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Official discussion forum of The Mars Society and MarsNews.com

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Announcement: As a reader of NewMars forum, we have opportunities for you to assist with technical discussions in several initiatives underway. NewMars needs volunteers with appropriate education, skills, talent, motivation and generosity of spirit as a highly valued member. Write to newmarsmember * gmail.com to tell us about your ability's to help contribute to NewMars and become a registered member.

#301 2021-08-23 06:59:01

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,219

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

The NewMarsMember * gmail.com portal is open for business.

The Portal was shimmering in Empty Mode this morning.

There are nearly 8 billion people on Earth these days, and several billion have access to the Internet.  This forum is accessible to ** every ** Earth citizen with Internet access.  We ** know ** the site is of interest to spammers! Hopefully it is of interest to others who want to use their time more productively. 

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.
***

We have 10,900 freshly refurbished User Id's ready for new members, and Id's through  15,300 are waiting for kbd512 to add finishing touches.  We have identified 1928 Usernames that may be eligible for upgrade for use by "real" members.

We have multiple initiatives underway that can use assistance, or you can create your own initiative.

The author of a concept for a 17 person expedition to Mars has specifically requested participation by peers to help.

A proposal for an 8 member expedition is in review.

RobertDyck could use assistance of all kinds in development of the Large Ship proposal. There are three animation/drawing systems in play.
Fusion 360 is a version of commercial software by AutoDesk that is available for student non-commercial use. It requires a beefy computer.
Blender is a free animation package that includes drawing capability. 

Unreal Engine is (reported to be) an animation package that includes drawing capability. There are books and online training available.

If there are Unreal Engine developers who would be interested in helping to build a detailed animation of the Large Ship, please let us know.

The Large Ship project may stimulate spinoff activities, such as a full scale greenhouse in LEO built to Large Ship specifications.

The My Hacienda topic is in need of 7,800 individuals to populate a virtual community to simulate self-sustainability on Mars

The subject of abundant energy supply for the population of Earth (and Mars in due time) is under discussion in the Nuclear Power is Safe topic.  It seems reasonable (to me at least) to suppose all fossil fuel power stations can be replaced with modular nuclear fission packages quite rapidly if the people of Earth decide that is a good idea.  It appears the leadership of China thinks that is a good idea for their nation.

A book was recommended for discussion: Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy by Olah, Goeppert and Prakash
Abundant energy from modular fission reactors is continuing to receive attention.

A new challenging pair of topics just arrived on the scene ...

Recent discussion is in-depth about how to design an orbital refueling facility.  An interesting concept is a Giant Syringe able to handle cryogenic fluids.  Ullage thrusters appear to be favored at this point, and electric/ion engines may come into their own for this purpose.

Recently a member who goes by "Louis" launched a topic that offers an opportunity to develop sophisticated 3D Vision/robotic software to stack stones on Mars.  It should be possible to replicate the skill set of ancient human stone masons who have built very long lasting structures without mortar.  An obvious first application for such software is to build cairns as way markers for early travelers on Mars.

The current issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact includes a Science Fact article on fusion reactors in orbit.  There appear to be significant advantages to placing a fusion reactor in orbit.

There is a new opportunity for engineers to design a rover to find landing sites for Starship class vehicles.  The rover needs to be able to determine solidity of the terrain using appropriate sensing techniques.  A new topic has been created for this discussion.

A book was recommended for discussion: "Plentiful Energy" (about fission reactors).

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.

For existing registered members who have lost your password ... If you remember the email address you used to register, you can request a recovery email at that address.  If you no longer have the email available (as could happen over 20+ years) just write to this email address. Your request will be forwarded to SpaceNut, who has the tools available to assist as needed.

For all ... we really ** are ** looking for members who want to make a difference by helping others with projects, or providing leadership on new projects.  We have a ready supply of folks who can and will make comments and offer suggestions.  We don't need more folks in that specialty.  We ** do ** need folks who can and ** will ** help project leaders already trying to achieve something in the real world.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

(th)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

Offline

#302 2021-08-23 19:48:59

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

NewMarsMember wrote:

For SpaceNut ... our members have access to local media outlets, as well as to online sites.

What do you think of a member copying the text of the daily recruiting message, and offering it to their choice of outlet?

We have great numbers of available slots for members, but the number of applications is small.

I recruited one new member directly, and three applicants applied for membership. 

We've had some activity on the Portal, in support of our current members.  That is good, and we definitely need to continue that support, but the greater need is to bring new members into the group.

(th)

reposting

Call for Papers

Presentations for the 2021 Virtual Mars Society Convention are invited dealing with all matters (science, technology, engineering, politics, economics, public policy, etc.) associated with the exploration and human settlement of the planet Mars.  Abstracts between 100-300 words can be uploaded at the Mars Society convention registration site (https://lnkd.in/e-XKGGR). Please note that the abstract submission deadline is August 31, 2021.

We have at least 3 topics if not more that if they were put forth by the authors would be very representative of newmars but it may be to late to do the topics or the work by these authors justice.

Offline

#303 2021-08-24 08:18:07

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,219

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

The NewMarsMember * gmail.com portal is open for business.

The Portal was shimmering in Empty Mode this morning.

There are nearly 8 billion people on Earth these days, and several billion have access to the Internet.  This forum is accessible to ** every ** Earth citizen with Internet access.  We ** know ** the site is of interest to spammers! Hopefully it is of interest to others who want to use their time more productively. 

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.
***

We have 10,900 freshly refurbished User Id's ready for new members, and Id's through  15,401 are waiting for kbd512 to add finishing touches.  We have identified 1828 Usernames that may be eligible for upgrade for use by "real" members.

We have multiple initiatives underway that can use assistance, or you can create your own initiative.

The author of a concept for a 17 person expedition to Mars has specifically requested participation by peers to help.

A proposal for an 8 member expedition is in review.

RobertDyck could use assistance of all kinds in development of the Large Ship proposal. There are three animation/drawing systems in play.
Fusion 360 is a version of commercial software by AutoDesk that is available for student non-commercial use. It requires a beefy computer.
Blender is a free animation package that includes drawing capability. 

Unreal Engine is (reported to be) an animation package that includes drawing capability. There are books and online training available.

If there are Unreal Engine developers who would be interested in helping to build a detailed animation of the Large Ship, please let us know.

The Large Ship project may stimulate spinoff activities, such as a full scale greenhouse in LEO built to Large Ship specifications.

The My Hacienda topic is in need of 7,800 individuals to populate a virtual community to simulate self-sustainability on Mars

The subject of abundant energy supply for the population of Earth (and Mars in due time) is under discussion in the Nuclear Power is Safe topic.  It seems reasonable (to me at least) to suppose all fossil fuel power stations can be replaced with modular nuclear fission packages quite rapidly if the people of Earth decide that is a good idea.  It appears the leadership of China thinks that is a good idea for their nation.

A book was recommended for discussion: Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy by Olah, Goeppert and Prakash
Abundant energy from modular fission reactors is continuing to receive attention.

A new challenging pair of topics just arrived on the scene ...

Recent discussion is in-depth about how to design an orbital refueling facility.  An interesting concept is a Giant Syringe able to handle cryogenic fluids.  Ullage thrusters appear to be favored at this point, and electric/ion engines may come into their own for this purpose.

Recently a member who goes by "Louis" launched a topic that offers an opportunity to develop sophisticated 3D Vision/robotic software to stack stones on Mars.  It should be possible to replicate the skill set of ancient human stone masons who have built very long lasting structures without mortar.  An obvious first application for such software is to build cairns as way markers for early travelers on Mars.

The current issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact includes a Science Fact article on fusion reactors in orbit.  There appear to be significant advantages to placing a fusion reactor in orbit.

There is a new opportunity for engineers to design a rover to find landing sites for Starship class vehicles.  The rover needs to be able to determine solidity of the terrain using appropriate sensing techniques.  A new topic has been created for this discussion.

A book was recommended for discussion: "Plentiful Energy" (about fission reactors).

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.

For existing registered members who have lost your password ... If you remember the email address you used to register, you can request a recovery email at that address.  If you no longer have the email available (as could happen over 20+ years) just write to this email address. Your request will be forwarded to SpaceNut, who has the tools available to assist as needed.

For all ... we really ** are ** looking for members who want to make a difference by helping others with projects, or providing leadership on new projects.  We have a ready supply of folks who can and will make comments and offer suggestions.  We don't need more folks in that specialty.  We ** do ** need folks who can and ** will ** help project leaders already trying to achieve something in the real world.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

(th)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

Offline

#304 2021-08-25 07:10:58

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,219

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

The NewMarsMember * gmail.com portal is open for business.

The Portal was shimmering in Empty Mode this morning.

There are nearly 8 billion people on Earth these days, and several billion have access to the Internet.  This forum is accessible to ** every ** Earth citizen with Internet access.  We ** know ** the site is of interest to spammers! Hopefully it is of interest to others who want to use their time more productively. 

