Posted on 01/12/2004 11:56:35 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:45:26 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
The surface of Mars is scoured by dust storms of biblical immensity -- dust storms that could make life rough, even risky, for the first astronauts who visit the fourth planet from the sun.
Now that President Bush wants to send Americans to Mars, NASA planners are likely to launch careful studies of the potential hazards of the Red Planet.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I "think" Benjamin Franklin figured the answer to this one out a couple of hundred years ago.
Michael Malin, left, science team member at Malin Space Science Systems, John Grotzinger, science team member from MIT, center, and Arthur Amador, mission manager at NASA (news - web sites)'s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, watch a video Monday, Jan. 12, 2004, in Pasadena, Calif., of engineers using an Earth-bound twin of the Mars rover Spirit to run tests. The rover must pivot 120 degrees on top of the lander before crawling down the egress ramp, and engineers want to make sure they have all bases covered before attempting the procedure with the craft. (AP Photo/Ric Francis)
Yer kiddin'......Just the trip there could kill ya. Geez, it's MARS, not the Bahamas.
Cheez Louise!!! The solution is called an "electrostatic precipitator"---you can go down and buy them at Sears or Ace. They work no matter what the air pressure, and the more highly charged the dust particles are, the better they work.
Mars is 30% oxygen by weight. The moon is 30% oxygen by weight. The problem is there are no chemists on Mars.
The giant, astronaut-sucking vortex of dust that raises havoc in the movie Mission to Mars is pure fiction, but there are nevertheless real vortexes in the planet's thin atmosphere. They are similar to dust devils in desert areas on Earth, miniature tornadoes caused by heating of air close to the ground. Dust devils on Mars were first seen in images taken by the Viking orbiters. In 1997 the Mars Pathfinder lander sensed one passing right over it. Now the eagle-eye resolution of the Mars Global Surveyor has captured many of them in the act. Images presented by K. S. Edgett and Michael Malin (Malin Space Science Systems) at this week's Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas, show shadow-casting dust devils. Other regions of the surface display vast numbers of criss-crossing, sometimes meandering, dark streaks. The researchers suspected dust devils as the culprits, but it wasn't until examining an image taken in December 1999 that they could prove it. At the end of one curly dark streak is the smoking gun: the swirling cloud of bright dust that is the devil himself.
Mars Global Surveyor caught this 100-meter-wide dust devil dancing across Promethei Terra in the planet's southern hemisphere. Researchers had been puzzling over what was forming the countless dark streaks on the planet, until they found one of the culprits in the act.
(Quelle: sky and telescope)
Busy little bees these dust devils be.
Sounds familiar. Life was "rough, even risky", for those brave enough to venture forth into the unknown in past times. Columbus and his crew, the Pilgrims, those on the Lewis and Clark expedition, the first settlers of Jamestown, polar and undersea explorers, the first astronauts, et al., all faced a measure of risk and hardship. But they managed, and built something of lasting value. Future generations are forever indebted to those brave enough to risk all in the pursuit of something greater than themselves. Mankind, and Americans especially, have been of an adventurous and inquisitive mind.
Until recently. Now we seem to be more worried about saving fractions of a penny on tax dollars and short-term profit and what's-the-bottom-line greed-is-good what's-in-it-for-me-right-now-today to even consider the long-term benefits, especially those not immediately quantifiable in terms of the almighty dollar. Better to stay home and count the few pennies we think we've saved as they slip through our faltering and enfeebled fingers.
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