Questions tagged [ice]
Ice refers to extra-terrestrial sources of ice (i.e. other celestial bodies like planets, comets, etc). Use this tag to discuss the search for ice, as well as ice found through space exploration.
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Can I move Hyperion to Mars with fusion rockets?
I'm working on a SciFi story set roughly in 2100 that takes place both on the moon and Mars. One plot point hinges on terraforming Mars, the biggest stumbling block being its lack of water and ...
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Why not land near the poles of Mars for extracting water? [duplicate]
It is hard to find ancient life on earth that is over 3 billion years old. Rocks get reworked over time. They get melted and metamorphosed, folded and fractured. Fossil evidence is easily lost.
So in ...
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How much ice is there in the inner asteroid belt?
After asking this question (How long would it take before we use up all the ice in the asteroid belt?)I did some research to find out how much ice there is in the inner asteroid belt (Not the Kuiper ...
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How long would it take before we use up all the ice in the asteroid belt? [closed]
Lets say that we have an interplanetary society using the ice from asteroids to convert it into rocket fuel, how long would it take before we have used up all the ice on the asteroids.
Conditions:
We ...
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Would the reflected sun's radiation melt ice in LEO?
If they tow a big chunk of ice to LEO, shielding from the Sun will be required. My question is, would they have to shield from Earth as well?
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Arctic underwater analogue?
Just want to know if the underneath of the arctic ice sheet is a viable analogue for underwater habitation on the larger moons of the gas giants? (Galilean, large Saturnian)
I feel like it would be a ...
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Ice condensation on an air launched vehicle
Following the recent failure of the Launcher One / 747 air launch from the UK I heard that during the pre-release commentary there was some discussion of the build up of ice and that the 747 was ...
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What will be the most cost-effective way to remove and collect the subsurface ice on Mars?
From NASA's Treasure Map for Water Ice on Mars:
"You wouldn't need a backhoe to dig up this ice. You could use a shovel," said the paper's lead author, Sylvain Piqueux from NASA's Jet ...
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Melting probes in low pressure environment
The icy moons in our solar system Enceladus und Europa are very interesting targets for research because they sport deep oceans of liquid water under their thick shells of ice. But above that icy ...
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Zebulon Scoville "looked up at the video monitors and saw all the ice and thruster firings." Exactly what ice did Scoville see? Why ice? Where?
Gizmodo's The ISS Backflipped Out of Control After Russian Module Misfired, New Details Reveal quotes Zebulon Scoville, the NASA flight director in charge at the time:
“And so at first I was like, ‘...
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How much ice from the most suitable icy moon(let) could a spacecraft, launched with an SLS Block 2, transport to the upper atmosphere of Venus?
When starting to terraform Venus, working people there would have to live first in the upper atmosphere for a long, long time because there are the most Earth like conditions.
But the water there is ...
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How large could manmade, domeshaped caves inside the ice dome in Korolev crater on Mars become without the danger of collapsing?
Would not the right exploitation of the ice dome in Korolev crater be the most economical way to create Earthlike room for living on Mars, if they were safe to use?
With "Earthlike" I mean ...
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Is this white stuff seen by the Mars Phoenix Lander water or carbon dioxide ice?
Source
Here is an image which shows ice is evaporating over time. They use the word "ice".
1st: I'm not sure what they are talking about. Are they talking about the white stuff (like milk) ...
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How hard is the hardest ice in the solar system? Is it in Pluto's ice mountains?
NPR's Pluto Has White-Capped Mountains, But Not Because There's Snow includes the following:
"Initially, it seemed logical that this high-altitude frost could form like on the Earth," says ...
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Choosing a specific region to live on Mars, how important will the degree of dust there be, compared with the availability of water?
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
The map above shows underground water ice on Mars, it's from the article NASA's Treasure Map for Water Ice on Mars.
The blue and purple represent water ice less than 30 ...
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Do penitentes predicted on Europa only apply to snow-covered areas and not bare ice?
This answer to What would ice-skating be like on Europa? cautions that it might be difficult because there may be penitentes which Wikipedia explains are snow formations. It links to EarthSky.org's ...
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Where exactly are those eight steep slopes on Mars revealing structures of buried ice?
Credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA/USGS
The image above is from Phys.org's article Steep slopes on Mars reveal structure of buried ice that I came upon by the link in a comment from @Mark Adler after his ...
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Would it be possible to send a nuclear bomb to Europa and make a hole in the ice of more than 11 km?
The idea is to carry an atomic bomb in an orbiter and throw it towards the surface, would it be plausible?
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Would snow fall on the surface of Mars because of uncovering the ice deposit in Utopia Planitia?
In 2016 a large ice deposit was found within the Utopia Planitia region on Mars by the SHARAD instrument on board of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The thickness of the deposit ranges from about 80 ...
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Why were there so many icicles in this Space Shuttle launch area? (Challenger disaster)
The blogpost Lessons From NASA Disasters: When Curiosity Deficits Kill is about the importance of freedom of curiosity for members of organizations. However it contains many Space Shuttle-related ...
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How tall are Pluto's mountains? Are they the tallest ice features in the Solar System?
See also Just how steep are Pluto's tallest ice mountains?
The Gizmodo article It Looks Like Pluto Has a Liquid Water Ocean shows a large image of Pluto with obliquely lit peaks near both the ...
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Which would be more prone to regolith-ice-melting issues, a rover's wheels or an astronaut's boots?
This answer to Has NASA “gone south”? Why are astronauts needed to explore the Moon's south pole? and the question What would happen if an Apollo astronaut landed on Pluto? both touch on issues of ...
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How old is the oldest water ice in Mars' polar caps?
Mars has permanent water ice caps at both poles, which are seasonally covered by carbon dioxide ice.
What knowledge do we have regarding the age of the oldest ice in those caps?
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Has the HP$^3$ on the Insight lander actually a probe to detect water and ice in the subsurface of Mars?
The Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP$^3$) is a science instrument onboard the Insight lander that features a self-penetrating probe to determine how heat flows inside Mars.
Nicknamed "the ...
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Would a large impactor on an ice moon cause a thinning of the ice surface?
While it has not been confirmed, Callisto (Jupiter IV) could potentially have a small subsurface ocean below a thick ~100 km ice layer, according to Wikipedia. A mission to explore that ocean might ...
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If there is actual ice on the moon, why hasn't it sublimated?
The Ars Technica article NASA seeks industry help with lunar landings, potentially sample return discusses the potential value of ice on the moon as a source for fuel in future space missions.
Ice ...
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What forms of water ice have been observed and verified in the solar system?
The cool plot in this answer (from here) got me thinking about the more than sixteen distinct forms of ice, and how many of them have been actually seen to occur naturally in the solar system.
There ...
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Where do ice giants contain ice?
There is a class of planets called ice giants. Let's talk about Neptune. The top layer is atmosphere, consisting of hydrogen and helium. The amount of these gases is about 10% but they produce high ...
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What are the droplets/particles falling off rockets at launch?
In this picture from the AsiaSat 6 launch by Falcon 9 on 8th September 2014, the part of the rocket between the fairing and the engine appears to be surrounded by dust, water droplets or debris:
And ...
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What about gathering water ice from Saturn's rings?
Saturn's rings are almost pure water ice in nice manageable chunks from specks to boulders a few meters across. Assuming there is something truly useful to do with it - once again talking about ...
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