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.
***

We have 10,900 freshly refurbished User Id's ready for new members, and Id's through  15,500 are waiting for kbd512 to add finishing touches.  We have identified 1129 Usernames that may be eligible for upgrade for use by "real" members.

We have multiple initiatives underway that can use assistance, or you can create your own initiative.

The author of a concept for a 17 person expedition to Mars has specifically requested participation by peers to help.

A proposal for an 8 member expedition is in review.

RobertDyck could use assistance of all kinds in development of the Large Ship proposal. There are three animation/drawing systems in play.
Fusion 360 is a version of commercial software by AutoDesk that is available for student non-commercial use. It requires a beefy computer.
Blender is a free animation package that includes drawing capability. 

Unreal Engine is (reported to be) an animation package that includes drawing capability. There are books and online training available.

If there are Unreal Engine developers who would be interested in helping to build a detailed animation of the Large Ship, please let us know.

The Large Ship project may stimulate spinoff activities, such as a full scale greenhouse in LEO built to Large Ship specifications.

The My Hacienda topic is in need of 7,800 individuals to populate a virtual community to simulate self-sustainability on Mars

The subject of abundant energy supply for the population of Earth (and Mars in due time) is under discussion in the Nuclear Power is Safe topic.  It seems reasonable (to me at least) to suppose all fossil fuel power stations can be replaced with modular nuclear fission packages quite rapidly if the people of Earth decide that is a good idea.  It appears the leadership of China thinks that is a good idea for their nation.

A book was recommended for discussion: Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy by Olah, Goeppert and Prakash
Abundant energy from modular fission reactors is continuing to receive attention.

A new challenging pair of topics just arrived on the scene ...

Recent discussion is in-depth about how to design an orbital refueling facility.  An interesting concept is a Giant Syringe able to handle cryogenic fluids.  Ullage thrusters appear to be favored at this point, and electric/ion engines may come into their own for this purpose.

Recently a member who goes by "Louis" launched a topic that offers an opportunity to develop sophisticated 3D Vision/robotic software to stack stones on Mars.  It should be possible to replicate the skill set of ancient human stone masons who have built very long lasting structures without mortar.  An obvious first application for such software is to build cairns as way markers for early travelers on Mars.

The current issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact includes a Science Fact article on fusion reactors in orbit.  There appear to be significant advantages to placing a fusion reactor in orbit.

There is a new opportunity for engineers to design a rover to find landing sites for Starship class vehicles.  The rover needs to be able to determine solidity of the terrain using appropriate sensing techniques.  A new topic has been created for this discussion.

A book was recommended for discussion: "Plentiful Energy" (about fission reactors).

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.

For existing registered members who have lost your password ... If you remember the email address you used to register, you can request a recovery email at that address.  If you no longer have the email available (as could happen over 20+ years) just write to this email address. Your request will be forwarded to SpaceNut, who has the tools available to assist as needed.

For all ... we really ** are ** looking for members who want to make a difference by helping others with projects, or providing leadership on new projects.  We have a ready supply of folks who can and will make comments and offer suggestions.  We don't need more folks in that specialty.  We ** do ** need folks who can and ** will ** help project leaders already trying to achieve something in the real world.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

(th)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

Offline

#305 2021-08-26 07:43:26

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,219

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

The NewMarsMember * gmail.com portal is open for business.

The Portal was shimmering in Empty Mode this morning.

There are nearly 8 billion people on Earth these days, and several billion have access to the Internet.  This forum is accessible to ** every ** Earth citizen with Internet access.  We ** know ** the site is of interest to spammers! Hopefully it is of interest to others who want to use their time more productively. 

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.
***

We have 10,900 freshly refurbished User Id's ready for new members, and Id's through  15,600 are waiting for kbd512 to add finishing touches.  We have identified 1629 Usernames that may be eligible for upgrade for use by "real" members.

We have multiple initiatives underway that can use assistance, or you can create your own initiative.

The author of a concept for a 17 person expedition to Mars has specifically requested participation by peers to help.

A proposal for an 8 member expedition is in review.

RobertDyck could use assistance of all kinds in development of the Large Ship proposal. There are three animation/drawing systems in play.
Fusion 360 is a version of commercial software by AutoDesk that is available for student non-commercial use. It requires a beefy computer.
Blender is a free animation package that includes drawing capability. 

Unreal Engine is (reported to be) an animation package that includes drawing capability. There are books and online training available.

If there are Unreal Engine developers who would be interested in helping to build a detailed animation of the Large Ship, please let us know.

The Large Ship project may stimulate spinoff activities, such as a full scale greenhouse in LEO built to Large Ship specifications.

The My Hacienda topic is in need of 7,800 individuals to populate a virtual community to simulate self-sustainability on Mars

The subject of abundant energy supply for the population of Earth (and Mars in due time) is under discussion in the Nuclear Power is Safe topic.  It seems reasonable (to me at least) to suppose all fossil fuel power stations can be replaced with modular nuclear fission packages quite rapidly if the people of Earth decide that is a good idea.  It appears the leadership of China thinks that is a good idea for their nation.

A book was recommended for discussion: Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy by Olah, Goeppert and Prakash
Abundant energy from modular fission reactors is continuing to receive attention.

A new challenging pair of topics just arrived on the scene ...

Recent discussion is in-depth about how to design an orbital refueling facility.  An interesting concept is a Giant Syringe able to handle cryogenic fluids.  Ullage thrusters appear to be favored at this point, and electric/ion engines may come into their own for this purpose.

Recently a member who goes by "Louis" launched a topic that offers an opportunity to develop sophisticated 3D Vision/robotic software to stack stones on Mars.  It should be possible to replicate the skill set of ancient human stone masons who have built very long lasting structures without mortar.  An obvious first application for such software is to build cairns as way markers for early travelers on Mars.

The current issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact includes a Science Fact article on fusion reactors in orbit.  There appear to be significant advantages to placing a fusion reactor in orbit.

There is a new opportunity for engineers to design a rover to find landing sites for Starship class vehicles.  The rover needs to be able to determine solidity of the terrain using appropriate sensing techniques.  A new topic has been created for this discussion.

A book was recommended for discussion: "Plentiful Energy" (about fission reactors).

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.

For existing registered members who have lost your password ... If you remember the email address you used to register, you can request a recovery email at that address.  If you no longer have the email available (as could happen over 20+ years) just write to this email address. Your request will be forwarded to SpaceNut, who has the tools available to assist as needed.

For all ... we really ** are ** looking for members who want to make a difference by helping others with projects, or providing leadership on new projects.  We have a ready supply of folks who can and will make comments and offer suggestions.  We don't need more folks in that specialty.  We ** do ** need folks who can and ** will ** help project leaders already trying to achieve something in the real world.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

(th)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

Offline

#306 2021-08-27 06:35:13

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,219

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

The NewMarsMember * gmail.com portal is open for business.

The Portal was shimmering in Empty Mode this morning.

There are nearly 8 billion people on Earth these days, and several billion have access to the Internet.  This forum is accessible to ** every ** Earth citizen with Internet access.  We ** know ** the site is of interest to spammers! Hopefully it is of interest to others who want to use their time more productively. 

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.
***

We have 10,900 freshly refurbished User Id's ready for new members, and Id's through  15,700 are waiting for kbd512 to add finishing touches.  We have identified 1529 Usernames that may be eligible for upgrade for use by "real" members.

We have multiple initiatives underway that can use assistance, or you can create your own initiative.

The author of a concept for a 17 person expedition to Mars has specifically requested participation by peers to help.

A proposal for an 8 member expedition is in review.

RobertDyck could use assistance of all kinds in development of the Large Ship proposal. There are three animation/drawing systems in play.
Fusion 360 is a version of commercial software by AutoDesk that is available for student non-commercial use. It requires a beefy computer.
Blender is a free animation package that includes drawing capability. 

The Large Ship project may stimulate spinoff activities, such as a full scale greenhouse in LEO built to Large Ship specifications.

The My Hacienda topic is in need of 7,800 individuals to populate a virtual community to simulate self-sustainability on Mars

The subject of abundant energy supply for the population of Earth (and Mars in due time) is under discussion in the Nuclear Power is Safe topic.  It seems reasonable (to me at least) to suppose all fossil fuel power stations can be replaced with modular nuclear fission packages quite rapidly if the people of Earth decide that is a good idea.  It appears the leadership of China thinks that is a good idea for their nation.

A book was recommended for discussion: Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy by Olah, Goeppert and Prakash
Abundant energy from modular fission reactors is continuing to receive attention.

A new challenging pair of topics just arrived on the scene ...

Recent discussion is in-depth about how to design an orbital refueling facility.  An interesting concept is a Giant Syringe able to handle cryogenic fluids.  Ullage thrusters appear to be favored at this point, and electric/ion engines may come into their own for this purpose.

Recently a member who goes by "Louis" launched a topic that offers an opportunity to develop sophisticated 3D Vision/robotic software to stack stones on Mars.  It should be possible to replicate the skill set of ancient human stone masons who have built very long lasting structures without mortar.  An obvious first application for such software is to build cairns as way markers for early travelers on Mars.

