June 6, 2008 by rfhicks.

I’m excited about the prospect of confirming there is water ice on Mars. Mars has seasons, polar caps, and planetary tilt similar to Earth’s. It’s course is twice as long as Earth resulting in seasons that are twice as long. Even though the atmosphere is extremely tenuous and primarily composed of carbon dioxide there are thin, wispy cirrus clouds that occasionally come into view during the seasonal changes. These tenuous clouds are composed of water ice. All this exotic beauty and the allure of very tiny amount water that exists on Mars has us dreaming of another place for mankind to live if only he could prod things along and add a bit more of water to possibly make the place habitable for people.

Such is the dream of scientists and astronauts.

Unfortunately the track record for the rest of the planets in our Solar System has been that they are hostile in some shape or form whether or not there was water present. Mars on the other hand has been sort of enigmatic being there is active weather there and there are these elusive channels that seemingly hint at being carved out by water in the past. There is just something that bugs me about Mars. Particularly that the planet seems to be in perpetual state of rusting. Scientists have admitted that they have no explanation for this perpetual rusting. This is why the soil, if you must call it that, is orange-red everywhere you look. It is mostly ferric oxide and the planet is in a perpetual state of rusting day after day eon after eon.

So if you are looking for water why go looking in a rusty well. Something in my gut tells me that these telltale springs that have sprung up in the past have percolated through an abundance of compounds that are comprised of such elements as arsenic, selenium, antimony, and course iron. Once we get on Mars and eagerly go about melting the Martian ice we probably be shocked that the stuff is more toxic than the runoff from any earthly chemical plant that we could imagine. So we before we going making any celebratory toasts on Mars we better send it to the lab first.

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June 5, 2008 by rfhicks.

The exciting news from NASA’s latest jaunt to Mars is that the Mars Phoenix lander may have found it’s first patch of ice on the north polar region of Mars. There has been no confirmation that this is or just another buried rock. Although I am able to to imagin the outcome this discovery actually being water ice. This sort of news just may insp9ire some wealthy tycoon to find a way to be the first to get his hands ona a few novel chunks of this stuff so he can flaunt his wealth by pouring a $50,000 of a rare single malt scotch whiskey over it as he watches melt.

This wealthy tycoon will first have to find a way to invest and generate some much needed income and lenient tax breaks from the federal government before he can dispatch a vehicle to Mars and mine Martian glacial ice. Instead of building an international space station geared toward researchers’ and scientists’ our wealthy tycoon could build and develop an orbital hotel and casino that would cater to the wealthiest on earth. These are the folks that are eagerly awaiting the commercialization of space travel and have the necessary comeuppance to lavish on posh hotel rooms with intergalactic views.

Once our wealthy tycoon has has accumulated a mound of wealth with his posh earth orbit casino and hotel outfitted with floating one-armed bandits and zero-g roulette tables he approaches NASA and company to broker a deal with them to help him build his ice mining rig that will fly to Mars. Part of the deal would be that the NASA astronauts could come along for the ride and do their obligatory research and science for the benefit of mankind while the tycoon’s private astronauts go about the business of bagging as much Martian ice cubes as they cram on the vehicle.

The return trips is another bonus for both parties as the NASA astronauts are treated to a little R&R at the orbiting casino along with comped hotel rooms, a free buffet, and few hundred bucks to gamble.

In the meantime our wealthy tycoon friend is serving that 50 year old single malt scotch on the rocks - Martian rocks that is.

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