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How To Die On Mars
An anonymous reader writes: Many space-related projects are currently focusing on Mars. SpaceX wants to build a colony there, NASA is looking into base design, and Mars One is supposedly picking astronauts for a mission. Because of this, we've been reading a lot about how we could live on Mars. An article at Popular Science reminds us of all the easy ways to die there. "Barring any complications with the spacecraft's hardware or any unintended run-ins with space debris, there's still a big killer lurking out in space that can't be easily avoided: radiation. ... [And] with so little atmosphere surrounding Mars, gently landing a large amount of weight on the planet will be tough. Heavy objects will pick up too much speed during the descent, making for one deep impact. ... Mars One's plan is to grow crops indoors under artificial lighting. According to the project's website, 80 square meters of space will be dedicated to plant growth within the habitat; the vegetation will be sustained using suspected water in Mars' soil, as well as carbon dioxide produced by the initial four-member crew. However, analysis conducted by MIT researchers last year (PDF) shows that those numbers just don't add up."
Except underground, which is the obvious solution but people are too fixated on making housing above the ground.
Even on Earth, living underground would shield us from the extreme cold and extreme heat. That would be better for us and would require a lot less energy to warm us in the winter and cool us in the summer.
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Mars has a number of places, where the magnetic field is strong and hundreds of km high. Is it enough? And if not, is not is, in effect, not about the lack of magnetosphere, but about the lack of atmosphere dense enough, which does not stop most of the non-charged particles?
The point of a permanent Mars settlement is the fact that some of us would rather die on Mars. I don't understand why people are finding any problems with that.
"Violence is not the answer. Violence is the question. The answer is yes."
I forget where but recently I read a really good point - the radiation shielding someone on Mars might want to wear a lot (especially outside) is actually quite useful, because it adds weight that puts stress on your bones to the same degree Earth gravity would, thus reducing the problem of bone loss through everyday movement instead of just exercise periods.
As mentioned though, it seems like any mars settlement could make good use of the canyons there to help with shielding.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
as well as carbon dioxide produced by the initial four-member crew
Oh no! We're going to cause global warming on Mars now!
perchlorates. Mars seems to be chalk full of them. There are some microbial lifeforms which are able to metabolize them, but we can't. In fact, their pretty bad for us. For large values of bad.
Do you know why the road less traveled by is littered with the bones of the unwary?
How to die on Mars:
1) Go to Mars
2) Wait
No one has yet figured out step 1.
PS: You should go to Mars! It's a real paradise -- there's no crime, no disease, no oppression, no pain, and no death. And no taxes, either.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Nobody is seriously discussing terraforming Mars any time soon. The plan is to create artificial habitats.
But if we did - the atmopshere would be stripped away over the course of millions of years - fast by geologic terms, but not human. You just need to periodically replenish it, either with clusters of small asteroid impacts, or gasses produced from rock (for reference, oxygen is by far the most common element in the Earth's crust - with almost 10x as much as the second place element, silicon.)
In that scenario radiation would largely be a non-issue as, just on Earth, it would be stopped by the many miles of atmosphere. On Earth the magnetic field only deflects low- to medium-energy charged-particle radiation - mostly the solar wind. The rest gets (mostly) blocked by the atmosphere - which provides shielding equivalent to dozens of meters of rock.
And in the transitional phase, well, plenty of organisms can survive completely unprotected in space for extended periods. Assuming we engineer custom "Martian" life, I would imagine that radiation resistance and/or efficient DNA repair would be transplanted from such organisms.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
In fact it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them if you did
And all this science I don't understand
It's just my job 5 days a week
Rocket man! Rocket man!
How much dirt would be required to shield from all/most of the radiation? Yes, manual labor requires more oxygen, but worst-case scenario, they use shovels and pile dirt on an aluminum dome or such for some initial shielding?
At a feast for your water brothers, who will grok you in fullness as you go on to become an old one.
Mars One's plan is to continue to siphon money until everyone else figures out it's a scam.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
Heavy objects will pick up too much speed during the descent, making for one deep impact. ...
I seem to recall hearing some recent developments in science, some wacko claim by some Italian guy that the acceleration due to gravity was actually independent of the mass of the object. That would indicate that both heavy and light objects would accelerate the same way under the influence of gravity on Mars. What a silly notion, I'm sure the Pope will cure him of his heresy.
Heavy objects will pick up too much speed during the descent, making for one deep impact.
