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#1 Re: Unmanned probes » MOC Continued » 2006-04-06 11:36:13
Huge dust devil and a couple of small ones;
http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/r22_s04 … 00072.html
I calculate it is about 1/4 km diameter.
#2 Re: Unmanned probes » MOC Continued » 2006-04-04 12:28:11
An old lake bed in Hellas?
#3 Re: Unmanned probes » MOC Continued » 2006-04-04 12:13:12
http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/e13_e18 … 01333.html
Check out the apron of debris around this mountain.
#4 Re: Unmanned probes » Mars Express (MEX) - ESA orbiter » 2006-02-22 09:36:54
That will be a cool sight to behold for future humans on Mars.
From my past reading, if I understand it correctly, Mars has areas of magnetic fields across its surface- some stronger than others. I am guessing most of these are where iron asteroids pelted the surface. (I think the Moon has similar fields due to the same reason, but I could be wrong there).
So imaging being under one of these magnetic field domes and seeing a localized aurora display.
#5 Re: Unmanned probes » Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) » 2006-02-14 07:40:53
New picture;
I was hoping this layering we see would be from a water process, but this picture looks more like the dune cross bedding I have seen out in petrified dune sandstone.
This is probably sitting on courser volcanic ash deposits.
I hope I am wrong. I was hoping these would be mud deposits.
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#6 Re: Martian Chronicles » Writer's Block » 2006-02-10 08:35:06
I'll admit, I have not done much writing lately, but I intend to start. I used to write a couple of hours a day, but know its more like a couple of hours a month.
Were is my Muse?
#7 Re: Unmanned probes » Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) » 2006-02-08 07:27:49
The layered rocks at home plate remind me of slate, where as the layered rocks Opportunity has encountered reminds me of limestone.
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit … 26L0M1.JPG
However, check out the laying at the bottom of this picture. It sort-of resembles the laying Opportunity has found. Looks much different from the slate-like layering. http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit … 85R0M1.JPG
Here is the rim of Home Plate. http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit … 85L0M1.JPG
What is Home Plate- an old crater?
Whatever it is, I get the feeling Spirit has hit the jackpot at this location.
#8 Re: Unmanned probes » MOC Continued » 2006-02-08 07:23:23
Cool Picture!
#9 Re: Terraformation » Mars Needs Nitrogen » 2006-01-30 09:53:56
Chat,
2. Perhubs - good example for gas container is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogel -- with C we could build even better and more robust dendritic structure, and the gas pressure in the gel could be even higher - remember R.Freitas and his respirocites with 1000 bars of internal pressure.
Make enormous 'pancake" of "carbogel" filled with N2 and /or O2. The blackness of the carbon makes perfect absorbtion type solar sails. The pancake stiff foam sails could be build from uniform 1 cm3 blocks for example. The bulk of the material allows from the carbon to be manifactured and build in quite sophisticated guidance and navigation systems. The unused or waiting purchase C+N2 pancake sails can be delivered to stand by orbits - some libration points, etc.
How about building the 'gas bags' out of carbon fibers.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2965
This could be part of the Venus terraformation, where Venus CO2 is combined with H to make water and carbon.
#10 Re: Terraformation » Venus Terraforamation - Can we colonize the death furnace? » 2006-01-26 11:23:19
I noted the Pyrite because that may be where the sulfur is ending up that rains out of the atmosphere.
As for what use can it be, I don’t know. Maybe they could sell it space based industry. Maybe Asteroid miners will need it for something.
#11 Re: Terraformation » Venus Terraforamation - Can we colonize the death furnace? » 2006-01-26 10:34:39
I think you are right. I saw a diagram years ago about the Venus Sulfur cycle. The Volcanoes spew out sulfur dioxide, which forms Sulfuric acid when it bins with water vaper. Then Sunlight breaks down the Sulfuric acid back into water and sulfur dioxide. The sulfur dioxide rains down on the surface.
There may be great deposits of Pyrite on Venus surface, which appear like bright spot on radar images.
Perhaps Venus has water in its Magma.
If Hydrogen can be imported, water could be made from the CO2.
#12 Re: Terraformation » Venus Terraforamation - Can we colonize the death furnace? » 2006-01-26 09:43:34
I believe sunlight breaks down Venus Sulfuric Acid, but it gets renewed by active volcanoes.
