Study: Martian Surface Water Was Absorbed by Planet’s Crust

By modeling the reactions of water with the crusts of early Earth and Mars, they found that the Martian crust can hold more than twice the amount of water as Earth, effectively drying out the surface of Mars.

The team’s findings suggest that almost 1,000 feet (300 m) of Martian surface water could have been absorbed into the planet’s crust and is now locked-up in microscopic mineral structures.

“It would be very difficult to sustain life as we know it on Mars even if surface water existed on the planet for a couple million years,” the researchers said.

“Our study shows that the composition of a rocky planet’s crust plays an important part in determining whether water will remain on a planet’s surface over deep time.”

"because we're not all space kadets with total economic ignorance and also without the slightest grasp of physics"

Project Orion (1958-1964): Aside form the massive failure of political will, the largest problem was steering, In an environment where being off course by less than one degree, means ending up GD knows where, the ability to make course corrections are a must. There was no provision for fine-tuning Orion's course.

Another problem, the genius (Ted Taylor) who designed very small nuclear warheads at the time refused to participate, leaving the Orion without propulsion.

Had this concept been followed through, we would have gotten to the Moon in a few more years, but with a ship able to carry a crew of 200, not 3. These ships work better the bigger they are, so in the design, the hull would have had a casing of water on the inside, protecting against cosmic rays and providing the crew with hot showers on demand for any length of time.

Their motto was "Mars by 1965, Saturn by 1970". Instead, the option was taken to kill the program and go with a politically correct and very flawed design because it was quick and dirty, getting only a handful of men to the Moon, never to return.

1958 test video. At around the 1.40 mark the explosive charge is visible dropping from the pusher plate, and then detonating.

Here's the actual history of the project - as told by Arthur Clark - very inspiring period in our history.

Here's Freeman Dyson who actually designed the concept, and was the real force - not the bomb designer, Tyler.

Here's Michio Kaku (a full blown ardent leftist) explaining the costs in terms of human body weight of space programs. He then goes on to poo-poo the whole idea of nuclear bomb propulsion, since "terrorists" could get and use the small bombs. Michio Kaku was instrumental (by his own admission) in getting Ted Taylor to quit bomb designing - Ted was making 3rd generation thermonuclear bombs when he quit.

At about here it should be noted that just before the project was closed down, the design for an interstellar version with a crew of thousands was finalized. The ship would have been able to hit half light speed, making it possible for us to go to another star.

PROJECT ORION ANIMATION - an old animation - some of the better ones seem to have been taken down.

I hope that these men had a good enough grasp of physics to please everyone with concerns about who-knows-what in physics, as well as the actual economics involved in space flight - with the Orion ship being the cheapest by miles.

Economics isn’t just the cost, but also includes “ROE” as in what do you get for your money.

Answer: Nothing you couldn’t get right here on earth for about .0001% of the cost of getting it in space.

Nothing in space valuable enough to justify the cost of getting it.

I notice space kadets are hot to spend other peoples’ money on their pipe dreams (You’ll note the phrase “we should spend...” In most of their posts). In reality they aren’t any different at all from liberals wanting to loot the hard working taxpayers to finance their fantasies. Only the fantasies differ.

I see by your response that you did not watch the videos I posted. Sorry.

“Nothing you couldn’t get right here on earth for about .0001% of the cost of getting it in space.”

That’s false, because any composite and exotic materials that would make life better here, can only be made cheaper if manufactured in zero gravity - perfect ball bearings come to mind as only one example.

“Nothing in space valuable enough to justify the cost of getting it.”

And you know this because of your encyclopedic knowledge of everything in space, or because you you read some things and decided it had to be that way?

Trying to discuss manned space exploration with people who refuse to have an open mind about space, is as difficult as trying to find a rational liberal.

By your logic we should all still be living in Europe or maybe Africa:

Alternate reality
ROI and costs in those olden days really made going beyond the near horizon untenable economically for people wanting to spread out. So they just stayed home and over time killed each other off in fights over living space and resources.

And that’s why today there exists a constant state of war, growing more and more viscous by the day; our tribe has only 10 people left of the thousands before the wars began. If only we had spread out, this horror would not be happening, however, the Wise, as they were called, made our decisions for us and we stayed home under their benevolent council saving a lot of money, spend on helping the poor and downtrodden who are still in that condition; and now we die.

I know nothing in space is worth the cost of getting it because I know the periodic table is the same in space as it is here, and so far every exploration has proven me correct. The moon consists of rocks and dust. You can get those in your back yard for free. Likewise Mars more rocks and dust. Unless you make the assumption (and space kadets like to make all sorts of assumptions that equate to “here a miracle occurs”) that chemistry is different off earth, then yes I know for a fact that there isn’t anything in space that is worth the cost of getting it. And if you weren’t a fanticist you’d know it too.

I’ve heard that composite and exotic materials bullshit before, and it’s apparently one of the many false narratives based on speculation that circulate in the space kadet community without any actual proof. I never realized that all of the billions of ball bearings that are in use today would work any better if they were made in space < /sarcasm>

I love unintentional irony and your comment about closed minds provides a fine example

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