Comments on: Subterranean glaciers on Mars!

By: MarsDirect

MarsDirect — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 08:27:50 +0000

I’m curious about this push to go to the moon first, and then Mars. I read Robert Zubrin’s “The Case for Mars”, and his plan sounds reasonable, and the moon seems to pose significant problems for human colonization — it has no significant quantities of natural resources to support a large base. Everything needed to survive there would need to be trucked up from Earth. And it wouldn’t make sense to use the moon as a launch platform to go to Mars or elsewhere either, as the fuel and hardware would have to first be launched from Earth again, assembled on the moon (or in orbit around the moon). Using the moon as an intermediate step to going to Mars or elsewhere will delay planetary exploration by decades, cost huge amounts of money, and add more complexity and risks, I think. Granted, I haven’t read any rebuttals to Zubrin’s idea, and I’m open to suggestions. But so far, it seems to me that the moon, lovely as it is — and an excellent platform for giant telescopes — does not do much for us in terms of human exploration or colonization.

By: Scottso

Scottso — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 05:31:19 +0000

But what about the martian bacteria and microbes that will wipe out any future pioneers! We have no resistance to martian microbes and it will make our superior technology irrelevant!!!

By: Randy A.

Randy A. — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:42:03 +0000

FYI — a pile of rubble with a core of ice is called a rock glacier. Based on the photograph and your description, the term would fit for these features on Mars.

Cool!

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:02:48 +0000

PS: those are really AWESOME pics,,,

Gary 7

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:01:17 +0000

Mars: the new goal post,,,

I wonder why anyone would have ever doubted there was subterranean water on MArs? Earth has lots of hydrogen locked up in minerals such as hydrides and oxygen in oxides. Both elements are highly reactive and readily bond with a wide range of metals. They are thus conserved and protected from solar wind dispersal.
Of course, it’s a LOT easier to retrieve water from underground reservoirs than to extract it from oxides/hydrides, so this discovery is really exciting, from a utilization point of view.

I expect we’ll find a lot of subterranean Lunar water, when we finally have geo(Luna?)physicists poking around on the moon.

We just need to go and stay there,,,

GAry 7

By: BigBob

BigBob — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:23:05 +0000

Shnakepup quothe – “Red Mars” Trilogy anyone?

Yes indeed. In fact “Red Mars” is a favourite: Kim Stanley Robinson’s awesome descriptions of the unmanned rover routing past navigation beacons to ferry water to the camp, and the automated water extraction station are very atmospheric for me. They mine ice blocks and the plant refines the water until it’s pure. Think I’m going to have to read it again.
Bob(Big)

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:22:22 +0000

Aw. LC beat me to it. I was gonna say about the Bremsstrahlung.