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Robert A. Heinlein - atmospheric processor question
MilesAhead:
It took me awhile to track down the name. My memory can block on me. It was Richard C. Hoagland He claimed NASA had pictures of "giant bridges" on the Moon left by extraterrestrials. He sounded pretty reasonable on the radio. I got the book he published but it was pretty boring. A whole bunch of stuff about measurements between this and that lump on the surface of Mars(the stuff about the face with the helmet.)
Whether archeologists use such measurements as he claimed I have no idea.
It can be weird when people get involved in searching for strange stuff. I worked with a scientist at a small research company. He was definitely not crazy. But you could think so once he starts displaying photographs take by dolphins strapped up with cameras and strobe lights, of the Loch Ness creature. His specialty was high resolution films. Being an expert in that field for decades I guess it was natural for him to take a stab at getting Nessie on film. He showed me some pics of dolphins standing up on their tail fin in the water with cylinders about the size of flashlights strapped to them. One cylinder had the strobe light, the other the camera. They uses dome sonar gadget to fire the camera automatically when the dolphin came close to something with sufficient mass. Unfortunately they didn't get any really good pics. But the pics of the dolphins themselves were interesting. :)
bit:
I read a SciFi novel maybe 6 months ago. I don't recall the author or title, but it was all about diverting comets to Mars to get the water from the ice.
-MilesAhead (March 20, 2015, 05:40 PM)
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The physicists at the Thunderbolt Project have illustrated that comets have no ice. Just a fun fact. It's interesting how they explain things.
-Renegade (May 20, 2015, 12:25 AM)
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Here is the SciFi Novel in question: Mining the Oort by Frederik Pohl
-MilesAhead (May 20, 2015, 05:41 AM)
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Yes, the EU or Electronic Universe is fascinating stuff.
Why is the center of a sunspot darker instead of brighter? EU has possible answers.
As per 'Mining the Oort' by Frederik Pohl:
March 1963
April 1963
What keeps nagging at me is the question of biological contamination (i.e. seeding) of Mars with Earth microorganisms.
I find myself mentally comparing it to the advent of Columbus to the New World, followed by everything from chickenpox to tumbleweeds, the virtual wipe-out of buffalo and Native Caribbean Sea peoples, and other events.
Once something microscopic from Earth should get started converting any chemical compound (from its own POV) from a consumable into a bio-waste product, it would be almost unstoppable spreading across Mars.
The human body is host to countless beneficial, opportunistic, and antagonistic microorganisms, and they would all be let loose the moment you get a dead astronaut on Mars in a ruptured space suit (or bio suit, whatever you want to call it).
I read somewhere that NASA is even more concerned about reverse-contamination from Mars to Earth, and has some kind of fancy word for it.
bit:
In 'Aliens 2', they use atmospheric processors to convert the alien moon's noxious atmosphere to make it breathable, "Takes decades," Van Leuwen tells Ripley. "We call it a 'shake and bake' colony."
S-F writer Robert A. Heinlein was -among other things- a mathematician.
I vaguely recall that he once calculated that with X number of giant Aliens-type 'atmospheric processors' (written a couple or three decades before 'Aliens'), seems to me he 'crunched the numbers' and figured it would take -X number of years- (he gave a specific number which I forget) to make the atmosphere of Mars breathable.
Does anyone have the direct Heinlein quote and actual info on this please?
If he put it in a story, what book?
(see attachment in previous post)'When Mars had water' (courtesy of Rense.com & Dees); my only comment on the picture is that if it had water it must have had water vapor clouds, which -at least on Earth- are white.
-bit (March 19, 2015, 06:04 PM)
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Found it--
Red Planet (1949) by Robert A. Heinlein, quote:
Doctor MacRae dominated the dinner table talk, as he always did, with a soft rumble of salty comments and outrageous observations. Presently he turned to Mr Marlowe and said, ‘You said something earlier about another twenty years and we could throw away our respirators; tell me: is there news about the Project?’
The colony had dozens of projects, all intended to make Mars more livable for human beings, but the Project always meant the atmosphere, or oxygen, project. The pioneers of the Harvard-Carnegie expedition reported Mars suitable for colonization except for the all-important fact that the air was so thin that a normal man would suffocate. However they reported also that many, many billions of tons of oxygen were locked in the Martian desert sands, the red iron oxides that give Mars its ruddy color. The Project proposed to free this oxygen for humans to breathe.
‘Didn’t you hear the Deimos newscast this afternoon?’ Mr Marlowe answered.
‘Never listen to newscasts. Saves wear and tear on the nervous system.’
‘No doubt. But this was good news. The pilot plant in Libya is in operation, successful operation. The first day’s run restored nearly four million tons mass of oxygen to the air—and no breakdowns.’
Mrs Marlowe looked startled. ‘Four million tons? That seems a tremendous lot.’
Her husband grinned. ‘Any idea how long it would take that one plant at that rate to do the job, that is, increase the oxygen pressure by five mass-pounds per square inch?’
‘Of course I haven’t. But not very long I should think.’
‘Let me see —’ His lips moved soundlessly. ‘Uh, around two hundred thousand years—Mars years, of course.’
‘James, you’re teasing me!’
‘No, I’m not. Don’t let big figures frighten you, my dear; of course we won’t depend on one plant; they’ll be scattered every fifty miles or so through the desert, a thousand mega-horsepower each. There’s no limit to the power available, thank goodness; if we don’t clean up the job in our lifetimes, at least the kids will certainly see the end of it.’
MilesAhead:
I read somewhere that NASA is even more concerned about reverse-contamination from Mars to Earth, and has some kind of fancy word for it.
-bit (May 20, 2015, 04:53 PM)
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Blowback? Nah. Too few syllables. :)
bit:
I read somewhere that NASA is even more concerned about reverse-contamination from Mars to Earth, and has some kind of fancy word for it.
-bit (May 20, 2015, 04:53 PM)
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Blowback? Nah. Too few syllables. :)
-MilesAhead (May 21, 2015, 05:37 AM)
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'Back contamination'.
^You're right MilesAhead, we need a fancier acronym with more syllables. :)
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