Page 40 - 201007 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - July 2010

July 2010_june_july_2009.qxd 31/07/2010 10:53 AM Page 40 40 Space Farms Could Mine Minerals Space farms could mine Earth that allowed life to form. They use this that we are entering a bizarre new golden age of minerals from moon dirt research to steer the hunt for alien life alien invader movies. Perhaps spurred by the elsewhere, be it on Mars or in another solar success of "Cloverfield" and "District 9," Continued from Page 29 system altogether. perhaps spurred by the fact that all of the By studying new planets that have just development execs in Hollywood read the same recently formed, scientists hope to learn more scripts or, hey, perhaps spurred by sheer “These things facilitate the harvesting of about the different types of environments inexplicable coincidence, we are about to be molecules from the substrate in which the plant prevalent in the galaxy, as well determine the overrun with way, way too many movies about is growing.” odds that places beyond Earth are habitable. nasty extraterrestrials showing up on someone's New experiments don't need to wait for "We are looking for the conditions of doorstep. a return trip to the Moon, according to the life, rather than life itself," said RPI physicist The current lineup includes Jon researchers. They already have plans that would Douglas Whittet, director of the center. Favreau's "Cowboys & Aliens," due out next require just a few grams of the hundreds of summer from Universal, which features space kilograms of lunar regolith collected by NASA. Prior to planets invaders landing in Old West Arizona; "Battle: Just one gram of lunar regolith could Los Angeles," a thriller due next March from support the growth of several Arabidopsis plants The researchers are also investigating Sony, which depicts U.S. Marines fighting off related to cabbage and radish, Paul pointed out. how planets, including Earth, gather the an alien invasion (very loosely based on an That model organism represented the first plant materials they need for life to take hold. actual World War II episode); "Skyline," an to have its genome sequenced, and so would Chemicals critical to the foundation of indie-produced alien invasion thriller due out provide a great baseline for lunar biology life first formed from molecules cooked through this November from Universal; and "Super 8," a experiments. stellar processes, Whittet said. These chemicals 1970s-era aliens unleashed thriller from J.J. Such testing concepts could also may have formed in clouds of gas surrounding Abrams that goes into production later this year. become part of experiments done on the Moon stars and then piggybacked their way to Earth And, oh yes, there's also "Falling Skies," itself, whenever a human base does get on meteorites that crashed into our planet.. a Steven Spielberg-produced TNT miniseries established. Those experiments would not only "A lot of organic molecules present on due out in 2011, about more bad guys attacking answer questions about basic plant biology, but Earth may have been delivered shortly after it us from outer space. Plus, Paramount just also provide the seeds of knowledge for was formed," Whittet said. "We aim to find out bought an alien abduction pitch for a low- developing ecology off of Earth. what was happening in the solar system 4.5 budget thriller to be produced by Michael Bay. I More Earth experiments also could help billion years ago when [this happened]. When wonder if it would be too much to ask if Bay engineers and scientists better design future and how was this matter synthesized and how agreed to be abducted by real aliens, ya know, orbital or extraterrestrial farms. common is it?" just to see if all the story beats really paid off? “Testing on extreme environments on Molecular clouds and disks surround This sudden obsession with alien Earth could be very useful to identify critical stars and evolve into planets as matter invaders has me wondering: Why now? Trends design aspects to be fixed prior to build and fly accumulates. Observing radiation from these usually happen for a reason, even if it isn't a demonstration system on the regions reveals information about their always clear at the time what that reason might [International Space Station],” said chemical composition, and possibly, their be. There were a host of similar alien invader Claudio Finetto, an engineering consultant for contribution to life's building blocks. So far, films in the early-mid 1950s (my personal Thales Alenia Space-Italia in Torino, Italy. there are promising indications that complex favorite being "The Thing"), which film Finetto and colleagues Cesare Lobascio chemistry began in pre-planetary disks. historians theorize were inspired by fears of the and Alessandro Rapisarda calculated that a bio- U.S. being invaded, either physically or regenerative life support system with just 20 Chemistry and planets form together ideologically, by communism. If you get two percent of food re-supplied from Earth would film professors together and let 'em watch the become more convenient for an 18-person While early universe compounds of original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," moon base inhabited for longer than five years, hydrogen and helium make up the gas bundles they'll argue over the hidden meanings of the as opposed to relying on complete food re- around stars, organic molecules like alcohols film for weeks on end. supply from Earth. and hydrocarbons are more common in the But what's up with all these new films? Their work is detailed in the May-June disks, Whittet said. What new hidden fear do we have that is being issue of the journal Acta Astronautica. The However, some of the most important sublimated into our movies? Glenn Beck, for Lunar FARM concept also grew out of a post- building blocks for life so far appear to be one, seems almost grotesquely overwhelmed by graduate course in SpacE Exploration and scarce. fears of all sorts of hidden conspiracies, but I Development Systems (SEEDS) Second "The most common material we've doubt that whatever is bugging him is the same Edition at Politecnico di Torino, where Finetto found is carbon dioxide, which is not very thing that's bugging this generation of worked with Salvatore Cusumano, Daniele useful in making life," Whittet said. "It would filmmakers. Could the collapse of the economy Renzoni, Amir Sabbagh and Cosimo Sinesi. be a lot more interesting if the carbon were have spooked so many Americans that it's going into hydrocarbons, which are a stepping created an intense level of fear and unrest that is Hunt for Life's Building point to much more complicated molecules." being channeled into film projects? And, of Currently, scientists are analyzing data Blocks in Space Gets from the Spitzer Space Telescope, an infrared course, there's always the possibility (WOO- HOO) that there really are a few aliens poking NASA Boost telescope orbiting the sun, collected from 2003 around, looking to abduct a few of us. I guess to 2009. anything's possible. By Zoë Macintosh "There's a huge archive of data that's If you have a theory, I'm eager to hear it. SPACE.com Staff Writer being analyzed, and the grant will afford us Until we get this figured out, I think I may be access to more of that material," Whittet said. sleeping with a night light, just in case. [] NASA has issued a new grant that bolsters research into the cosmic building Hollywood is being blocks of life by funding observations of young solar systems throughout the universe, invaded by... alien invader including our own. The four-year grant sets aside $630,000 movies to expand operations by the New York Center LA Times for Astrobiology located at Rensselaer I guess I'm a total failure as a movie Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in New York. geek, since until I read this revealing post from Scientists at the center study the Libertas Film Magazine's own quasi-geek Jason chemical, geologic and physical conditions on Apuzzo, it seems to have entirely escaped me