The current issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact includes a Science Fact article on fusion reactors in orbit.  There appear to be significant advantages to placing a fusion reactor in orbit.

There is a new opportunity for engineers to design a rover to find landing sites for Starship class vehicles.  The rover needs to be able to determine solidity of the terrain using appropriate sensing techniques.  A new topic has been created for this discussion.

A book was recommended for discussion: "Plentiful Energy" (about fission reactors).

Use of molten sand as an energy storage medium is a new topic of discussion.

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.

For existing registered members who have lost your password ... If you remember the email address you used to register, you can request a recovery email at that address.  If you no longer have the email available (as could happen over 20+ years) just write to this email address. Your request will be forwarded to SpaceNut, who has the tools available to assist as needed.

For all ... we really ** are ** looking for members who want to make a difference by helping others with projects, or providing leadership on new projects.  We have a ready supply of folks who can and will make comments and offer suggestions.  We don't need more folks in that specialty.  We ** do ** need folks who can and ** will ** help project leaders already trying to achieve something in the real world.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

(th)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

Offline

#307 2021-08-28 10:48:57

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,219

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

The NewMarsMember * gmail.com portal is open for business.

The Portal was shimmering in Empty Mode this morning.  A message was sent to GW Johnson regarding Engineering Probe.

There are nearly 8 billion people on Earth these days, and several billion have access to the Internet.  This forum is accessible to ** every ** Earth citizen with Internet access.  We ** know ** the site is of interest to spammers! Hopefully it is of interest to others who want to use their time more productively. 

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.
***

We have 10,900 freshly refurbished User Id's ready for new members, and Id's through  15,800 are waiting for kbd512 to add finishing touches.  We have identified 1421 Usernames that may be eligible for upgrade for use by "real" members.

We have multiple initiatives underway that can use assistance, or you can create your own initiative.

The author of a concept for a 17 person expedition to Mars has specifically requested participation by peers to help.

A proposal for an 8 member expedition is in review.

RobertDyck could use assistance of all kinds in development of the Large Ship proposal. There are three animation/drawing systems in play.
Fusion 360 is a version of commercial software by AutoDesk that is available for student non-commercial use. It requires a beefy computer.
Blender is a free animation package that includes drawing capability. 

The Large Ship project may stimulate spinoff activities, such as a full scale greenhouse in LEO built to Large Ship specifications.

The My Hacienda topic is in need of 7,800 individuals to populate a virtual community to simulate self-sustainability on Mars

The subject of abundant energy supply for the population of Earth (and Mars in due time) is under discussion in the Nuclear Power is Safe topic.  It seems reasonable (to me at least) to suppose all fossil fuel power stations can be replaced with modular nuclear fission packages quite rapidly if the people of Earth decide that is a good idea.  It appears the leadership of China thinks that is a good idea for their nation.

A book was recommended for discussion: Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy by Olah, Goeppert and Prakash
Abundant energy from modular fission reactors is continuing to receive attention.

A new challenging pair of topics just arrived on the scene ...

Recent discussion is in-depth about how to design an orbital refueling facility.  An interesting concept is a Giant Syringe able to handle cryogenic fluids.  Ullage thrusters appear to be favored at this point, and electric/ion engines may come into their own for this purpose.

Recently a member who goes by "Louis" launched a topic that offers an opportunity to develop sophisticated 3D Vision/robotic software to stack stones on Mars.  It should be possible to replicate the skill set of ancient human stone masons who have built very long lasting structures without mortar.  An obvious first application for such software is to build cairns as way markers for early travelers on Mars.

The current issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact includes a Science Fact article on fusion reactors in orbit.  There appear to be significant advantages to placing a fusion reactor in orbit.

There is a new opportunity for engineers to design a rover to find landing sites for Starship class vehicles.  The rover needs to be able to determine solidity of the terrain using appropriate sensing techniques.  A new topic has been created for this discussion.

A book was recommended for discussion: "Plentiful Energy" (about fission reactors).

Use of molten sand as an energy storage medium is a new topic of discussion.

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.

For existing registered members who have lost your password ... If you remember the email address you used to register, you can request a recovery email at that address.  If you no longer have the email available (as could happen over 20+ years) just write to this email address. Your request will be forwarded to SpaceNut, who has the tools available to assist as needed.

For all ... we really ** are ** looking for members who want to make a difference by helping others with projects, or providing leadership on new projects.  We have a ready supply of folks who can and will make comments and offer suggestions.  We don't need more folks in that specialty.  We ** do ** need folks who can and ** will ** help project leaders already trying to achieve something in the real world.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

(th)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

Offline

#308 2021-08-29 06:45:45

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,219

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

This is part of a long email from GW Johnson re Engineering Probe initiative ...

Dr. Zubrin is the first of three contacts suggested ...

We will need a real Mars probe design outfit to do what JPL does.  I have a concept sort-of roughed-out,  but I am not the one with the experience and background to design a flightworthy device in detail.  I also could not tell whether the company that designed the Canadrill still exists.  It sort of looked like they don't.  But I do not know.  Those are all questions we have to answer. 

The trick here may be to get Spacex on-board with this pathfinder probe idea,  since it would appear their vehicles will need its data first.  That's probably where Zubrin's backing might help.  If they (Spacex) were pushing for this,  outfits like JPL might come aboard,  too.   (JPL is part of NASA,  except that it is not,  being managed by Cal Tech,  not the government.)  No guarantees.  So,  Spacex appears to be the second contact to make,  then JPL is the third.

We will need JPL to get this thing designed.  They have recent experience.  Their only trouble is too many scientists at JPL playing at being engineers,  and not enough real engineers (one example of this is that idiotic hammering mole thing).  I was mostly a defense missile propulsion engineer,  not a space probe designer.  And I left that industry a quarter century ago,  laid off due to plant closure,  when there were 1.75 million other aerospace workers also laid off due to massive industry "consolidation".  (That's code for massive industry shrinkage,  although most economists will not admit that.)  I am obsolete by most standards. 

GW

2 Attachments

(th)

Last edited by NewMarsMember (2021-08-29 06:47:01)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

Offline

#309 2021-08-29 06:48:12

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,219

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

The NewMarsMember * gmail.com portal is open for business.

The Portal was shimmering in Empty Mode this morning.  A message was sent to GW Johnson regarding Engineering Probe.

There are nearly 8 billion people on Earth these days, and several billion have access to the Internet.  This forum is accessible to ** every ** Earth citizen with Internet access.  We ** know ** the site is of interest to spammers! Hopefully it is of interest to others who want to use their time more productively. 

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.
***

We have 10,900 freshly refurbished User Id's ready for new members, and Id's through  15,900 are waiting for kbd512 to add finishing touches.  We have identified 1321 Usernames that may be eligible for upgrade for use by "real" members.

We have multiple initiatives underway that can use assistance, or you can create your own initiative.

The author of a concept for a 17 person expedition to Mars has specifically requested participation by peers to help.

A proposal for an 8 member expedition is in review.

RobertDyck could use assistance of all kinds in development of the Large Ship proposal. There are three animation/drawing systems in play.
Fusion 360 is a version of commercial software by AutoDesk that is available for student non-commercial use. It requires a beefy computer.
Blender is a free animation package that includes drawing capability. 

The Large Ship project may stimulate spinoff activities, such as a full scale greenhouse in LEO built to Large Ship specifications.

The My Hacienda topic is in need of 7,800 individuals to populate a virtual community to simulate self-sustainability on Mars

The subject of abundant energy supply for the population of Earth (and Mars in due time) is under discussion in the Nuclear Power is Safe topic.  It seems reasonable (to me at least) to suppose all fossil fuel power stations can be replaced with modular nuclear fission packages quite rapidly if the people of Earth decide that is a good idea.  It appears the leadership of China thinks that is a good idea for their nation.

A book was recommended for discussion: Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy by Olah, Goeppert and Prakash
Abundant energy from modular fission reactors is continuing to receive attention.

A new challenging pair of topics just arrived on the scene ...

Recent discussion is in-depth about how to design an orbital refueling facility.  An interesting concept is a Giant Syringe able to handle cryogenic fluids.  Ullage thrusters appear to be favored at this point, and electric/ion engines may come into their own for this purpose.

Recently a member who goes by "Louis" launched a topic that offers an opportunity to develop sophisticated 3D Vision/robotic software to stack stones on Mars.  It should be possible to replicate the skill set of ancient human stone masons who have built very long lasting structures without mortar.  An obvious first application for such software is to build cairns as way markers for early travelers on Mars.

The current issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact includes a Science Fact article on fusion reactors in orbit.  There appear to be significant advantages to placing a fusion reactor in orbit.

There is a new opportunity for engineers to design a rover to find landing sites for Starship class vehicles.  The rover needs to be able to determine solidity of the terrain using appropriate sensing techniques.  A new topic has been created for this discussion.

A book was recommended for discussion: "Plentiful Energy" (about fission reactors).

Use of molten sand as an energy storage medium is a new topic of discussion.

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.

