New Mars Forums

Calliban

Member

From: Northern England, UK

Registered: 2019-08-18

Posts: 3,793

Water on Mercury?

Quite a find, though still somewhat speculative.
http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandsc … ocid=ientp

Mercury is too deep in the Sun's gravity well and too exposed to solar radiation to be an attractive destination for human explorers or colonists.  However, if the planet does contain ample resources of water and other volatiles, it might one day be a home for humanity.  Any bases or colonies would presumably need to be constructed either close to the poles or deep underground and shielded from daytime temperatures.  Local paraterraforming may be possible.

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"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,367

Re: Water on Mercury?

For Calliban re #1

Thank you for this interesting new topic!  I hope it does well.

One application of Mercury that seems to have some potential for the reasonable future of Solar System development, is to serve as an anchor for collection of solar energy and delivery of same by tight beam to worthy destinations, such as (drum roll) Mars !!!

(th)

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,431

Re: Water on Mercury?

Its actually a chemical ion created from the sun and reactions of the minerals of mercury that they think is making the water.

The water forms in the pole facing away from the suns intense heat.

https://www.iflscience.com/space/scient … n-mercury/

Calliban

Member

From: Northern England, UK

Registered: 2019-08-18

Posts: 3,793

Re: Water on Mercury?

Its actually a chemical ion created from the sun and reactions of the minerals of mercury that they think is making the water.

The water forms in the pole facing away from the suns intense heat.

https://www.iflscience.com/space/scient … n-mercury/

The article that I referenced suggests that some large scale geological features on Mercury are due to volatile outgassing from the crust or upper mantle.  This would only be possible if the Mercurian sub-surface contained very large volumes of trapped volatile compounds.  The article suggests water, but in truth sulphur dioxide or CO2 are no less likely.  At present, there is too little information to draw firm conclusions.

It should not be too surprising if it turns that Mercury is home to volatile components.  It formed from a proto planetary disc like Earth.  The Earth contains more water dissolved in its mantle than presently exists in its oceans.  The moon contains substantial quantities of hydrogen within its basalt rocks, though in this case, the mantle is largely solid preventing additional upwellings.

Also, with virtually zero axial tilt, large areas of the Mercurian crust must be permanently below zero Celsius just a few metres beneath the surface.  The sun's gravitational field would have totally locked Mercury rapidly after its formation.  So axial tilt has been close to zero since at least the Late Heavy Bombardment.  Who knows what is lurking beneath the surface?

Last edited by Calliban (2020-03-26 09:27:42)

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"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

Mars_B4_Moon

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Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: Water on Mercury?

It’s Time to Send a Lander to Mercury
https://www.universetoday.com/152391/it … o-mercury/

Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: Water on Mercury?

View of part of Mercury's northern hemisphere was captured

https://twitter.com/ESA_Bepi/status/1444218331595169795

Mars_B4_Moon

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Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: Water on Mercury?

Bepi Colombo seems to be in some safe mode cruise at the moment

http://bepicolombo.esac.esa.int/bscs-qla/home

The main scientific objectives of the mission will be achieved via a number of studies:

    Origin and evolution of a planet close to its parent star.
    Mercury's figure, interior structure, and composition.
    Characteristics and origin of its internal magnetic field.
    Exo- and endogenic surface modifications: cratering, tectonics, polar deposits and volcanism.
    Structure, composition, origin and dynamics of Mercury's exosphere.
    Structure and dynamics of Mercury's magnetosphere.
    Test of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity.

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/bepicolombo/science

MESSENGER was a NASA robotic space probe that orbited the planet Mercury between 2011 and 2015, studying Mercury's chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field.

