right, but water and methane are just H+O and H+C. Since that would all be swimming in a sea of CO2, how are they able to tell if the H is attached to an O or a C? Wouldn't a spectrometer just tell you that there's a bunch or Hydrogen, Carbon and Oxygen down there rather than what compounds its formed into?
I'm almost certainly wrong since they wouldn't have made this announcement if I was right but I'll continue to fight a loosing battle.
I didn't RTFA so please mod me down if this was already addressed.
I thought that the probe was just able to discern hydrogen. Since water and methane are both hydrogen rich, couldn't it be mistaking one for the other?
I follow space stuff pretty closely but I can't speak to the rest. Kerry's response is boilerplate stuff that he's said before. Bush's stance on space is flawed but a whole lot better than Kerry's in my opinion. From what I can tell Kerry thinks of space as a place to do international diplomacy publicity stunts, do drug research, and talk about how great it is. Not much more.
Not to hijack the topic but NASA has needed direction more than money and that's what Bush has given it. the engineers will fine tune the details like mission plans. the president's job is go give them broad-brushed policy. humans plus robots in space as appropriate is a-ok with me.
Forgive me if I'm misunderstand this but you're suggesting that the federal government get it's revenue exclusively from sales taxes on goods?
Is it just me or does this sound like it would generate a black market explosion for goods of all sorts. It would be like making everything "drugs". people would start shipping in doormats, lamps, dog food, cups, etc. from Mexico and selling them tax free. You'd end up having busts on underground flowerpot operations.
Would the enforcement of such a tax system somehow not be an overwhelming burden?
No reason not to do both. The thing is with the ark plan, you can do it in a few years assuming you have some database of wet or dry DNA to send up. Hell, you could put one on the moon, one on mars, every world in the solar system either in orbit or on the surface. Even send one on course for another star system. Again, all in just a few years.
Terraforming Mars will take at least hundreds and probably thousands of years. I'm all for terraforming Mars but you've got to admit, the ark plan has a bit more efficacy.
With the switches this small, is it safe to say that they are using nanotechnology? I know it's not the cool molecule-sized-killer-robot style nanotech but this seems to fit the description of devices on the scale of a nanometer.
I don't think it will be that big of a concern. The particular strain of mustard has it's genome mapped so they will know for sure that it's earth life if it spreads. I'm also pretty sure that as tough as it is, it's can't survive Martian conditions in the open. Hell, we could send Kudzu and not have to worry about it spreading in subzero temperatures and near airless conditions with no oxygen and unchecked UV radiation.
If it were anaerobic extreemophiles, it might be worrisome. Complex plant life as we know it should die unprotected.
If you've read the book, you'll remember that the radiation in transit is far less dangerous than smoking. One quote of his I like is that if you put smokers on a trip to Mars, their chances of cancer go down.
Also, by designing the craft such that the water and whatnot are on the outside you can mitigate the solar wind and cosmic ray threat. For solar flares, a small coffin/safehouse can be used for a few hours. One thing he didn't mention but that could be used is to generate a baby magnetic field to bounce solar wind.
it's just an engineering problem and not insurmountable at all.
Landing on an earthlike Mars would be nice but not totally necessary for early astronauts. I'm about at pro-terraforming as it gets but even I think that landing humans on an un-terraformed Mars is best for science.
At a talk given by Chris McKay this weekend, he was asked something like "when do we give up the search for life and start terraforming?" That's kind of a sticky question because it's kind of like proving a negative. However he pointed out a region in the southern hemisphere which is older than the north, still has an earth-strength magnetosphere and is Siberian in nature. He said that once a kilometer deep core is drilled, checked for life and nothing is found that there is almost certainly no life on Mars nor was there ever.
It will take people to do that investigation. My personal hope is that nothing is found and terraforming can begin.
For a good treatment of terraforming, read Robert Zubrin's "The Case For Mars".
According to Chris McKay from NASA they will be. He's a big terraforming proponent and he outlined a near future mission in which a rover will scoop up some dirt into a bell jar, and they will attempt to grow a mustard plant. He said they'll probably have to do it on the moon first for political reasons but it's on the works.
I don't have a link of anything but he gave this talk at the Mars Soceity's convention last week.
