Author Topic: Increasing mars atmosphere by chemically splitting Phobos  (Read 9384 times)

Offline stefan r

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Re: Increasing mars atmosphere by chemically splitting Phobos
« Reply #20 on: 02/24/2018 02:06 am »

Not bad for 16 000 O'Neill colony sized megafreighter trips. Or quadrillions of little liquid nitrogen tanks, but I think the economics favours megafreighters at these scales not to mention the navigational nightmare of billions of "small" nitrogen tanks pelting Mars every M-year, each of which has the kinetic energy of small nuclear weapons.  :P

Would recycle the tanks.  You can dump the nitrogen during a gravity assist maneuver and also use the nitrogen as reaction mass.  No need for the tank to hit Mars. 

Pluto only has an escape velocity of 1.2km/s so a fusion-powered megafreighter using water ice as reaction mass would only need a mass ratio less than one. And as a bonus the structural components could be made of water ice, and be delivered with the nitrogen ice. Windows open up roughly every Martian year.

If you are doing a mega project on Pluto there should be an elevator/bridge between Pluto and Charon.  Uses Charon as reaction mass.


Or, you could just build tens of thousands of O'Neill colonies and live in them.

If you tell people that there is no reason to go to Mars it will undermine support.

Offline Pete

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Re: Increasing mars atmosphere by chemically splitting Phobos
« Reply #21 on: 03/04/2018 12:57 pm »
Phobos is has low enough orbit that if we were to chemically split it to release gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide most of them will be captured by Mars. And its mass is comparable to the Martian atmosphere. If we chemically split most of it it could increase Mars pressure by maybe 15-20%.
Two options -  10^12 m^2 mirror and 100000k 20mt nuclear bombs.
In both cases the launch cost will be roughly 5 - 10 trillion $, using current launch prices.

You want to send mirrors totaling twice the size of TEXAS to Mars?

You want to send a HUNDRED MILLION nukes, each massing 5 metric tons, to Mars?
At a manufacturing cost of about 650 million $ each? That's less than 610 YEARS of the WHOLE WORLD's gdp.

Sir, i question you business plan!

Offline kch

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Re: Increasing mars atmosphere by chemically splitting Phobos
« Reply #22 on: 03/04/2018 02:14 pm »
From a delta V stand point it would be easier to get the nitrogen from Titian and Kuiper belt objects.

Titian?  This guy?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titian

Never knew he was a good source of nitrogen.  Would probably cost a lot of Monet ... :D

Offline LMT

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Re: Increasing mars atmosphere by chemically splitting Phobos
« Reply #23 on: 03/08/2018 09:29 pm »
If we chemically split most of [Phobos] it could increase Mars pressure by maybe 15-20%.
Two options -  10^12 m^2 mirror and 100000k 20mt nuclear bombs.
In both cases the launch cost will be roughly 5 - 10 trillion $, using current launch prices.

You want to send mirrors totaling twice the size of TEXAS to Mars?

You want to send a HUNDRED MILLION nukes, each massing 5 metric tons, to Mars?
At a manufacturing cost of about 650 million $ each? That's less than 610 YEARS of the WHOLE WORLD's gdp.

Sir, i question you business plan!

MATT increases regional martian atmospheric pressure by more than 20%, at a cost of one commercial satellite.

« Last Edit: 03/09/2018 03:41 pm by Lar »

Offline Lar

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Re: Increasing mars atmosphere by chemically splitting Phobos
« Reply #24 on: 03/09/2018 03:44 pm »
Talking about Lake Matthew here in this thread is off topic. There is a thread for it
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=40019

That thread was locked pending a commitment (via PM) by the participants to do better at their interactions, in particular, less snark and more honestly answering objections. Offer still stands but I haven't received any PMs as of yet. My inbox remains open and I would be delighted to see that thread unlocked. That way the temptation to go off topic elsewhere might be easier to resist.
"I think it would be great to be born on Earth and to die on Mars. Just hopefully not at the point of impact." -Elon Musk
"We're a little bit like the dog who caught the bus" - Musk after CRS-8 S1 successfully landed on ASDS OCISLY

 

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