For existing registered members who have lost your password ... If you remember the email address you used to register, you can request a recovery email at that address.  If you no longer have the email available (as could happen over 20+ years) just write to this email address. Your request will be forwarded to SpaceNut, who has the tools available to assist as needed.

For all ... we really ** are ** looking for members who want to make a difference by helping others with projects, or providing leadership on new projects.  We have a ready supply of folks who can and will make comments and offer suggestions.  We don't need more folks in that specialty.  We ** do ** need folks who can and ** will ** help project leaders already trying to achieve something in the real world.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

(th)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

Offline

#310 2021-08-30 07:43:10

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,219

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

The NewMarsMember * gmail.com portal is open for business.

We received additional files from GW Johnson in support of the Landing Pad Drill Probe initiative. All four files were forwarded to SpaceNut, along with copies of correspondence.  Our pathway for success looks like this:

1) GW Johnson, Project leader
2) SpaceNut, Forum Senior Administrator
3) James Burk, Mars Society IT Director
4) Dr. Zubrin, Mars Society founder and President
5) Elon Musk, SpaceX

The proposal is to put a ** real ** engineering probe on a site for Starship landing, to prove the bedrock can hold a Starshp, or to prove what the site ** can ** support if it cannot support a default Starship.

The target date for launch is September of 2022.

There are nearly 8 billion people on Earth these days, and several billion have access to the Internet.  This forum is accessible to ** every ** Earth citizen with Internet access.  We ** know ** the site is of interest to spammers! Hopefully it is of interest to others who want to use their time more productively. 

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.
***

We have 10,900 freshly refurbished User Id's ready for new members, and Id's through  16.000 are waiting for kbd512 to add finishing touches.  We have identified 1221 Usernames that may be eligible for upgrade for use by "real" members.

We have multiple initiatives underway that can use assistance, or you can create your own initiative.

The author of a concept for a 17 person expedition to Mars has specifically requested participation by peers to help.

A proposal for an 8 member expedition is in review.

RobertDyck could use assistance of all kinds in development of the Large Ship proposal. There are three animation/drawing systems in play.
Fusion 360 is a version of commercial software by AutoDesk that is available for student non-commercial use. It requires a beefy computer.
Blender is a free animation package that includes drawing capability. 

The Large Ship project may stimulate spinoff activities, such as a full scale greenhouse in LEO built to Large Ship specifications.

The My Hacienda topic is in need of 7,800 individuals to populate a virtual community to simulate self-sustainability on Mars

The subject of abundant energy supply for the population of Earth (and Mars in due time) is under discussion in the Nuclear Power is Safe topic.  It seems reasonable (to me at least) to suppose all fossil fuel power stations can be replaced with modular nuclear fission packages quite rapidly if the people of Earth decide that is a good idea.  It appears the leadership of China thinks that is a good idea for their nation.

A book was recommended for discussion: Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy by Olah, Goeppert and Prakash
Abundant energy from modular fission reactors is continuing to receive attention.

A new challenging pair of topics just arrived on the scene ...

Recent discussion is in-depth about how to design an orbital refueling facility.  An interesting concept is a Giant Syringe able to handle cryogenic fluids.  Ullage thrusters appear to be favored at this point, and electric/ion engines may come into their own for this purpose.

Recently a member who goes by "Louis" launched a topic that offers an opportunity to develop sophisticated 3D Vision/robotic software to stack stones on Mars.  It should be possible to replicate the skill set of ancient human stone masons who have built very long lasting structures without mortar.  An obvious first application for such software is to build cairns as way markers for early travelers on Mars.

The current issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact includes a Science Fact article on fusion reactors in orbit.  There appear to be significant advantages to placing a fusion reactor in orbit.

There is a new opportunity for engineers to design a rover to find landing sites for Starship class vehicles.  The rover needs to be able to determine solidity of the terrain using appropriate sensing techniques.  A new topic has been created for this discussion.

A book was recommended for discussion: "Plentiful Energy" (about fission reactors).

Use of molten sand as an energy storage medium is a new topic of discussion.

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.

For existing registered members who have lost your password ... If you remember the email address you used to register, you can request a recovery email at that address.  If you no longer have the email available (as could happen over 20+ years) just write to this email address. Your request will be forwarded to SpaceNut, who has the tools available to assist as needed.

For all ... we really ** are ** looking for members who want to make a difference by helping others with projects, or providing leadership on new projects.  We have a ready supply of folks who can and will make comments and offer suggestions.  We don't need more folks in that specialty.  We ** do ** need folks who can and ** will ** help project leaders already trying to achieve something in the real world.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

(th)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

Offline

#311 2021-08-31 07:59:03

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,219

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

The NewMarsMember * gmail.com portal is open for business.

We received additional files from GW Johnson in support of the Landing Pad Drill Probe initiative.
Because Dr. Johnson is working on drafts of correspondence, I did not forward anything.

Our pathway for success looks like this:

1) GW Johnson, Project leader
2) SpaceNut, Forum Senior Administrator
3) James Burk, Mars Society IT Director
4) Dr. Zubrin, Mars Society founder and President
5) Elon Musk, SpaceX

Dr. Johnson has proposed a project team from NewMars ...

1) GW Johnson, Project Leader
2) SpaceNut, Forum Senior Administrator
3) RobertDyck, Forum Senior Moderator
4) tahanson43206, Junior Moderator


The proposal is to put a ** real ** engineering probe on a site for Starship landing, to prove the bedrock can hold a Starshp, or to prove what the site ** can ** support if it cannot support a default Starship.

The target date for launch is September of 2022.

There are nearly 8 billion people on Earth these days, and several billion have access to the Internet.  This forum is accessible to ** every ** Earth citizen with Internet access.  We ** know ** the site is of interest to spammers! Hopefully it is of interest to others who want to use their time more productively. 

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.
***

We have 10,900 freshly refurbished User Id's ready for new members, and Id's through  16.100 are waiting for kbd512 to add finishing touches.  We have identified 1121 Usernames that may be eligible for upgrade for use by "real" members.

We have multiple initiatives underway that can use assistance, or you can create your own initiative.

The author of a concept for a 17 person expedition to Mars has specifically requested participation by peers to help.

A proposal for an 8 member expedition is in review.

RobertDyck could use assistance of all kinds in development of the Large Ship proposal. There are three animation/drawing systems in play.
Fusion 360 is a version of commercial software by AutoDesk that is available for student non-commercial use. It requires a beefy computer.
Blender is a free animation package that includes drawing capability. 

The Large Ship project may stimulate spinoff activities, such as a full scale greenhouse in LEO built to Large Ship specifications.

The My Hacienda topic is in need of 7,800 individuals to populate a virtual community to simulate self-sustainability on Mars

The subject of abundant energy supply for the population of Earth (and Mars in due time) is under discussion in the Nuclear Power is Safe topic.  It seems reasonable (to me at least) to suppose all fossil fuel power stations can be replaced with modular nuclear fission packages quite rapidly if the people of Earth decide that is a good idea.  It appears the leadership of China thinks that is a good idea for their nation.

A book was recommended for discussion: Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy by Olah, Goeppert and Prakash
Abundant energy from modular fission reactors is continuing to receive attention.

A new challenging pair of topics just arrived on the scene ...

Recent discussion is in-depth about how to design an orbital refueling facility.  An interesting concept is a Giant Syringe able to handle cryogenic fluids.  Ullage thrusters appear to be favored at this point, and electric/ion engines may come into their own for this purpose.

Recently a member who goes by "Louis" launched a topic that offers an opportunity to develop sophisticated 3D Vision/robotic software to stack stones on Mars.  It should be possible to replicate the skill set of ancient human stone masons who have built very long lasting structures without mortar.  An obvious first application for such software is to build cairns as way markers for early travelers on Mars.

The current issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact includes a Science Fact article on fusion reactors in orbit.  There appear to be significant advantages to placing a fusion reactor in orbit.

There is a new opportunity for engineers to design a rover to find landing sites for Starship class vehicles.  The rover needs to be able to determine solidity of the terrain using appropriate sensing techniques.  A new topic has been created for this discussion.

A book was recommended for discussion: "Plentiful Energy" (about fission reactors).

Use of molten sand as an energy storage medium is a new topic of discussion.

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.

For existing registered members who have lost your password ... If you remember the email address you used to register, you can request a recovery email at that address.  If you no longer have the email available (as could happen over 20+ years) just write to this email address. Your request will be forwarded to SpaceNut, who has the tools available to assist as needed.

For all ... we really ** are ** looking for members who want to make a difference by helping others with projects, or providing leadership on new projects.  We have a ready supply of folks who can and will make comments and offer suggestions.  We don't need more folks in that specialty.  We ** do ** need folks who can and ** will ** help project leaders already trying to achieve something in the real world.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

(th)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

Offline

#312 2021-09-01 15:11:40

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,219

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

The NewMarsMember * gmail.com portal is open for business.

We received additional files from GW Johnson in support of the Landing Pad Drill Probe initiative.
Dr. Johnson has requested review of his documents by the Admin team. I am working on helping that to happen.

