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Could this be done on Mars to provide temporary power for a small landing crew for several months or a year rather than nuclear power?
I would answer this we a resounding No given current knowledge about Mars Geo-Thermic Activity. Even if we found Mars to be Geo-thermicly active, the drilling and rigging equipment would be vast, even using cutting edge technology.
We need to abandon the Nuclear Phobia. If Nuclear Reactors were so dangerous we should all be dead. We are currently using nuclear reactors built on seventies technology. Imagine what we could do with todays technology. All power production has drawbacks. Even solar and wind power. Sucks if it's a calm cloudy day. The supposed environmentally friendly Hydropower has disrupted rivers in countless countries and reduced Salmon populations significantly. I am just waiting to see the devastation if a dam the size of Hoover breaks. Let alone Three Gorges. You show me a Nuclear Power Plant that would kill 20 million people that blows up and I will give you Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China.
I was thinking more along the lines of drilling deep wells in places where there isn't much geothermal activity (basicially anywhere), and making this a primary source of power generation
Well, Continental Crust works on the iceberg principle. the thinner pieces are ~20 miles thick. In areas it approaches ~60miles. The places we drill out from is relatively shallow in the crust. Iceland is able to use Geothermic power due to it's presence at the boundary of two plates that are spreading apart. I would not relish the thought of drilling through the Crust to obtain energy. Sounds like an accident waiting to happen, let alone pumping water into the mantle. Maybe I misunderstood your point. But also, be aware, It is not generally a good idea to try to take advantage of something we still do not know that much about. The places in the world that have significant Geothermic power production, typically also have much geologic activity. I would consider it a trade off. I would hate to see the first man made Volcano.
Well, with a cable dropping launch costs, one would be able to launch a craft to recover space junk for an effiecient cost. Plus one would have the fuel to manuever. Making a cosmis junk yard..
do da do da doo Inspector Gadget do da do da doo da do(da do) do da do da doo Inspector Gadget so da do da doo da do!
I'll skip how to get back to Earth the fastest way by light sail, until I find out if the above argument proves to be true or not.
If feasible, couldn't one tack back to Earth. Sailboats use tacking to move into the wind, so wouldn't that be possible for a light sail craft?
Boeing hired Lockheed Martin employees from the Atlas V project. These employees then gave Boeing proprietary documents on the Atlas V that should have stayed at LockMart
Other then the document issue, this is standard practice for the military. It is very common for contracts to change hands, but the employees remain the same in the Air Force. It makes sense.
A couple pains of glass with some sort of gas between them should solve the condensation problem
This helps reduce condensation to a point.. Because it allows for an insulation barrier. You have the outer glass the inner gas that would ideally be something like nitrogen, but is some sort of dry mixture, then an innner layer of glass. This has not been used in such temperature extremes. plus, if the outer glass leaks then in condensates.. I think a suit ventilation system would work better.
Being in the military, I have spent some time wearing a gas mask. Gas masks have to deal with condensation on the inside. How they do that is when you inhale it pulls air through the canister. the air is then directed across the surface of the plastic as you breath it in. there is a piece of plastic the covers it and has a slot on the side of it. The Air force gas mask has a large clear plastic piece that you can see out of. It works very well, I get sweaty as hell, and sometimes actually get a puddle going in my mask but no condensation build up becuase the air is deflected across the plastic I see out of. So, something very simple, like that, may work. If we keep it simple, like that, it would save cost..
IAN-
While the Magnetic field varies slightly from place to place, not usually noticable on a standard compass, as long as your withing the magnetic field, and are not close to another magnet of some kind. So if you are in a cave, that is standard limestone(most caves are due to karst topography) your compass should still be accurate to magnetic north.
There is a couple of things I like to add about this discussion.
1.) The lack of Air density can be made up for by speed.
2.) A turbo fan setup could also be used, with the right fuel being used.(something that reacts to the martian atomsphere)
3.) Don't build anything like the U2. It is the least safe plane in the Military. It's a nightmare of a plane.
ACK! Somewhere we went horribly wrong..
Just sent a note to my representative. Hopefully this bill will get some good press!
Well. It's looking like Super Typhoon Maemi is getting closer and closer to where I am at in Korea. Never bean through a Cyclone, but been through just about every other type of weather patern I can think of, from living in Iowa.. I'll keep everyone posted.
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What are the steps B,C,D et cetera that will need to be takenWell, if we use mars direct, the only step is to develop a heavy lift vehicle. (and obviously the mars direct technology too )
I think that may need a bit of a politcal coup.
Before we goto Mars we need a private funder. Or we need to regain some faith and support to our space program.
If I knew Bush wasn't go to be re-elected. I would be much more inclined to re-enlist!
What would be the chance of a modified pegasus style launch off of a modified B-52. I had a though a la X-15 as well.
