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Landing on Mercury on equator at perihelion
Rem31
post Mar 21 2006, 12:18 AM
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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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jsheff
post May 10 2006, 07:27 PM
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I know how horrendous the delta-vee requirements are for landing on Mercury, but they're not, even with present technology, impossibly high. If you remember, the lander portion of Beppi-Columbo was not nixed for technological reasons - it was simply deemed too expensive for the program's budget!

I agree that manned landings, when they happen, will probably not occur within our technological horizon, i.e., this century, and only as a "mopping-up" exercise after the rest of the solar system has been thoroughly explored.

I remember as a kid reading a SF novel by Alan E. Nourse, called, I think, "Brightside Crossing" (You might want to look it up, Rem31, if you can find a copy; it might answer your questions). It may even have been written before Mercury's true rotation period was known. His characters mounted a surface-crawling manned expedition to traverse Mercury's dayside, timed to arrive at the center right when the planet was at perihelion! The expedition was mounted not for the sake of science, but for the glory, as it was "the last great challenge left in the solar system". This was science-fiction, I know, but I wonder ...

Today you have people willing to pay $60,000 and put their lives at great risk to climb Mt. Everest. They do it not for science, nor for the sake of being as high up as they can. (You can, after all, get higher in a aircraft or spacecraft!) They do it for the sheer challenge of it, "because it was there". So the fact that Mercury is, as you say, the most difficult place in the solar system to get to, may not repel people, but may be precisely what makes it an irresistable draw for some. Funny things, these humans...
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JRehling
post May 10 2006, 08:27 PM
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QUOTE (jsheff @ May 10 2006, 12:27 PM) *
The expedition was mounted not for the sake of science, but for the glory, as it was "the last great challenge left in the solar system".
...
So the fact that Mercury is, as you say, the most difficult place in the solar system to get to, may not repel people, but may be precisely what makes it an irresistable draw for some. Funny things, these humans...


I've heard the phrase "last great challenge" before referring to various challenges, but never accurately.

Millionaires try to do various things in balloons or on mountains, which is fine, but when they frame some accomplishment in narrow definitions and call it the last great challenge, I laugh. I bid them to accomplish whatever they want, but if they want to have it proven that it wasn't the last great challenge, I'll donate 30 seconds of my time and pitch them one much harder than what they actually accomplished.

Mercury subsolar at perihelion? OK, try going to the center of Mercury. Jupiter. The Sun. Rigel.

Sail around the world in a balloon? OK, try it on an over-the-poles route. Try going around Venus in a balloon. Neptune. The Sun.

Climb Everest without oxygen? OK, try it naked. Try it in 24 hours. Try it walking backwards. Try it on one foot. Try it in January. Olympus Mons. In 24 hours.

Swim the English Channel? OK, swim the Pacific. Swim from Anchorage to Venice. Without coming up for air.

