Mars: One Way

[xoxoxoBruce]

.

[it]

So I've given that some thought Bruce - and I am not sure it applies when its not about a specific innovation or even set of innovations, but about the drive to innovate in general.

Nobody is saying that we should all replace our ovens with the next thing that can heat stuff for no other reason then the fact it's the next thing, we're just saying that we need to drive forward to find what the next thing might be. There is only so much juice you can squeeze from a basket of fruit before having to go back to the tree and reach higher, or at least start planting new fruit trees for the future.

[tw]

Electric motor, demonstrated about 1880, saw no real value until after the 1900s. Transistor in 1948 finally started making its real value apparent in the mid 1960s. Laser was a wonderful invention that has no real purpose until well after 20 years later. Newton's calculus and others of his time (in and after 1600s) did not have appreciable value until the 20th century.

Some inventions result in innovation almost immediate - same decade -especially when it is a solution to an existing problem. Others can have no apparent value for generation or even centuries. Especially when it is a solution looking for a problem to solve.

In the 1800s, experimenters discovered a charge inside a glass jar could be discharged by applying ultraviolet light. A solution to a late 1960s problem - eraseable computer memory chip or EPROM.

Einstein's equations were revealed 100 years ago. Resulting jobs, wealth, economic power, industries, markets, and innovations are only just beginning to exist.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by glatt

I keep waiting for an official notice I can link to so I can brag here, but my brother just won a contest held by NASA to come up with an inventive way to build a Mars habitat that is super light to launch. His solution to your fuel problem to to just bring mylar forms in the shape of an igloo, and land on a part of Mars that has some water under the dirt. Melt the water, make mud with the martian soil, and pour it into the mylar form where it can freeze into an igloo shape. I read his paper and it sounds more technical and impressive than what I just wrote, but that's about it. Frozen mud igloos on Mars. Insulated, pressurized, and furnished on the inside of course. The main hurdle is energy once you get there. And as solar cells improve, that would have to be the answer.

It may have been official before, but now it's public.

My brother won this Mars engineering contest. His frozen mud martian igloo plan got first place.

[lumberjim]

Impressive!

[fargon]

glatt, you must be so proud. I'm proud just knowing you.

[glatt]

Yeah. I'm super proud. He's had lots of unique ideas over the years and they have been mostly ignored or failed to work out. He designed a lunar habitat and submitted it for a NASA grant but didn't get it. He designed an underwater hotel and abandoned the idea when he realized the safety issues for untrained guests were insurmountable. (A few underwater hotels are being built in other parts of the world where safety standards are more lax.)

Article about him in my hometown paper. It's good because it goes into more detail about the design and has a picture. But there are a few typos. Small town journalism.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Not what I pictured from the description. It says artists rendering, but I wonder if it's his vision, or the artists?

[glatt]

It's basically his version. An acquaintance of his made that rendering for him.

[glatt]

I bet in reality, one of these things would more closely resemble this:

[xoxoxoBruce]

He said flat panels are a problem so maybe more rounded at the ends, but I think you're right on the flat bottom.

[glatt]

Or like this, except more cylindrical. And no windows.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Ah, didn't think of that approach. Guess that's why I didn't win anything.

[Griff]

So cool glatt. You should be proud!

[classicman]

Thats teh awesum!