Wow, 14 Gs on the surface and super hot temperatures. If there's any life on this planet, they must be tough sons of bitches. Imagine us visiting them and passing out because all the blood rushes from our heads. Then think of them on earth jumping tall buildings in a single bound.
Consider what might happen if this particular rock did hit us. 6 meters isn't enough to wipe out a city and it's unlikely that it would have hit in a populated area. Assuming that it didn't kill or hurt anyone, it might have been a good thing if it hit the ground.
Why? Because a big, fat, headline making impact (or splash) would really catch everyone's attention. A miss just catches our (the nreds') interest for a bit. If people perceive that there is an actual threat, perhaps space exploration and planetary defense will be taken seriously for a change.
Ratagast (sp?) the Brown. He's kind a hippie wizard who got preoccupied with animals and stuff instead of combatting Sauron as he was supposed to. He made a brief cameo in LOTR in a flashback. He kind of represents the danger of distraction. While Saruman activly betrays his assignment, Ratagast wastes his time and endangers middle earth by talking to bunnies rather than gathering people to counter Sauron.
Everyone's going to want to be a wizard. There were only five wizards in RJRT's world and three are already spoken for. There are two blue wizards who drifted out east but nothing is really said about them.
So wait, this implies that getting a job, saving some money and buying a home cause the amygdala to become less active? That would explain the drastic ideological swing to the right that people undergo once they do those things.
Slashdot Mirror
right, but water and methane are just H+O and H+C. Since that would all be swimming in a sea of CO2, how are they able to tell if the H is attached to an O or a C? Wouldn't a spectrometer just tell you that there's a bunch or Hydrogen, Carbon and Oxygen down there rather than what compounds its formed into?
I'm almost certainly wrong since they wouldn't have made this announcement if I was right but I'll continue to fight a loosing battle.
I didn't RTFA so please mod me down if this was already addressed.
I thought that the probe was just able to discern hydrogen. Since water and methane are both hydrogen rich, couldn't it be mistaking one for the other?
the reason it didn't happen back then was because the president killed manned space exploration.
There is no tech that we don't have that we need to get to Mars affordibly and quickly.
"We can be on Mars in 30 years"
There is nothing physical, technological or financial (yes, it won't break the bank if done smart) stopping us from visiting and settling Mars.
The roadblocks are politics and motivation. Shit, we could be on Mars in 15 years if we really wanted to.
I follow space stuff pretty closely but I can't speak to the rest. Kerry's response is boilerplate stuff that he's said before. Bush's stance on space is flawed but a whole lot better than Kerry's in my opinion. From what I can tell Kerry thinks of space as a place to do international diplomacy publicity stunts, do drug research, and talk about how great it is. Not much more.
Not to hijack the topic but NASA has needed direction more than money and that's what Bush has given it. the engineers will fine tune the details like mission plans. the president's job is go give them broad-brushed policy. humans plus robots in space as appropriate is a-ok with me.
Yes but will it withstand cholocate bar cryptanalysis?
Forgive me if I'm misunderstand this but you're suggesting that the federal government get it's revenue exclusively from sales taxes on goods?
Is it just me or does this sound like it would generate a black market explosion for goods of all sorts. It would be like making everything "drugs". people would start shipping in doormats, lamps, dog food, cups, etc. from Mexico and selling them tax free. You'd end up having busts on underground flowerpot operations.
Would the enforcement of such a tax system somehow not be an overwhelming burden?
I'm pretty sure this has already been done. It was called the Uranus Project or something.
No, I'm serious. I'm at work so I don't exactly want to go looking for a link to a porno.
No reason not to do both. The thing is with the ark plan, you can do it in a few years assuming you have some database of wet or dry DNA to send up. Hell, you could put one on the moon, one on mars, every world in the solar system either in orbit or on the surface. Even send one on course for another star system. Again, all in just a few years.
Terraforming Mars will take at least hundreds and probably thousands of years. I'm all for terraforming Mars but you've got to admit, the ark plan has a bit more efficacy.
Wait, lasers are faster then radio waves? The congress just amend some fundamental laws of physics?
