigger than a point and shoot. But it's got the full-frame sensor of a professional DSLR with a fixed 35mm f/2 lens.</p><p>His favorite camera, though, is his <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Leica-Monochrom-Digital-Rangefinder-Camera/dp/B00X0LTT">Leica M Monochrome</a>.</p><p>Pretty much unique among digital devices, the M Monochrome makes black and white RAW files. There's no editing to be done - the sensor itself sees everything in greyscale.</p><p>Why would you want to limit yourself like that? Floriuk says the black and white device actually expands his creativity.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Anuar Patjane Floriuk</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"<span>I think it's a psychological thing," he said. "Like, you are limited by black and white and you don't have to think about color. You are free of color. Color is always a problem. It distracts. Not only to the viewer. It distracts when you are taking the photo. So the moment color's not in my mind anymore, the whole way my mind works about the photographic process changes totally. You're looking differently. By discarding color, not having it in your hands, you totally start to change the way you think about a photo."</span></p><p><span>The fact that the M Monochrome packs Leica's film-textured digital sensors and ultra-high-end lenses doesn't hurt either. He uses the $7,500 device for street photography, and recently brought it on a penguin expedition to Antarctica.</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Anuar Patjane Floriuk</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span>Floriuk makes color images as well. But even when shooting on a color camera, he said he keeps in mind how he will process the image.</span></p><p><span>"<span>I mostly shoot black and white. Underwater is black and white. Street photography is black and white. Nature and landscape you need color for many photos. When I take the photo I know 95% of the time: This is going to be color. This is black and white."</span></span></p><p><span><span>For color shooting, his top device is a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-FX-Format-Digital-Camera-MODEL/dp/B0076AYNXM">Nikon D800</a>.</span></span></p><p><span><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Anuar Patjane Floriuk</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></span></span></p><p><span><span>You can find more of Floriuk's work on his <a href="http://www.anuarpatjane.com">website</a>.</span></span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-texting-tips-power-users-2016-2">7 iPhone texting tips only power users know about</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="A4c2lpMDE6RWILiKUL6TsRnOSpDORiEc" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

This award-winning underwater photographer makes stunning images on a point-and-shoot camera

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/40th/Google_Moon.html">NASA</a></span></p><p class="caption">The lunar city in Andy Weir's new novel "Artemis" is built around the Apollo 11 landing site.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Andy Weir, author of sci-fi blockbuster "The Martian", is publishing a novel about the moon, "Artemis", on November 14.</strong></li><li><strong>The book follows the misadventures of a witty female smuggler, Jasmine "Jazz" Bashara.</strong></li><li><strong>Weir told Business Insider he's convinced humans wil colonize the moon before Mars because it has one thing the red planet doesn't: an economic rationale.</strong></li><li><strong>The author says Elon Musk's and SpaceX's plan to colonize Mars before the moon is not realistic.</strong></li></ul><p><br />Andy Weir, author of "The Martian", a realistic tale of survival in space, is about to release his second and highly anticipated novel, "Artemis".</p><p>"Artemis" takes place on the moon in the 2080s at humanity's first and only lunar city of the same name. It's a riveting story about a high-stakes lunar heist featuring Jasmine "Jazz" Bashara, a Saudi-born woman and witty smuggler who's lived inside the aluminum bubbles of Artemis since she was a child.</p><p>In Weir's typical style, the novel - which <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Artemis-Novel-Andy-Weir/dp/0553448129" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">goes on sale on November 14</a> - is wildly entertaining and far-fetched, but stays surprisingly believable by leaning heavily on real-life <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> and engineering.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Artemis-Novel-Andy-Weir/dp/0553448129">Crown Publishing</a></span></p><p class="caption">The cover of Andy Weir's moon novel, "Artemis".</p></div><p></p></div></div>Business Insider spoke with Weir about the book's genesis, why he thinks humanity will <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bezos-moon-colonization-blue-origin-wapo-2017-3">colonize the moon</a> first, his major criticism of Elon Musk's and SpaceX's plans to inhabit Mars, and why he'd never visit Artemis if he could.