New Mars Forums

Here is an idea I have been toying with;

http://startrektng.freewebspace.com/ima … 20Ring.JPG

It is a very thick ring (Or a sphere with its north and south end cut off) It is divided into quarters. Two quarters opposite each other are solid, and likewise, the other two are transparent (Letting in only a certain percentage of sunlight) This ring rotates once every 48 hours.

The outside of the solid part of the ring could be used for collecting the sun’s energy.

The idea could even be expanded on to where the solid part of the ring is habitable. Of course it would have to be more massive.

This takes care of Venus rotation problem and too much sunlight problem. Plus it could provide massive amounts of energy.

The scale of this project is grand, but I don’t think it is out of our reach.

I found a better way to picture how far away Venus is. Since Venus is roughly around the size the Moon would appear at this distance, imagine this is a tube you are looking through. The Sun is the near side, and Venus is the far side. This gives an in-the-park feel to how far away Venus is. (The Near side would represent the Moon as seen from Earth, and the far side would be Venus)

I love pictures like the one in this Foxnew article;

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,122 … 93,00.html

With such pictures, we can get a sense of scale with the heavens above. For example, notice the apparent size of Venus compared to the Sun. Then remember that the apparent size of the Moon is the same as the Sun. Now remember the Moon is about a fourth of the size of Venus.

Taking this information, lets see what the Moon would look like crossing the Sun in Venus orbit. Visualize a dot next to Venus that is a fourth of the size.

Now imagine the Sun is the Moon in this picture and let you depth perception take over. You can visualize how far away Venus is (or how close Venus is).

I like to do something simular with Jupiter's Moon, IO, which is about the same size as our Moon, when I look at it through my telescope.

President Reagan was the first president I voted for. He made me proud to be an American.

I think the greatest thing he did was put aside his hate for the communist to establish a relationship with Gorbachev to end the Cold-War.

I do not forget living during the Cold War, wonder not if, but when the US and USSR would annihilate each other with nuclear weapons. Reagan and Gorbachev put and end to these fears. When Reagan became president, the Cold War was stronger than ever. When he left, Americans and Russians were at peace.

Reagan was truly one of America’s greatest presidents.

Several such scopes, at the 450 AU point, that slowly orbit, might work. It would be a slow process to change targets, but if we had several out there looking at the closer stars, that might work.

Read "The Olympians" chapter in the book Birthright The Book of Man

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de … ...s=books

While not taking place on Mars, it does take place on a hot alien planet, and it is about a foot race between a human Olympian and several alien competitors.

The whole book is great. Get a copy if you can find it.

I caught the ending again. You are right about the Lizard Nazis. I also got a better look at the plans attacking trip. They were American WWII planes. I had thought they were German the first time I saw them.

Here is animated map of the Moon
http://www.solarviews.com/cap/moon/vmoo … vmoon3.htm

Here is a topo-map of Mars

http://www.solarviews.com/browse/mgs/mg … stopo2.jpg

I'll keep an eye out and post any I find here.

I have a coule of neat pictures on my homepage that might be what you are looking for;

http://startrektng.freewebspace.com/pho … photo.html

Good one guys.

Cobra, I started thinking about Terraformist vs Terraformer.

Terraformist are the scientist of the terraforming cause. They are the brains. Many of us here, with our ideas on terraforming might be considered armature terraformist.

A Terraformer are the workers. They are the muscles, the ones who do the actual work.

I like this one of Venus;

http://www.astronexus.com/misc/3dgraphi … terra.html

Here in Houston I have seen it as low as 1.86 in a few places. The average is around 1.89/1.90. I guess we are on the low side, but we should be. Heck, we make the stuff here so they don't have far to transport it