No matter how many different tests I take, how many questions they have, or what the questions are, I always turn out INTJ. Sigh.
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About Me
- barbylon
- I'm a research scientist working on rocks from the Moon, Earth, Mars, and asteroids. I'm a geologist by training, so I use my geological eye on mystery rocks to try to understand their home planets without going there. But I would love to go there! I have to make do by being on the Athena science team for the Mars Exploration Rovers and seeing Mars through the rovers' eyes - and planning for robotic exploration of the Moon.
1 comment:
Since I've had a crappy week, I think you should feel sorry for me and take a swing at some of these questions, even though hardly any of them have anything to do with planetary science. Feel free to make shit up if you don’t know the answer.
In case you forgot, I am the ultra witty, super cool, "Dude in the Back" (yes I am aware that my name is just one letter away from being “dud in the back” thank you very much.)
Riddle me this Science Girl,
I know it is outside of your bailiwick, but why is it that we seem to be confined to the use of solar power for our Mars probes. The Apollo missions used a nuclear power source for the dune buggy like rover vehicle right?
If power and weight is such a big concern why not just send up an atomic battery? I know that containment of the nuclear material in the event of a malfunction is most likely an issue. But heck, we certainly have containers that could withstand a pretty catastrophic re-entry.
For that matter, how about an orbiting solar array that could collect energy year round from the sun and then beam it down to mars in the form of microwaves or something to power rovers.
OK, I admit it. I just pulled that last one from the dark side of my moon, but seriously, everyone knows that what NASA and you big brains come up with to solve space problems today, ends up solving my problems tomorrow. Right now my problem is three bucks plus for a gallon of gas and a paranoid, three legged cat named "shifty" who thinks zombies are going to attack us any day now. So, any inside scoop on power solutions for future missions would be appreciated.
Riddle me this Science Girl,
I saw a flash animation of the phoenix (don’t even get me started on that, check some of my old replies) mission and I could have sworn that I saw a green laser shooting up into the air from the probe.
Does this mean that NASA has finally embraced the dark side of the force? Oh, wait, is green part of the dark side? Not sure.
Anyway, the question is, when will NASA join the broadband revolution and get some high speed internet connections for their interplanetary probes?
Lasers seem like a good way to get more bandwidth and speed.
Riddle me this Science Girl,
I just read an article about using geothermal power to … well power the planet.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070804/ap_on_sc/drilling_for_heat;_ylt=AjvFzIDtqIn2aRl98jpXkE.s0NUE
So my question is, what happens if the entire planet goes to Geothermal? Won’t we have a problem because we are cooling off our planet’s core? What happens if the earth's core cools? Won’t we lose our magnetic shield that protects us from the sun’s radiation and Klingon attacks?
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