Terraforming Mars

Dr John Stockton wrote:
JRS: In article .com
, dated Fri, 24 Jun 2005 12:03:00, seen in news:sci.space.policy, Tom
Cuddihy posted :
[jrs]
Thus if all the energy that shines on the Moon from the Sun were used,
it would take about 100 years to get enough.

Check that.

At 1 AU, the sun puts out an average of 1380 w/m^2. That's a known
number recorded from the thousands of satellites in orbit. That means
the sunlit portion of the moon receives pi*r^2*pwrdens=
pi*(1.73E6)^2*1380=1.27E22 watts.

So it's actually much better than you thought--2E26J/1.3E22w = 15380
s= 4.3 hrs.


pi*(1.73E6)^2*1380 ~ 3 * 3E12 * 1380 ~ 1.3E16 watts; so multiply your
4.3 hours by 1E6 - 500 years or so.

dratted microsoft calculator! wonder what I punched in wrong...

cuddihy

Jim Davis wrote:

Mike Combs wrote:

For only the fortunate confluence of two conditions:

1) There's a heck of a lot of money to be made off of some space
business which inevitably requires the presense of large numbers
of people in space.

Can you specify which large, multinational corporations have come
to this conclusion?

Virgin

And off which space businesses they hope to make a heck of a lot of money?

tourism

2) Rand and I have the qualifications to make sending us up a
good investment for the corporation or consortium (the odds much
favoring Rand, since I'm not presently working, or have ever
worked, in a space-related field).

Indeed? Which large, multinational corporations and/or consortia
have made you or Rand or *anyone* offers of a job in space?

McDonnell Douglas. They paid Charlie Walker to fly into space three
times, and they paid NASA for his trip aboard the Space Shuttle too.

These are probably not the answers you're expecting, but they're the
answers to your questions nonetheless.

Mike

-----
Michael Kent Apple II Forever!!
St. Peters, MO

"Michael Kent" wrote in message
...

Virgin

snip

tourism

snip

McDonnell Douglas. They paid Charlie Walker to fly into space three
times, and they paid NASA for his trip aboard the Space Shuttle too.

These are probably not the answers you're expecting, but they're the
answers to your questions nonetheless.

And one might well argue that these represent, at best, embryonic efforts at
(manned) space commercialization. But the point remains that one can't even
point to embryonic examples of national governments funding colonization
efforts undertaken "for hope, not for cash".


--


Regards,
Mike Combs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Member of the National Non-sequitur Society. We may not make
much sense, but we do like pizza.

"Mike Combs" mikecombs wrote:

"Michael Kent" wrote in message
...

McDonnell Douglas. They paid Charlie Walker to fly into space three
times, and they paid NASA for his trip aboard the Space Shuttle too.

These are probably not the answers you're expecting, but they're the
answers to your questions nonetheless.

And one might well argue that these represent, at best, embryonic efforts at
(manned) space commercialization.

Embryos often grow into larger creatures. In fact, were it not for the
merger with Boeing, I'd expect McDonnell Douglas to be in the thick of
things in the commercial space arena.

But the point remains that one can't even
point to embryonic examples of national governments funding colonization
efforts undertaken "for hope, not for cash".

True, but not relavant to the initial questions. They were based on
corporate entities spending money on manned space activities.

Mike

-----
Michael Kent Apple II Forever!!
St. Peters, MO

"Michael Kent" wrote in message
...
"Mike Combs" mikecombs wrote:

And one might well argue that these represent, at best, embryonic
efforts at
(manned) space commercialization.

Embryos often grow into larger creatures.

Enthusiastic agreement.

But the point remains that one can't even
point to embryonic examples of national governments funding colonization
efforts undertaken "for hope, not for cash".

True, but not relavant to the initial questions. They were based on
corporate entities spending money on manned space activities.

I had understood the initial question to be, "Should we terraform Mars?".
To what initial question do you refer?

--


Regards,
Mike Combs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Member of the National Non-sequitur Society. We may not make
much sense, but we do like pizza.