Do those moons really have a flowing ocean under the icy surface or is it water trapped in rocks?
Earth has a huge "ocean" deep in its mantle, but it's inside rocks. http://www.livescience.com/1312-huge-ocean-discovered-earth....
Suddenly, It Seems, Water Is Everywhere in Solar System
61–70 of 101 posts
Re: Suddenly, It Seems, Water Is Everywhere in Solar System
#62Growing up this was a huge question that nobody knew the answer to. I don't remember the first discovery of water but I do remember reading one after another water finding. Back then water = life and if we found water it was very likely we would find some form of life. I've already read articles talking about microbial life but I think we will soon discover a variety of living forms. That being said I don't think our…
> That being said I don't think our solar system contains a more advanced being than humans. I can't imagine there would be any real debate over that point.
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Re: Suddenly, It Seems, Water Is Everywhere in Solar System
#63Do those moons really have a flowing ocean under the icy surface or is it water trapped in rocks? Earth has a huge "ocean" deep in its mantle, but it's inside rocks. http://www.livescience.com/1312-huge-ocean-discovered-earth....
Yes, these are flowing oceans. On Ganymede, it's an ocean between two layers of ice. On Enceladus, it's water below an icy crust and on top of a rocky core.
Re: Suddenly, It Seems, Water Is Everywhere in Solar System
#64Does anyone else think NASA should reconsider their plans for a manned mission to Mars? With Europe, Ceres, Enceladus, Ganymede and many more promising moons out there it seems kind of a waste to spend time, effort and capital in Mars now.
Europa is a lot further away than Mars [1]. Every extra 4600 m/s of delta V in the mission means another factor of e in the ratio of initial to payload mass. At least until we develop better high efficiency rockets. [1] http://i.imgur.com/AAGJvD1.png
I'm simultaneously embarrassed and proud to say that the only time I've seen a subway map like this of a Solar system, it was of Kerbal.
Re: Suddenly, It Seems, Water Is Everywhere in Solar System
#65Has anyone thought much about an (admittedly near impossible) probe to burrow and submarine around in the oceans of some of the juicier Galilean and Saturnian moons?
For what it's worth, there's quite a decent s-f movie "Europa Report" about a manned mission to the Jupiter's moon. It avoids most genre cliches, apart from the very ending maybe.
Unless you've read Arthur C. Clarke's Odyssey series; in which case you are mostly infuriated by it.
Re: Suddenly, It Seems, Water Is Everywhere in Solar System
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's in reference to the Beagle 2?
Yeah, that's in reference to the failure of Beagle 2. It's on the page that was linked by Someone1234 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter#Cause_of_... ).
The Beagle 2 and Mars Climate Orbiter are not the same thing. It is unknown why Beagle 2 failed and there is no reason to believe it was due to any unit mismatch. It may be that two of the solar panels failed to deploy.
Re: Suddenly, It Seems, Water Is Everywhere in Solar System
#67Does anyone else think NASA should reconsider their plans for a manned mission to Mars? With Europe, Ceres, Enceladus, Ganymede and many more promising moons out there it seems kind of a waste to spend time, effort and capital in Mars now.
Jupiter's moons are exciting, but have huge radiation concerns. Still trying to solve that for the flight to Mars.
I saw some students prove that water can be an effective radiation barrier. The only problem is that it's heavy. If we were already going somewhere with a lot of water...
Re: Suddenly, It Seems, Water Is Everywhere in Solar System
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, NASA. "We propose to develop a conceptual design of a submersible autonomous vehicle (submarine) to explore extraterrestrial seas" http://www.nasa.gov/content/titan-submarine-exploring-the-de...
Don't we already have lots of autonomous subs on earth? As long as they can survive the trip, just put some new sensors in and go.
They would need to be a certain weight for the rocket they would ride on, be able to withstand radiation, generate power or install a different power source, be able to withstand various extreme temperatures, ensure it can "swim" in different oceans (Titan's ocean is not H2O). Not to mention they need to develop a way to deliver the sub to the water safely. I think there are lots of changes here.
Re: Suddenly, It Seems, Water Is Everywhere in Solar System
#69Growing up this was a huge question that nobody knew the answer to. I don't remember the first discovery of water but I do remember reading one after another water finding. Back then water = life and if we found water it was very likely we would find some form of life. I've already read articles talking about microbial life but I think we will soon discover a variety of living forms. That being said I don't think our…
>But what life, in some form, demonstrates is that it is possible, in some place very far away, there are living beings as advanced or more than we are. I would really love to be alive to meet them.
Assuming that they are benign and non threatening but I wouldn't take my chances. I dont hope for this.
Re: Suddenly, It Seems, Water Is Everywhere in Solar System
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's just a blatant rationalisation because people don't like change. There's nothing natural about understanding either metric or imperial, so suggesting that humans inherently are born with more understanding of one is silly. Metric only wins in my book because it is much easier to convert units (there are no magic numbers for conversion factors). However I'd laugh at anyone who suggest metric is better because p…
And yet, the US will never convert to a system of measurement invented by the French . Remember freedom fries?
I'm not allowed to edit this anymore, so let me reply instead. To those downvoting I ask: do you think this comment wasn't serious? You think there aren't at least 47 senators who would filibuster a bill to, say, convert the US highway signs to metric because it's "unamerican"?