Re: 5000+As yet-Unprocessed Images from Mars
Posted by Uncle Al on Feb 29, 2004 at 13:43
(68.99.179.162)Re: 5000+As yet-Unprocessed Images from Mars (Mike Kremer)
It is correct as stated Deimos is much easier to deorbit for the stated data and will make the same splash as far as the seismometers are concerned. It's dropping from a much higher altitude. Don't pay money for what is already spent.
Terraforming Mars by arriving a comet (Kuiper Belt objects) for volatiles needs more than "a slushy meteorite." It needs a planetoid. You have to provide about 10^18 kg of permanent gases and water.
The water is a real problem on Mars. Most of the Earth's crust is orbiting 240,000 miles overhead. The resulting hole is 2 miles deep in the Atlantic and 3 miles deep in the Pacific oceans. Mars, short of a few volcanoes, is mostly flat. There's no place to put the water except to drown the planet. Imparting a decent hydrosphere to control temperature and weather fluctuations leaves no place to inhabit. Of course, where the thing hits will be a pretty impressive hole - but you want symmetry or the planet flips its spin axis. Mons Olympus didn't start out near the Equator.
--
Uncle Al
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/qz.pdf
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/eotvos.htm
(Do something naughty to physics)
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- Re: 5000+As yet-Unprocessed Images from Mars Mike Kremer 29/2 17:54 (0)