Recent content by ElfredaCyania

It was indeed about the feasibility of the whole idea at the beginning, I thought there might be some technological challenge so we have a project like A119 to bomb the moon for a similar purpose but there's no Mars counterpart in history (not even a preprint). But the direction went to...

Now I started to wonder if it's possible, at least in theory, to fire something directly from the ground into Earth-Moon L4 or L5, it's probably the simplest solution for single-shot-to-orbit.

Like I said before your container would be going absolutely insanely fast and I doubt that any man-made object has achieved controlled flight at such speed near the ground (particle accelerators don't count). But we do have things that move at that speed near the ground which is asteroids...

Many are worried about a launch failure so I did some math on this, all assuming the plausible worst-case scenario. In a famous broken arrow (in which you lost a nuclear warhead) 1966 Palomares B-52 crash, and two B28 1.45MT H-bombs (this is bigger than any nuke you would want on Mars) were...

Contamination is the most tricky part of this whole idea and it's hard to find concrete data for this. From what I have known, we can take the SEDAN test, it's one of the two most radioactive nuclear tests in the US, and it's shallowly buried--analogous to the one on Mars. Unlike power plants...

I've just found a paper for this, the crater diameter for the same explosive charge D is proportional to g-1/6, which means a Martian crater is likely to be 1.176 times as big as an Earth one. According to the paper, its conclusion holds for buried and zero-depth charges, as well as the...

This paper is very helpful, it would suggest a rover capable of digging a few meters such as ESA's ExoMars can install a very large fully-coupled bomb. It mentioned that rock type may affect its effect but doesn't seem to provide more detail, including in Appendix C. Martian soil (cohesionless...

There's no power struggle and mining on Mars is not technically feasible with current technology. And if you want a utilitarian answer then I apologize for not having one. But if we focus on science, Mars' inactive structure preserves a record of its early formation, which is no longer...

I know that I can't nuke it and no one can nuke it at least not soon. I'm not calling for nuking it. Rather, my interest lies in understanding whether the hesitation around this idea stems from its scientific merit and feasibility or primarily from regulatory and ethical concerns (or both).

Sorry for the late response. Actually, it's not only seismic stuff, if the explosion includes surface excavation it will also expose subsurface structures, and the dust ejected will be available for collection and spectroscopies so we can look into aspects like the repository of subsurface ice...

Thanks. I understand that seismic data can be obtained by using chemical or mechanical seismic sources. And rovers like InSight have been collecting data from small impactors, but to obtain deep structure data (eg, mantel and core) which has "remained largely unknown", a more energetic event is...

You need to at least specify the direction of the velocity for any meaningful calculations. And even with that, the initial speed at sea level would be so high that most fluid dynamics formulas won't be applicable.

You are essentially asking how the drag force should be applied to decelerate an elliptical orbit (you may think it’s a parabola but it's an oval with a focal at the centre of the Earth) into a circular orbit, this process involves a decrease in eccentricity. This is impossible because...

I'm not proposing an amount, I would like to seek information on this idea, mainly on the technological feasibility and its scientific yield. I didn't see a significant technological challenge involved.

Got it. Pu-238 has been used in RTGs, from 1961 to future missions (GPHS-RTG). While both are alpha emitters, Pu-238 (and a common byproduct Pu-239) is more dangerous than U-235 if inhaled due to a much shorter half-life[1][2]. Although Uranium poses another type of risk known as nuclear...