</p><p><em>Note: This interview has been edited for style, length, and clarity.</em></p><p><strong>BUSINESS INSIDER: You could have picked any place in the universe for your next novel to take place. Why the moon, and why Artemis - a city on the moon?</strong></p><p><strong>ANDY WEIR</strong>: I wanted to write a story about the first human settlement somewhere other than Earth. And I just really think that's going to be the moon. That'll definitely be the first place that we colonize outside of Earth.</p><p>A lot of people who would like us to just leap-frog to Mars, but Mars is so much farther away. It would be like if the ancient British colonize North America before they colonize Wales.</p><p>It's just ... The moon is definitely the first place that we will colonize.</p><p><strong>BI: And that's your opinion, or what experts have told you?</strong></p><p><strong>AW</strong>: Well, yeah, it is just my opinion. But it seems ... It's one of those things that I feel pretty confident about that's how it's gonna shake out.</p><p><strong>BI: What gave you the idea to write "Artemis"?</strong></p><p><strong>AW</strong>: I'm not sure exactly when I came up with the idea, but it started off with me saying, "OK, I want a story that takes place in the city on the moon." And I kind of work forward from there.</p><p>I had all of Artemis designed and even its history and its economic foundation and stuff before I ever made characters or story for it. So I really wanted to write a story about this - about life on the first colony off of Earth.</p><p>"The Martian" was a survival story and I didn't want to just write another one; I wanted a unique story. I love crime novels and I love crime stories, I like heist and caper kind of stories and I thought, "Hey, why not do a caper on the moon?"</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Artemis-Novel-Andy-Weir/dp/0553448129">Copyright of Andy Weir, "Artemis"/Crown Publishing</a></span></p><p class="caption">The fictional lunar city Artemis has five aluminum domes inside which people work and live. Each is named after a NASA astronaut.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><strong>BI: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-martian-movie-science-mistakes-2015-10">Like "The Martian"</a>, "Artemis" struck me as very realistic - the claustrophobic hallways in lower-income areas, the local construction materials, the chemistry ...</strong></p><p><strong>AW</strong>: Every part of Artemis is about the economics of making it a profitable tourist engine. They had to build it there, and they had to build it with resources that they had on the moon. So I had to figure out, how do you make metal on the moon? And to make it cheaper?</p><p>Also, I based Artemis' internal economy - and kind of its social structure that emerges as a result - on resort towns, tourism towns. Imagine a resort town in the Caribbean, where there's some high-end hotels, casinos, whatever, along the shoreline. And then behind that are the more, shall we say, "austere" living environments of the people who live and work there.</p><p>And so I figured, well, Artemis would be that. It doesn't matter if it's on the moon: Economics determines how these things pan out. Artemis' economy is a tourist economy, so I figured it'd be just like any other tourist town.</p><p><strong>BI: Was the realism the goal here, or a product of the story you wanted to tell?</strong></p><p><strong>AW</strong>: I wanted it to be as realistic as possible. I wanted a very believable and realistic setting. The book would not work if you weren't buying into the setting. You'd just be like, "Nah, every part of this is bulls---" - especially considering so much of the plot revolves around the setting, like the details of how Artemis operates.</p><p>So if your suspension of disbelief isn't completely satisfied by what Artemis is, then you're not going to like the book at all, right? So I had to really make that work - and put a lot of work into it.</p><p><strong>BI: You seem very invested in the idea of a moon colony. When do you think it's going to happen - and when would you like to see it happen?</strong></p><p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Artemis-Novel-Andy-Weir/dp/0553448129">NASA/James Blair and Lauren Harnett</a></span></p><p class="caption">Andy Weir looks at moon rocks recovered by Apollo astronauts at NASA's Johnson Space Center.</p></div><p></p></div></div>AW</strong>: "Artemis" takes place in the 2080s, and construction on the city began on the 2060s. So that was kind of the prediction I made.</p><p>When would I like it to happen? Later today. When do I think it'll happen? I don't know, it's hard.</p><p>The whole premise of "Artemis" is the presumption that the cost to low-Earth orbit would be driven down by a competition in the commercial space industry. And I actually wrote a paper about that. I mean, it's amateur-hour-level economics, but it's good enough for fiction.