1. Speed gained during decent does not depend on weight of the craft.
:)
When considering aero-braking/parachuting/gliding the only thing that matters is lift/drag generating surface area vs mass
2. Speed gained during decent (from mars gravity) is nominal compared to orbital transfer speed/orbital speed that needs to be zeroed.
Mars orbital speed at 200km is around 2.4km/s, total amount of speed gained from direct decent from 200km to 0km on Mars is around 1.2km/s (with no atmosphere), in real life we would see orbital speed (2.4km's) decreasing on decent due to atmospheric drag (until it reaches terminal velocity, which depends on point 1. but should be less than 1km/s for any viable design).
Prior to achieving stable orbit around mars we have to (aero-)brake from at least 15km/s (orbital transfer). So theoretical 1.2km/s from Mars gravity (which actually doesn't happen) is a really small amount of additional velocity compared to the amount we have to brake anyway.
Playing a few hours of KSP should be mandatory prior to posting articles about space flight on the internet
You mean since the USA landed rovers on Mars, orbited Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Venus, sent out two interstellar probes, has a probe about to fly by Pluto... that USA?
EVOLUTIONARY DEAD END COOKIES
(serves 7 billion)
INGREDIENTS
two million years of domesticated fire
six millennia of scientific curiosity
two centuries of significant progress in science and engineering
50 years of space exploration
35 years of awareness of KT impact and necessity of planetary defense
one cup irrational fear of radiation and willful disregard for shielding techniques (to taste)
one sprinkle fear of death from any cause not typically experienced by modern suburbans
lump of plain common sense (if you can not find it, substitute two tbsp blind faith and a pound of dogged determination)
tiny dash of optimism
PREPARATION
Carefully combine all ingredients in a large bowl of stars, ensuring that you completely blend the essential characteristics that have allowed these naked apes to overcome natural extremes of climate, predators, disease and boredom. Beat until technological excellence rises to the top. Form into several self-sustainable colonies and multinational corporate enterprises. Place in space oven preheated to a degree of caution and optimism. Bake until spinoffs from the enterprise rise to the occasion with the potential to enhance and expand human civilization with its yummy goodness, colonies in space are able to mobilize quickly in Earth's defense, and Galaxia might be achieved.
SERVING
Throw out all that shit. Engage the collective human mind in sitcoms and 'reality' shows.
Promote artificial issues that represent lack of vision or restraint (terrorism, energy poverty) as if they were natural threats
Let the fucking insurance companies guide all innovation and risk taking.
Promote zombies and head-shot horror in mainstream media as a gateway to cannibalism and violent population reduction.
Popularize cheeky '1001 ways to Die' angles.
Feed the slack.
Characterize folks who try to push through these barriers as 'space nutters'.
For cookies, spray flavored coating over a nutritionally inert Styrofoam shapes and market them as "heart healthy".
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
My favorite approach is to build floating solar towers on Venus or the gas giants - big chunks of greenhouse material shaped like an inverted funnel reaching out into space. Unable to radiate its IR radiation back to space, the air under the funnel would become hotter than the surrounding atmosphere and rise (imparting lift to the funnel without even requiring a lifting gas). Due to the size, drag against the funnel surface would be irrelevantly small. As the funnel narrows, the gas velocity would increase - with a large enough funnel, to well over escape velocity. The funnel could be moved and aimed to some degree by directing part of the flow out through adjustable side jets. If the funnel was shaped so as to cause the gases to spiral and then flare out at the end, you could centrifugally sort the gases out by atomic mass, and thus for example rob light gases (such as water and nitrogen) of escape velocity while allowing heavy gases like CO2 the energy to escape.
Venus could send CO2 on a Mars intercept trajectory to raise its temperature and pressure. Jupiter could send hydrogen on Venus and Mars intercept trajectories, for Bosch water generation. Large moons and dwarf planets could be similarly seeded.
Of course, the obvious question: will this, or any other form of terraforming begin any time in the next many-hundred years?
Nope.
POTUS Witch Hunt tracker: 75 charges filed against 19 witches, 4 witches cooperating and 5 witches have pled guilty.
Well, not YOUR actions. YOUR actions kill kittens.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
Yah, it's the one that sent real people to another world 40 years ago and has only managed to send R/C devices since.
can do a lot more useful science than sticking a human up there for little more than a photo-op
More people need to read up on this experiment:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...
They ran into serious problems and that was on a system located on Earth and well stocked. Martian colonies are a pipe dream. We know very little about the oceans, let's explore those first.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+