Our UNIQUE earth, Our UNIQUE place within the Solar System---points to Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God,... Hebrews 11:3
"Even if you make it past the interplanetary radiation, you’re still confronted with any number of hazards, and they don’t stop once you land.
Here are a few places from your colonization dreams that might end up actual nightmares.
The Moon
Harrison Schmitt, an Apollo 17 crew member, called it “lunar hay fever,” according to a recent European Space Agency press release. The big culprit, ESA says, is the presence of silicates — a
group of silicon/oxygen compounds. Those compounds cause all of these symptoms in volcanic ash on Earth, and the Moon is littered with the stuff. But because there’s no oxygen on the Moon, the silicates on the surface aren’t eroded, making them even more dangerous: they can embed in and scar lung tissue more easily than their Earth-bound cousin. And not only is it a hazard to lunar explorers’ bodies, but it can also wear away at their equipment and spacesuits, too.
Mars
Sure, there’s water on the Red Planet. Mars’ strange and contentious “recurring slope lineae” have shown that. But these gully-like features mix a small amount of water in with a ton of perchlorates, a form of chlorine salts.
And that’s dangerous.
Perchlorates are incredibly toxic to humans. They’re cause for an industrial location to end up on the EPA’s Superfund site list here on Earth. Table salt — sodium chloride — is a non-toxic material. But perchlorates are chiefly made of carbon, oxygen and chlorine, which often fails to stabilize the toxic chlorine for Earth-life. Instead, you get a nasty kind of salt that can harm thyroid function, decrease bone marrow production, and damage lung tissue. Perchlorates also easily make their way into drinking water and food, which is bad if, say, you’re trying to grow potatoes in Martian soil.
Europa
Europa’s location: firmly within the radiation belts of Jupiter. Io and Europa are bombarded with lethal amounts of radiation. The future Europa Clipper mission even avoids orbiting Europa directly to lengthen the craft’s lifetime. If you landed Europa’s surface, the radiation dose would kill you — and anything else — within days.
Titan
This planet-sized moon of Saturn looks much like early Earth. It has a thick atmosphere — the only moon known to have one so dense — and bodies of liquid all over the planet.
Except it’s all hydrocarbons. Where’s the water? If you manage to land on the surface of Titan water has been transformed into the rock all around you, frozen solid by frigid temperatures. And the pitter-patter of rain is actually a chemical closely resembling gasoline. Though the atmospheric pressure on Titan is higher than that of Earth, the actual hydrocarbon lakes are too thin to efficiently swim through. Oh, and it’s muddy everywhere.
Dig down, way, way far down, on Titan, though, and you might find a subterranean ocean of water. This means that Titan has two oceans, both closed off from each other, one on the surface and the other deep below. This could also mean Titan has two biospheres, as strange forms of nitrogen-based life using vinyl cyanide as cell walls could theoretically exist in the hydrocarbon lakes. If you stacked up all the potentially habitable places in the solar system together, the nitrogen life would easily be the most alien.
Ceres
One of the biggest hurdles might be the abundance of ammonia on Ceres. All told, ammonia is
probably a lesser hazard than some of the others we’ve discussed, but it’s hard to separate ammonia from water, and exposure to it is harsh on your respiratory system.
So it might not be life friendly, but it’s certainly less out to kill you than Mars or the Moon.
Enceladus
The biggest hurdle is its gravity.
An Earth-sized hop on Enceladus could launch you 140 feet in the air. And at its south pole where Enceladus’ ocean is accessible, jets of frozen water vapor launch as high as 100 miles at a speed of 1,304 miles per hour.
So what’s causing those intense jets? Tidal forces from Saturn. That could make for some pretty intense waves on the ocean below. Imagine trying to navigate a submarine through intense, rough waves while risking getting swept up in a plume event. Sure, when you jump at Enceladus you might have a slow path back down, but an ejection at not-quite-escape-velocity could bring you smacking back down to the ice shell of Enceladus.
Outer Space
June 1971, the Soyuz 11 capsule and its three cosmonauts landed back on Earth after becoming the first mission to board humanity’s first space station. To their horror, the Russian space agency found the cosmonauts dead inside their spacecraft. Attempts to revive them didn’t work. They’d been exposed to the vacuum of space.
No astronaut is going to deliberately walk out an airlock, at least if they’re still in their right mind, which is not necessarily a guarantee. The Soyuz 11 crew are a good way to contrast the fact with the fiction of exposure to space. No, you don’t explode. Instead, you’re rapidly robbed of the air in your lungs, leading to asphyxiation. The official cause of death for the cosmonauts was brain hemorrhaging, as their systems had been rapidly robbed of oxygen. They didn’t die instantly either — they probably had one panicked minute as they died, as lactic acid levels, associated with stress — were extremely high.