This whole "last challenge" thing is about using a superlative where a comparative would be accurate. Unless by "last" they mean "latest"... but I think they mean "final".
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Posts in this topic
- Rem31   Landing on Mercury on equator at perihelion   Mar 21 2006, 12:18 AM
- - antoniseb   QUOTE (Rem31 @ Mar 20 2006, 07:18 PM) How...   Mar 21 2006, 12:25 AM
- - RNeuhaus   QUOTE (Rem31 @ Mar 20 2006, 07:18 PM) How...   Mar 21 2006, 02:25 AM
|- - Rem31   But how will a (hypothetical) manned landing on Me...   Mar 21 2006, 03:42 AM
|- - RNeuhaus   QUOTE (Rem31 @ Mar 20 2006, 10:42 PM) But...   Mar 22 2006, 01:35 AM
- - BruceMoomaw   A manned landing on Mercury at perihelion -- or an...   Mar 21 2006, 04:25 AM
|- - JRehling   QUOTE (BruceMoomaw @ Mar 20 2006, 08:25 P...   Mar 21 2006, 10:02 PM
|- - BruceMoomaw   QUOTE (JRehling @ Mar 21 2006, 10:02 PM) ...   Mar 21 2006, 11:57 PM
|- - JRehling   QUOTE (BruceMoomaw @ Mar 21 2006, 03:57 P...   Mar 22 2006, 05:46 PM
- - Richard Trigaux   QUOTE (Rem31 @ Mar 21 2006, 01:18 AM) How...   Mar 21 2006, 06:09 AM
- - edstrick   Exploring Mercury is difficult. While it's re...   Mar 21 2006, 08:49 AM
|- - Richard Trigaux   At least, and orbiter with high resolution mapping...   Mar 21 2006, 09:08 AM
- - edstrick   Robert Strom (I think) and subsequent researchers ...   Mar 21 2006, 10:26 AM
|- - Richard Trigaux   hey, that is interesting, and fairly different of ...   Mar 21 2006, 11:06 AM
- - Richard Trigaux   An interesting job too for a probe would be sensin...   Mar 21 2006, 11:18 AM
|- - ljk4-1   Come on, guys - just land at night! How about...   Mar 21 2006, 03:20 PM
|- - JRehling   To summarize what other posters have written: Merc...   Mar 21 2006, 05:37 PM
- - BruceMoomaw   Even Arthur C. Clarke, the Keeper of the Holy of H...   Mar 21 2006, 09:42 PM
|- - ljk4-1   QUOTE (BruceMoomaw @ Mar 21 2006, 04:42 P...   Mar 21 2006, 10:22 PM
|- - Rem31   Are there space artist impressions to find on the ...   Mar 21 2006, 11:42 PM
- - RNeuhaus   The Mercury atmospheric composition: CODEHelium 4...   Mar 22 2006, 01:59 AM
- - BruceMoomaw   It has stupendously less than that -- its atmosphe...   Mar 22 2006, 03:40 AM
- - edstrick   Niven may or may not have been aware of the really...   Mar 22 2006, 07:04 AM
- - BruceMoomaw   He surely wasn't aware of that, or he wouldn...   Mar 22 2006, 07:37 AM
- - edstrick   I'm assuming he wasn't. It was pretty obs...   Mar 22 2006, 08:15 AM
|- - BruceMoomaw   QUOTE (edstrick @ Mar 22 2006, 08:15 AM) ...   Mar 22 2006, 08:25 PM
- - Richard Trigaux   There was in another thread a discution on the pos...   Mar 22 2006, 08:37 AM
- - edstrick   A long lived Mercury lander would have decidedly d...   Mar 22 2006, 11:12 AM
- - Richard Trigaux   An ion drive would do well on a trajectory to Merc...   Mar 22 2006, 07:26 PM
|- - ljk4-1   QUOTE (Richard Trigaux @ Mar 22 2006, 02...   Mar 22 2006, 08:09 PM
|- - antoniseb   QUOTE (ljk4-1 @ Mar 22 2006, 03:09 P...   Mar 22 2006, 08:45 PM
||- - Richard Trigaux   QUOTE (antoniseb @ Mar 22 2006, 09:45 PM)...   Mar 22 2006, 09:40 PM
|- - JRehling   QUOTE (ljk4-1 @ Mar 22 2006, 12:09 P...   Mar 22 2006, 09:27 PM
|- - ljk4-1   QUOTE (JRehling @ Mar 22 2006, 04:27 PM) ...   Mar 22 2006, 09:41 PM
- - edstrick   Mariner 10 did have a tiny infrared radiometer. I...   Mar 23 2006, 09:33 AM
- - Rem31   What kind of experience will it (possibly) be when...   Apr 28 2006, 09:47 PM
