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Caves on Mars?
RockDoctor writes "The BBC is reporting that the photo-surveying of Mars has revealed seven suspected cave entrances in the Arsia Mons volcanic area.
This has been hinted at before — long sinuous channels in the same region have been interpreted as collapsed 'lava tube' caves — but the scale of the suggested entrances (sheer drops of 80 to 130m from the surrounding surface) makes my troglodytic hands twitch for my abseiling gear."
Maybe THATS where he's been hiding!
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Zapp: Behold...the Great Stone Face of Mars. The only known entrance to the Martian reservation.
Leela: What about the Great Stone Ass of Mars?
Zapp: Well, yeah, but it's way over the other side of the planet.
Is this really news? To be completely honest, it had never occurred to me that there wouldn't be caves on Mars.
troglodytic hands in a box in storage.
If their so smart they can find their own way out.
Filled with green martians in flying saucers bent on invading Earth.
'Once scientists, even the dim-witted social scientists, get muzzled, the Western Civilization is finished.' - oldhack
Does Mars have a Bat Cave?
Now that we know where they are I feel foolish for not seeing it sooner.
Who here knew rock-climbers were nerds?
"There is nothing nice about Steve Jobs and nothing evil about Bill Gates." - Chuck Peddle
... the next Geico auto insurance ad.
Mars Rover II -- so easy, even a caveman can do it.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
OF COURSE there's caves on the Red Planet. Doesn't anybody read Chapter 8 of The Warlord of Mars anymore?.
Mars has a decent atmosphere. Nothing compared to Venus or Earth, but many surveyor mission ideas dealt with light weight, flying craft to do reconnaissance. Other ideas include balloon craft to circle the surface and image, which would also require atmosphere.
I came, I saw, She conquered.
Didn't I hear somewhere that Mars has very high speed winds?
If that is the case then, despite the thin atmosphere, paragliding might be possible. It looks like there might be some nice terrain for soaring. Obviously you'd need some pretty solid gear to withstand all the sand (ferrous dust) flying about, not to mention a space suit.
Here's the actual article's URL; the also had some supporting papers at LPSC that show up at ADS...
i bcode=2007LPI....38.1371C&db_key=AST&data_type=HTM L&format=&high=44e3b245f913347
;)
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?b
Simon
FTA:
The authors say that the possible discovery of caves on the Red Planet is significant.
The caves may be the only natural structures capable of protecting primitive life forms from micrometeoroids, UV radiation, solar flares and high energy particles that bombard the planet's surface.
Like maybe Earthlings?
no, the atmosphere is too thin for paragliding to work. you'd have a minimum air speed of something stupidly high
Didn't anybody see this movie. It predicted caves on Mars a long time ago. See here -- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058530/
Does this mean that there are cave-martians?
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Well, the sectoids have to live somewhere don't they?
Caves can be dangerous.
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
Oh well, I'd say it's quite obvious. If they took a rock of martian soil and put it under a microscope they'd read: //reserved for future use
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
In Kim Stanley Robinson's brilliant Mars trilogy, a key settlement is inside a lava tube cavern complex.
Decay! Decay! Decay! -Helium
I dunno, but I bet there's one near Uranus....
Inane Comments are Generously Disregarded
And inside the cave is a crying alien.
Those are the exit vents for the Martian atmosphere generator.
could be a story about spots on Uranus.
http://www.rense.com/general79/wdx1.htm
They are no exits! They are the secret entrance to the nuclear reactor that is powering the shields of the star.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
In a related story, researchers are trying to determine the significance of what appears to be the letters "A.S." scratched onto one of the cave walls.
-- Alastair
I think NASA should send a bunch of "micro-rovers" to investigate dozens of curious sites. Rather than a few bigger expensive rovers, they should *survey* Mars, and then send in the big rovers when they narrowed it down. The microrovers could be the size of Sojourner or smaller (but not dependent on a lander). Smaller rovers may also make it practical to take more risk and land in valleys, mountainous areas etc. without the worry of all-or-nothing losses.
Table-ized A.I.
I suggest playing the classic computer game Caverns of Mars to find out! URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caverns_of_Mars_( computer_game)
IIRC, the atmosphere is so thin that by the time you were going fast enough to get off the ground you wouldn't be able to actually maneuver.
An extended abstract from the Lunar Planetary Science Conference :
1 .pdf
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2007/pdf/137
Many years ago as a kid I read a science fiction novel about a mission to Mars. What was interesting was that the explorers wore compressors on their backs instead of air tanks. The plot revolved around one explorer getting lost and discovering an ancient martian city. He's captured and taken underground by the remaining martians, who incarcerate him by taking away his compressor. I do recall the chief martian's name as Spitz-Rlll or something like that. I'd love to find the name and author of this book, probably written in the 1950's. Does this ring a bell with any slashdotters?
Mars has a lower gravity; but no atmosphere, so No planes, no choppers, ... only rockets will keep you up.
Mars does indeed have an atmosphere, albiet a thin one. So planes designed for Mars can actually fly: http://www.x-plane.com/mars.html
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
Naaahhh, Mars was a previous attempt.....
It is dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Coming next: NASA reveals pictures of 3-meter tall, four-armed green Martians riding thoats out of the caves....
Yeah, I know, it's White Martians down at the south pole....
mark "
That would imply God is not perfect. Strike one. ;)
It isn't that thin. It is on the order of manuvering in the stratosphere, and due to the much lower gravity on Mars the atmosphere doesn't thin out as you gain altitude to the degree that it does on the Earth. At some of the lower altitudes on Mars (like at the bottom of Hellas Basin or Valles Marineris), all you would need to survive there as a human is good winter clothing (like being in Antarctica) and an oxygen mask. The atmospheric pressure there is similar to being at the top of Mt. Everest... and people have climbed that mountain without even using an oxygen mask (the atmosphere of Mars has different composition of atmospheric gasses... so the need for an oxygen mask is clearly more critical).
Commercial passenger airliners on the Earth can and do maneuver in those atmospheric conditions, although you would be correct that it would be much more difficult and require much, much longer "runways" to accomplish the task. A Helium baloon, however, certainly could do some manuvering (or even use Hydrogen since it would be harder to burn on Mars).
For an excellent comparison of the size different between Mars and the Earth, I love this picture. Unfortunately, it doesn't show comparisons to other airless objects like the Moon.
All I'm pointing out here is that there are terrestrial analogs that you can use to show how flight on Mars wouldn't necessarily have to involve a power decent engine like you need on the Moon.