Landing on Mercury on equator at perihelion |
Landing on Mercury on equator at perihelion |
Mar 21 2006, 12:18 AM
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#1
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 40 Joined: 20-March 06 Member No.: 720 |
How will it be to make a manned landing at Mercury at its closest to the sun (perihelion) on its equator when the sun is in the zenith ,what are the dangers of a landing then? Do we need to be protected against the sunheat and radiation then? How strong is the heat and radiation of the sun then ,and is it dangerous when the solaractivity is high then? What kind of spacesuits do we need then? Better protected suits than we have used on the apollo moonlandings i think. Can you explain how a landing on Mercury will be when it is at perihelion and land on its equator with the sun directly overhead? I hope it will ever happen. Lets start discuss about it.
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Mar 21 2006, 10:26 AM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1870 Joined: 20-February 05 Member No.: 174 |
Robert Strom (I think) and subsequent researchers have pretty clearly shown that Mariner 10 images show some volcanic flows and deposits. Their geologic morphology is poorly preserved due to considerable primary and secondary impact cratering, and many of the features were observed at such high sun angle that morphology is poorly if at all visible. What they do see is some crater and inter-crater plains with flow fronts and ponded morphology that is rather unlike basin ejecta deposits that fooled Apollo era geologists into thinking Apollo 16 was going to explore highland volcanism. They also see color boundaries in high sun angle data that look like flows with different color and thus chemistry from adjacent plains and crater deposits.
Everything seems to be pretty seriously old. Relatively young volcanics like on the Moon seem to be absent or very scarce, and "constructional" volcanic features are scarce or absent. One long recognised factor is that the entire crust has scattered lobate escarpments, apparently compressional thrust faults that indicate the crust has been under compression during most of the visible geologic record. This makes it much harder for magma to find a route to the surface as all the channels and fissures are squeesed tightly shut, as compared with a crust under extension. |
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