Our pathway for success looks like this:

1) GW Johnson, Project leader
2) SpaceNut, Forum Senior Administrator, and other members of NewMars Admin team
3) James Burk, Mars Society IT Director
4) Dr. Zubrin, Mars Society founder and President
5) Elon Musk, SpaceX

Dr. Johnson has proposed a project team from NewMars ...

1) GW Johnson, Project Leader
2) SpaceNut, Forum Senior Administrator
3) RobertDyck, Forum Senior Moderator
4) tahanson43206, Junior Moderator

I have initiated an inquiry to see if kbd512 (NewMars Junior Administrator) would be interested in helping to review the proposal

The proposal is to put a ** real ** engineering probe on a site for Starship landing, to prove the bedrock can hold a Starshp, or to prove what the site ** can ** support if it cannot support a default Starship.

The target date for launch is September of 2022.

There are nearly 8 billion people on Earth these days, and several billion have access to the Internet.  This forum is accessible to ** every ** Earth citizen with Internet access.  We ** know ** the site is of interest to spammers! Hopefully it is of interest to others who want to use their time more productively. 

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.
***

We have 10,900 freshly refurbished User Id's ready for new members, and Id's through  16.100 are waiting for kbd512 to add finishing touches.  We have identified 1021 Usernames that may be eligible for upgrade for use by "real" members.

We have multiple initiatives underway that can use assistance, or you can create your own initiative.

The author of a concept for a 17 person expedition to Mars has specifically requested participation by peers to help.

A proposal for an 8 member expedition is in review.

RobertDyck could use assistance of all kinds in development of the Large Ship proposal. There are three animation/drawing systems in play.
Fusion 360 is a version of commercial software by AutoDesk that is available for student non-commercial use. It requires a beefy computer.
Blender is a free animation package that includes drawing capability. 

The Large Ship project may stimulate spinoff activities, such as a full scale greenhouse in LEO built to Large Ship specifications.

The My Hacienda topic is in need of 7,800 individuals to populate a virtual community to simulate self-sustainability on Mars

The subject of abundant energy supply for the population of Earth (and Mars in due time) is under discussion in the Nuclear Power is Safe topic.  It seems reasonable (to me at least) to suppose all fossil fuel power stations can be replaced with modular nuclear fission packages quite rapidly if the people of Earth decide that is a good idea.  It appears the leadership of China thinks that is a good idea for their nation.

A book was recommended for discussion: Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy by Olah, Goeppert and Prakash
Abundant energy from modular fission reactors is continuing to receive attention.

A new challenging pair of topics just arrived on the scene ...

Recent discussion is in-depth about how to design an orbital refueling facility.  An interesting concept is a Giant Syringe able to handle cryogenic fluids.  Ullage thrusters appear to be favored at this point, and electric/ion engines may come into their own for this purpose.

Recently a member who goes by "Louis" launched a topic that offers an opportunity to develop sophisticated 3D Vision/robotic software to stack stones on Mars.  It should be possible to replicate the skill set of ancient human stone masons who have built very long lasting structures without mortar.  An obvious first application for such software is to build cairns as way markers for early travelers on Mars.

The current issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact includes a Science Fact article on fusion reactors in orbit.  There appear to be significant advantages to placing a fusion reactor in orbit.

There is a new opportunity for engineers to design a rover to find landing sites for Starship class vehicles.  The rover needs to be able to determine solidity of the terrain using appropriate sensing techniques.  A new topic has been created for this discussion.

A book was recommended for discussion: "Plentiful Energy" (about fission reactors).

Use of molten sand as an energy storage medium is a new topic of discussion.

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.

For existing registered members who have lost your password ... If you remember the email address you used to register, you can request a recovery email at that address.  If you no longer have the email available (as could happen over 20+ years) just write to this email address. Your request will be forwarded to SpaceNut, who has the tools available to assist as needed.

For all ... we really ** are ** looking for members who want to make a difference by helping others with projects, or providing leadership on new projects.  We have a ready supply of folks who can and will make comments and offer suggestions.  We don't need more folks in that specialty.  We ** do ** need folks who can and ** will ** help project leaders already trying to achieve something in the real world.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

(th)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

Offline

#313 2021-09-02 06:46:48

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,219

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

The NewMarsMember * gmail.com portal is open for business.

There was no new inbound traffic at the Portal this morning.  However, multiple documents were forwarded to SpaceNut and RobertDyck.

Our pathway for success looks like this:

1) GW Johnson, Project leader
2) SpaceNut, Forum Senior Administrator, and other members of NewMars Admin team
3) James Burk, Mars Society IT Director
4) Dr. Zubrin, Mars Society founder and President
5) Elon Musk, SpaceX

Dr. Johnson has proposed a project team from NewMars ...

1) GW Johnson, Project Leader
2) SpaceNut, Forum Senior Administrator
3) RobertDyck, Forum Senior Moderator
4) tahanson43206, Junior Moderator

I have initiated an inquiry to see if kbd512 (NewMars Junior Administrator) would be interested in helping to review the proposal

The proposal is to put a ** real ** engineering probe on a site for Starship landing, to prove the bedrock can hold a Starshp, or to prove what the site ** can ** support if it cannot support a default Starship.

The target date for launch is September of 2022.

There are nearly 8 billion people on Earth these days, and several billion have access to the Internet.  This forum is accessible to ** every ** Earth citizen with Internet access.  We ** know ** the site is of interest to spammers! Hopefully it is of interest to others who want to use their time more productively. 

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.
***

We have 10,900 freshly refurbished User Id's ready for new members, and Id's through  16.300 are waiting for kbd512 to add finishing touches.  We have identified 920 Usernames that may be eligible for upgrade for use by "real" members.

We have multiple initiatives underway that can use assistance, or you can create your own initiative.

The author of a concept for a 17 person expedition to Mars has specifically requested participation by peers to help.

A proposal for an 8 member expedition is in review.

RobertDyck could use assistance of all kinds in development of the Large Ship proposal. There are three animation/drawing systems in play.
Fusion 360 is a version of commercial software by AutoDesk that is available for student non-commercial use. It requires a beefy computer.
Blender is a free animation package that includes drawing capability. 

The Large Ship project may stimulate spinoff activities, such as a full scale greenhouse in LEO built to Large Ship specifications.

The My Hacienda topic is in need of 7,800 individuals to populate a virtual community to simulate self-sustainability on Mars

The subject of abundant energy supply for the population of Earth (and Mars in due time) is under discussion in the Nuclear Power is Safe topic.  It seems reasonable (to me at least) to suppose all fossil fuel power stations can be replaced with modular nuclear fission packages quite rapidly if the people of Earth decide that is a good idea.  It appears the leadership of China thinks that is a good idea for their nation.

A book was recommended for discussion: Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy by Olah, Goeppert and Prakash
Abundant energy from modular fission reactors is continuing to receive attention.

A new challenging pair of topics just arrived on the scene ...

Recent discussion is in-depth about how to design an orbital refueling facility.  An interesting concept is a Giant Syringe able to handle cryogenic fluids.  Ullage thrusters appear to be favored at this point, and electric/ion engines may come into their own for this purpose.

Recently a member who goes by "Louis" launched a topic that offers an opportunity to develop sophisticated 3D Vision/robotic software to stack stones on Mars.  It should be possible to replicate the skill set of ancient human stone masons who have built very long lasting structures without mortar.  An obvious first application for such software is to build cairns as way markers for early travelers on Mars.

The current issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact includes a Science Fact article on fusion reactors in orbit.  There appear to be significant advantages to placing a fusion reactor in orbit.

There is a new opportunity for engineers to design a rover to find landing sites for Starship class vehicles.  The rover needs to be able to determine solidity of the terrain using appropriate sensing techniques.  A new topic has been created for this discussion.

A book was recommended for discussion: "Plentiful Energy" (about fission reactors).

Use of molten sand as an energy storage medium is a new topic of discussion.

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.

For existing registered members who have lost your password ... If you remember the email address you used to register, you can request a recovery email at that address.  If you no longer have the email available (as could happen over 20+ years) just write to this email address. Your request will be forwarded to SpaceNut, who has the tools available to assist as needed.

For all ... we really ** are ** looking for members who want to make a difference by helping others with projects, or providing leadership on new projects.  We have a ready supply of folks who can and will make comments and offer suggestions.  We don't need more folks in that specialty.  We ** do ** need folks who can and ** will ** help project leaders already trying to achieve something in the real world.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

(th)

Last edited by NewMarsMember (2021-09-02 06:47:15)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

Offline

#314 2021-09-03 05:45:25

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,219

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

The NewMarsMember * gmail.com portal is open for business.

There was no new inbound traffic at the Portal this morning.

There are nearly 8 billion people on Earth these days, and several billion have access to the Internet.  This forum is accessible to ** every ** Earth citizen with Internet access.  We ** know ** the site is of interest to spammers! Hopefully it is of interest to others who want to use their time more productively. 

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.
***

We have 10,900 freshly refurbished User Id's ready for new members, and Id's through  16.400 are waiting for kbd512 to add finishing touches.  We have identified 820 Usernames that may be eligible for upgrade for use by "real" members.