</p><p>It's funny, I always have to remind myself: I find economics fascinating. I think it's really interesting. But I have to remember that most readers ... don't. So I can't just go off on prolonged discussions of economics, or they'll just put the book down and never come back. But it's all stuff that's under the hood - it's all there, I wanted it to work.</p><p><strong>BI: You've visited SpaceX, a company founded by Elon Musk that's intent on colonizing Mars. What's your impression of their goal?</strong></p><p><strong>AW</strong>: Talking about getting humans to Mars, like getting a flags-and-footprints kind of mission? I think [that] is very realistic to happen this century. I think that could definitely happen.</p><p>But colonizing Mars is way, way far in the future, regardless of what everyone says. I just <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-elon-musk-mars-colony-plan-life-support-2017-10">don't see it happening soon</a>. There's a certain appeal to Mars because it's interesting and exciting and people are like, "Oh, that's neat!" But the reality is that there is no economic reason to colonize Mars. At all.</p><p>There's a saying in that kind of space industry: "There is no Planet B." It's like, you don't just get to say, "Oh, f--- this, we'll go elsewhere." And I guarantee you that regardless of how bad the problems are on Earth, environmentally or whatever else, it is easier to fix them than to colonize another planet. I guarantee you that.</p><p>If you take the trillion dollars that you were going to spend colonizing Mars and put it into environmental amelioration things, you might find that it's better done here. Leaving Earth as an idea of saving it is just not viable. That's not why people will leave. The environment of Earth is not a factor that would affect the colonization of our solar system, in my opinion.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>SpaceX/YouTube</span></p><p class="caption">A SpaceX illustration showing its "Big F---ing Spaceship" on the moon.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><strong>BI: So you don't think humanity will colonize Mars first?</strong></p><p><strong>AW</strong>: In terms of people bulldozing directly toward Mars like saying, "Ok, we're going to colonize Mars" - I just don't think that's realistic.</p><p>It's kind of like building a railroad track, but it's not like it's time for Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion, where we have the East Coast colonized, and now we want to colonize the rest of the country. That would be like if we said, "Let's forget about all the stuff in the middle, and just go straight to Nevada. Let's forget about all of this really usable stuff in the middle." It's like, we'll sort with New Amsterdam and then we'll go to Carson City - with nothing in between. I just don't see it.</p><p>And colonization of the moon would be incredibly useful to colonizing Mars. First off, everything you want to do on Mars you could do on the moon to see if it works. And second off, the moon has a much smaller gravity well. So anything manufactured there out of local resources is a lot easier to get to Mars.</p><p>If anybody asks, "Why would you go to the moon?" I'd say, "Why would you go to Mars?"</p><p><strong>BI: I'm sure you've heard Elon Musk's Mars colonization talks in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-mars-speech-transcript-2016-9">2016</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-mars-iac-2017-transcript-slides-2017-10">2017</a>. What's your overall impression?</strong></p><p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5V7R_se1Xc">SpaceX/YouTube</a></span></p><p class="caption">Elon Musk's vision of a colony on Mars.</p></div><p></p></div></div>AW</strong>: I think Musk's plan is overly optimistic. I think that it's a sort of thing that could happen, but not on the timelines that he's talking about.</p><p>I think that neither Musk nor anybody else seems to be considering, what economic reason is there to go to this other planet? So far, I've never heard an answer to that. It's like, "We can put people on Mars!" And I'm like, "Why? So they'll be there? Well, we can put people on Antarctica, why not do that?"</p><p>I'm not seeing a reason why, aside from people being overly idealistic and thinking, "Man, it'd be awesome to be on Mars." I don't see any reason why they would move there.</p><p>The people who are like, "Man, I would totally move to Mars!" - No, you would totally fantasize about moving to Mars. But when it came to the point where someone's like, "All right, it's time to leave your entire life, your family, everyone you know behind and go to another planet forever until you die," people would probably say, "Uh, actually ... no."</p><p><strong>BI: You set up an economy on the moon which has a frightening underbelly to it ...</strong></p><p><strong>AW</strong>: Well, it's not that bad ...