Are you up for a challenge?
Can I interest you in
some remote but unique real estate that’s absolutely ‘out of
this world’?
Some of the scenery is spectacular - how about a volcano, Olympus Mons,
550kms wide and 25,000 metres high?....but the weather is ordinary with huge
red dust storms being the norm. There will be 2 moons to see: Phobos (fear) and
Deimos (dread). (Oh) The temperatures offer variety (minus 130 up to 20 degrees
C if you're lucky), oxygen is unfortunately rare (0.13% in a thin carbon
dioxide atmosphere), there's no magnetic field to protect from cosmic
radiation,.....and water? I'm afraid its BYO or hunt for ice. As for vegetation or wildlife -
forget it.
You want to inspect
anyway?! Sorry, it will take about 9 months to get there so you will have to
fully commit, sight unseen - there's no coming back.
NASA has spent billions of dollars on
environmental studies for you, in fact their 'Curiosity' rover arrived on Mars
on August 6. Is that a big yawn I hear from you? Years ago Roman armies wouldn't dare yawn, let alone engage in battle, until they had sacrificed to the 'god of war' in the sky.
Are astronomers realistic in telling us Mars is
'terrestrial' (Earth-like)?
Okay, the days are 24 hours 39 minutes long and there are seasons due to the 25.19 degree axial tilt, but they're extreme due to the highly elliptical orbit. But what colour is Earth mostly?... blue & white, from water; what colour is Mars?...red from iron oxide. Back to your telescopes, guys!
So what is so amazing about Mars? That it's
there. Okay, the days are 24 hours 39 minutes long and there are seasons due to the 25.19 degree axial tilt, but they're extreme due to the highly elliptical orbit. But what colour is Earth mostly?... blue & white, from water; what colour is Mars?...red from iron oxide. Back to your telescopes, guys!
By chance we discovered in Melbourne Museum the obscure but simple Titius-Bode Law (1772) that tells us that there should be a planet about 240,000,000 kilometres (148.8 million miles) from the sun....and there is! MARS!
Why do many astronomers (definitely not all!) dismiss and
ridicule Bode's Law as 'just a coincidence' or 'a numerological curiosity' in
what they call the 'random chance event of planetary orbital formation'? Why is it left out of textbooks?
Would someone please explain to me why Man gets so excited about visiting Mars in case there might be little green people or even just water there, when we can’t manage and share the abundance of water on Earth, and then leaves his multi- billion dollar scrap-metal behind.
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