Ice oceans found on Mars

drudge ^

[tet68]

Ice oceans found on Mars

[aruanan]

To me, that means they must have once had a crude form of "room service".

And still far more advanced than service in European restaurants.

[PatrickHenry]

The terraforming will probably be agonizingly slow measured in human lifetimes (and human patience).

I don't think terraforming Mars is practical. Not now. It will take many generations, and the cost of the missions, and maintaining the crews on Mars, will be enormous. I doubt that even a nation as rich as ours will tax itself for that, over a period of centuries, for a very distant payoff. There will come a time when it's more affordable, with faster ships and better technology than we have now, but for our generation, and the next, I just don't see it.

[USMA '71]

Is the Natonal Hockey League aware of this??? While it might be a long trip for a road game, I'm sure it won't be too long until the Martians are the next NHL expansion team.

[RightWhale]

Will anybody acknowledge that Hoagland was right

Right about what?

[RightWhale]

It's a 3-year round trip assuming one year on the surface.

[A.J.Armitage]

So don't volunteer for a Mars mission.

[RightWhale]

Thanks for the ping. I thought they were going to wait until the middle of next week, but there it is.

[Clara Lou]

It's best to offer advice if it's asked for.

[A.J.Armitage]

I didn't see NASA asking you for advice.

[Condorman]

Thanks for the ping, PH.

Looks like I'm going to have to redouble my efforts on Stan Robinson's Mars trilogy.

I'm half-way through the second book right now. It's some of the best-researched hard science fiction I've read.

A note to those who might be interested: these books are not easy, lighthearted romps. They are comprehensive exporations of the scientific challenges, politics and social dynamics of the colonization and terraformation of Mars.

[RadioAstronomer]

great series! :-)

[RadioAstronomer]

Thanks for the ping! :-)

[F16Fighter]

Robert Stack?

[Condorman]

great series!

Without a doubt. But none of 'em are books you can sit down and read over a weekend.

Kind of like I had to do with Greg Bear's books, I'm taking my time and reading a few pages at a time on my lunch breaks. Otherwise my brain melts and leaks out my ears...

[RadioAstronomer]

:-)

[RightWhale]

I imagine NASA will go about Mars wrong, just as they did Apollo. There is no urgency to land on Mars. They can build a base on Phobos and resupply it later from the surface of Mars. There should have been a base on Phobos already, and there should be regular shuttles between earth and Mars already.

Why this news of water should get NASA's exploration juices flowing right now is a mystery since they could have gone to Mars anytime in the past 20 years and water on Mars was never much of a question.

[BigBadWolf]

Ice? Who cares. What I want to know is does Mars have any sandworms.

[Skibane]

In order to protect you from the bambardment of CR your ship would have to be several feet thick of lead.

Or several yards of water — Might come in handy on the trip anyway!

[RightWhale]

begin bombarding it with asteroids

Bombard both Mars and the moon with asteroids to begin building up planetary mass. And especially comets because they carry volatiles, compounds with some hydrogen content. Oxygen is not in short supply anywhere, even on the moon.