On July 3, 2008, the MESSENGER team announced that the probe had discovered large amounts of water present in Mercury's exosphere, which was an unexpected finding. In the later years of its mission, MESSENGER also provided visual evidence of past volcanic activity on the surface of Mercury, as well as evidence for a liquid iron planetary core.
https://web.archive.org/web/20080707035 … ed_to.html
The probe also constructed the most detailed and accurate maps of Mercury to date, and furthermore discovered carbon-containing  organic compounds and water ice inside permanently shadowed craters near the north pole

How could there be water on Mercury?  Zurburchen listed three possibilities, which are not mutually exclusive.  Firstly, it has long been theorized (but not yet proved) from Earth-based radar observations that there may be reservoirs of water ice in small areas of Mercury's poles where local topography creates permanently shadowed spots in crater walls that might trap water over the age of the solar system.  Second, the water could come from comets.  Third, the process of chemical sputtering could create water where none existed before from the ingredients of solar wind and Mercury rock, as Zurburchen explains.

"The solar wind is highly ionized.  Those are radicals -- they want to make connections with everything that they can.  Imagine a solar wind hydrogen showing up and hitting the surface.  It weathers whatever the mineral is, and steals an oxygen.  If you do that, you get something like OH-, for example."  OH-, also known as a hydroxyl group, would produce a peak at atomic mass 17 on the FIPS spectrum.  "You can do it in reverse -- an oxygen from the solar wind can steal a hydrogen.  The process is called chemical sputtering."

Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: Water on Mercury?

Collecting Solar Power Up in Orbit and Beaming It Down to the Ground for Use

https://scitechdaily.com/collecting-sol … d-for-use/

Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: Water on Mercury?

BepiColombo's first sighting of the giant Caloris basin, shadows cast at sunrise, and a rare candidate volcano are our top picks from yesterday's MercuryFlyby.

https://twitter.com/BepiColombo/status/ … 2345832448

Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: Water on Mercury?

Vid

https://twitter.com/BepiColombo/status/ … 4139230208

The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission has made its second gravity assist of planet Mercury, capturing new close-up images as it steers closer towards Mercury orbit in 2025.
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration … of_Mercury
'BepiColombo’s main science mission will begin in early 2026. It is making use of nine planetary flybys in total: one at Earth, two at Venus, and six at Mercury, together with the spacecraft’s solar electric propulsion system, to help steer into Mercury orbit. Its next Mercury flyby will take place on 20 June 2023'

All MCAM images will be publicly available in the Planetary Science Archive next week. Impressions from the science instruments will be reported in the coming weeks.

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-06-27 18:39:40)

Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: Water on Mercury?

'Science Museum' video channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFg1h-qSLmY

5th of September year 2024 is the Fourth Mercury flyby

Arrival at Mercury planned for on 5 December 2025

http://sci.esa.int/bepicolombo/59934-spacecraft-duo/

Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: Water on Mercury?

Plan to research solar power from space

https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Sp … from_space

The Sun never stops shining in space, and sunlight is much more intense there than on Earth's surface. So what if we could gather that energy up in space then beam it down to Earth?

Recent studies funded by the Preparation element of ESA’s Basic Activities programme, show the concept, called Space-Based Solar Power, is theoretically workable and could support the path to decarbonising the energy sector. However, significant uncertainties and technical challenges remain. In response ESA is proposing a R&D programme to mature the concept and its critical technologies – SOLARIS.

Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: Water on Mercury?

