From: Michael Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Date: Sun Nov 09 1997 - 03:19:42 MST
Alex Tseng wrote:
>
> Earth/Moon relaionship
> has become iron crytsal core
> Cor!!,..progress !!!
>
> What is the implications of Earth
> having an iron crystal core, which
> exists with some other impurities
> as a 'whole' lattice, is it another
> target for mega-engineering projects ?
I doubt it. You don't dig up the foundation to your building just
because its nice and solid.
>
> Are there future projects been prepared
> to confirm its existance,...
>
> Hey, what about the buckyball factory
> in Geosyn orbit,...Do you guys follow
> NASA / JPL ...? Landing a probe on a comet
> this time,.. good start, how about using
> comets as platforms out of the solar system
> or land a comet on Mars to terraform ?!
Oh, now your getting into my favorite subjects...To anyone interested in
terraforming Mars, I suggest you read Kim Stanley Robinson's _Red_Mars_
trilogy, which is possibly the most scientifically realistic view of
mars terraforming I've ever seen.
Essentially, it is thought that there is enough CO2 in the poles and un
the rocks that if the atmosphere could be heated up a bit, it would
automatically cause a process of outgassing that would raise Mars'
atmosphere up to a level of between 300-500 millibars, almost all CO2.
THis is equivalent to atmospheric pressure in Lhasa, Tibet.
At this level, greenhouse effects would raise the average equatorial
temperatures to around 50 deg F. It is not known how much water there is
on Mars, but it is thought from current data that there is enough to
fill the northern hemisphere with a 1 million sq kilometer ocean with an
average depth of 100 feet or so, at the above cited atmospheric temps
and pressures. In order to make this atmosphere livable without oxygen
masks, we would need to seed the planet with engineered plantlife. This
oxygen conversion will of course reduce the greenhouse effects, thus
cooling the planet, unless we replace the lost CO2 with other greenhouse
gasses, like CFCs, methane, etc. It is doubtful that there was enough of
a period of lifebuilding on mars in the past (if the current evidence
supporting such life is confirmed), to provide adequate fossil fuel
resources, so all energy will come from solar or nuclear power
It has been proposed that if somewhere between 2-5 comets were dropped
on mars, this would provide the necessary heat, additional gasses for
accelerated pressurization, and additional greenhouse gasses to maintain
a stable atmosphere, with a later need for production of CFCs at a
level of between 5-10% of current terran production.
As for exploration of comets, its a needed mission. As the Huyakutake
and Hale-Bopp comets showed us, there are plenty of objects out there
that are undiscovered that could show up at any moment. if we are to
come up with concrete plans to divert earth intercepting objects we need
to know exactly how such objects are built so we know whether to use
nuclear explosives or land nuclear thrusters, etc. We also need to do
the same with asteroids of the near earth variety. This precautionary
program would then be the harbinger of an asteroid mining industry.
As for NASA and JPL, well, they do good work, but, dammit, they are
substituting manned exploration with VIDEO GAMES!!! I think its entirely
BS of the highest magnitude that we are putting up with the current
"smaller, faster, cheaper, less imaginative, less risky" program. Then
again its about time people saw how incompetent big government programs
are at exploration.
BUckyballs? I think that once we get buckytubes made in sufficient
lengths to weave with to make Fuller forms, we can then start thinking
about mega scale projects. Is anyone on the list working with the
tubes????
-- TANSTAAFL!!! Michael Lorrey ------------------------------------------------------------ mailto:retroman@together.net Inventor of the Lorrey Drive MikeySoft: Graphic Design/Animation/Publishing/Engineering ------------------------------------------------------------ How many fnords did you see before breakfast today?
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