Ice oceans found on Mars

drudge ^

[Clara Lou]

Question: How will this be tested? Do we already have any probes out in the solar system using this system of propulsion?

[Ahban]

It has not been tested in space, to the best of my knowledge. NASA does not seem very willing to test new ideas. They did have an ion-powered probe called deep space 1, and it was a spectacular success. Its too bad the thrust levels from ion engines are too low to be practicle for manned flight.

I am convinced this idea can work, and will be a gigantic improvement in manned space travel. We just need good targets. Perhaps a mining/prospecting expedition to a near-Earth asteroid.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

We don't need to land on Mars so much as begin bombarding it with asteroids.

This could begin a terraforming process with Mars ending up looking like the colder(not coldest) parts of earth in less than a century.

[Grig]

Forget about terraforming Mars into an earth-like place anytime soon. Mars, although similar in size to earth, is actually much lighter than earth and doesn't have the gravity to hold onto an earth like atmosphere. If Mars suddly had an earth-like atmosphere right now, the oxygen would start bleeding off into space and only heavier gasses like CO2 would be left behind.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

the oxygen would start bleeding off into space

My memory of this is that it would take millions of years for this process to advance very far.

[inquest]

I guess they must know what they're talking about, but it seems a bit elusive to me. Tacking works on a water vessel, because the keel forces it into moving in a straight line, so that even though you can only get the sails to push you towards 2 o'clock, you'll still be moving at 12 o'clock. In space, there's no keel, and presumably no equivalent of Bernoulli's principle of fluid dynamics (is there?) that enables sails to generate aerodynamic lift.

[RGSpincich]

So last Monday my sixth grader comes home and says that his buddy, who's Dad works for NASA and I know this for fact, his buddy says something special is happening "about Mars". Further, his buddy says that he can't tell my son what's happening until Sunday because my son doesn't have a security clearance. In my best father-knows-best demeanor, I smiled and took my son aside to explain how some kids like to make things up to make themselves feel important. I now have to go in there and tell my son that his buddy was right and his Dad was well ...you know, wrong, again.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Ice on Mars = ancient pre-biotic soup
Not necessarily.

pre-biotic soup = life on Mars
Probably.

life on Mars = no God
I am sorry this simply could be the mechanism used by the Intelligent Designer to bring about creation everywhere.

[PatrickHenry]

Ice on Mars ping.

[VadeRetro]

Mars has ice. But does it have Jack Daniels?

[tet68]

Nah, you just tell him that "for security reasons" you couldn't let on that you knew, then wink at him.

[Sabertooth]

Interesting...

Would a primeval ice ocean explain the prevalence of hexapods and octopods on Mars?

[PatrickHenry]

Is that Monica Lewinski with John Carter?

[Sabertooth]

Is that Monica Lewinski with John Carter?

The girl lives to serve... Who else was going to stiffen his resolve?

[RadioAstronomer]

They use a low energy Homan transfer orbit around the sun

[edwin hubble]

Thanks for the ping, Patrick

My favorite detailed fiction "history" of the colonization of Mars is Kim Stanley Robinson's trio, Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars. [Robinson says "History is Lamarckian"]
It is in the best tradition of Azimov's Foundation series or Herbert's Dune series.

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

The huge canyon-valleys like Valles Marineris have advantages of higher atmosphereic pressure, protection from duststorms, and will have the first liquid water. Valles Marineris is the deepest valley on Mars, and is four times as large as the Grand Canyon (about the same as the altitude of Mt. Everest). It stretches over 3,000 miles, about the distance coast to coast of the United States.

The problem with keeping an atosphere on a planet with 38% of Earth's surface gravity is that the warmer the atomsphere gets, the greater the molecular velocity. On Earth, free hydrogen in the upper atmosphere is faster than our escape velocity of 7,500 meters/sec.

[edwin hubble]

(sp).. atmosphere...