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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Jun 19 2006, 12:46 AM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1636 Joined: 9-May 05 From: Lima, Peru Member No.: 385 |
In spite of the fact Mercury has extermes temperatures between day and night: 427°C and -173 °C and its mean surface temperature of 179 °C, the best place for human supervivence is on the poles. At the poles might have some water ices. But, the problem is that every 44 days (one orbital period is close to 88 days), the North and the South of poles will have alternate soft summer and winter due to its small orbital inclination of 7 degrees.
However, Mercury has own a small magnetic field that is 1% as strong as Earth. This does not help much to protect from solar wind and energetic particles. Finally, Mercury's Perihelion is 46,001,272 km and Aphelion is 69,817,079 km, difference of 23.8 millions kilometers is much difference than the Earth with its about 3 millions kilometers. That will induce, I seems, a small greater variations of temperatures between the seasons. All at all, Stephen Hawking recently has told to the press that there is no any an adequate biosphere place for human in our solar system unless we have to travel inter-stars searching for a similar Earth biosphere. Rodolfo |
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Jun 20 2006, 08:09 PM
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#3
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 43 Joined: 10-December 05 Member No.: 605 |
QUOTE every 44 days (one orbital period is close to 88 days), the North and the South of poles will have alternate soft summer and winter due to its small orbital inclination of 7 degrees. Actually, the orbital inclination is irrelevant - what matters is the tilt of the planet's rotation axis with respect to the plane of its orbit. Because Mercury's axial tilt is a miniscule 0.01 degrees, the sun will hardly be seen to move above or below the ecliptic at any point in the year. Any "seasons," then, will be due to the eccentricity of its orbit. And, interestingly enough, even Mercury's weak magnetic field is enough to deflect the solar wind (at least, most of the time). Just a few thoughts. |
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