12959673:jibbpeter said:
Intresting point. I guess if the main reason for going further into space are resources, then Titan would be the first stop when oil is running thin
But we didn't go to Mars bacause of resources, but for explorational reasons (unless transformers conspiracy). If we find a way to make interstellar travel posible, we will go anyway because being curious is being human.
Profitt or non-profitt we would go anyway... Or atleast i would
12959745:.Capn. said:
Venus is (barely) an "earth sized plant in the habitable zone" but it has no water. Just because liquid water 'could' exist doesn't mean there is any on the surface. Go fuck yourself
(I wrote this because i'm bored at work and just sitting here for the next three hours, so prepare for a fucking book)
The reason Mars is interesting is because there's a possibility that there may be water on the surface, and it's JUUST inside the habitable zone for humans. the climate, though relatively uncomfortable, isn't all too harsh and shitty (though, it's basically like living in antarctica - which is pretty shitty). surface temperatures at the equator can be well within the comfortable range during summer, reaching around 68F degrees on average. Spirit rover recorded temperatures as high as 95F degrees, and generally, many recordings of 32F+/0C+ temps. There's actually an area called the Syrtis Major Planum, which is a giant volcanic plain with relatively little dust (so it's not as bad with dust storms, especially in crater shadows) and infrared scans have shown it to be pretty warm there even in comparison to the rest of the planet, similar to a cold desert climate (so Nevada or Utah) on Earth.
For the most part though, on average, temperature swings put it in the same realm as Antarctica like I said (which is part of why the Soviets and Americans flocked there in the 60's/70's because we thought Mars might be the next destination in the space race, and it's a great training ground) So it's pretty fucking uncomfortable, but can sustain life.
To add onto that, Having no Oceans, the climate on Mars is incredibly predictable in comparison to earth - So the weather at one geographical point within a Martian Year should basically be the same - give or take a week - at that same geographical point. So that's tight if you don't really like the cockfoolery moodswings mother nature puts on us here. They don't even have hurricanes! fuck yea.
A day on Mars (which we call a Sol) is 24 hours and 39 minutes, so our circadian rhythm won't be thrown off at all. The tilt is similar to earth, so there are seasonal changes like we're used to (though they are twice as long, because a martian year is twice as long) Mars also has a tolerable gravity (it's like just shy of 40% earth gravity, so it should be able to sustain human habitation for multiple years without detrimental effects (IE: we can get our food down, and take a shit without assistance, our bones won't become brittle like birds, and our blood can flow more/less correctly) Whereas, on the moon, where it's like 1/25th of earths gravity, there's not a really good way to sustain longer habitation periods without serious life process issues. Also, because it's so much less than our gravity, we can play that sweet slamball basketball game they used to have on spike TV, without trampolines, and noctuple cork 3600's will be required in all ski comps on mars to even have a chance to place in the top 5. Spin to win would be so in.
Shut the fuck up, slamball was the fucking shit and if you don't agree with me, go suck a dog peen.
Venus on the other hand, is outside of the habitable zone. even if it had an earth-like situation going on, and wasn't just a crazy acid-rain deathball, the temperature would be far too hot whether it had an atmosphere or not. It can't support liquid or solid water, and it certainly cannot support life as we know it because of that.
Furthermore, it has a fucking retrograde rotation, and it's year is shorter than it's day... and I mean it's day is like 2 Venus years long! AND BACKWARDS! That's what happens when a planet is too close to it's parent star, weird rotational shit gets out of whack.
Either way, Venus is a super fucked up place that sucks to the max core. I mean, you want to know how fucked up it is? you can simply tell just by the way the clouds go around the planet. Look at this shit.
all fucking warped and shit? in one giant mass? the clouds move around it like molasses rather than the far more fluid nature of our own or even Martian atmospheric movement. And on top of that, because one side of the planet has a staring contest with the sun for like two years straight, the clouds on one side will just billow out like crazy and cause mega storms that would make any christian view of hell seem like a semi-attractive place to go on holiday.
TITAN however, that's an interesting Idea. There's a chance there's water under the surface, which along with the abundance of nitrogen could give potential to creating artificial atmospheres within some sort of collection facility for the Titanic Dinosaur Juice fields...
That said, gravity on Titan SUUUCKS because it's even LESS than the moon! Getting there, and then maintaining any sort of workplace that OSHA would tolerate would be basically impossible without some gravity simulation tech - something I doubt we'd be able to create before we move beyond petty fossil fuels...
Also, it's cold as a MOTHERFUCK there. Like 300 below zero. You know how the east coast can get like REALLY COLD sometimes and the snow turns to a field of motherfucking trident strips and blue ice? Yeah. Think about that, but multiplied by like a fuckshitstack worth. Living on Titan would be the worst thing ever. I don't think hand warmers are gonna help you out very well. On top of that, you can't just burn some oil to warm up the place, because there's limited oxygen, and you'll be inside. So that's not going to work out very well without some far more impressive ventilation systems in place. Regardless, thermoinsulation is an epic problem.
On the other hand, some cool ass shit could happen if you were on Titan and could survive the temps. The atmosphere is crazy thick, and with the low gravity, you could actually just fly on Titan. You could grab like, a couple of pieces of printer paper, then tape them onto your arms, and flap your arms like that bitch ass kid from Angels in the Outfield and you could fly all over the place on Titan like some kind of Robo-American Bald Eagle powered by Nascar, Jesus, 9mm bullets, and apple pie.
Oh, and you know how we kinda need oxygen to breathe and shit? Well, there's a huge problem. Titan's Atmosphere is like SUUUPER reactive with Oxygen. If you went to a bunch of NFL games and Retirement homes, stole all of the oxygen tanks from those places, threw it into a space net and hurled it into Titan's atmosphere like Superman in Superman IV (when he hurled the earth's nuclear missle arsenal into the sun) Titan would probably explode so fucking hard, Michael Bay would probably die from his own explosion-boner actually exploding.
So yeah, if you are in some kinda space suit, breathing oxygen like no big deal, whistling and shit, minding your own business collecting Titan oil, and a leak happens? You will blow the fuck up like an infested Terran in Starcraft and cause +500 damage to structures. That would be at least sorta bad.
"God dammit, Jim opened up his spacesuit in the field!"
Sooo yup! that's all i gotta say abou that one!
I'm pretty stoked that Earth is still a place we can live on. It's not bad.