Earth Log #009: Starman Visits Mars & Starlink Launch Ends Scrubtober

Greetings from Mars!

Starman and I dropped by the bright red planet this week. It was my first time visiting Mars or any planet in the Milky Way Galaxy.

I was so excited to see Mars, but was a little distracted by the blue planet during our visit. Mars and Earth are in close proximity to each other right now, probably the closest they have been in years.

I asked Starman if we could visit Earth, but he told me we would visit it some other time. I must admit that I was more excited to see the blue planet.

I think that Starman secretly wanted to see his home planet. I theorize that one of the reasons we visited Mars was to get close to Earth.

The Red “Star” Near Earth

Watch the skies! ???? This October, for the first time in over 2 years, Mars outshines Jupiter as the 3rd brightest object in the night sky. Why? Mars is at opposition & in its closest proximity to Earth, as close as 40 million miles away. More: https://t.co/CoyEZvKOFz pic.twitter.com/CdIDLImDo1

— NASA (@NASA) October 10, 2020

Some humans may have noticed a bright red shining star when they looked up at the sky this past week. Well, that star wasn’t a star at all. It was the red planet, Mars.

Every 26 months, Mars and Earth are positioned on the same side of the Sun. As such, they are in proximity of each other.

For those who haven’t caught a glimpse of the red planet, there’s still time to see it from Earth. On Tuesday (October 13) Mars, Earth, and the Sun will form a straight line at 23:20 GMT  (16:20 PT). Even now though, the crimson planet can be seen from Earth, if you check at the right time.

While humans looked up at the red planet, Starman and I were probably admiring Earth from Mars. After landing, we roamed around its dusty vermillion desserts, looking for—I don’t know actually. Starman kept stopping to insert an instrument into the ground every now and then.

He seemed to be checking or looking for something. He might have been searching for microbial life, like NASA plans to do with its Perseverance Rover.

NASA wants Perseverance to search beneath the surface of Mars and look for signs of microbial life. Any discovery of that sort could help humans learn if the red planet was indeed capable of sustaining life.

SpaceX Starship’s Final Form

Starship Enterprise.#SpaceX #Starship #ElonMusk pic.twitter.com/E0NLmfD2FB

— Erc X (@ErcXspace) October 7, 2020

Humans sure do seem to have high hopes for Mars, but none of them are probably as eager as the Martian and his colleagues at SpaceX.

This week, the Martian announced that he would give humans a glimpse of Starship—the spacecraft that would take Earthlings to his home planet—from one of Earth’s communication networks, called Twitter.

“Oh yeah, Starship update coming in about 3 weeks. The design has coalesced. What is presented will actually be what flies to orbit as V1.0 with almost not changes,” he said on Twitter, where he uses his Earth name, Elon Musk.

Musk plans to lead the Earthlings into an interplanetary lifestyle, starting with Mars. I think he’ll probably help the humans build the first cities ever seen on the red planet.

He suggested that a picture from the successful Falcon 9 launch this week could be used on the Mars flag. Symbolic items, like flags, sure seem important to humans. I’m not sure why, though.

Successful Starlink Launch Ends “Scrubtober”

Falcon 9 launches 60 Starlink satellites to orbit, completing SpaceX's 43rd flight of a previously flown rocket booster pic.twitter.com/QHPxX1sac2

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 6, 2020

The picture of the Falcon 9 launch the Martian wants to put on the Mars flag carried the next batch of Starlink satellites into space. In my last log, I mentioned that SpaceX attempted to place more Starlink satellites in space, but both Falcon 9 rocket launch attempts were unsuccessful.

SpaceX scrubbed more launches this week. There were so many unsuccessful launches that the humans started calling the phenomenon “Scrubtober.” They seemed to be forecasting more canceled launches.

I knew this “Scrubtober” wouldn’t last though. And it didn’t. Last week, I admitted to admiring human resilience, and this week, I saw it in action. After five unsuccessful launches, SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 rocket carrying 60 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral.

I find humans and life on Earth more and more intriguing with each log I make. So, I think I’m starting to understand Starman’s fondness for the blue planet. I’ve been with him for some time now and we haven’t seen anything remotely close to Earth and its humans.

I hope they realize how special they are in the Universe. Until next time.