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2011-09-03 Science & Technology

New Mars site more favourable for life, possibly pizza resturant say scientists

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Posted by Besoeker 2011-09-03 01:54|| || Front Page|| [7 views ] Top

#1 Two large pizzas with extra cheese, onions, ah just the works please. Do you deliver?.
I understand you have a tennis court. Do you have bowling?.

Posted by Dale 2011-09-03 08:55|| 2011-09-03 08:55|| Front Page Top

#2 Location, location, location.

Posted by Matt 2011-09-03 08:56|| 2011-09-03 08:56|| Front Page Top

#3 Camp David II?

Posted by Perfesser 2011-09-03 09:00|| 2011-09-03 09:00|| Front Page Top

#4 Oddly enough, the background for the movie Total Recall had the best long term development plan for Mars, that being underground tunnels converted to habitat.

Above ground habitats are just too unreliable and expensive. You can't repair, you have to replace. And nuclear powered tunneling robots can be like Energizer bunnies, continually improving the place.

Eventually, it is likely that some underground caverns or substantial water will be found, which can be used to grow microorganisms for all sorts of purposes, especially to produce oxygen and as fertilizer for agriculture.

Posted by Anonymoose 2011-09-03 10:48|| 2011-09-03 10:48|| Front Page Top

#5 Annoymoose that was good. The Japanese manufacture a mole digger now. Tunnels for car traffic or whatever. Large heavy machines but as you suggest with nuclear power and self contained environments, it could be done. They use huge strip mine machines with some as big as a house. You had a Jules Verne moment.

Posted by Dale 2011-09-03 11:27|| 2011-09-03 11:27|| Front Page Top

#6 be cheaper to use disposable Norks and Paleos. You KNOW how they love to tunnel

Posted by Frank G 2011-09-03 12:01|| 2011-09-03 12:01|| Front Page Top

#7 Dale, starting out small scale on the Moon, I figure the best bet is to send a Caterpillar built tunneling robot in a lander designed to be cannibalized for parts. Landing in a crater, it opens up and the tunneling robot heads to a vertical cliff face.

It trails behind it a power cord going to the reactor on the lander, and a conveyor belt that goes underneath the robot, so that as it digs through the rock, the tailings are deposited away from the tunnel entrance. At intervals, it drills into the ceiling and implants extremely strong reinforcing rod, which is standard practice in modern hard rock mining.

It does not have to be fast, just an inch or three a day. Then once it has dug the primary tunnel, while exiting it sprays the tunnel with a sealant against micro-fissures.

Then it returns to the lander, backwards, after detaching the conveyor belt. Its next task is to use a robotic arm on its backside to dismantle the lander for parts that will be used inside the tunnel.

Flooring, walls, ceiling, support members and double pressure doors, the latter being most important, as the robot will hold them in the opening, and its sides will expand to conform to the opening, then make an airtight seal.

After the first, inner door is emplaced, the interior of the tunnel will be pressurized with heated air in the typical nitrogen oxygen mix. It will then be monitored for how long the temperature and pressure are maintained after the rock has warmed. A similar test is then done to the outer pressure door after it has been installed.

The remains of the lander function as a high gain antenna and communications system with Earth. Once the robot has completed its primary mission, it reattaches to the conveyor belt and begins tunneling a second tunnel, parallel to the first.

This will be considerably deeper than the first, and it will be finished on a later mission. Finally, when astronauts arrive, the tunneling robot will be disconnected from the nuclear reactor, and its cable will attach to the outer door frame to provide power to the habitat tunnel.

Posted by Anonymoose 2011-09-03 13:25|| 2011-09-03 13:25|| Front Page Top

#8 Annymoose sounds very well thought out. The Japanese mole digger does about a foot or more an interval as I recall. I have to contact a relative to find out exactly. He operated one. The technological advancements will have many benefits.Just look at the many developments from the Apollo space program. It would be nice to do this without people but you may need someone to hit something with a wrench. So many components manufactured in Taiwan supplied by the lowest bidder as they say in the movies. Commercial involvement and investment highly desirable. I can see the oil paintings now hanging on the walls on the off world lobby of the principle backers of this effort. Perhaps body suits as in Dune with multipurpose functions. If water is in the moon then hydrogen fuel can be produced with a by-product of oxygen and maybe the other gases needed. Then to Mars. Yes, I see it can happen.I hope we reach for the stars first.

Posted by Dale 2011-09-03 19:31|| 2011-09-03 19:31|| Front Page Top

#9 Yeah - that'll work until some idiot turns on the Alien Terriforming Machine (tm) and gives Mars a breathable atmosphere...

Posted by CrazyFool 2011-09-03 22:19|| 2011-09-03 22:19|| Front Page Top

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