We have multiple initiatives underway that can use assistance, or you can create your own initiative.

The author of a concept for a 17 person expedition to Mars has specifically requested participation by peers to help.

A proposal for an 8 member expedition is in review.

RobertDyck could use assistance of all kinds in development of the Large Ship proposal. There are three animation/drawing systems in play.
Fusion 360 is a version of commercial software by AutoDesk that is available for student non-commercial use. It requires a beefy computer.
Blender is a free animation package that includes drawing capability. 

The Large Ship project may stimulate spinoff activities, such as a full scale greenhouse in LEO built to Large Ship specifications.

The My Hacienda topic is in need of 7,800 individuals to populate a virtual community to simulate self-sustainability on Mars

The subject of abundant energy supply for the population of Earth (and Mars in due time) is under discussion in the Nuclear Power is Safe topic.  It seems reasonable (to me at least) to suppose all fossil fuel power stations can be replaced with modular nuclear fission packages quite rapidly if the people of Earth decide that is a good idea.  It appears the leadership of China thinks that is a good idea for their nation.

A book was recommended for discussion: Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy by Olah, Goeppert and Prakash
Abundant energy from modular fission reactors is continuing to receive attention.

A new challenging pair of topics just arrived on the scene ...

Recent discussion is in-depth about how to design an orbital refueling facility.  An interesting concept is a Giant Syringe able to handle cryogenic fluids.  Ullage thrusters appear to be favored at this point, and electric/ion engines may come into their own for this purpose.

Recently a member who goes by "Louis" launched a topic that offers an opportunity to develop sophisticated 3D Vision/robotic software to stack stones on Mars.  It should be possible to replicate the skill set of ancient human stone masons who have built very long lasting structures without mortar.  An obvious first application for such software is to build cairns as way markers for early travelers on Mars.

The current issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact includes a Science Fact article on fusion reactors in orbit.  There appear to be significant advantages to placing a fusion reactor in orbit.

There is a new opportunity for engineers to design a rover to find landing sites for Starship class vehicles.  The rover needs to be able to determine solidity of the terrain using appropriate sensing techniques.  A new topic has been created for this discussion.

A book was recommended for discussion: "Plentiful Energy" (about fission reactors).

Use of molten sand as an energy storage medium is a new topic of discussion.

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.

For existing registered members who have lost your password ... If you remember the email address you used to register, you can request a recovery email at that address.  If you no longer have the email available (as could happen over 20+ years) just write to this email address. Your request will be forwarded to SpaceNut, who has the tools available to assist as needed.

For all ... we really ** are ** looking for members who want to make a difference by helping others with projects, or providing leadership on new projects.  We have a ready supply of folks who can and will make comments and offer suggestions.  We don't need more folks in that specialty.  We ** do ** need folks who can and ** will ** help project leaders already trying to achieve something in the real world.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

(th)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

Offline

#315 2021-09-04 08:09:22

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,219

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

The NewMarsMember * gmail.com portal is open for business.

There was no new inbound traffic at the Portal this morning.

There are nearly 8 billion people on Earth these days, and several billion have access to the Internet.  This forum is accessible to ** every ** Earth citizen with Internet access.  We ** know ** the site is of interest to spammers! Hopefully it is of interest to others who want to use their time more productively. 

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.
***

We have 10,900 freshly refurbished User Id's ready for new members, and Id's through  16.500 are waiting for kbd512 to add finishing touches.  We have identified 720 Usernames that may be eligible for upgrade for use by "real" members.

We have multiple initiatives underway that can use assistance, or you can create your own initiative.

The author of a concept for a 17 person expedition to Mars has specifically requested participation by peers to help.

A proposal for an 8 member expedition is in review.

RobertDyck could use assistance of all kinds in development of the Large Ship proposal. There are three animation/drawing systems in play.
Fusion 360 is a version of commercial software by AutoDesk that is available for student non-commercial use. It requires a beefy computer.
Blender is a free animation package that includes drawing capability. 

The Large Ship project may stimulate spinoff activities, such as a full scale greenhouse in LEO built to Large Ship specifications.

The My Hacienda topic is in need of 7,800 individuals to populate a virtual community to simulate self-sustainability on Mars

The subject of abundant energy supply for the population of Earth (and Mars in due time) is under discussion in the Nuclear Power is Safe topic.  It seems reasonable (to me at least) to suppose all fossil fuel power stations can be replaced with modular nuclear fission packages quite rapidly if the people of Earth decide that is a good idea.  It appears the leadership of China thinks that is a good idea for their nation.

A book was recommended for discussion: Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy by Olah, Goeppert and Prakash
Abundant energy from modular fission reactors is continuing to receive attention.

A new challenging pair of topics just arrived on the scene ...

Recent discussion is in-depth about how to design an orbital refueling facility.  An interesting concept is a Giant Syringe able to handle cryogenic fluids.  Ullage thrusters appear to be favored at this point, and electric/ion engines may come into their own for this purpose.

Recently a member who goes by "Louis" launched a topic that offers an opportunity to develop sophisticated 3D Vision/robotic software to stack stones on Mars.  It should be possible to replicate the skill set of ancient human stone masons who have built very long lasting structures without mortar.  An obvious first application for such software is to build cairns as way markers for early travelers on Mars.

The current issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact includes a Science Fact article on fusion reactors in orbit.  There appear to be significant advantages to placing a fusion reactor in orbit.

There is a new opportunity for engineers to design a rover to find landing sites for Starship class vehicles.  The rover needs to be able to determine solidity of the terrain using appropriate sensing techniques.  A new topic has been created for this discussion.

A book was recommended for discussion: "Plentiful Energy" (about fission reactors).

Use of molten sand as an energy storage medium is a new topic of discussion.

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.

For existing registered members who have lost your password ... If you remember the email address you used to register, you can request a recovery email at that address.  If you no longer have the email available (as could happen over 20+ years) just write to this email address. Your request will be forwarded to SpaceNut, who has the tools available to assist as needed.

For all ... we really ** are ** looking for members who want to make a difference by helping others with projects, or providing leadership on new projects.  We have a ready supply of folks who can and will make comments and offer suggestions.  We don't need more folks in that specialty.  We ** do ** need folks who can and ** will ** help project leaders already trying to achieve something in the real world.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

(th)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

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#316 2021-09-04 20:41:48

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,219

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

There was a flurry of activity on the NewMars Portal this evening ...

SpaceNut reported on correspondence, and GW Johnson forwarded the third draft of his proposal letter.

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Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

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#317 2021-09-05 06:33:25

kbd512
Administrator
Registered: 2015-01-02
Posts: 7,362

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

tahanson43206,

If GW is interested, then I can talk to some of the engineers at the company to see if any of them are interested in his project.  The person who teaches mud school to the new mud engineers we hire out of college is a personal friend.  He's done quite a bit of offshore and exploratory drilling.  I don't know the entire extent of what he knows about hydraulics and rheology, but he's very accurate at estimating project costs because he has systematized all the inputs into drilling activities.  That said, there is zero data for drilling on Mars, so you'll need wireline services to tell you what you're drilling into.  Anyway, pretty much all of what little I know about drilling I learned from him.  If you use any company resources, they're going to make everyone sign an NDA, and you'll probably have to recruit someone from NASA on top of that.  They're unlikely to deal with individuals, no matter their credentials.

If GW's not interested, then please respect his wishes and move forward using the resources he's proposed.

GW,

If you're reading any of this and prefer to do your own work here, then know these fundamental things about drilling:

1. One of the biggest factors affecting material consumption to drill a well is generally low gravity solids removal efficiency, since that drives the required dilution rates.  This is very simple to understand.  You grind up enough material by failing to remove the cuttings from the fluid system and you destroy bits in short order.  The better your LGS removal efficiency, the less mud you need, and the less wear and tear on equipment.  The effect is pretty dramatic.  You can't take any mud with you from Earth, so you'll need to source local materials for drilling operations.  I expect that plain old spud mud would be fine for most practical robotic drilling, but you'll need to locate sources for things like weighting agent (unless you locate a source of barite, hematite is your best bet), water, salt, lime, emulsifiers, viscosifiers, surfactants, etc, so you also need a chemist or drilling fluids specialist with considerable experience.  If you did have a small chemical plant that could make synthetic oil from Methane, that would be ideal from a mud reusability standpoint.

2. Most of what you need to know about hydraulics, as it relates to drilling, is merely to not fracture the formation you're drilling through.  This is easier said than done, but you have the benefit of being able to halt drilling operations if there are unexpected losses.  We don't have that luxury.  Assume that Mars is a layer cake of different materials, and likely very similar to Earth.  You'll likely drill through various layers of salt, shale, granite, and other minerals.

3. Apart from the operating environment, I expect that your biggest challenges will be sourcing materials for the fluid system and casing off sections, presuming this well is for more than passing scientific curiosity.  Long term, corrosion and drill bit longevity will limit operations.  We have fully robotic rigs with nobody on them, and those have been in operation for years.  As long as you have a way to keep feeding in the consumables required for drilling and figure out how to maintain the equipment, it'll give many years of service.

