A Mission to the Earth’s Core

Published in the December-2003 issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact Magazine ^ | 06/22/2003 | by John G. Cramer

[vannrox]

“A Modest Proposal: Mission to Earth’s Core”, David Stevenson, available at http://www.gps.caltech.edu/faculty/stevenson/coremission

[Graycliff]

Sounds like someone got into the Magic Mushrooms.

[Tarpaulin]

That’s a lot of money, but as I see it the proposal would do more for society than the current administration's tax break for millionaires, and it costs a lot less.

They just had to put that in.

BTW, it would only be zero-G inside a hollow sphere at the exact center.

[Carry_Okie]

I seriously doubt that the "blob would cohese well enough to keep from flowing into cracks until it dissipated.

[Graycliff]

Lots of questions for this one.

How do they maintain the heat?
Rock density's increase with depth.

[cripplecreek]

Interesting stuff right up to the jab at the president.

[Fierce Allegiance]

bump to read later when I can find my glasses.

[PeterFinn]

I guess this begs the question: Why bother?

[Sterco]

Keep tellin em. "Don't Eat the Brown Acid".

[Little Pig]

I read something recently about creating semiconductors out of diamond. That should at least solve the heat resistance problem.

[Tarpaulin]

I once read a novel approach to heat dispersion for a mission to Venus. In short, the internal heat is transfered to external blocks of lead, which then melt off of the craft.

[Vaquero]

"Sounds like someone got into the Magic Mushrooms. "

yeah, like the peyote buttons.....for this Journey To Ixtlan

[Delbert]

Dave's not here man.

[Lokibob]

Ok, zero g in the center of the earth, 1 g at the surface of the earth, and gets less and less the further you go out. What is the max g point?

[Doctor Stochastic]

Presumably there is some critical depth at which the iron blob would stall because the pull of gravity is insufficient to move it further or provide more gravitational energy.

I estimate the stall depth to be about 6,378 kilometers from the center. (Only an estimate, I could be wrong.)

[spodefly]

Been there:

[Doctor Stochastic]

BTW, it would only be zero-G inside a hollow sphere at the exact center.

Actually, for a hollow sphere, the entire region inside the shell has gravity zero.

[Ditto]

It may be a long time until we can probe the Earth’s core, but we should make a start.

Why? What's the benefit?

[Fiddlstix]

Bump
To read later

[Lekker 1]

BTW, it would only be zero-G inside a hollow sphere at the exact center.

I think you may be mistaken on this. The G would be zero everywhere within a hollow sphere (at least the gravity attributed to the sphere's mass).