Billions of tons of ice discovered . . .

[Coreece 190]

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I'll believe it when I see 'Arrowhead' set up a bottling plant there!

Considering how much people pay for bottled water, this may be the way to get the space exploration program moving forward.

It's too bad...Europe and Japan were planning a landing mission starting in a couple years, but the budget was cut back in 2003...that's easily an 8-10 year set back.

Your secrets are the true reflection of who you really are...

[kcjen24 0]

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When you find billions of tons of Margarita mix and Jose Cuervo, let me know.

+1

[billvon 3,120]

>Have they found or do they just suspect there's ice in craters near the poles of the moon?

Strongly suspect from three separate sets of experiments. (No samples taken yet!)

[billvon 3,120]

>This is because Mercury doesn't rotate.

It actually does. It's locked into a 3:2 orbital/rotational period due to spin-orbit resonance, one of the effects of its very eccentric orbit. One interesting result of this is that at certain places on the surface, you'll see the sun be about to set, then reverse itself, rise a bit, then reverse again and set completely.

If it was tidally locked to the Sun (which is what people thought initially) it would be a very interesting place; there would be a "goldilocks band" all the way around the planet where temperatures might be suitable for humans. If it retained any atmosphere at all the winds would be truly incredible, with cold gas from the dark side blowing to the lit side where it would be heated and returned to the cold side on the top of the atmosphere. However, the intense solar wind near Mercury would tend to make any such atmosphere short-lived.

It also has a nearly zero axial tilt, making permanently shadowed craters at the poles possible. Thus an expedition there could find a landing site that was always shadowed and relatively cool.

Supplying power for any exploration would be relatively easy; conventional solar panels would generate seven times the amount of power they would supply here, and cooling them would be a bigger problem than getting enough power out of them.

[airtwardo 7]

http://cseligman.com/text/planets/mercury.htm


WEIRD lookin' place.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[ZigZagMarquis 9]

So you're saying there a chance that home brew could be lagered on Mercury!!??