ESA & JAXA release brand new images of planet Mercury

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration … cury_flyby

BepiColombo is a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to the planet Mercury. The mission comprises two satellites launched together: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and Mio (Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, MMO)
Mercury is too small and hot for its gravity to retain any significant atmosphere over long periods of time, but it has a "tenuous surface-bounded exosphere" containing hydrogen, helium, oxygen, sodium, calcium, potassium and other trace elements. Its exosphere is not stable as atoms are continuously lost and replenished from a variety of sources. The mission will study the exosphere composition and dynamics, including generation and escape.
It has many international instruments including a Radio developed by Italy and the United States.
Solar Intensity X-ray and Particle Spectrometer (SIXS), developed by Finland and United Kingdom. Spectrometers and Imagers for MPO BepiColombo Integrated Observatory System (SIMBIO-SYS), high resolution stereo cameras and a visual and near infrared spectrometer, developed by Italy, France and Switzerland
http://www.stp.isas.jaxa.jp/mercury/p_mmo.html
BepiColombo Laser Altimeter DLR Institut für Planetenforschung, Berlin
Germany,  Italian Spring Accelerometer INAF-IAPS (Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali), Rome
Italy,  Mercury Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer Russian Academy of Sciences, Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer, Space Research Centre, University of Leicester, Leicester United Kingdom University of Helsinki, Department of Physics, Helsinki
Finland, Mercury Orbiter Radio science Experiment University of Rome "La Sapienza", Rome Italy, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena USA. SERENA – Search for Exosphere Refilling and Emitted Neutral Abundances neutral and ionised particle analyser, Rome
Italy, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas USA, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Graz Austria, Stas Barabash
Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF), Kiruna Sweden. SIMBIO-SYS – Spectrometers and Imagers for MPO BepiColombo Integrated Observatory - HRIC, STC, VIH. SIXS – Solar Intensity X-ray and particle Spectrometer
http://sci.esa.int/bepicolombo/38831-instruments/
Expected to arrive in Mercury orbit on 5 December 2025, the Mio and MPO satellites will separate and observe Mercury in collaboration for one year, with a possible one-year extension.

What’s next?

BepiColombo’s next Mercury flyby will take place on 5 September 2024, but there is plenty of work to occupy the teams in the meantime.

The mission will soon enter a very challenging part of its journey, gradually increasing the use of solar electric propulsion through additional propulsion periods called 'thrust arcs' to continually brake against the enormous gravitational pull of the Sun. These thrust arcs can last from a few days up to two months, with the longer arcs interrupted periodically for navigation and manoeuvre optimisation.

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2023-06-22 02:59:59)

Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: Water on Mercury?

The impossible planet to visit, NASA's Messenger studying Mercury's chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field. In the future a science power station on Mercury might remain in cotect with Earth also using communication to send info to the L points of Mars data en route to Earth, or Venus Trojan 2013 ND15 an asteroid at the L point of Venus.

ESA vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pujIIK4NNQ

Amazing Solar Orbiter Views Of Mercury Transiting The Sun
https://news.yahoo.com/amazing-solar-or … 00062.html
ESA's Solar Orbiter captured views of the planet Mercury

the discovery of water ice by NASA at the planet's north pole, suspected on the basis of Earth-based radar data.

BepiColombo a joint mission of ESA and JAXA to the planet Mercury

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2023-10-01 06:16:14)

Void

Member

Registered: 2011-12-29

Posts: 7,815

Re: Water on Mercury?

Instu for Mercury looks rather good.  Materials, water, Carbon, and likely a small amount of Ammonia in its ice deposits.

So, except for at first not so much need for materials delivery.

I have been trying to build on other people's work per transfer of humans to Mercury.

Not at all perfected, but I anticipate a cycling spaceship which would not necessarily dump a ship(s) of at Mercury but dump it off possibly even nearer to the sun.  In that environment, plenty of propulsive methods available related to the suns output.

So, quite safe and roomy on the cycler, but then a kind of cramped and dangerous path though the oven of the sun.  Maybe not landing directly on Mercury but on a space station in the gravity well of Mercury, maybe L1 or L2.

Then from there to go onto the surface of Mercury.

But that is in development. There is much I don't have a firm grasp of in the idea.

The Earth and Mercury have almost a 1 to 4 orbital resonance.  Almost.  That might figure into it.

Of course to get onto the cycler, you would need a very powerful ship, maybe Nuclear Fission?

Done.

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Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: Water on Mercury?

Thrust problems and a very difficult planet to get to

Europe is uncertain whether its ambitious Mercury probe can reach the planet
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/05/e … he-planet/