Does anyone else smell a massive governmental cover-up conspiracy involving the NSA, CIA, DHS, INS, NASA and the Rand Corporation?
No? Good, then you're a sensible person.
Does Stephen Hawking know about this yet?
This is probably a step down frmo his exeskeleton suit though...
With the switches this small, is it safe to say that they are using nanotechnology? I know it's not the cool molecule-sized-killer-robot style nanotech but this seems to fit the description of devices on the scale of a nanometer.
I don't think it will be that big of a concern. The particular strain of mustard has it's genome mapped so they will know for sure that it's earth life if it spreads. I'm also pretty sure that as tough as it is, it's can't survive Martian conditions in the open. Hell, we could send Kudzu and not have to worry about it spreading in subzero temperatures and near airless conditions with no oxygen and unchecked UV radiation.
If it were anaerobic extreemophiles, it might be worrisome. Complex plant life as we know it should die unprotected.
Note that the article states that the bet is for intelegent life on Titan.
Life on Titan, sure. Intelegent, more like 1.0x10^bazillion:1 if you ask me.
If you've read the book, you'll remember that the radiation in transit is far less dangerous than smoking. One quote of his I like is that if you put smokers on a trip to Mars, their chances of cancer go down.
Also, by designing the craft such that the water and whatnot are on the outside you can mitigate the solar wind and cosmic ray threat. For solar flares, a small coffin/safehouse can be used for a few hours. One thing he didn't mention but that could be used is to generate a baby magnetic field to bounce solar wind.
it's just an engineering problem and not insurmountable at all.
Word.
And I'll follow General Sax into the gates of Hell.
Landing on an earthlike Mars would be nice but not totally necessary for early astronauts. I'm about at pro-terraforming as it gets but even I think that landing humans on an un-terraformed Mars is best for science.
At a talk given by Chris McKay this weekend, he was asked something like "when do we give up the search for life and start terraforming?" That's kind of a sticky question because it's kind of like proving a negative. However he pointed out a region in the southern hemisphere which is older than the north, still has an earth-strength magnetosphere and is Siberian in nature. He said that once a kilometer deep core is drilled, checked for life and nothing is found that there is almost certainly no life on Mars nor was there ever.
It will take people to do that investigation. My personal hope is that nothing is found and terraforming can begin.
For a good treatment of terraforming, read Robert Zubrin's "The Case For Mars".
According to Chris McKay from NASA they will be. He's a big terraforming proponent and he outlined a near future mission in which a rover will scoop up some dirt into a bell jar, and they will attempt to grow a mustard plant. He said they'll probably have to do it on the moon first for political reasons but it's on the works.
I don't have a link of anything but he gave this talk at the Mars Soceity's convention last week.
Wow, 14 Gs on the surface and super hot temperatures. If there's any life on this planet, they must be tough sons of bitches. Imagine us visiting them and passing out because all the blood rushes from our heads. Then think of them on earth jumping tall buildings in a single bound.
I for one welcome General Zod and company.
Consider what might happen if this particular rock did hit us. 6 meters isn't enough to wipe out a city and it's unlikely that it would have hit in a populated area. Assuming that it didn't kill or hurt anyone, it might have been a good thing if it hit the ground.
Why? Because a big, fat, headline making impact (or splash) would really catch everyone's attention. A miss just catches our (the nreds') interest for a bit. If people perceive that there is an actual threat, perhaps space exploration and planetary defense will be taken seriously for a change.
or is this the most pathetic thing ever?
Ratagast (sp?) the Brown. He's kind a hippie wizard who got preoccupied with animals and stuff instead of combatting Sauron as he was supposed to. He made a brief cameo in LOTR in a flashback. He kind of represents the danger of distraction. While Saruman activly betrays his assignment, Ratagast wastes his time and endangers middle earth by talking to bunnies rather than gathering people to counter Sauron.
Everyone's going to want to be a wizard. There were only five wizards in RJRT's world and three are already spoken for. There are two blue wizards who drifted out east but nothing is really said about them.
Those sound like pretty coveted characters to me.
So wait, this implies that getting a job, saving some money and buying a home cause the amygdala to become less active? That would explain the drastic ideological swing to the right that people undergo once they do those things.