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*I finally got the link to open up and enable me to post it here; the web page was down for a few days, when I first noticed the article.
I'd be very interested in following this mission.
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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I'm surprised they don't intend to land a rover since stationary landers are so 70s (I'm assuming when they say "lander" they mean a stationary craft.) It's great news though, Mercury gets a lot of neglect when it comes to space missions.
My people don't call themselves Sioux or Dakota. We call ourselves Ikce Wicasa, the natural humans, the free, wild, common people. I am pleased to call myself that. -Lame Deer
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It's great news though, Mercury gets a lot of neglect when it comes to space missions.
*Yes indeed. I'm curious how -HUGE- the sun appears from Mercury. An astronomy source said the sun would appear about the size of a grapefruit from Mercury, but I should think it'd appear MUCH larger than that!
I'll presume most folks here have seen the rare photos of Mercury passing in front of the sun...good grief, it looks like a fly speck against a beachball! It's amazing, isn't it, as tiny as Mercury is that it managed to obtain and maintain an orbit and didn't get swallowed up by the sun from the get-go.
But what do I know about physics? Not much.
--Cindy :laugh:
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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I, actually, think Mercury is quite valuable and should not be neglected. Mercury is too close to the Sun, so it can't be terraformed if it's not shifted into a higher orbit. Terraformable planets are few and Mercury should be considered next after Mars and Venus.
See the following link about moving and spinning up planets:
Paul Birch's Page
I think if Mercury could be shifted to about 90-95 mln km from the Sun (56 to 59 mln miles), it could be terraformed. Currently it is 46 (perihelion)- 70 (aphelion) mln km from the Sun. With Earth's atmosphere and rotation speed the average temperature would be about 45 C (113 F). It would be quite hospitable to live near the poles. Of course, I made a lot of assumptions about future technology development. For comparison - I read about Venus simulation - if it had Earth's atmosphere, water and rotation, its average temperature would be 25 C (77 F). (It's 8 C on Earth (46 F).
I am also interested in Jovian moons to be settled but the gravity on them is very low and they are on the other extreme - too cold. So I'd prefer Mercury to Ganymede, although I think a human mission to Mercury will happen later.
As for the size of the Sun when seen from Mercury - it's about 2.5 times larger as seen from Earth, could be different at perihelion and aphelion.
Anatoli
Anatoli Titarev
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Mercury would also be a good 'base' for solar observations..
Providing the equipment didn't melt.
[i]the early bird may get the worm, but it's the second mouse that gets the cheese[/i]
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