Your minimum equipment list is pretty lengthy and nobody will be rolling rail cars or trucks to your drill site, so very careful planning is required.  Having some way to extract broken pipe and drill bits would be a very good idea, or lots of spares.  While you can drill without a fluid system, progress will be very slow, and drill bit wear will become a problem pretty fast.

Off the top of my head, you'll need grinding equipment for your weighting agent (found nearly everywhere on the surface, so collecting it shouldn't be a huge challenge), bentonite (again, not too hard to come by), pumps, fluid system tanks / mud pits, robots to collect all the ingredients in the fluid system, shakers and screens to remove cuttings (centrifuges would be nice, but not necessary; and your shakers could be integrated into the fluid system tank), drill pipe and bits, some kind of robotic pipe handling and top drive, various test apparatus to figure out what you're drilling through as you go so you don't accidentally fracture the formation, and the list goes on.  You'll also need to case the well as you go, so that means sulfur and ground aggregate to form concrete.  Anyway, spud mud is mostly water or seawater / bentonite clay, lime or other flocculant that you find there, salt, and a few other additives.  Unless you can figure out how to use basalt fibers as LCM, that might be the only consumable you bring with you from Earth, and you only need it when you have unexpected losses, but in all drilling operations back home, having it on the rig is a hard requirement.

The first rule of drilling is to never run out of weighting agent, hematite in your case, so make sure that you don't.  You can get away with quite a bit when it comes to dilution rates and playing with the additives package, but you're never getting away with not weighting the fluid system properly, so remember that.

None of this advice begins to scratch the surface of what you need to know, so you'll need to do quite a bit of reading.  Maybe you've already done this, but I have no way of knowing that.  There's nothing simple or easy about it, and 100% of your project is exploratory drilling.  Remember what you always tell us about the percentages of art and luck involved in aerospace engineering development?  This type of drilling works the same way.

Last edited by kbd512 (2021-09-05 06:36:27)

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#318 2021-09-05 06:46:09

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,219

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

For kbd512 ... Thanks for your message to GW Johnson ...

I copied it to the Landing Site topic, and sent a copy to GW Johnson directly by email.

There isn't going to be much lubricant available on Mars, so the stock of replacement bits you've recommended seems (to me at least) like a ** really ** good idea. 

The model for this equipment is the CanaDrill, which was (apparently) designed for the Mars environment.

RobertDyck has reported seeing the drill in operation.  Search for CanaDrill for recent posts on the subject.

Thanks (again) for your message!

(th)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

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#319 2021-09-05 06:48:06

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,219

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

The NewMarsMember * gmail.com portal is open for business.

There was no new inbound traffic at the Portal this morning. A copy of a post from kbd512 was forwarded to GW Johnson.

There are nearly 8 billion people on Earth these days, and several billion have access to the Internet.  This forum is accessible to ** every ** Earth citizen with Internet access.  We ** know ** the site is of interest to spammers! Hopefully it is of interest to others who want to use their time more productively. 

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.
***

We have 10,900 freshly refurbished User Id's ready for new members, and Id's through  16.600 are waiting for kbd512 to add finishing touches.  We have identified 620 Usernames that may be eligible for upgrade for use by "real" members.

We have multiple initiatives underway that can use assistance, or you can create your own initiative.

The author of a concept for a 17 person expedition to Mars has specifically requested participation by peers to help.

A proposal for an 8 member expedition is in review.

RobertDyck could use assistance of all kinds in development of the Large Ship proposal. There are three animation/drawing systems in play.
Fusion 360 is a version of commercial software by AutoDesk that is available for student non-commercial use. It requires a beefy computer.
Blender is a free animation package that includes drawing capability. 

The Large Ship project may stimulate spinoff activities, such as a full scale greenhouse in LEO built to Large Ship specifications.

The My Hacienda topic is in need of 7,800 individuals to populate a virtual community to simulate self-sustainability on Mars

The subject of abundant energy supply for the population of Earth (and Mars in due time) is under discussion in the Nuclear Power is Safe topic.  It seems reasonable (to me at least) to suppose all fossil fuel power stations can be replaced with modular nuclear fission packages quite rapidly if the people of Earth decide that is a good idea.  It appears the leadership of China thinks that is a good idea for their nation.

A book was recommended for discussion: Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy by Olah, Goeppert and Prakash
Abundant energy from modular fission reactors is continuing to receive attention.

A new challenging pair of topics just arrived on the scene ...

Recent discussion is in-depth about how to design an orbital refueling facility.  An interesting concept is a Giant Syringe able to handle cryogenic fluids.  Ullage thrusters appear to be favored at this point, and electric/ion engines may come into their own for this purpose.

Recently a member who goes by "Louis" launched a topic that offers an opportunity to develop sophisticated 3D Vision/robotic software to stack stones on Mars.  It should be possible to replicate the skill set of ancient human stone masons who have built very long lasting structures without mortar.  An obvious first application for such software is to build cairns as way markers for early travelers on Mars.

The current issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact includes a Science Fact article on fusion reactors in orbit.  There appear to be significant advantages to placing a fusion reactor in orbit.

There is a new opportunity for engineers to design a rover to find landing sites for Starship class vehicles.  The rover needs to be able to determine solidity of the terrain using appropriate sensing techniques.  A new topic has been created for this discussion.

A book was recommended for discussion: "Plentiful Energy" (about fission reactors).

Use of molten sand as an energy storage medium is a new topic of discussion.

Read Post #2 of this topic for procedures to apply for membership.  Mention specific assistance you wish to provide.

For existing registered members who have lost your password ... If you remember the email address you used to register, you can request a recovery email at that address.  If you no longer have the email available (as could happen over 20+ years) just write to this email address. Your request will be forwarded to SpaceNut, who has the tools available to assist as needed.

For all ... we really ** are ** looking for members who want to make a difference by helping others with projects, or providing leadership on new projects.  We have a ready supply of folks who can and will make comments and offer suggestions.  We don't need more folks in that specialty.  We ** do ** need folks who can and ** will ** help project leaders already trying to achieve something in the real world.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

(th)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

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#320 2021-09-05 06:50:33

kbd512
Administrator
Registered: 2015-01-02
Posts: 7,362

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

GW,

I didn't specifically mention it, but low gravity solids removal efficiency also affects ROP, thus circulation losses.  Drilling slowly nearly assures greater fluid system losses, thus more demand for power and material consumption.  The fluid system does a lot of things.  It cools and lubricates the drill bits, entrains and helps remove cuttings, provides the weight necessary to assure that the bore hole doesn't collapse, and prevents greater fluid system losses with the correct additives.  You're not going to drill a mile down to the water / ice table without it.  If you're only drilling a hundreds of feet, then you can probably get away with some kind of high strength liner, but this will be very heavy.  It's better to locally source the ingredients for a fluid system.  An oil-based mud is always preferable to water-based if you can produce the oil, but if not, then you're stuck with what is essentially a "throw-away" fluid system.

Also, good luck.  You'll need it.

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#321 2021-09-05 10:28:19

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 16,754

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

For kbd512 re #320

Your post here is part of a larger vision, starting with Post #317

In this instance, it is ** better ** that you have not yet seen the draft documents from GW Johnson.

Your vision is ** much ** more expansive, and it has the potential to unlock financial resources that NASA could only dream about.

The vision of GW Johnson is limited in scope to proving a site for a landing pad, with an add-on to look for water/ice down to a depth of 40 meters (If I understand the plans correctly, which is not guaranteed).

I'm hoping you will keep going with your vision of a Texas style drilling operation capable of looking a mile (1.6 km) below the surface on Mars without breaking a sweat.

This vision is (evidently) well beyond the scope of scientific exploration.

If you have the time and energy (and perhaps some help from experts in the field) please create a topic at the appropriate Index level, and begin to fill it with details.

This topic is where you might refer your associates from the Oil industry who might wish to take part.

Thanks for giving the Recruiting Topic so much energy!

(th)

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#322 2021-09-05 11:15:03

GW Johnson
Member
From: McGregor, Texas USA
Registered: 2011-12-04
Posts: 5,423
Website

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

There's no doubt Kbd512 knows a hell of a lot more about oilfield drilling than I do.  Perhaps he should be part of this team.  Kbd512?

I was intrigued by the Canadrill that RobertDyck told us about.  This is a limited dry-drilling device that was intended to reach 10 m below the surface on Mars,  perhaps 20 m if you take the extra drill supplies.  If the picture posted of it is any guide,  it is not all that large,  and might fit rather well on a quarter-to-half ton lander.  One or two holes,  and that's it,  was my impression.  That's all we need.

I know nothing more about it;  RobertDyck might.  And that's why I for sure wanted him on the team.

He has seen it drill through both simulated regolith and hard rocks,  plus right on through the bottom of the box this stuff was in.  I am presuming that (somehow) the drill recovers some sort of a cored sample.  Otherwise,  what would be the point? 

