VonHelton Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 One bit of recent good news is the ice sheet approx 900x800km in size discovered near the equator' date=' its only under a thin covering of dust, which prevents it sublimating (solid directly to gas, no liquid stage due to the low pressure) away, so could provide an indefinite source of water (after purification) to any base there, also meaning that tricky polar landings arent needed to use the polar ice caps as water sources.[/quote'] Could I get a link for this please?? :stare: :stare: :stare: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tadair Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 Here you are: :) http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMCHPYEM4E_0.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonHelton Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 Well I'll be........I was right! :D Now we need to launch those mirrors, and get them orbiting Mars right away! :stare: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maverick Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 http://observe.arc.nasa.gov/nasa/fun/mars/mars.html hey, with games thiss good, who'd ever need to go? Dude, that game was driving me nuts. I would slow down to a crawl and I still would crash. quote] dude try the upper landing platform. you can go in sideways. ;) I think you accidentally backspaced the /] before the ending quote tag , woops. [/quote yeh, looks abit messy ay sorry folks will try and post when im not dog tired again :stare: yawn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maverick Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 Why then don't we crash the smaller one into Mars? Great Scott!! ......Mars is far enough away from the Sun as it is! We don't need to knock it even farther away! Mars is about 6 million times more massive than Phobos; you don't need to worry about the Martian orbit changing. But I think that crashing a comet into Mars (for water, methane, CO2, & hydrocarbons) would help more with terraforming in the long run. Until then, both Deimos and Phobos would make nice observation or orbital transit platforms (Phobos, for instance, has an escape velocity of ~10 m/s, compared to Mars at ~5 km/s or Earth at ~11 km/s. Build up your quadraceps and launch yourself into Martian orbit!) true. our moon carashed in to earth a little while back and apart from changing the chemical composition of the planet with an impressive SPLAT, left us with a bit of a wobble. but didnt knock us out of orbit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonHelton Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 true. our moon carashed in to earth a little while back and apart from changing the chemical composition of the planet with an impressive SPLAT' date=' left us with a bit of a wobble. but didnt knock us out of orbit[/quote'] Perhaps, but the risk to Mars itself, IMHO, is unacceptable. Maybe the comet doesn't have to hit Mars.......Merely graze the atmosphere enough to break off chunks of ice!! .....Now that plan I'll go with! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psheldrake1 Posted February 25, 2005 Author Share Posted February 25, 2005 Perhaps, but the risk to Mars itself, IMHO, is unacceptable. Maybe the comet doesn't have to hit Mars.......Merely graze the atmosphere enough to break off chunks of ice!! .....Now that plan I'll go with! :) Knowing our luck the it"ll will crash into earth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonHelton Posted February 25, 2005 Share Posted February 25, 2005 Knowing our luck the it"ll will crash into earth. No, the planets are far enough apart........ The trick is figuring out how to turn a comet!! :o :o :o :o :o :o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elderbear Posted February 25, 2005 Share Posted February 25, 2005 Why then don't we crash the smaller one into Mars? Great Scott!! ......Mars is far enough away from the Sun as it is! We don't need to knock it even farther away! Mars is about 6 million times more massive than Phobos; you don't need to worry about the Martian orbit changing. But I think that crashing a comet into Mars (for water, methane, CO2, & hydrocarbons) would help more with terraforming in the long run. Until then, both Deimos and Phobos would make nice observation or orbital transit platforms (Phobos, for instance, has an escape velocity of ~10 m/s, compared to Mars at ~5 km/s or Earth at ~11 km/s. Build up your quadraceps and launch yourself into Martian orbit!) true. our moon carashed in to earth a little while back and apart from changing the chemical composition of the planet with an impressive SPLAT, left us with a bit of a wobble. but didnt knock us out of orbit Actually, the moon was probably knocked loose about 4,000,000,000 years ago. It was an extremely traumatic event, even though the Mars-sized impactor is thought to have struck at low velocity. 24 Hours of Chaos: How the Moon was Made The impact didn't do much to change our chemical composition - although it gave us more iron and left the moon without much of a core. The risk to mars from crashing a comet into it would not be nearly as severe, although it would be spectacular! Let's not forget that we've already seen a comet collide with a planet in our lifetime: Shoemaker-Levy broke up and smashed into Jupiter not so many years ago. Lunar Formation: 1 year after the impact. Recent work on the formation of the Earth-Moon binary suggests that a Mars sized object hit the proto-Earth, causing a huge disk of debris which accreted to form the moon in less than a year. Here I imagine what it might have looked like about a year after that impact with the moon grown to nearly its full size. A disk of debris is still present, and a number of substantial sized bodies still orbit. Several comets are visible in the sky and the Earth's surface is still quite molten and active. A large nebula hangs in the sky from which the proto-solar nebula emerged about 10 million years before this event. The solar system is a young and busy place, still near the peak of activity of the period of late heavy bombardment during which the oldest known impact structures in the solar system were formed. The painting was completed on November 25, 1997. It is a 16 by 20 inch acrylic on canvas board. Featured in Comets: Creators and Destroyers by David H. Levy, 1998 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elderbear Posted February 25, 2005 Share Posted February 25, 2005 Knowing our luck the it"ll will crash into earth. No, the planets are far enough apart........ The trick is figuring out how to turn a comet!! Give it a boost every time it comes to perihelion to increase the eccentricity of its orbit. Then, when it's at aphelion, aim it, when a little delta-V goes a long ways. In an infinitely eccentric orbit, it would take 0 energy to change the orbit. With finite orbits, it takes more energy - but if we're gonna take on settling a planet, we've got to at least be able to solve the engineering problems inherent in aiming a snowball at a piece of rusted rock, neh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonHelton Posted February 25, 2005 Share Posted February 25, 2005 But if we're gonna take on settling a planet' date=' we've got to at least be able to solve the engineering problems inherent in aiming a snowball at a piece of rusted rock, neh?[/quote'] I want to live on Mars, not pummel it with rocks.....!! :o :o :o I'm concerned we may upset the Mars atmosphere if we do. Riding a comet along the outter fringe of the Mars atmosphere is bad enough, but I'd agree to it if it gave the planet more water. .....I don't believe all comets are ice however, so we need to be careful. :stare: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psheldrake1 Posted February 25, 2005 Author Share Posted February 25, 2005 Drop the into the sea of ice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tadair Posted February 25, 2005 Share Posted February 25, 2005 Comets are about 90% ice, 10% 'dust' (which is just basically the same material as asteroids in powdered form). Essentially the whole solar system contains the same elements, with a skew of the heavier elements towards the sun, and lighter elements further away, this is due to the solar system forming from a more or less homogenous nebulous cloud. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonHelton Posted February 25, 2005 Share Posted February 25, 2005 Comets are about 90% ice' date=' 10% 'dust'.[/quote'] I believe that some comets are a result of gaseous clouds that form a nucleus in the same way an atom might. ......It's possible that some of these gases are deadly. I don't have any hard proof, just a theory of mine. :stare: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soulreaper Posted April 5, 2005 Share Posted April 5, 2005 VonHelton - don't forget what happened to the "DOOM" guys with their bases and people when being around Phobos and Deimos too long :D :D :D :D :D :D :p :D :D :D :D :D :stare: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonHelton Posted April 5, 2005 Share Posted April 5, 2005 VonHelton - don't forget what happened to the "DOOM" guys with their bases and people when being around Phobos and Deimos too long. Honestly? I think Earth is in danger, we just don't know it yet...... Think about it: What's the best way to defeat a potential enemy? Destroy his world & infrastructure BEFORE they become a space-farring race!! .....An "ounce of prevention" & all that. I hope I'm not right, but to be honest, I'm not so sure. Usually when stuff like this comes to me, it ends up being true. :stare: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soulreaper Posted April 5, 2005 Share Posted April 5, 2005 Oh darn it - we're all in for the phase when the shit hits the fan!! VH, ever considered admiting that you're under heavy influence of LSD or Shrooms, when having a moment of pure & dark visionairy indulgence? :stare: You didn't listen to Rush - Power Windows while you were at it? ..further delving ever so deeply into death and despair!!! :D :D :D :p Sorry! Couldn't help my-self :rolleyes: ok I promise I'll go to bed :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonHelton Posted April 5, 2005 Share Posted April 5, 2005 Sorry! Couldn't help my-self :rolleyes: ok I promise I'll go to bed. Nope.......I'm serious as a heart attack. How many times in history's past have we got caught unawares? Well, History has this nasty habit of repeating, my friend. Ignoring that fact is done so at our folly!! :( Only our ignorance would say there isn't an advanced civilization out there.......A civilization that might think we "barbaric" earthlings will pose a problem to them if we ever become a true space-farring race. If it was up to me, we'd already have a space fleet, a base on Mars, and robotic listening devices on the other planets as well. I'd rather have an "Earth Defense Force" & not need it, than to be without one & get attacked. For now, the Earth is all we have, until we can get settled on other planets. :thinking: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soulreaper Posted April 5, 2005 Share Posted April 5, 2005 "It's better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one, then it is to have an opportunity and not be prepared" Well, that's what I'm saying VH - in a way.. When one thinks of the Universe, our petty "troubles" seem insignificant, don't they? Good night B) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonHelton Posted April 5, 2005 Share Posted April 5, 2005 "It's better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one, then it is to have an opportunity and not be prepared" Well, that's what I'm saying VH - in a way.. When one thinks of the Universe, our petty "troubles" seem insignificant, don't they? Good night B) When one considers the vastness of just our galaxy, let alone the Universe, we are but a grain of sand. :thinking: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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