Mars Attack!
Red planet under fire in proposed mission.
Scientists have had a smashing idea that could help them explore beneath Mars's dusty surface. Slamming a hefty chunk of copper into the red planet should excavate enough material to reveal water ice or carbon-based chemicals that lurk underground, according to a proposed NASA mission.
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Comments
The idea is simple and nice, but i don't think the results would be so fruitful. since the scientist are developing a
system that is this much invasive, perhaps they should develop some probe that constantly digs and does sampling. Second and the most important of all is, the vigorous explosion may cause the supposed organic molecules to go under combustion and even cause the water -which possibly is in trace amounts- to evoporate or react with other substances. The explosion itself may make it impossible to detect the
water and organic molecules.
Posted by: arin dogan | January 28, 2006 04:13 PM
Smashing something into a comet is one thing, but smashing something into Mars is another. One problem is there might be life there, and possibly we could kill a life form in the process. Also, sure, this process might sterilize the area of our own earth microbes, but then again it might also wipe out any Martian microbes or other form of life in the area. I prefer a more mundane drilling operation! Then again, this sure would be quick and fast!
Posted by: Steve Menlo | January 29, 2006 08:17 AM
My, my, what a scientific approach! If we don't understand something let's just smash into it and see what's inside. Maybe there is an underground civilization living on Mars, and we can smash their biodome. When they retaliate we will certainly know what's beneath Mars' surface, won't we? My point is, simply, I think it's a stupid idea to destroy, damage, or alter anything on any celestial body, until you know what the result will be, and if that method would do any harm.
Posted by: Skidispectre | January 29, 2006 08:28 AM
A splendid idea. Oft the simple solutions are the most elusive, perhaps because we're taught that science is complicated. As an archaeologist, I see the exploration of new worlds as being much like the colonial era of the 18th and 18th centuries. Both the Moon and Mars have several sites where humans first occupied these new worlds; in person on the Moon and, so far, robotically on Mars. As our visits become more common, we will have an impact, however small, on these worlds. I would like to see care taken in this new colonial era, care that was sorely missing in the last one. Please go to the effort of evaluating the environmental impacts of our explorations. Our descendents will thank us for the forethought that our ancestors lacked. Please also remember that some day our first arrivals on the Moon and Mars will be important human heritage sites, much like L'Ans Meadows and Botany Bay are. These places celebrate our triumphs, failures, our determination and blunders. I know that these first visitation sites will be revisited by us in the future. I know that that they will be storehouses of knowledge and icons of and to curiosity. They should be treated as archaeological sites and conserved through adequate recording before they are irrevocably though necessarily disturbed. This is our chance to do things that way we wish they'd have been done the last time we colonised new worlds.
Congratulations and enjoy the rare opportunity to be a real explorer.
Kindest Regards
Leslie J (Butch) Amundson
Senior Archaeologist
Stantec Consulting Ltd.
Saskatoon Saskathcewan
Canada
Posted by: Leslie John Amundson | January 29, 2006 03:43 PM
This idea needs more consideration, for this reason.
What if Mars is habitated?
What if an intelligent race of people, humans or alien, but still aware beings...
are alive and living there.
They could be inhabitants who have survived changes, or remnants of a space faring society who visited there in the past.
We should not go into space and to an unexplored planet with the arrogance we have gone to Iraq with. Nor should we act like early explorers to the new world here on Earth.
We should explore, but do no harm to any life form.
To do otherwise, shows us to lack wisdom and show our ignorance.
Let us go with a good heart.
Not as barbarians seeking plunder. This is our first big step. Lets do it right!
Posted by: Roger L Scherrer | January 29, 2006 08:12 PM
Can you say, "try this on Europa!" =)
Posted by: Benjamin Kennedy | January 29, 2006 10:54 PM
What if after shooting Mars with this copper projectile. They decide to shoot back with one of their own!
Posted by: Darrell | January 30, 2006 03:06 AM
I wonder how people can be so educated and miss an obvious point. If there is an echo-system on Mars, this “attack” would end up killing something.
Do not confuse me with the Green Pea people or PETA idiots. (People Eating Tasty Animals) This is just a common sense observation that your low cost probe may not be the best idea. There needs to be fewer assumptions on your part and more data gathered in such a way as to not damage a possible echo-system. It is the height of hubris to assume some echo-system does not exist on that planet simply because we cannot recognize or define it – we simply do not have enough information.
Posted by: Sam Cherry | January 30, 2006 03:09 AM
What a GREAT idea! Our luck, we'd hit the only tiny oasis on the planet that harboured life! Can't wait till some alien researcher comes up with the plan to do the same to us!
Posted by: Keith Breazeal | January 30, 2006 03:50 AM
Right!!! Lets pummel every planet and moon in the solar system with artillery shells, maybe we'll get lucky and hit an ET base starting an interplanetary war. That would certainly unite the human race---if it doesn't destroy us in the process...
Posted by: Bob Mastromatteo | January 30, 2006 05:17 AM
The terrain of the hourglass crater is fake. If one zooms and de-sanitizes. this aerial contains thousands of masks (black and white rectanges covering up faces and artifacts. the population density in the upper at ground level is high. all the public sees is fake terrain with an offical story about it.
my 181 hourglass page.
http://www.innervoyager.com/hourglass90s.html
George
Posted by: George Nordahl | January 30, 2006 05:30 AM
What if you miss hitting the planet ?
Posted by: Andrew Dufour | January 30, 2006 07:48 AM
Great idea, it makes such little sense that the impact would kill anything, that's absurd.
This reflects the great American way of problem sovling; hit it with a hammer!!
But why Copper?
[There's very little natural copper on Mars, so the chemical signature of the disintegrated impactor can eaily be weeded out of the results they get. Ed.]
Posted by: Neil Kad | January 30, 2006 02:28 PM
This is a very interesting idea. I work in (terrestial) mining exploration as a geophyiscist and after reading the article briefly considered earthly applications but safety and environmental issues generally would preclude these. However we do regularly do something similar in exploration when we do surface trenching with excavators or explosives (with suitable permits) to expose and sample the shallow subsurface.
One interesting add on to this project would be, if possible, to put one or more seismic recorders on the surface of Mars at various points and use the impact as a seismic source to study the deep interior of the planet. The impact should be an excellent seimic source and the data would provide a great deal of info on Martian deep structure.
Posted by: Alan King | January 30, 2006 06:27 PM