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Ian

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Registered: 2002-01-08

Posts: 236

Re: Mirrors and Lasersmeasuringseismicactivityonmars - Seismic activity and Mirrors and Lasers

I have an idea about how to meauser seismic activity on Mars. What if they placed mirrors on Mars and had a laser beam strike the surface of those mirrors like the McDonald Observatory does with the Moon? Could the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter shine a laser at those mirrors in order to detect Mars' Marsquakes just like those mirrors did for the Moonquakes? Could that be done to have a more advanced seismometer or whatever it's called on Mars that also reflects the laser beam that would come from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter?

SBird

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Registered: 2004-03-10

Posts: 490

Re: Mirrors and Lasersmeasuringseismicactivityonmars - Seismic activity and Mirrors and Lasers

That might work - I'm not sure if the laser altimeter is designed to be able to do that sort of measurement, though.  At the least, it would require a dedicated instrument and then you also have the problem of trying to keep a laser focussed on a small target from a moving platform.  It's nothing that's insurmountable from an engineering point of view, though.  The biggest problem that I can see is that you only get short term monitoring of any given area.  To do good seismology, you need monitoring stations that can give 24/7 data.  The orbiter data would be 24/7 but split over a number of different observation sites.  On the other hand, this sort of data could still be useful and it's a lot cheaper to drop a bunch of tiny reflectors with some ablative shielding from orbit that it is to soft land a bunch of seismograph packages.

Ian

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Registered: 2002-01-08

Posts: 236

Re: Mirrors and Lasersmeasuringseismicactivityonmars - Seismic activity and Mirrors and Lasers

What if we had more satellites firing lasers at mirrors all around Mars and had a gyroscope like device that would keep the laser from losing it's target.

SBird

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Registered: 2004-03-10

Posts: 490

Re: Mirrors and Lasersmeasuringseismicactivityonmars - Seismic activity and Mirrors and Lasers

Aiming the laser isn't too much of a problem - the problem is all those sattelites - it's expensive to send stuff to Mars - you're looking at aseverl hundred million to send anything to Mars just because of the launcher costs.  I'm not sure which is cheaper - a fleet of laser equipped satellites and reflectors on the ground or a fleet of ground based seismographs.  I suspect the overall cost won't be too different either way.

Mundaka

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Registered: 2004-01-11

Posts: 322

Re: Mirrors and Lasersmeasuringseismicactivityonmars - Seismic activity and Mirrors and Lasers

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Macte nova virtute, sic itur ad astra

SBird

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Registered: 2004-03-10

Posts: 490

Re: Mirrors and Lasersmeasuringseismicactivityonmars - Seismic activity and Mirrors and Lasers

Active plate tectonics probably stopped 3 billion years ago.  However, it's possible that there's still some seismic activity coming from residual geological activity such as active geothermal vents.  However, I can pretty much guarantee that Mars is pretty boring from a seismology perspective. 

The only possible use I can think of is to try and use seismology to locate geothermal hot spots of use for extracting water and generating energy for a Mars Base.  Also, geothermal vents are the best places to look for Martian life.

Ian

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Registered: 2002-01-08

Posts: 236

Re: Mirrors and Lasersmeasuringseismicactivityonmars - Seismic activity and Mirrors and Lasers

SBird how do you know that plate tectonics stopped on Mars?

SBird

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Registered: 2004-03-10

Posts: 490

Re: Mirrors and Lasersmeasuringseismicactivityonmars - Seismic activity and Mirrors and Lasers

*I* don't know since I'm not a geologist but from what I've read, that's the consensus view.  There's no evidence of active subduction zones or active rift valleys or active volcanic activity on Mars.  I believe that it's even controversial as to whether there ever was tectonic activity as we're familiar with it on Mars.  Recently, they found strong magnetization stripes on Mars which is similar to what one sees on the ocean beds on either side of a mid-oceanic ridge but the activity that formed them is long gone and might even be something unrelated.