It's not April the 1st is it ????

[John]

Rather odd story from the BBC regarding Martian Terraforming by an amateur using a laser

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-hampshire-54930207

 

 

[Knighty2112]

Might help to explain what the plight of the 43 year old space treaty is?

[Knighty2112]

OK, watched video and it explains briefly what the issue is.

[Jonk]

Hmmm...firstly, 3500W laser?! No chance. He'd be arrested.

Secondly, by the time it reaches Mars, the beam diameter would be huge, and the amount of radiation hitting Mars (even if he was aligned perfectly) would be lost in the sun's radiation.

Also, blue wavelength would not do anything to generate CO2.

My source? I work with laser experts!

[JamesF]

41 minutes ago, Jonk said:

Hmmm...firstly, 3500W laser?! No chance. He'd be arrested.

Secondly, by the time it reaches Mars, the beam diameter would be huge, and the amount of radiation hitting Mars (even if he was aligned perfectly) would be lost in the sun's radiation.

Also, blue wavelength would not do anything to generate CO2.

My source? I work with laser experts!

I thought it all sounded rather implausible myself.

James

[John]

45 minutes ago, JamesF said:

I thought it all sounded rather implausible myself.

James

Me too.

 

[Ouroboros]

3,500 milliwatts sounds more like it.  

[JamesF]

3 minutes ago, Ouroboros said:

3,500 milliwatts sounds more like it.  

Even so, I suspect that the chances of anything getting to Mars are a million to one.

James

[haitch]

11 minutes ago, JamesF said:

Even so, I suspect that the chances of anything getting to Mars are a million to one.

James

... but still it goes

[wimvb]

9 hours ago, JamesF said:

Even so, I suspect that the chances of anything getting to Mars are a million to one.

James

Sshh, don't let Musk or NASA hear you. 😉

[Kimboman]

Hi I thought I saw a light dancing across Mars the other night , now this explains it

[JamesF]

10 hours ago, haitch said:

... but still it goes

Ah, well, as any Pratchett reader knows, the laws of Narrative Causality mean million-to-one shots come up nine times out of ten.

Rather pleasantly, whilst confirming my recollection of this, I came across a quote from "The Science of Discworld":

    "humans seem to need to project a kind of interior decoration on to the universe"

I believe the concept of the universe having an "interior decorator" may have been one that Pratchett borrowed from John Dobson, who often spoke of such.

James

[ash73]

I can just imagine a Martian cat going crazy trying to catch the red dot.

He'd have to aim precisely where Mars will be in 275 seconds. I bet he's pointing it directly at where Mars is now...

[wimvb]

3 hours ago, ash73 said:

I can just imagine a Martian cat going crazy trying to catch the red dot.

He'd have to aim precisely where Mars will be in 275 seconds. I bet he's pointing it directly at where Mars is now...

Imagine how frantically that cat is jumping.

[Jonk]

16 hours ago, ash73 said:

I can just imagine a Martian cat going crazy trying to catch the red dot.

He'd have to aim precisely where Mars will be in 275 seconds. I bet he's pointing it directly at where Mars is now...

The laser wouldn’t be a dot, in fact it wouldn’t be seen at all, the diameter would be huge.

 

[DaveL59]

you'd have to wonder how much energy would be lost in our atmosphere and what effect that'd have on atmospheric conditions, ozone etc., not to mention wings being cut off passing aircraft (tho the boing 737 max may not reliably reach altitude so less likely to be impacted)

[nephilim]

I'd quite like to know the address of his practice to know where to avoid if I ever move to Hampshire 😬