After the accident, cosmonauts were given pressurized suits. While other space crews have died in the course of their mission, the Soyuz 11 crew remains the only one to die from exposure to the vacuum."
Astronomy
"Even if you make it past the interplanetary radiation, you’re still confronted with any number of hazards, and they don’t stop once you land.
Here are a few places from your colonization dreams that might end up actual nightmares.
The Moon
Harrison Schmitt, an Apollo 17 crew member, called it “lunar hay fever,” according to a recent European Space Agency press release. The big culprit, ESA says, is the presence of silicates — a
Mars
Sure, there’s water on the Red Planet. Mars’ strange and contentious “recurring slope lineae” have shown that. But these gully-like features mix a small amount of water in with a ton of perchlorates, a form of chlorine salts.
And that’s dangerous.
Perchlorates are incredibly toxic to humans. They’re cause for an industrial location to end up on the EPA’s Superfund site list here on Earth. Table salt — sodium chloride — is a non-toxic material. But perchlorates are chiefly made of carbon, oxygen and chlorine, which often fails to stabilize the toxic chlorine for Earth-life. Instead, you get a nasty kind of salt that can harm thyroid function, decrease bone marrow production, and damage lung tissue. Perchlorates also easily make their way into drinking water and food, which is bad if, say, you’re trying to grow potatoes in Martian soil.
Europa
Europa’s location: firmly within the radiation belts of Jupiter. Io and Europa are bombarded with lethal amounts of radiation. The future Europa Clipper mission even avoids orbiting Europa directly to lengthen the craft’s lifetime. If you landed Europa’s surface, the radiation dose would kill you — and anything else — within days.
 |
| Europa |
Titan
This planet-sized moon of Saturn looks much like early Earth. It has a thick atmosphere — the only moon known to have one so dense — and bodies of liquid all over the planet.
Except it’s all hydrocarbons. Where’s the water? If you manage to land on the surface of Titan water has been transformed into the rock all around you, frozen solid by frigid temperatures. And the pitter-patter of rain is actually a chemical closely resembling gasoline. Though the atmospheric pressure on Titan is higher than that of Earth, the actual hydrocarbon lakes are too thin to efficiently swim through. Oh, and it’s muddy everywhere.
Dig down, way, way far down, on Titan, though, and you might find a subterranean ocean of water. This means that Titan has two oceans, both closed off from each other, one on the surface and the other deep below. This could also mean Titan has two biospheres, as strange forms of nitrogen-based life using vinyl cyanide as cell walls could theoretically exist in the hydrocarbon lakes. If you stacked up all the potentially habitable places in the solar system together, the nitrogen life would easily be the most alien.
Ceres
One of the biggest hurdles might be the abundance of ammonia on Ceres. All told, ammonia is
 |
| Ceres |
So it might not be life friendly, but it’s certainly less out to kill you than Mars or the Moon.
Enceladus
The biggest hurdle is its gravity.
An Earth-sized hop on Enceladus could launch you 140 feet in the air. And at its south pole where Enceladus’ ocean is accessible, jets of frozen water vapor launch as high as 100 miles at a speed of 1,304 miles per hour.
So what’s causing those intense jets? Tidal forces from Saturn. That could make for some pretty intense waves on the ocean below. Imagine trying to navigate a submarine through intense, rough waves while risking getting swept up in a plume event. Sure, when you jump at Enceladus you might have a slow path back down, but an ejection at not-quite-escape-velocity could bring you smacking back down to the ice shell of Enceladus.
Outer Space
June 1971, the Soyuz 11 capsule and its three cosmonauts landed back on Earth after becoming the first mission to board humanity’s first space station. To their horror, the Russian space agency found the cosmonauts dead inside their spacecraft. Attempts to revive them didn’t work. They’d been exposed to the vacuum of space.
No astronaut is going to deliberately walk out an airlock, at least if they’re still in their right mind, which is not necessarily a guarantee. The Soyuz 11 crew are a good way to contrast the fact with the fiction of exposure to space. No, you don’t explode. Instead, you’re rapidly robbed of the air in your lungs, leading to asphyxiation. The official cause of death for the cosmonauts was brain hemorrhaging, as their systems had been rapidly robbed of oxygen. They didn’t die instantly either — they probably had one panicked minute as they died, as lactic acid levels, associated with stress — were extremely high.
After the accident, cosmonauts were given pressurized suits. While other space crews have died in the course of their mission, the Soyuz 11 crew remains the only one to die from exposure to the vacuum."
Astronomy
