Mars is like an alien planet

[CptStern]

That is not a closeup of my chin before I shave. It’s Mars, a dune field in the far north; at latitude 83.5° to be precise, less than 400 km (240 miles) from the north pole. The eternal Martian wind blows the heavy sand into dunes, and you can see the hummocks and ripples from this across the image. The sand on Mars is from basalt, which is a darkish gray color. The red comes from much smaller dust particles which settle everywhere.

But what are those weird tendril thingies?

In the Martian winter, carbon dioxide freezes out of the air (and you thought it was cold where you are). In the summer, that CO2 sublimates; that is, turns directly from a solid to a gas. When that happens the sand gets disturbed, and falls down the slopes in little channels, which spreads out when it hits the bottom. But this disturbs the red dust, too, which flows with the sand. When it’s all done, you get those feathery tendrils.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/01/11/another-dose-of-martian-awesome/

 

[Raziaar]

That's because it is an alien planet.

 

[Tyguy]

hogwash, looks like area 51 to me.

 

[Chrash]

I wonder what it would be like to actually be there?
I bet it would be awesome.

 

[Warped]

we should warm that planet up and see what happens. its time to populate Mars for the better of Humanity

 

[Raziaar]

Good luck finding a constant heat source great enough.

You could always crank up the thermostat on the sun and adjust its falloff values.

 

[Shyam]

we should warm that planet up and see what happens. its time to populate Mars for the better of Humanity

I would rather try to keep this planet habitable for as long as we can before we move to the next.

 

[Robbo]

I wonder if anyone is selling real estate on Mars yet eg. (http://www.lunarregistry.com/)

 

[Bad^Hat]

Looks like eyelid flavoured icecream.

 

[Darkside55]

I wonder what it would be like to actually be there?

 

[Barnz]

They have women with three-boobs.

 

[soulslicer]

Mars

 

[Tyguy]

In the movie he actual dies like that on the surface and over time the dust buried him.

 

[15357]

asnip

I need to watch it again, badly. I mean, it was even on my "Science - Space and Earth Sciences" textbook from 3 years ago.

 

[jverne]

I would rather try to keep this planet habitable for as long as we can before we move to the next.

Yeah, people who go "We must colonize other planets, because earth is becoming a shitty place to live" really piss me off. We barely discovered toilet paper to wipe our asses and most humanity still throws shit out of their window. You expect us to colonize a planet in space...heh.

 

[15357]

Yeah, people who go "We must colonize other planets, because earth is becoming a shitty place to live" really piss me off. We barely discovered toilet paper to wipe our asses and most humanity still throws shit out of their window. You expect us to colonize a planet in space...heh.

Um.. I can think of plenty of other better reasons, such as the fulfillment of mankind's hopes and dreams, as well as our manifest destiny for our rightful domination of space.

 

[Chrash]

*pic*

Good point.

 

[99.vikram]

Um.. I can think of plenty of other better reasons, such as the fulfillment of mankind's hopes and dreams, as well as our manifest destiny for our rightful domination of space.

I'd rather we *not* take over the universe before we've learned to build a sustainable economy on one planet.

The idea of humanity travelling the stars, leaving behind a trail of interstellar trash and planet-debris horrifies me.

 

[Maestro]

I expect us to privatize space and then it will accelerate at the geometric rate it should, NASA is a government agency. Governments always progress woefully slow.

 

[StarBob]

I expect us to privatize space and then it will accelerate at the geometric rate it should, NASA is a government agency. Governments always progress woefully slow.

Privatization requires profit. Profit requires low overhead. Low overhead for any sort of space-related business is not really feasible in current technology. So for the time being we stick with government ventures that are just fine spending money on exploration and experimentation alone.

I mean the main reason we got in to space in the first place was because of military applications. That's why it took less than 30 years from the first guided rocket to a moon landing, then the 30 years following we barely left orbit except for a few sling shot probes and some Mars RC cars.

 

[Maestro]

True, but there are several "X-Prize" type competitions right now, the most notable being Google's, that are seeking to jumpstart the privatization of space flight. It won't be profitable until there is some pioneering research into how to make it that way.

 

[KoreBolteR]

i think life existed on mars billions of years ago, first step if for us to colonize the moon and build glass dome citys on that. then onto mars lol

 

[Danimal]

I lol'd at the thread title.

 

[KoreBolteR]

Im still pissed that Pluto isnt good enough to be a planet anymore /sarcasm