[ExI] woooohoooo! it's ice!

[spike]

________________________________

	From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Robert Bradbury
	Sent: Friday, June 20, 2008 10:46 AM
	To: ExI chat list
	Subject: Re: [ExI] woooohoooo! it's ice!
	
	

	On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 12:56 AM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
	


	...Spike, you need a bit more education in geology and planetary
sciences, if I may offer my opinion...

Ja, this lander gave us exactly this.

	...Isn't Lockheed making most of these satellites/landers?...

Yes.


  	...If one cannot envision what is going to be found how can they be
designed properly?...

Exactly so, and this one was not designed properly.  The water content of
the soil was sufficiently high as to make it clumpy.  Consequently it
wouldn't drop down into the ovens until the moisture had sublimated, leading
the analysts to the incorrect conclusion that the soil was dry.



  	...You of all people ought to be able to "imagine" what worlds look
like...


I confess that the water in the form of ice chunks took me by surprise.  I
am having a hard time imagining how it got in that form and stayed there
this whole time.  Why would not it form hydrates?  Why would it be so pure
as to form white chunks?  What gases are trapped within to make it white?
CO2?  Why were the chunks of ice that size?


  	...What the hell are you going to do if a black hole comes rushing
through our solar system?  ...Robert

That is a threat on which I wouldn't spend a minute of worry, not a second.
Evidently rogue black holes are exceedingly rare; otherwise the planetary
orbits would be more eccentric than they are.  Apparently we haven't had a
black hole visit in the past several billion years at least.  No need to
postulate an exotic threat: the risk of an ordinary rock hitting the planet
and triggering a nuclear war is thousands of times higher, ja?

spike