it depends on the composition of the object and the angle and speed at which it enters the atmosphere.
I imagine that if it were a roughly spherical, dense, metallic object it would have a good chance of hitting the surface.
I like ideas that use local materials and conditions to our advantage. But this has some technical problems:
You will need to seal the walls and floor of the valley/crater your using to prevent gas escapeing faster than you can pump it in.
You will also need to keep the cover in place and it will require a lot of force.
Complex plants need a minimum of about 0.5PSI to survive, and the current martian atmospheric pressure is so small it can be a saftey/fudge factor.
100 square meters worth of cover needs approximately 350tons of force to hold it in place. But since martian gravity is about 1/3 that of earth, we really need over a 1kiloton of force.
So it isnt impossible, it's just difficult.
Partially covered lava tubes might be the best place to try this idea, they shouldnt be too porous, and the igneous rock would make a good anchor for the cover.
But remember i calculated for plants, and not humans, we require much greater atmospheric pressure to survive and thus a much stronger cover.
We also have something called "desertification" and "hunger".
Notice that i said:
"...research into it could greatly benefit us here on earth."
and not "...Minimal Units of Terraforming could greatly benefit us here on earth."
But thanks for telling me about plants, someone mod obeythefist informative!
When the first humans start living on mars, i assume they will need all the resources availiable, and wont be interested in venting precious oxygen into the atmosphere.
However, as we get a decent foot hold established there, this will become more feasable. The article doesnt mention how many of the 'units' will be needed, but i would guess it will be a very large number. So we are probably talking about factories produceing the units from local materials.
It also seems that it would be a waste of resources to have CO2 factories (humans) tending the O2 factories ('units'), so the units would probably need to be fully automated.
Even if this terraforming method isnt used on mars, research into it could greatly benefit us here on earth. I hope we hear about more about this.
Our species now routinely bypasses this limitation.
Cesarean births mean that the size of the head is nolonger much of problem. I wonder what effect this will have in the long term.
or maybe not....
"Despite his huge head, the Dib-monkey is quite stupid."
There were alternate theories to explain some of the apparent evidence of water. Such as a slurry of liquid carbon dioxide and dirt. I dont agree with those alternate thories, especially now. Also, i dont mind how many US dollars are spent on exploreing mars, im from Australia.
My understanding is that when you take a mass and accelerate it, it's mass will actually increase.
Although this effect isnt noticeable with real world macro objects, it does when you start shooting things around at a decent fraction of the speed of light. This also explains why we can't* travel faster than light. Because the faster your spaceship goes the 'heavier' it gets, and the harder it is to make it go faster.
*(although there are some exotic theories hinting there may be ways to get around this pesky speed limit)
so that explains the information unit used in startrek, quads!? but the other poster was right about going from binary to quaternary, it would not be a simple task.. sounds like something that could be done with spin states? (wild conjecture)
anyway, i dont think this storage method is worth investing in until it becomes MUCH easier to sequence DNA. compare sustained data transfer speeds between todays hard drives and todays DNA sequenceing machines.
Since virtually all organisms have small traces of iron in them...all that's needed is an extremely powerful magnet to levitate 'em.
Actually, the levitation was caused by the diamagnetic properties of water in the animals.
Some(all?) nonmagnetic materials actually display diamagnetic properties in a very powerfull magnetic field. (they are pushed away from the field, rather than drawn towards it)
Not enough! I demand saftey! A weapon can be fashioned from a human bone. Any truely determined terorist could remove one of the bones from their forearm and shatter the end to create quite a weapon. Despite the fact that they would then only have one arm availiable to weild the gruesome weapon, they would still pose a threat. what if there were multiple terrorists? One terrorist could server as a 'temporary mobile weapon storage system' for the other terrorists. Once flying they would then disasemble the tmwss and use the makeshift weapons to achieve the desired result.
Slashdot Mirror
it depends on the composition of the object and the angle and speed at which it enters the atmosphere.
