Posted on 08/07/2016 2:21:25 PM PDT by BenLurkin
While most people wouldnt suspect it, the closest planet to our Sun is actually a potential candidate for settlement...
Mercurys very low axial tilt (0.034°) means that its polar regions are permanently shaded and cold enough to contain water ice. In the northern region, a number of craters were observed by NASAs MESSENGER probe in 2012 which confirmed the existence of water ice and organic molecules. Scientists believe that Mercurys southern pole may also have ice, and claim that an estimated 100 billion to 1 trillion tons of water ice could exist at both poles, which could be up to 20 meters thick in places.
In these regions, a colony could be built using a process called paraterraforming a concept invented by British mathematician Richard Taylor in 1992. In a paper titled Paraterraforming The Worldhouse Concept, Taylor described how a pressurized enclosure could be placed over the usable area of a planet to create a self-contained atmosphere. Over time, the ecology inside this dome could be altered to meet human needs.
In the case of Mercury, this would include pumping in a breathable atmosphere, and then melting the ice to create water vapor and natural irrigation. Eventually, the region inside the dome would become a livable habitat, complete with its own water cycle and carbon cycle. Alternately, the water could be evaporated, and oxygen gas created by subjecting it to solar radiation (a process known as photolysis).
Another possibility would be to build underground. For years, NASA has been toying with the idea of building colonies in stable, underground lava tubes that are known to exist on the Moon. And geological data obtained by the MESSENGER probe during flybys it conducted between 2008 and 2012 led to speculation that stable lava tubes might exist on Mercury as well.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
What would be your evidence? That it has an average surface temperature and pressure high enough to burn up or crush pretty much anything we would land there?
Personally, I'll take the vacuum of space over Venus. One is manageable the other is not.
Bump.
I’m curious. But I am also not a scientist, let alone rocket scientist. How hard would it be to leave a Mercurial orbit and return to earth? Off the top of my head, it’d seem like the fuel requirement would be “astronomical”. Therefore, any future colony would be one-way trips, never anything else.
I’d like to have my 67 Cougar back or find one like it that I might be able to afford one day.
Colonizing Mercury would be better than colonizing Uranus.
Funny, my best friend in grade school was awarded an “Ask Andy” set of encyclopedias in the early ‘60s for the question “Can Mercury Sustain Life?
I guess he was just about 55 years ahead of his time.
Ask Andy was a syndicated column in lots of newspapers at the time.
Quick wit of the day winner:
“I think we should rent first and see how we like it.”
And sulfuric acid rain to dissolve what’s left ...
Use it for a penal colony. Unlimited sex!
Can a nation on the edge of electing Hillary Clinton after two terms of Barack Obama colonize Mercury?
Lemme think on that a second.
No.
“Colonizing Mercury would be better than colonizing Uranus.”
I don’t even want to hear anyone joking about that. It’s quite sensitive.
You would need SPF 1 zillion
That would be a total waste of time and money. By the time the planet was terraformed with water, heat and plants, the environmental fascists would step in and declare we were destroying the planet via man made global warming..........
Ever seen the movie, “Sunshine?”
So much idle nonsense about colonizing other planets. If you would believe these rabid leftists, we are depleting Earth’s resources, yet we are to take what is left to another planet at great expense and time, to populate it without knowing if it is possible and continue depleting Earth’s resources. These people truly are deranged. Stay here and make it better, instead of beginning a new experiment of depletion and immorality on another planet. The pagan gods must be laughing their butts off.
Great place for 2020 Democratic convention!
I am not sure how to colonize Mercury, but I am pretty certain not standing up to the queers is the way to colon-ize Uranus.
knowing how ridiculously idiotic these liberal progressives are we may be able to sell this to them. Hate it here, not happy? want your own utopia? mercury is the answer
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