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Hello,
I was recently reading one of my favorite novels, Neuromancer. In it, Gibson describes the L-5 colony of Freeside. Freeside was basically a spindle station with rotational gravity and something called a Lado-Acheson system. This system took sunlight collected from the outside and used it to generate images of recorded sky patterns from Earth.
This system was used to provide a simulated sky for the station, all along it's axis. My questions are: 1) What size does a station have to be to provide 1 g by rotation and 2) Is such a video system possible?
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
Huzzah for Ecrasez and Cobra Commander. This Commonwealth idea seems to be another idealistic utopia gone dystopia, a lot like Communism and Plato's Ideal State in the Republic. Although to be honest, I doubt that the major powers on Earth would voluntarily submit to such overpowering dominance as suggested under this Commonwealth. Frankly, his Commonwealth idea requires a good deal of social organization and military/police powers to enforce the desires of the Commonwealth citizen.
That means government by some over others. Defeats one of his purposes. No offense, srmeaney, you might want to rethink the idea.
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
I was wondering: In the potential colonization of Mars, would Mars' L-4 or L-5 points be active locations in Mars's development?
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
Hmmm, interesting. But, how long would it be before the atmospheric pressure and ozone layer be improved to acceptable levels?
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
I read a paper detailing out a Mars mission using a VASIMR engine. Now usually these engines are supposed to reduce flight times to Mars from months to weeks. If this is true, would flight times to the outer planets be reduced from years to months?
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
When reading the specifications on boosters, I've found the terms Impulse and Specific Impulse. What do these terms mean? Are they terms that define how many seconds of acceleration that the vehicle produces?
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
Hmmm, interesting. But, how long would it take to move these comets/asteroids into Mars orbit? Are we talking years in this case?
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
From what I saw online, the Japanese space agency had launched a prototype solar sail, last year. ( I think ) Does anyone know how much faster a solar sail spacecraft would be than a conventionally propelled one?
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
I remember reading a Popular Science magazine article about five years ago that described Buzz Aldrin's idea of interplanetary cycler spacecraft making perpetual figure-eight orbits between Mars and Earth. What benefits would there be to such a spacecraft?
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
When discussing terraforming, I hear that the probable time scale by which a potential process would move looks to be on the scale of many human lifetimes. Considering that Earth's atmosphere had changed into the present oxygen/nitrogen mix over the course of millions of years, is it even possible that any potential terraforming program would show results after a few millennia or even a few centuries? I mean, it's obviously a very long term science project. Although, considering that human industrial activity on Earth has demonstrably altered the atmosphere over the course of perhaps three hundred years.
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
I've been reading some interesting papers by NASA on terraforming and exobiology and I've come across some terms I'm unfamiliar with. Gyrs are apparently a measure of time in geological terms, perhaps a Gyr is one billion years each. ( A Gigayear? ) I pretty much understand that Kelvin is a measure of temperature, though I don't know the conversions into Celsius or Fahrenheit. Does anyone know about these things?
I would really appreciate the help, thanks.
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
When plans for terraforming pop up, asteroids fired into Mars' atmosphere to thicken it and increase oxygen and water levels are mentioned. But, does anyone know just how many mbars of water and oxygen a typical asteroid would add to the mix?
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
From what I've read online, launch windows to Mars open up only once every two years. Is this because during this interval, Mars is oppositional to Earth on the other side of the Sun? Is this interval limited to only current rocket technology?
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
Hopefully, this is an interesting question. Could Mars colonists, especially those born and raised there, be able to visit Earth? I mean, so far, barring any advances in medical technologies, there's no way to stave off permanent damage due to low gravity. So, the long-timers and Mars-born among the colonists would suffer problems if they went to Earth.
As such, would any Mars colonist have to stay on Mars or travel in spacecraft with rotational gravity equal to Martian g?
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
It's been awhile, so, Hi folks. Now, as to religion on Mars, I think that executing or deporting people on the basis of non-compliance would be at best, unrealistic. Religion will spread to Mars, because people need religion. Communist societies have tried to wipe out or repress religion.
As you can see in the former Soviet republics and currently in Communist China, government pressure can't sanitize a society of religion. As for the influence of religion in politics, I hold no doubts that political leaders will act within their moral/philosophical views. Can't get away from that. Might as well ask a person to ignore their body parts.
As for the Mars colonies, I just hope that maybe society would try to keep the religious debates from exploding into a bloody mess. Now onto the capital punishment row. I feel that execution should remain on the books. Though, execution should be limited to the " mad dogs " of society.
I've read articles about people that kill for fun, kill quite readily in order to achieve one's goals. Such people have a shockingly cavalier attitude towards human life. As such, these people can't be trusted to act within societal bounds. We put down mad dogs, don't we?
Most crimes are committed out of desperation, passion or plain bad choices in life. For those offenders, give them jail time. Though, let's drop the corrections out of criminal justice, a criminal sentence is supposed to punish, not try to force a person to change. A person reforms because of personal reflection and insight.
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
I was looking over the OST and I was wondering if anyone thinks it needs revisions. The treaty was signed during a time of intense Cold War competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Both sides were developing combat spacecraft and the Soviets conducted tests of an aircraft cannon for self-defense against U.S. spacecraft. In addition, does the treaty inhibit the commercialization of space?
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
I saw a documentary on the subject and it said that the publicity officer at Roswell Army Air Field had issued the news release that the Army had recovered a flying disk. The base intelligence officer had made an honest mistake. The recovered wreckage was that of a high altitude balloon with a scientific instrument package that tested the atmosphere for evidence of Soviet nuclear testing. The base then released another announcement that the wreckage was indeed, a weather balloon.
The Army did hush up the incident and issued the press release, calling the wreckage a weather balloon, so the project's secrecy could be maintained. I believe that there are alien civilizations out there, I'm skeptical if they ever actually visited us.
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
Interesting. So the only discernable clumps are are those found at the distances equal to Neptune and Pluto?
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
Recently, there has been the news of both the Japanese and NASA flying solar sails into orbit. How fast could solar sails propel a spacecraft to Mars? Would they be faster than chemical engines?
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
That video feed of those sprites looked spooky. They looked like a group of people. Alas, it wasn't in color. Thanks for the links, they were informative.
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
I agree with atitarev and karov. This thread isn't to discuss the war on terror. Back to my original intent. Once terraformed, wouldn't Mars' weak gravity and non-existent magnetic field fail to keep the new atmosphere and climate from reverting back to pre-terraforming conditions?
One other question is on how to warm up Mars. I read a paper the other day, that said the best way to warm up Mars is to pump CFCs into the atmosphere in order to thicken it. One idea was to set off a million nuclear explosions to release bonded carbon into the atmosphere. ???
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
Awesome.
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
Is a space elevator absolutely crucial to the economic well-being of a potential Martian economy? I would think that the lower escape velocity would make off-Mars export practical. What's your thoughts?
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
Actually, I wasn't inferring about property rights on Mars, simply as to where the funds for a potential terraforming project might come from.
Cordially,
EarthWolf
Hello,
So then, it appears that Mars may have had extensive lakes or a massive ocean? Does this lend support to the long wet model of areology?
Cordially,
EarthWolf