I imagine that if it were a roughly spherical, dense, metallic object it would have a good chance of hitting the surface.
should have been "scarfs"
my mistake
time for tinfoil scalfs ;)
I like ideas that use local materials and conditions to our advantage. But this has some technical problems:
You will need to seal the walls and floor of the valley/crater your using to prevent gas escapeing faster than you can pump it in.
You will also need to keep the cover in place and it will require a lot of force. Complex plants need a minimum of about 0.5PSI to survive, and the current martian atmospheric pressure is so small it can be a saftey/fudge factor.
100 square meters worth of cover needs approximately 350tons of force to hold it in place. But since martian gravity is about 1/3 that of earth, we really need over a 1kiloton of force. So it isnt impossible, it's just difficult. Partially covered lava tubes might be the best place to try this idea, they shouldnt be too porous, and the igneous rock would make a good anchor for the cover.
But remember i calculated for plants, and not humans, we require much greater atmospheric pressure to survive and thus a much stronger cover.
It looks very much like a depression in dirt to me.
And the most likely explaination would be that it was caused by one of the rovers.
However, if you can somehow prove it wasn't created by something human-made, then ill listen.
I think you mean billion and not million.
But on everything else i agree, it's a small price to pay.
I dont want to be a member of a temporary species.
We also have something called "desertification" and "hunger".
Notice that i said:
"...research into it could greatly benefit us here on earth."
and not "...Minimal Units of Terraforming could greatly benefit us here on earth."
But thanks for telling me about plants, someone mod obeythefist informative!
When the first humans start living on mars, i assume they will need all the resources availiable, and wont be interested in venting precious oxygen into the atmosphere.
However, as we get a decent foot hold established there, this will become more feasable. The article doesnt mention how many of the 'units' will be needed, but i would guess it will be a very large number. So we are probably talking about factories produceing the units from local materials.
It also seems that it would be a waste of resources to have CO2 factories (humans) tending the O2 factories ('units'), so the units would probably need to be fully automated.
Even if this terraforming method isnt used on mars, research into it could greatly benefit us here on earth. I hope we hear about more about this.
Our species now routinely bypasses this limitation. Cesarean births mean that the size of the head is nolonger much of problem. I wonder what effect this will have in the long term.
or maybe not....
"Despite his huge head, the Dib-monkey is quite stupid."
There were alternate theories to explain some of the apparent evidence of water. Such as a slurry of liquid carbon dioxide and dirt. I dont agree with those alternate thories, especially now. Also, i dont mind how many US dollars are spent on exploreing mars, im from Australia.
My understanding is that when you take a mass and accelerate it, it's mass will actually increase. Although this effect isnt noticeable with real world macro objects, it does when you start shooting things around at a decent fraction of the speed of light. This also explains why we can't* travel faster than light. Because the faster your spaceship goes the 'heavier' it gets, and the harder it is to make it go faster. *(although there are some exotic theories hinting there may be ways to get around this pesky speed limit)
so that explains the information unit used in startrek, quads!? but the other poster was right about going from binary to quaternary, it would not be a simple task.. sounds like something that could be done with spin states? (wild conjecture) anyway, i dont think this storage method is worth investing in until it becomes MUCH easier to sequence DNA. compare sustained data transfer speeds between todays hard drives and todays DNA sequenceing machines.
Actually, the levitation was caused by the diamagnetic properties of water in the animals. Some(all?) nonmagnetic materials actually display diamagnetic properties in a very powerfull magnetic field. (they are pushed away from the field, rather than drawn towards it)
Anyone care to elaborate on this?
Not enough! I demand saftey!
A weapon can be fashioned from a human bone.
Any truely determined terorist could remove one of the bones from their forearm and shatter the end to create quite a weapon. Despite the fact that they would then only have one arm availiable to weild the gruesome weapon, they would still pose a threat.
what if there were multiple terrorists? One terrorist could server as a 'temporary mobile weapon storage system' for the other terrorists. Once flying they would then disasemble the tmwss and use the makeshift weapons to achieve the desired result.