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Mars Orbiter Finds Buried Dry Ice Lake
RedEaredSlider writes "NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has found a giant buried deposit of dry ice, which could be evidence that Mars once had a thicker atmosphere and was able to have more water on its surface. The orbiter's ground-penetrating radar found the dry ice, which is frozen carbon dioxide, near the planet's south pole. The scientists think that when Mars' axial tilt increases, the carbon dioxide turns into a gas, thickening the atmosphere. The result would be more intense dust storms, but also a wider range of areas where liquid water could exist."
Mars isn't protected by a strong magnetic field like Earth is.. meaning the atmosphere is frequently subjected to solar winds and radiation.. meaning any thickening of the atmosphere is not likely to remain constant for any meaningful time period.
And what is dry ice made from? Yup, CO2.
Martian Global Warming did them in!
Now thats a lot of CO2. Now the question is, what can we do with it? Are there any simple ways to turn it onto C and O2? I'm thinking graphite or carbor bricks/powder for radiation shielding, and O2 for breathing.
Wasn't there video of water ice sublimation?
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Maybe we export all our factories to Mars.
That'll solve everything.
You know, except for all that shittons of frozen water that we have direct evidence of on mars. Fucking stupid nigger, go read a book.
Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. Use a bunch of hydrogen bombs, or better a big parabolic death-ray....sorry, life-mirror, and vapourise the caps. Then scatter as much simple CO2 metabolising life as possible over the temperate regions. Sit back and watch evolution take hold. Might take a while. Just an idea...
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So you mean the movie was actually a prophecy? I wonder if this means we'll find nuclear reactors down there to heat the CO2 up for us... Let's just hope Arnold wasn't right about the machines... Only a few more hours of J-Day left hope we can last it out without incident.
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
K'Breel, Speaker for the Council, stressed yet again that there was no cause for alarm:
"This invader last located the remains of the northern invader which stands frozen to the spot, its flailing futilely in the wind. If these beings seek to attempt a second invasion from the south, it shall meet the same fate as their last attempt three years ago. The fools! The resources they study are so common that they compose 95% of our air!"
When a junior climatologist pointed out that the atmosphere of the blue world, holding a mere 0.04% carbox, was sadly lacking in this vital atmospheric component, and that the blue world's inhabitants had not only spent centuries trying to generate much as possible of it to supplant their meager atmospheric supply, but had even murdered millions of their own kind in struggles for control of their world's vital carboxogenic hydrocarbounds, K'breel (in his infinite mercy) had the contents of the junior climatologist's gelsacs extracted, gasified with pure compressed carbox, and consumed it as a refreshing drink.
Does this mean Quaid screws everything up???
Haven't you seen it on Doctor Who?
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
S's is horrible and all who use it should be shot. S' is the only correct form.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
You'd have a point if it was Mar's. Since it wasn't, you're a complete dumbfuck.
could be evidence that Mars once had a thicker atmosphere and was able to have more water on its surface
They say this about everything they discover about Mars... Just replace the headline with "Scientists discover XXX on Mars, which could indicate that Mars once had water."
q: So Quiad, how cold was it?
a: Lol! It was so cold I had to boil my Oxygen!
Sure! melt it all somehow and put CO2 into the air until it snows back down as ice or rains down freezing liquid air... So we somehow heat up the whole area and the little atmosphere with a big heat lamp...Then we trigger the core to spin again in our Unobtanium drilling machine so Mars can keep the Atmosphere it was unable to maintain itself... In the process we discover that in fact, we broke Mars and escaped to Earth...and the main reason we left is the revealed!
We argue with the dumb half who don't believe we are making CO2 heat up our own planet... while too many people think of Mars as our future escape destination.
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...if it *were*...?
... the Orbiter had discovered huge deposits of precious metals or rare-earth elements. This might trigger more funding for these missions in the future. I personally want to see a discovery of a mountain of Gold just to push prices down on Earth :S What will happen to the global economy if such a thing came to pass? Aren't all currencies backed by gold reserves?
A mass of solid CO2 would make a great place for a habitat. Tunnel into it and use steam from your fission reactor (you have one of those, right?) to create a dome by sublimation. Coat the inside of the dome with frozen water to keep the CO2 out of your air as much as possible.
I think I have lost my copy of Red Mars. Maybe I should buy it again.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
CO2 ice is more volatile than water ice, which is why it is being seen at the south pole. There should be more water ice than CO2 ice on Mars.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
So all I have to do is tilt Mars on its axis and we'll have a second life-suistanable planet?
Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move this world.
Be yourself and aim high!
Carbon dioxide is not the key here. After all, Mars and Venus are both primarily CO2 atmospheres (Earth:Nitrogen). However the two planets have vastly different temperatures, even after accounting for Venus's increased solar radiation. What I think is the key here, is pressure at the surface. Releasing more CO2 on Mars won't increase the greenhouse effect (diminishing returns), but it will make the surface atmosphere denser, which means higher surface temperatures, at least until it gets stripped away by the solar wind, because Mars does not have a protective magnetic field.
Which brings in my model of how it all got there. After the magnetic field died, the solar wind stripped the atmosphere until it wasn't dense enough to maintain liquid water... Then the same came true for gaseous CO2. Logically it accumulated in the first place it started to get cold enough to solidify. I doubt we'll see it get released due to 1) still not mag field and 2) its in the last place to heat up.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
Since apparently we are going back to the gold standard, why not look for good old fashion gold instead?