For the evaluation of ice below the landing site,  all we need do is weigh the sample,  then warm that sample enough to melt any ice in it, and then pour that meltwater out and weigh it.  The ratio of water weight to original core sample weight is a direct measure of just how "massive" any buried ice deposits really are. Which is a major chunk of what we need to know. 

About the only other things you could do,  would be to measure the salinity and the peroxide content of that meltwater.  That gives you rather critical information as to the "quality" of the buried ice resource.  Which is the other major part of what we need to know.

Here is why those two answers are critical:  knowing how much,  and how pure,  the water ice is at the landing site is crucial to deciding what equipment to bring with you,  or even if you want to land there at all.  And it is real ground truth,  not an indirect guess from remote sensing.  Everyone here knows my (justifiable) low opinion of the reliability of remote sensing. 

I'm hoping RobertDyck knows where to find,  or at least remembers,  more information about this Canadrill drill rig.

What I had in mind was a quick-and-dirty,  limited-life probe to answer the most crucial questions about any crewed landing site candidates,  or even uncrewed,  if we are landing something big.  The desirability of the site at all,  depends upon how much,  and what quality,  any buried ice resources there are. 

The other critical issue is just how much bearing pressure under landing leg "feet" can the local soil safely carry?  There is simply no substitute for ground truth about that.  So I looked at engineering field tests conducted routinely at Earthly construction sites,  and extracted the essential features for a small lightweight rig that could get us the information we have to have to land big things successfully on Mars. 

I'm still thinking about the arm flexure issue;  if there is a change in the instrument concept,  I will let everybody know immediately,  of course. 

This soil strength issue I understand far better than I understand the drilling issue.  After the end of my 20-year aerospace defense career,  I did some civil engineering and a lot of teaching as a second 20-year career.  Part of the civil engineering was foundation design,  part of it was foundation inspections.  (The rest was water/wastewater permitting,  fire protection engineering,  and environmental cleanup and disposal of hazardous materials.) 

There are others out there who know more about soil strength and foundations than I do,  but I know enough to know how to design residential slabs on extremely-highly-expansive clay,  slabs that do not bend and crack the building superstructure.  It ain't cheap,  but it works.  Those houses NEVER cracked.

My role in this team as "leader" is because of the related expertise.  This is a concept design,  I have not run numbers on any particulars.  I have been (and still am) looking for ways to answer the two critical questions about a candidate landing site:  how much/how good is the ice,  and how strong is the soil?  As leader, I drafted this notion up as a letter proposal. I need all of your help to polish this up.  We ourselves won't be building this thing,  but we do hope to get the right folks to build it.

GW


GW Johnson
McGregor,  Texas

"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew,  especially one dead from a bad management decision"

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#323 2021-09-05 15:21:12

kbd512
Administrator
Registered: 2015-01-02
Posts: 7,362

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

GW,

If you only need to drill 20m, then you don't need a fluid system.  Since the gravity is much lower on Mars, you should be able to drill deeper before bore hole collapse becomes an issue, but that's entirely dependent upon the rheology associated with the formation.  In that case, RobertDyck may very well be the correct person for that kind of drilling operation.  If you want to drill 200m to 2,000m+, then you will need a fluid system, because the bore hole will collapse unless you have a correctly weighted fluid system to drill with.  The deeper you drill, the faster the collapse will occur.  That's basic physics in action.

Normal operations go like this:

1. Identify the nature of the formation you expect to drill through using seismic tests and pilot holes used to obtain data from other test equipment, like radioactive sources and electronic sensors that indirectly measure the chemical properties of the formation you're drilling through.  This is where Canadrill would be most helpful.  You drill lots of pilot holes in a given field before you commit to a full-blown drilling operation with a rig and fluid system and engineers monitoring the operation.  We have geophysicists on staff to collect this kind of data.
2. Review your wireline data from the pilot holes, offsets and recap reports for drilling in that field, if you have any, to estimate the required fluid system properties and daily loss rates and "ground truth" regarding what you find.  Some of this is experience-driven guesswork and some of it is rheology and chemistry.  The less you know about what you're drilling through, the more guesswork that's involved.  This is where an experienced project engineer is needed most.
3. Consult with your fluid systems specialist to determine the chemical properties required, unless that's dictated to you by the client.  Some clients have favored fluid systems, others want the job done cheaply as possible, and still others want to experiment to determine what works best.  Sometimes that's even the same client, dependent upon their experience with a given operation- they want to experiment at first, then they want to use something that "just works" according to what they see, and then they inevitably want lowest cost, and there's nothing wrong with that.  The scientists in the chemistry lab are always coming up with new ways to accomplish the same task for less money or faster or with better results.
4. Drill the top section.
5. Clean the bore hole in that section with a brine.
6. Case that section with cement.
7. Repeat that process for all intermediate and target / pay zone sections.  The "pay zone" may be a very thin layer, and hydraulic fracturing may be required to extract from it.
8. Onshore, it's very common to do batch drilling and/or directional drilling from a single well head in a field, because the stuff you want to get at is often contained in small pockets.  Whether this is necessary on Mars is entirely dependent upon the nature of the resource you want to extract.

If there's oil and gas on Mars, then this is almost certainly what you will find.  You also want to determine if you can obtain liquid brine, because this is much easier to pump and requires far less energy than something you have to melt.  You can also save some of that brine for future drilling operations.  Brines are used to clean bore holes prior to cementing / casing operations.  If there are large reservoirs of liquid water and natural gas on Mars, then nobody in their right mind would resort to dehydrating the Martian regolith or melting surface ice or carting their Acme Starter Sabatier Reaction Set with them from Earth, on account of the energy consumption.  Drilling for resources is far and away the most energy-efficient way of obtaining liquid water / oil / gas, which is why we do so much of that here on Earth.  And yes, eventually we'll have to resort to more energy and resource intensive CO2 recycling to reuse combustion products.  Industrialization occurred here on Earth due to the discovery of buried hydrocarbons, not batteries and solar panels, which were energy inventions made possible by industrialization.

In all cases, there is an active system in the well (drilling fluid or brine), because if there's not the Earth (or Mars) will fill it back up for you.  Mud engineers exist to monitor and constantly adjust your fluid system additives, especially the weight (pounds-per-gallon or kilograms-per-cubic-meter).  They're monitoring the rig for safety (both to respond if you take a kick by quickly weighing up the system, aka "containing pressure", and ensure you don't fracture the formation, aka "weigh up the fluid system so much that hydrostatic pressure overcomes the structural integrity of the formation").  You figure this out by accurately knowing TVD, or total vertical depth.  The project engineer does the initial planning for the mud engineer, which includes determine TVD and total length and total volume of mud to cover normal operations and losses.  You will lose some mud, and that's a given.  If you're going to do this kind of exploratory drilling, then it's best to have some spike mud on the rig for contingencies, in addition to your LCM package.  Again, you only need LCM to contend with drastic unexpected loss of circulation.  You don't need that much of it and it's pretty light but bulky to store.

So..., in terms of "tanks" and "piles":

Grinding tank to store your weighting agent as a fine powder
Active system tank (whole mud)
Reserve system tank (contingency whole mud)
Brine tank (for bore hole cleaning prior to cementing, and possibly cementing itself as well if you can spare the water)
Cuttings removal tank that contains your shakers and screens, with a way to periodically discharge the cuttings
Sometimes you can grind up cuttings to re-inject them into the well, essentially using them as part of your fluid system
Additives piles - salt / lime / bentonite
Cementing piles - sulfur and aggregate, primarily, but if you do get liquid water then you'll want the cement we use here on Earth, which is proven to last for many decades (for this use, Sulfacrete is a giant question mark in my mind, but you will need to case completed sections)

A mobile land rig with a small train of autonomous support vehicles like dump and tanker trucks would obviously be ideal.  If you're going to live on Mars, then this is ultimately what you need.  The moment we discover natural gas and liquid brine reservoirs, nobody will be talking about colonizing the planet using Sabatier reactors and batteries.

Finally, trying to do this "on the cheap" is an utter waste of time.  If you ultimately have to get at the buried resources and those are hundreds of meters down, then you ultimately need real drilling equipment, which means using drilling fluid systems derived from local resources.  Apart from brine, pretty much everything else you need to drill to depths of a couple kilometers or more is sitting there somewhere on the surface of the planet, so you have to figure out how to use it.  Otherwise, Mars will remain a very expensive outpost crewed by a handful of scientists.

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#324 2021-09-05 16:53:03

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 16,754

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

For All ... please discuss how to recruit new members in this topic.

Please consider recruiting new members and reporting your activities here. ...

(th)

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#325 2021-09-06 09:31:26

GW Johnson
Member
From: McGregor, Texas USA
Registered: 2011-12-04
Posts: 5,423
Website

Re: Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topics:

Just a reply and then we'll quit,  TH. 

Kbd512:  thanks,  I made a copy of what you wrote and put it in the project file.  With your permission,  I want to add your name to the list of the team. 

GW


GW Johnson
McGregor,  Texas

"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew,  especially one dead from a bad management decision"

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