Hidden glaciers on mars near equator!

Just found by probes, these are extremely large deposits of water ice, a half mile thick and tens of miles long.
I was thinking the glaciers would be a great place to start a colony, bury the buildings in a thousand feet of ice and you have everything you need, and you get a built in radiation shield. A nice fusion reactor melting the ice to water and further to oxygen and hydrogen, a nice start on a colony.
My guess if there is one there must be a lot more hidden around. You could even use the oxygen to add to the atmosphere which is a tad skimpy right now...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081120144228.htm

Originally posted by sonhouse
Just found by probes, these are extremely large deposits of water ice, a half mile thick and tens of miles long.
I was thinking the glaciers would be a great place to start a colony, bury the buildings in a thousand feet of ice and you have everything you need, and you get a built in radiation shield. A nice fusion reactor melting the ice to water and furt ...[text shortened]... hich is a tad skimpy right now...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081120144228.htm

Well what are we waiting for, let's go!! After all, I hear they have a lot of rocks there. In addition, if you like the color red it seems to be the place to be!!

Originally posted by whodey
Well what are we waiting for, let's go!! After all, I hear they have a lot of rocks there. In addition, if you like the color red it seems to be the place to be!!

Wow, we can have commie rock then!

Originally posted by sonhouse
Wow, we can have commie rock then!

Actually, it might be economically feasible to go to Mars. Think about it. If you somehow where able to make the trip and somehow able to ship a bunch of rocks back with you, you could name your asking price for the rocks on board!! Other than that the whole affair would be a useless act in futility. After all, it is a DEAD planet. Of course, I suppose you could argue that you could resurrect it, however, I don't think it possible of EVER supporting human life.

Edit: I think it would make more sense to go to the moon and bring as much rocks back as you could carry. It would be a little easier you know.

Originally posted by whodey
Actually, it might be economically feasible to go to Mars. Think about it. If you somehow where able to make the trip and somehow able to ship a bunch of rocks back with you, you could name your asking price for the rocks on board!! Other than that the whole affair would be a useless act in futility. After all, it is a DEAD planet. Of course, I suppose y ...[text shortened]... he moon and bring as much rocks back as you could carry. It would be a little easier you know.

Mars is MAYBE dead, that is yet to be proven, even if there are only microbes under ice, that is not dead, and in fact would lead to legal problems trying to terraform mars.

Originally posted by whodey
Actually, it might be economically feasible to go to Mars. Think about it. If you somehow where able to make the trip and somehow able to ship a bunch of rocks back with you, you could name your asking price for the rocks on board!!

Not so. If you could name your asking price high enough to pay for your trip, then surely the buyer would be willing to pay in advance for NASA to do the work right now? The truth is the biggest bidder right now is the US government and they have not yet placed a bid big enough for a return sample.

Other than that the whole affair would be a useless act in futility. After all, it is a DEAD planet.
And what would make it more worthwhile if it was a LIVE planet? I really cant see the connection.

Of course, I suppose you could argue that you could resurrect it, however, I don't think it possible of EVER supporting human life.
I don't see why exporting life to mars and careful adjustments to the atmosphere could never result in a livable planet, the question is whether it is economically viable to do so or what other reasons we might have.

Originally posted by twhitehead
Not so. If you could name your asking price high enough to pay for your trip, then surely the buyer would be willing to pay in advance for NASA to do the work right now? The truth is the biggest bidder right now is the US government and they have not yet placed a bid big enough for a return sample.

[b]Other than that the whole affair would be a useless ...[text shortened]... he question is whether it is economically viable to do so or what other reasons we might have.

One problem, not a huge one, but a limitation: Suppose we inject somehow a nice atmosphere comperable to our own. Earth's gravity ensures that atmosphere will be here a billion years from now, but the gravity on mars is too shallow to keep an atmosphere for very long in terms of geological time, it is gone in 100,000 years or so. That said, once such an atmosphere is in place, 100,000 years is a hell of a long time in human terms. I imagine if such a thing could be done, there would be maintenance injections to replace lost gasses.
Another problem is lack of a magnetic field, just some one off remnants. Those pieces of magnetic field can be used as a local radiation shield but the rest of the planet would be subjected to the full intensity of the solar wind. I envision a solution if and when room temperature superconductors are developed, stringing a few turns around the martian equator and setting up a few gigamps flowing, it would probably make a nice permentent planetary magnetic field that would shield everything, which would also help corral the atmosphere.