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The Curiosity On Mars Thread.
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Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 91,400 Mod ✭✭✭✭
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Let them breath argon insteadRucking_Fetard wrote: »
TBH while separating nitrogen and oxygen gases is difficult , it should be very easy to "burn off" the surplus oxygen
to get an inert gas you could separate out nitrogen/argon from the atmosphere of mars by removing the CO2 ( cold or pressure ?) , yes that would leave a lot ( any little bit of CO is a lot ) of carbon monoxide but the excess oxygen would help there and you should only need to do it when inert breath gas runs low
or you could do what apollo did and just use pure O2 at 1/3rd atmosphere , which solves some other pressure problems. Then again using normal pressure and 17% oxygen would almost eliminate fire risk. Or you could choose materials that weren't flammable
Pick your poison time.
But it shows why peer-review is necessary. Think of how much was spent on Biosphere II because they didn't know about concrete and carbon dioxide.0 -
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The ISS is much more interesting, and less depressing
I've started following Alexander Gerst on Facebook the past 2 weeks, I recommend his page, he posts lovely pics and doesn't inundate your timeline either. Lots of interesting experiments going on up there at the moment. He's only been up there since August I think, so you can scroll back to when they took off, and it's lovely how excited he was at first, lots of aurora and cloud pics.
https://www.facebook.com/ESAAlexGerst?fref=nf
Haven't checked on Curiosity lately, must go for a look after kids bedtime.0 -
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ChemCam took this last night at 18:00. Looks like more white powder deposits??
NavCam took this in the vertical format, which is weird every time i see a landscape taken that way!
HazCam took this view of Mt.Sharp. I did notice in one of these recently that there were large concentric circular cracks in the bedrock.
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NAVCAM took this yesterday (sol 799) and it looks like a check to see the sample receptacle is ok for samples??
MASTCAM took this one of a few cracks on bedrock. There appears to be more of those white deposits in the upper left area, along with some harder inclusions that havent eroded as much.
Here is a rear hazcam view from sol 800 which was at 01:00 last night (universal time i think) and it looks like theres a bit of a move on from doing donuts over that rock!
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The presence of ores/metal elements has already been detected.
I think he has simply left the prediction vague enough so that if possible detection of previous life forms did happen, he could claim that the soil/rock the traces are in contained metal (so he would have in fact "predicted" it).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ore_resources_on_MarsDirect evidence for useful materials
Nakhla meteorite, one of many pieces of Mars that have landed on the Earth. Visible are its two sides and its inner surfaces after breaking it in 1998
It has for some time been accepted by the scientific community that a group of meteorites came from Mars. As such, they represent actual samples of the planet and have been analyzed on Earth by the best equipment available. In these meteorites, called SNCs, many valuable elements have been detected. Magnesium, Aluminium, Titanium, Iron, and Chromium are relatively common in them. In addition, lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, niobium, molybdenum, lanthanum, europium, tungsten, and gold have been found in trace amounts. It is quite possible that in some places these materials may be concentrated enough to be mined.[29]
The Mars landers Viking I, Viking II, Pathfinder, Opportunity Rover, and Spirit Rover identified aluminium, iron, magnesium, and titanium in the Martian soil.[30] Opportunity found small structures, named "blueberries" which were found to be rich in hematite, a major ore of iron.[31] These blueberries could easy be gathered up and reduced to metallic iron that could be used to make steel.
"Blueberries" (hematite spheres) on a rocky outcrop at Eagle Crater. Note the merged triplet in the upper left.
In addition,both Spirit and Opportunity Rovers found nickel-iron meteorites sitting on the surface of Mars.[32][33] These could also be used to produce steel.[34]
In December 2011, Opportunity Rover discovered a vein of gypsum sticking out of the soil. Tests confirmed that it contained calcium, sulfur, and water. The mineral gypsum is the best match for the data. It likely formed from mineral-rich water moving through a crack in the rock. The vein, called "Homestake," is in Mars' Meridiani plain. It could have been produced in conditions more neutral than the harshly acidic conditions indicated by the other sulfate deposits; hence this environment may have been more hospitable for a large variety of living organisms. Homestake is in a zone where the sulfate-rich sedimentary bedrock of the plains meets older, volcanic bedrock exposed at the rim of Endeavour crater.[35]
Of course it'd be a different story if Curiosity were to stumble on a spanner
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