</p><p><strong>BI: ... OK, "checkered" underbelly. In real life, there's talk about mining helium-3 on the moon for fusion reactors, among other things. What do you think would be an actual lunar economic engine?</strong></p><p><strong>AW</strong>: I still believe that with the first settlement on the on the moon, the first economic drive behind it will be tourism.</p><p>In terms of things like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-economic-war-for-the-moon-begins-today-2009-11">mining helium-3 </a>- even if it does become a thing - anything that's just a task or a labor or anything that's just resource collection or acquisition, you'd just send robots.</p><p>Just imagine there were big bricks of gold on the moon and all you'd have to do is go pick them up. All people would have to do is make probes to go pick them up. You wouldn't send humans - why would you send humans? They're so much harder to keep alive on the moon and people get really mad when you fail. Nobody minds if you break your own million-dollar robot.</p><p>Most of the explanations for colonizing the moon that I've seen in science fiction are really lacking. They're like, "We colonized the moon to mine things." And I'm like, "Well then send robots."</p><p>Or they're like, "We colonized the moon because of population pressure on Earth." And I'm like, "It is so much easier to colonize the Sahara or Antarctica or the ocean than it would be to colonize the moon."</p><p>Or they're like, "We came here to avoid persecution." And I'm like, "If you can get there, the people persecuting you can absolutely get there."</p><p>So I just don't see it. The only thing that I can think of is if humans being there is inherently part of the economy - and the only way that happens is tourism.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Artemis-Novel-Andy-Weir/dp/0553448129">Copyright of Andy Weir, "Artemis"/Crown Publishing</a></span></p><p class="caption">Artemis is driven by tourism, including excursions around the Apollo 11 landing site.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><strong>BI: Hence a resort town on the moon and all of its support systems and smuggling and all of that.</strong></p><p><strong>AW</strong>: Well, what happens is once you have the tourism industry there, then people live there. And then once you have people living somewhere, then that itself becomes the economy, right?</p><p>If there's 2,000 people living on the moon, well I'm gonna move there to sell them shoes - and now there's 2,001 people living on the moon. That's how human settlement and expansion works, but there has to be some sort of seed.</p><p>If you look in any city anywhere in the world, there is an economic reason why it exists. Maybe it was at a convenient place on the river, it was in a nice valley that's easy to pass through, going from one trade hub to another, or its near some resources that people needed - something.</p><p><strong>BI: Would you go to Artemis if it existed today, and would you want to just be a tourist or actually live there?</strong></p><p><strong>AW</strong>: I don't think I'd like to live in Artemis. First off, I would not like the trip out there. Secondly, I have a lot of friends and family on Earth that I would miss too much.</p><p>It takes a certain special kind of lifestyle and personality to live in a frontier town, and I don't have that. I like the comforts of civilization.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chris-hadfield-mars-not-ready-stephen-hawking-leave-earth-2017-5">Stephen Hawking just set humanity a 100-year-deadline to colonize other planets - but this astronaut says we're not ready</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

'The Martian' author Andy Weir is convinced we'll colonize the moon - but says colonizing Mars doesn't make any sense

<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><p class="caption">Two members of crew 128A roam the <keyword id="130981" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Utah">Utah</keyword> desert with air supply packs.</p></div>The San Rafael Swell in central Utah is a massive dome of layered rocks, surrounded by a Delaware-sized maze of deep canyons and multi-colored cliffs.</p>
<p><span>More than a decade ago, </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/RobZubrin" target="_blank">Robert Zubrin</a><span>, author of "</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/145160811X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=145160811X&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=thebusiinsi-20">The Case for Mars</a>,<span>" whom we spoke to over the phone, </span><span>recognized the potential of this environment — and several others around the globe — to serve as a testing ground for manned <keyword id="47638" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mars">Mars</keyword> missions.</span></p>
<p>[<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mars-desert-research-station-2013-3" target="_blank">See photos of the Mars Desert Research Station</a>]</p>