Well, anyway. I think the X-38 is the right idea. Separate the crew and cargo. Maybe we can sneak a True Heavy/Heavy lift out of Nasa while they aren't looking too. Plus we have a True Shuttle. Not an El-camino of Space Craft(STS). It can haul some cargo, and can haul some people. Neither well! We need a Honda Civic style vehicle for crew. and find some other preferable re-usable for a heavy lift.
GO OSP! Time for the Shuttles to go were they Belong. The smithsonian, Wright Paterson and Kennedy Space Center for STATIC DISPLAY!!!!
Quote ("somebody @ somewhere")
In the hospital the relatives gathered in the waiting room, where their family member lay gravely ill. Finally, the doctor came in looking tired and somber."I'm afraid I'm the bearer of bad news" he said as he surveyed the worried faces.
The doctor was a male though...
I'm confused
LoL
I guess the point of this topic is how people purpose to get from A(on Earth) to M(on Mars). What are the steps B,C,D et cetera that will need to be taken. I think there are current Mission plans that could work right now, but I don't think they will happen for atleast 20 years. So, Just curious on what people thinks need to happen for us to enable us to go to Mars... If you follow me.
If worse comes to worse the ISS could be boosted to higher orbits or integrated into Another space station. I don't remember where I saw it, but a picture of the ISS with a Taurus wheel for Artificial Gravity. While it may take months, a slow boost of the orbit could be accomplished. or integration with a better station. Don't waste what is already there.
dicktice "You mean: "Let's at least start tethering." All it takes is to properly engineer the winch machinery, now that carbon fibre exists for fabricating cables hundreds of kilometres long...."
Well, I do think Space Elevators and Tethers are interesting... If thats what you mean. But I think thats a bit of a leap for us. Lets get current of the shelf technology in space. The X-38 is a point in the right direction. Lets get a whole series of Boosters. I like Pegasus... Can we get anything bigger then that done? Could a Modified C-5 or AN-224 be used to such an extend. What I am getting at is, I think we could be slowly expanding our space capabilities. Finish the Station.. get that damn thing done. Then move on.
I have som flexiril. It works better, still hurts, but you don't care!
I was curious to see how many people have read this book, "Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond" by Gene Krantz. I found it to be very interesting.. The most intriguing aspect of this book was a little note left in the back of the book from the author.
I don't remember the exacting wording but it went something along the lines of saying that if you are really interested in seeing Man in Space, Do not just sit there, but actually so something about it. I believe it was geared towards the younger crowd, instilling the need for a fresh generation of Engineers, Scientists, and Controllers. But, as I have put in my other posts, I don't really know how I will, but I would like to help push man further into space(no pun intended). I currently feel that Our Space programs has Stagnated. We have the technology to build a galleon, but all we build are Triremes. I now there is a lot of cost to building craft that are capable of going farther then extreme LEO. But I feel the OSP is not enough. I feel that we should be looking to atleast shoot for the limits of the Magneto-sphere. Set our heights a little farther, and slowly work out away from the Earth. Make sure we can walk and jog before we try to run a marathon. We have learned alot about LEO, not thatg there still is not much more to learn, but I think we can Crawl well enough right now.. Lets atleast start walking.
I Really enjoyed the first two books from KSR, I finally read the third book, and never finished. It seemed like he was trying to wrap up too many loose ends. As a whole I found the books to be incredibly colorful and descriptive. His attention to detail was impeccable. I have also read his book about Antartica which I found to be equally well written, and very intriguing. My only complaint was 'Blue Mars' I got bored and couldn't read it anymore. I will probably pick it up in a few years and read it again. I have read Red Mars and Green Mars three times. I enjoy Epic Stories like these because there is so much going on, you can reread it after a few years and you forget about the sub plots, of which there were too many to count. If done properly, I feel that this could be an Epic movie. But, I do not feel that this is possible. Maybe in 10 years, with the rate special effects are going, so that the costs would be much less. Also, the Casting would be immense, and I could see each book either making a movie 4-6 hours long or leave 2/3 of it on the cutting room floor after filming. There was just too much going on to be able to fit it in the 1 hour and 45 minutes of the standard movie today. The other possibility would be conning someone with the Ability of Tom Hanks to Make it a Mini-Series A LA Band of Brothers. But it could end up sharing the Same fate of another Sci-Fi Show I enjoyed...(Odyssey 5 RIP)
I believe that initial there will be little need for a currency on Mars. But once it goes from Scientific Outposts to a true Government of it's own a truely unique and Martian Currency system will develop on it's own. I am not sure if one could really guess what it may be based on since I don't see that happening for atleast 75 years.
Anyone else heard the song....
"All I want is Bang Bang Bang!"
???
That was way over my hear, and now I have a Migrain!...
Dunno, Not up on Quantum Physics, I got the Electrons changing Shells and stuff, but... seems sketchy