- - BruceMoomaw   All I can say is you like hot weather a lot more t...   Apr 28 2006, 09:53 PM
|- - Rem31   What are the kind of dangers of a (manned) landing...   May 10 2006, 12:06 AM
- - BruceMoomaw   God, yes. We've mentioned all this before. A...   May 10 2006, 08:43 AM
|- - Bob Shaw   QUOTE (BruceMoomaw @ May 10 2006, 09:43 A...   May 10 2006, 11:00 AM
|- - JRehling   QUOTE (BruceMoomaw @ May 10 2006, 01:43 A...   May 10 2006, 01:35 PM
|- - JRehling   QUOTE (JRehling @ May 10 2006, 06:35 AM) ...   May 10 2006, 05:08 PM
- - Rem31   And on a manned landing on Mercury at (perihelion)...   May 10 2006, 11:28 AM
|- - helvick   QUOTE (Rem31 @ May 10 2006, 12:28 PM) And...   May 10 2006, 12:19 PM
- - jsheff   As I recall, Mariner 10's discovery of a magne...   May 10 2006, 03:52 PM
|- - Bob Shaw   John: The trouble with Mercury is, that although ...   May 10 2006, 05:58 PM
- - RNeuhaus   A comparative view of Sun between Mercury and Eart...   May 10 2006, 07:06 PM
- - jsheff   I know how horrendous the delta-vee requirements a...   May 10 2006, 07:27 PM
|- - JRehling   QUOTE (jsheff @ May 10 2006, 12:27 PM) Th...   May 10 2006, 08:27 PM
|- - Bob Shaw   QUOTE (JRehling @ May 10 2006, 09:27 PM) ...   May 10 2006, 08:39 PM
||- - ilbasso   QUOTE (Bob Shaw @ May 10 2006, 04:39 PM) ...   May 18 2006, 05:47 PM
|- - helvick   Absolutely agree with you on this but people are s...   May 10 2006, 08:50 PM
|- - ljk4-1   QUOTE (helvick @ May 10 2006, 04:50 PM) A...   May 18 2006, 05:52 PM
- - BruceMoomaw   Well, all the way back in the 1950s -- when he was...   May 10 2006, 09:11 PM
- - Rem31   Do you need also Solarheat and radiation protectio...   Jun 17 2006, 09:00 PM
- - dvandorn   I don't have detailed numbers for you, but my ...   Jun 18 2006, 11:52 PM
- - RNeuhaus   In spite of the fact Mercury has extermes temperat...   Jun 19 2006, 12:46 AM
|- - ermar   QUOTE every 44 days (one orbital period is close t...   Jun 20 2006, 08:09 PM
- - RNeuhaus   Good tought ermar! I haven't percated th...   Jun 21 2006, 03:04 AM
- - Rem31   Here is one of the most beautifull photographs of ...   Jun 22 2006, 09:11 PM
|- - helvick   QUOTE (Rem31 @ Jun 22 2006, 10:11 PM) I h...   Jun 22 2006, 11:40 PM
|- - JRehling   QUOTE (helvick @ Jun 22 2006, 04:40 PM) N...   Jun 23 2006, 04:10 PM
|- - Rem31   QUOTE (JRehling @ Jun 23 2006, 04:10 PM) ...   Jun 24 2006, 11:09 PM
- - edstrick   Note that we *DO* know there's polar volatile ...   Jun 23 2006, 10:50 AM
- - edstrick   I note that that page has ONE (the first) of the M...   Jun 24 2006, 10:24 AM
- - efron_01   about Mercury having been a moon of Venus.. I have...   Nov 12 2006, 03:44 PM
- - nprev   As I recall, the Arecibo radar images of Mercury...   Nov 13 2006, 02:11 AM
- - Alan S   This might be a topic for a new thread, but since ...   Jan 8 2007, 06:21 AM
- - edstrick   The helium 3 is a fraction (in very approximate pr...   Jan 8 2007, 12:43 PM
|- - Bob Shaw   QUOTE (edstrick @ Jan 8 2007, 12:43 PM) T...   Jan 8 2007, 10:32 PM
- - ljk4-1   Dr. Robert Bussard of the Bussard ramjet interstel...   Jan 8 2007, 02:52 PM
|- - JRehling   QUOTE (ljk4-1 @ Jan 8 2007, 06:52 AM...   Jan 8 2007, 07:16 PM
- - nprev   I think that JR's analysis was right on, if ni...   Jan 9 2007, 02:25 AM
- - edstrick   "...what minerals might the planet have ......   Jan 9 2007, 08:39 AM


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