<p>Aside from an interstate that slices through the scenic landscape, this patch of desert sits virtually untouched.</p>
<p>The region's terrain and remoteness makes it one of the best analogs for Mars that exists on Earth.</p>
<p>Zubrin founded the <a href="http://www.marssociety.org/" target="_blank">Mars Society</a> in 1998, of which he is currently president, and built two simulated Mars exploration stations — one in the Canadian Arctic and one in Utah. The Arctic location is more "Mars-like," but has taken a backseat to Utah's Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), where it is less expensive to live and conduct experiments.</p>
<p>For two weeks at a time, a six-person team composed of scientists and students cuts ties with civilization to don bulky spacesuits, zip around on all-terrain vehicles, and collect rock samples.</p>
<p>The idea is for team members to operate as if they were really bopping around the Red Planet, from the clothes they would be required to wear outside of their spacecraft to the foods they would eat.</p>
<p>This is a dress rehearsal for sending humans to Mars, Zubrin told Business Insider, quickly brushing off the suggestion that it sounds an "awful lot like <keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">space</keyword> camp with fancier equipment." </p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"It's not that at all," he said.</span></p>
<p><strong>This is not space camp</strong></p>
<p>In 2004, Jack Jones, an engineer at <keyword id="6360409" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="NASA">NASA</keyword>'s Jet Propulsion Laboratory worked with Zubrin on a <a href="http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/missiontypes/balloons/" target="_blank">solar-heated balloon designed to land on Mars</a>. Although the space agency decided not to fund the project, Jones described Zubrin as an "extremely enthusiastic, creative, and talented engineer."</p>
<p>As for Zubrin's latest project, the Mars research station "sounds like a fantastic simulation of an actual manned Mars planetary mission," Jones told Business Insider.   </p>
<p>Zubrin, 61, grew up during a period when America's leadership was engaged in a fierce competition to dominate space exploration.   </p>
<p>"I was 17 when we landed on the moon, and if anyone had told me then that I'd be 61 and we'd have not landed on Mars — or even that people were not going to the Moon anymore — I would have thought they were nuts," said Zubrin. "We were on the brink of opening up space, and we just stopped."</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Several companies are now betting on </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-wearable-robot-suit-2012-11">sending the first humans to Mars</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> by the end of the century. </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Recent space initiatives like </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mars-curiosity-rover-rock-sample-analysis-2013-3">NASA's Mars Curiosity</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> rover and </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/deep-space-industry-asteroid-mining-plan-2013-2">plans to mine an asteroid</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> have opened the door to a new era of deep space projects.</span></p>
<p><strong>The case for Mars</strong></p>
<p>People don't <em>need</em> to visit Mars. Then again, Christopher Columbus didn't have to risk his life to sail across the ocean in search of new land. But he did, and our global perspective expanded because of it.</p>
<p><strong><div class="image-container float_left" style="width:618px"><div class="image"></div><p class="source">Mars Desert Research Station</p><p class="caption">A view of the Mars Desert Research Station in the daytime.</p></div></strong></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Humans are naturally curious. By exploring space, we not only fulfill an innate human desire, we also help society evolve by gaining information about the diversity of life in the universe.</span></p>
<p>Plus, Earth won't be around forever. If we challenge ourselves now, then "200 years from now there will be branches of a new civilization on Mars," said Zubrin.</p>
<p><strong>A dry run for Mars</strong></p>
<p>Beyond safety, staying true to the simulation has been Zubrin's main priority since he commanded the very first desert Mars crew about 10 years ago.</p>
<p>That means crew members cannot step outside of their cylindrical "space habitat" without the proper gear and air supply packs; they must repair their own equipment; handle fieldwork and lab work; grow their own food; and communicate with remote <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> teams.</p>
