New Mars Forums

I like the idea of that orbiter (forget it's name) that would check for signs of life by analyzing light in the atmosphere as the sun sets/rises.  It seems like this would be a more comprehensive way of looking for life than to just study a little tiny patch of the planet or a few dust particles even though you couldn't get as detailed in your analysis as a lander could.

You could always use a very powerful laser instead of relying on sunlight if you want to speed things up.  This is the first time though that I've read about the possibilities of using the concentrated light to run steam generators.  Interesting idea!

My favorite magazine used to be OMNI even though I don't think it's in the same "hard science" genre as Discover or Astronomy.  I like speculation on what science might bring us in the future but not really in story form like a sci-fi novel.  I like to just read the opinions straight which OMNI often did.  Of course I was in junior high when I was reading that magazine so I might go back on my opinion if I were to read issues again but I remember it being a fun magazine to read.

I think you might start running into problems though when you have to start actively producing plutonium once the existing stockpiles are used up.  Don't get the idea I'm being anti-nuclear here, but if the purpose of building an orion-style ship is to use up all of our weapons grade plutonium then it would defeat the purpose since we'd just have to keep producing he plutonium in the first place unless the ship is a one-shot deal.  I guess we could use the plutonium for a first mission to Mars or something similiar and then never build ships which require weapons grade pu again.  I'm not necessarily against using plutonium in the way you mentioned but I'm not sure it should be done in the name of "disarmament."  I think it should be done more as a demonstration of the peaceful uses nuclear power can be put to use.  If we decide to build such ships I certainly don't want it to be a one time wonder.

If Darwin did in fact denounce evolution on his deathbed that doesn't automatically mean the theory of evolution is false.    I don't think Darwin championed the theory of evolution simply because he was mad at God for allowing his wife to die.  I think he formulated it because of his observations on various expeditions.  Anyhow, Darwin wasn't the only one who thought up the theory of evolution.  Wallace, a contemporary of Darwin, came up with similiar theories independently but Darwin beat him to the punch as far getting the info out there first.  I should say to that there are a lot of Christians out there who believe that evolution was God's means of creation and that Genesis represents this in an allegorical way.

I agree with you on this.  Religion seems to take the brunt of the blame for a lot when in fact any kind of philosophical or political system can breed fanatics and mayhem.  I'm wary of anyone who is gunho on converting the world to their particular way of seeing things whether it's religious or not.

It appears Celestron is going to donate a big 11" telescope to the Mars Society to use in their projects.  I've always supported the idea of taking a telescope to Mars so we can peer back on Earth to see what it looks like from that distance just for curiosity's sake.  I hope when they do actually go to Mars they take a telescope.  What features of Earth would be visible through that scope?  I imagine the major continents and the icecaps would show up well.  Perhaps cloud cover would to.  Considering the size of the moon it might be interesting to see it side by side with the Earth.

Shaun can you write me into your will before the day is out?

I've seen concepts (anti-matter sails) that could potentially get an unmanned probe to neighboring stars within our lifetime using a combination of uranium and a small amount of anti-matter.  Anyhow if we ever decide that we do want to leave the Solar System for some reason (there are other planets out there even though we haven't detected Earth-like ones yet) it would be nice to have the power to get to another such system in time before your circuits are dust.  Sometime in the distant future our lifespans might be increased so much that population pressures could force us to consider things like this.  I also believe that eventually technology will reach a point where we'll be able to do "brain downloading" and basically transfer a copy of our consciousness into a machine that would simulate our brain functions but only faster and better.  Such beings wouldn't have the same inconvenient life-support issues that biological organisms do and would survive better and it's quite possible these people will simply choose to leave the Solar System so they can explore other locales.  They could just "sleep" until they arrive.  So maybe today we have no reason for proposing interstellar trips but who knows about tomorrow.

Do you start to feel violent if you can't satiate your craving?  I think the people on the ship would crave things in general but it seems pregnant women might go ballistic if they can't get what they want.  Like my friend who couldn't pass up a pickle.  There are cravings and then there are cravings like their addicted to drugs or something.

I can't see there being any kind of political support for using nuclear explosives in space even if they're being used for peaceful purposes.  We'll certainly never leave the Solar System though until we get over our fears of radioisotopes or discover some other means of generating comparable energy and it definately won't be solar cells or liquid hydrogen.

It does seem remarkable that if there is only one universe that it would just boom into existence with all of the right variables so that the weak force and the strong force are balanced just right to make the existence of atoms and ultimately matter possible as we know it.  Perhaps it isn't too far fetched to think that there could be an infinite number of universes out there or that the one we live in has just been recreating itself over the eons and this incarnation of the universe just happened to have the right variables.

I'd find it more depressing because it means that intelligence has a greater chance of becoming extinct and if there are in fact only two intelligent species out there than the chance of another one rising up is truly remote and unlikely.

I wonder if we'll ever have "exo-anthropologists" to study things like that.  Judging from our planet at least, it tends to be the killers, i.e. carnivores, that develop the most intelligence since thier method of getting food is more complicated than just grazing on grass.  I think intelligent species will have a tendency to be aggressive and warlike early on and gradually move away from that mode.  Then again maybe there are forms of intelligence out there that are so alien that we wouldn't recognize it when we saw it.  We just need other planets on which to study the evolution of life to see if it can differ in radical ways other than ours.  (i.e. is it possible that on some planets carnivores didn't develop and so an intelligence maybe naturally very peaceful?)

LOL! What is it about pickles?  Last summer I went to Magic Mountain with some friends, one of whom was pregnant, and she absolutely would not pass a vendor if they were selling pickles!