Sol 90+, Extended mission |
Sol 90+, Extended mission |
Aug 25 2008, 11:46 AM
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Senior Member Group: Admin Posts: 3108 Joined: 21-December 05 From: Canberra, Australia Member No.: 615 |
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Sep 7 2008, 08:22 AM
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8785 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Speaking from ignorance here (my preferred position! ), could this observation be explained by a combination of the facts that 1) water never occurs in the liquid phase here, 2) ice does not chemically interact effectively with soil compounds due to the low temp, and 3) water vapor is in the same boat due to low ambient pressure and temp?
To explain 3) a bit more, even an RH of 100% at an ambient total pressure of 7 mb or so would still seem to be very little water vapor in terms of total mass, and the mean free paths of individual H2O molecules are doubtless much longer than they are at Earth's surface. Frost happens, of course, but that's about the water molecules binding to each other and to the rocks & soil, not electron exchange, so no chemical reactions take place, just phase changes. That's all probably totally wonky, and in any case my thinking is not well-explained. However, since our direct experience with olivene decomposition is limited to its behavior on our comparatively sopping wet, humid, hot planet with a dense atmosphere, then it makes sense to consider physical factors that might greatly reduce the rate of (or even completely inhibit) chemical activity for such reactions. -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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