Active Volcanoes On Mars? 21
rm-r writes: "The BBC has a story here saying that two of the largest Martian volcanoes could still be active. The warmth provided by these could have produced conditions fit for life to develop." The article quotes Professor Tracy Gregg of the University of Buffalo, who says: "Of all the volcanoes on Mars, these volcanoes have the largest and greatest numbers of channels associated with them, indicating that there was a lot of water around when they were forming, though there doesn't appear to be any around now."
What's with all this Areo* terminology anyway? (Score:1)
Why not call it geology or geothermal? Don't tell me whoever thought of these words didn't make them platform independant. What happens when we get to Mercury or Titan? Do we have to make up new words for them too?
Re:There may be warmth ... Whoops ... (Score:1)
The Kim Stanley Robinson [sfsite.com] reading list. My fault for not checking more closely the link I posted priot to this.
Apologies.
Re:Titan and Europa ... (Score:1)
Heh, I was euphemistically placing this somewhere beyond the "25 years away from having a production fusion power plant." Hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium only need eachother for that reaction. :)
But you have a good point, assuming fusion reactors maintain their current level of unwieldyness we'd need to have an alternate energy source. We cannot go all the way to Europa and find out that there are no hydrothermal vents for us to hook turbines to. Fissiles are always a good fallback, but I can hear the howls of protests now against the first group that tries to take a reactor to an alien biome ...
In retrospect I suspect we might be able to do as you suggest and harness some of the energy zapping about the Jovian system to power our machines.
Does anyone know of a way to produce an electron flow from hard radiation?
Re:There may be warmth ... (Score:1)
You've got a point, but I am not certain that even the asteroid belt or the Kuiper belt will draw great crowds. With interplanetary travel the duration of trips between destinations returns to the same spans that existed when the Americas and Australia were first being settled. Being used to relatively instant travel Luna might be as far as the masses are willing to go.
Even with a cheap method of getting to another world I am not certain most people could be motivated to forgo the security of Terra firma. Changing environment is difficult enough without adjusting for the complete absence of gravity. I suspect for most people born on Earth, what we have here is what we have.
Barring some sort of material discovery akin to the various mining booms of the 1800's or the oil finds of the 1900's, getting anyone other than those persons with technical or research backgrounds to "colonize" another environment will be considerably more difficult than settling the New World was. Although the Americas were the New World, they were not a "new world" in the sense that Mars, Europa, and Titan will be. :)
As for minerals on asteroids, the moon is much closer, has most of what we want, and don't forget the tremendously rich sources of high grade materials we have buried for future generations in our land fills.
Titan and Europa ... (Score:1)
may turn out to be much friendlier than Mars.
Titan, although very cold and very distant has a surface pressure close to that of Earth's, meaning that structures could be build with little or no reinforcing, and movement about the surface could be easier (easier to change into an insulating wetsuit type garment than a pressure suit.) It definitely has better views. :)
As for Europa the view from the surface is spectacular, but the radiation is intense. The thing is, melting down 50 to 60 miles (according to theory) you encounter a vast ocean. 60 miles of ice makes a great radiation shield and you don't need to worry about losing atmospheric pressure. Melt a bubble shaped cavity, run an electric current through the local water, use the H2 for fuel, use the O2 for air, and import some nitrogen (or helium.)
If Europa turns out to be sterile I suspect we'll eventually see vast domes under the ice. Even if it does have life I still suspect it will figure prominently as a second home for h. sapiens.
Re: Titan and Europa ... Radiation? (Score:1)
The way I understand it, the Van Allen belts of the Jovian system basically engulf the entire system. I know Jupiter's magnetosphere, if we could see it, would be visible from Earth as a disk the size of our moon.
The Jupiter/Io interaction produces copious amounts of radiation within Io's orbit, but Jupiter's intense EM field basically bathes anything orbiting Jupiter with harsh EM flux.
At least that is my understanding of it.
Re:Titan and Europa ... (Score:1)
Regarding the bubble, you'd need surface access but you wouldn't want anyone living up there. I see robotic landing and fueling stations, and deep, capped shafts staggered with connecting pressure lock tunnels (to contain your atmosphere, your colonists, and a fractional portion of the ocean from squirting out into vaccuum in case of the failure of one of the pressure caps.. :) )
Re:There may be warmth ... (Score:1)
Re:Titan and Europa ... (Score:1)
At what altitude are Jupiter's radiation belts? I know Io is right in the middle of it, but I thought the other Galileans might be high enough to be beyond them. It would be nice if there were the possibility of building an easily accessible base (ie, on the surface) on a Jovian moon large enough to provide decent gravity. A bubble under a couple miles of ice isn't the most accessible base.
Flamebait != Disagree
Re:What's with all this Areo* terminology anyway? (Score:1)
The only link I can find is http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/science/selenology.html [nasa.gov]
Re:It's no joke. (Score:1)
Don't F*ck with Nature
Seriously, though, messing with an entire planets environment? We have no idea of the effects it would cause. We are just now starting to understand that things, like bacteria and mold, can, in fact, live in space, and are usually brought about by human means (I'm using the fungus on Mir as an example).
I'm not saying not to do it, I just want my opinion noted before we bust into that crazy red planet
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Re:Areothermal heating? (Score:1)
It may turn out that we will need to take our most polluting power generators up there with us just to improve the atmosphere.
Dancin Santa
Re:It's no joke. (Score:1)
Dancin Santa
Re:Define "polllution" (Score:1)
Dancin Santa
Re:Titan and Europa ... (Score:1)
Heat is out of the question. Perhaps there could be power stations on the surface to somehow use the radiation on the surface to power it up?
Re:What's with all this Areo* terminology anyway? (Score:1)
Define "polllution" (Score:1)
It is speculated that Mars may have little bits of life hanging on at the margins deep underground, because that's where the liquid water and other conditions exist which allow survival and growth. The changes brought on by adding greenhouse gases would make the surface warmer and wetter. If this makes it possible for such indigenous life to return to the surface, it might even be good for the stuff which originated there.
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Areothermal heating? (Score:2)
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Dave: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: Screw you, Dave!
It's no joke. (Score:2)
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There may be warmth ... (Score:3)
but in my opinion to classify these volcanoes as "active" is to jump the gun. For one thing, we have never been there to label them "extinct".
There certainly may be the possibility of exploiting Mars' remaining internal heat for heating and energy needs, but first -- let's get there. :)
We have other resources we can use in the meantime until we determine whether or not areothermal energy (thank you Kim Stanley Robinson [http]) is worth exploiting.
How very familiar this is (Score:3)
This is more common in medicine. How many times a year you see news like 'Pine needles cure cancer' or 'Cat hair causes strokes'. They are always preliminary, the most important result being 'We need more data'.
Perhaps the funding of scientific research should be more stable. That would prevent these 'preliminary' news.