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Major announcement by NASA about Mars (in 5 1/2 hours time)

Major announcement by NASA about Mars (in 5 1/2 hours time)

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ptobler
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Is it flowing (liquid) water? Is it confirmation of methane emissions from Gale crater? Is it life (c'mon, it won't be this last one...)

ptobler
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My guess is the second...

ptobler
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Actually, from the list of speakers people are guessing that it's flowing liquid water.

ptobler
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oops - the announcement is tomorrow...

w

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They were probably looking at the moon last night as it turned red and got confused and thought it was Mars and wondered where all the footprints and flag came from. 😛

s
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Originally posted by whodey
They were probably looking at the moon last night as it turned red and got confused and thought it was Mars and wondered where all the footprints and flag came from. 😛
Maybe the announcement will be proving flowing liquid methane?

s
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Originally posted by sonhouse
Maybe the announcement will be proving flowing liquid methane?
Nah, just a spot of brine going downhill a hundred yards or so. But it does flow! When humans colonize Mars, they will be assured of a supply of water, needing a bit of decontaminating, desalinization and so forth but it should be drinkable water and using electrolysis, you get hydrogen for fuel and oxygen for the other half of fuel and breathing gas. Not a bad deal.

w

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What's all this talk about "nuking" Mars?

It's already a dead planet but we just can't help oursleves, can we?

Damned military complex. 😛

s
Fast and Curious

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Originally posted by whodey
What's all this talk about "nuking" Mars?

It's already a dead planet but we just can't help oursleves, can we?

Damned military complex. 😛
That came from Elon Musk, he wants to make the planet Earthlike (terraforming Mars) by nuking the polar ice caps which would release millions of tons of CO2 and thus warming the planet and giving it some kind of atmosphere. Obviously the next step would be to introduce O2 and N2 somehow.

The calculation says the atmosphere will hang around for about 100,000 years so in human terms, a long long time.

w

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Originally posted by sonhouse
That came from Elon Musk, he wants to make the planet Earthlike (terraforming Mars) by nuking the polar ice caps which would release millions of tons of CO2 and thus warming the planet and giving it some kind of atmosphere. Obviously the next step would be to introduce O2 and N2 somehow.

The calculation says the atmosphere will hang around for about 100,000 years so in human terms, a long long time.
The EPA just came out and said that they want to preserve the natural Martian environment.

Humans will ruin it and simply turn it into another earth like atmosphere.

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Originally posted by whodey
The EPA just came out and said that they want to preserve the natural Martian environment.

Humans will ruin it and simply turn it into another earth like atmosphere.
Well, there doesn't seem to much in the way of Martians who would object. Besides, if we get the hell off our own planet, if an asteroid hits Earth, humans live on, as opposed to what happened to the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, they got a double whammy of asteroid plus extensive volcanism.

What kind of objection do you have for humans leaving Earth? Or maybe terrforming Venus for instance? You can't say a planet with a thousand degree surface temperature and a 1500 PSI CO2/sulfuric acid atmosphere is something conducive to life?

ptobler
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Mars habitability faces the problem that it has no magnetic field to protect humans from radiation from the sun .... not enough atmosphere to breathe ... and is so darn cold etc.

wolfgang59
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Originally posted by ptobler
...no magnetic field to protect humans from radiation from the sun
.... not enough atmosphere to breathe ... and is so darn cold etc.
Antarctica

w

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Originally posted by sonhouse
Well, there doesn't seem to much in the way of Martians who would object. Besides, if we get the hell off our own planet, if an asteroid hits Earth, humans live on, as opposed to what happened to the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, they got a double whammy of asteroid plus extensive volcanism.

What kind of objection do you have for humans leaving Earth? ...[text shortened]... surface temperature and a 1500 PSI CO2/sulfuric acid atmosphere is something conducive to life?
You first.

w

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Originally posted by ptobler
Mars habitability faces the problem that it has no magnetic field to protect humans from radiation from the sun .... not enough atmosphere to breathe ... and is so darn cold etc.
Radiation is not just a Martian problem, it's a space travel problem in general.

Until this is solved, which it may never be, we are stuck on earth.

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