<p>"My main thing is figuring out how to conduct an effective field exploration while handling all constraints you would find on Mars," he said. "If you could get a really valuable sample by taking off the glove, I would say 'no, we'll come back tomorrow with the right tool to gather the sample with our space glove on.'"</p>
<p>It's about answering all the "what ifs?" that might pop up in a foreign and likely hostile environment.</p>
<p>For example, what are the most useful pieces of field equipment? An enclosed SUV that offers protection against the elements, or an open vehicle that requires the driver to wear a spacesuit, but provides the flexibility of being able to reach down and pick up a sample? And, do you put the whole crew on one rotation or on watches so they are up at different times?</p>
<p>Each team goes for two weeks at a time and sets their own goals. Some teams are less concerned about mastering the art of human space exploration; they would rather break character for the sake of science.</p>
<p>"Those are two different methods," said Zubrin. "If one team needed to stray from the simulation in order to test ground-penetrating radar, for example, they would do it."</p>

<p><strong>The human challenge</strong></p>
<p>Isolation, boredom, decreased activity, and lack of sleep are all concerns in sending astronauts on an exploration of deep space. </p>
<p>A 520-day simulated Mars mission conducted between 2010 and 2011 by Russian scientists found that being cooped up for that long <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-sleep-was-affected-in-a-simulated-mission-to-mars-2013-1">made the six-man crew sleepy, slow, and grumpy</a> — not good traits for astronauts.</p>
<p>NASA, too, has long claimed that the most formidable challenge humans would face on Mars would be isolation and boredom.</p>
<p>That's a complete mistake, says Zubrin. If you look at human history, there are plenty of instances where people were far more isolated than they will be on a trip to Mars. </p>
<p>NASA's finding was largely based on human factor studies of U.S. Navy enlisted men on a base in Antarctica.</p>
<p>"Those guys were bored," said Zubrin. "They didn't want to be there. They wanted to be in San Diego where they can go out on the pier on Friday night and pick up girls."</p>
<p>Test runs at Mars Society's research station in the Arctic, on the other hand, have found that overwork, not boredom, is the key challenge.</p>
<p>The Arctic team was primarily composed of scientists who were very driven. These researchers had waited a long time to be placed in this environment to do their research. They were so overzealous that they had to be ordered to stop working at night. </p>
<p>The Mars mission is "not about sitting in a room playing chess waiting for your 500 days to be up," said Zubrin.</p>
<p><strong style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The perfect crew</strong></p>
<p><strong><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:618px"><div class="image"></div><p class="source"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdrsphotos/8411881020/in/set-72157632520478437">Mars Desert Research Station</a></p><p class="caption">A member of Crew 122 cruises around on an ATV.</p></div></strong></p>
<p>The reality is that a Mars mission would take at least two and a half years, not a brief two weeks in the remote desert.  </p>
<p>If the desert research station was playing by those rules, however, then the base would have been home to just four crews in the last decade, as opposed to 127.  </p>
<p>Zubrin argues that if the goal is make general inferences about how humans interact with each other under trying circumstances, then you need larger numbers of people. Otherwise, the data could be seriously skewed based on who was picked for the crew. </p>
<p>There are plenty of instances, he said, where a person performed well in one crew and bad in another.</p>
<p>To get involved, individuals or groups, typically from a university or foreign country, can respond to an annual open call for volunteers.</p>
<p>Although the society provides food, housing, and equipment, accepted applicants will have to shell out $1,000, while students pay $500.</p>
<p>Explorers have come in all different shapes and sizes: all men crews, all women, all Austrian, all American, mixed international, young crews, and old crews. The purpose is to find the ideal combination of age, race, skill, and personality types to make up the first human team that blasts off to Mars. </p>
<p>Zubrin acknowledges that MDRS is not the final word in Mars research. It should be supplemented by insights and studies from organizations, like NASA. </p>
<p>Based on that information, Zubrin believes the next step would be to pick four very promising crews based on different principles.   </p>
<p>It then becomes a game of survival of the fittest — placing crews under the most Mars-like environment for at least one year and enforcing the most Mars-like rules.</p>
<p>The team that performs the best, is the the crew you would want to send to Mars.</p>

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