#13 Re: Unmanned probes » Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) » 2006-01-26 09:39:25
Yes, that is Opportunity. In an area lacking in Blueberries, there seems to be some around this particular outcrop.
Here is one up close;
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/ … 7M2M1.HTML
Here is the above feature from the Front Hazcam;
#14 Re: Unmanned probes » Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) » 2006-01-26 08:43:31
Interesting
#15 Re: Unmanned probes » Jupiter in a year for Europa orbiter? » 2006-01-26 07:37:52
It might have to do with weight and fuel. You see, the more you accelerate, the more you have to decelerate when you get to where you are going, and that requires more fuel, a heaver launce vehicle, and more cost.
#16 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » January 28th - 20th anniversary of the Challenger accident. » 2006-01-24 07:29:40
I was a senior in High School when it happened. It was a sad day that left me depressed for a long time.
#17 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » This Weekend. January 27th - Mars Imax movie coming out. » 2006-01-24 07:27:43
#19 Re: Water on Mars » Water Could Stay *Liquid* On Mars » 2006-01-20 13:33:51
D'oh! I got the quote and my posting backwards. That is what I get for not doing this in a while.
#20 Re: Water on Mars » Water Could Stay *Liquid* On Mars » 2006-01-20 13:31:55
And the article mentions the "blueberries," but IIRC where Oppy currently is it seems there are no "blueberries" and it seemed (again IIRC) the scientists were
surprised at their sudden absence in that region.
I think I found some Blueberries
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/ … 4L6M1.HTMLNotice the large Blueberries at the top middle right of the picture. So far, Blueberries have been scarce in this area. Maybe this is a transition layer between the blueberries layers and non-blueberry layers. Also notice the nice Cobra-Head.
That whole layer deservers some closer attention.
#21 Re: Terraformation » Keeping Earth warm while lowering sea levels » 2006-01-20 11:18:57
But eventually it will become buoyant in the crust. Mountains have thick crust beneath them.
Just keep piling up the rock until you achieve this buoyancy.
#22 Re: Terraformation » Keeping Earth warm while lowering sea levels » 2006-01-20 10:48:37
I was thinking more along the lines of piling it up, that way , once your new land got above sea level, you would start lowering sea level (That is, if you use material from the seabed)
What we need is some kind of giant Star Trek transporter that can move large amounts of matter. With something like that, maybe you could arrange the matter so that the new island has granite roots. With such technology, you could sculpt the land any way you wanted.
Such technology is way beyond us, at the moment. The energy requirements alone would be huge, not to mention the data storage.
#23 Re: Terraformation » Keeping Earth warm while lowering sea levels » 2006-01-20 08:55:51
Too bad we don’t have the technology to build large islands out of ocean floor material. Imagine how much lowering of the sea level could be accomplished by building a island the size of Australia using material from the ocean floor. Of course, the lower the sea level would depend on how much material you could pile up above sea level.
It would also create new land.
What about building huge seas in the Sahara Desert and the Deserts of Austria. Not only would it lower sea level, it might produce rain, turning the deserts into rainforest. If you could pile up the material you removed to make the sea into mountain, the mountains would help create the rain.
Another way to lower sea level might be to pump sea water onto Antarctica.
#24 Re: Unmanned probes » Cassini-Huygens - NASA/ESA Saturn orbiter & Titan lander » 2006-01-20 08:48:32
I wish Huygens could have snapped a picture above Titan’s global haze. Imagine Saturn in a blue sky with a sea of orange below.
#25 Re: Unmanned probes » Cassini-Huygens - NASA/ESA Saturn orbiter & Titan lander » 2006-01-20 08:46:17
My theory about Enceladus. This small world has a diameter is about 310 miles (500 km) and it would fit in the boundaries of the State of Arizona. Such a tiny world should be cold and dead, yet this world is alive. It is kept alive by gravitational forces between Saturn and Saturn’s other moon (Like IO and Europa of Jupiter).
Enceladus is losing water. I suspect this water is supplying material for Saturn’s rings. This water ice spirals down from Enceladus, forms the rings as it continues to slowly spiral down to Saturn.
Enceladus must have been bigger in the past. How much bigger I do not know. For that, we would have to calculate the rate of water loss over the age of Enceladus. The future of this little world is probably a small rocky body covered with a thin layer of ice.