[extropy-chat] MARS: Because it is hard

[Robert J. Bradbury]

On Mon, 12 Apr 2004, Robert J. Bradbury wrote:

> I suspect that for a while it will require several orders of magnitude
> more atoms to store the space location records of a number of atoms
> unless you have a very good compression algorithm.

Clarification... In case this isn't clear -- You have to encode the
element type, perhaps its isotope number, its location within a 3D
grid which is going to require accuracy down to the nm scale.  The
point I'm trying to make is that it is going to require N-bits
(where N is probably in the range of 128-1024 at least) and that
it is going to take 10's to 100's of atoms to store that much
information given relatively advanced storage systems even by
today's standards.

So you cannot have the atomic structure of the surface of Mars without
coming up with someplace to put it.  And the storage system is likely
to require more matter than that which one is disassembling unless
you (a) have good compression strategies; or (b) move to subatomic
storage strategies.

Robert