Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Ants on Mars


Had this idea to send a probe to Mars (or maybe one of Saturn's Moons) containing very special cargo.

On the left is a basic sketch of the main components. Basically it's three equidistant pressurized spheres, each containing different elements, chiefly Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Water (The "H" in the drawing should be an "O").

The Teardrop is detailed in the rough sketch below.






The idea being that the probe would impact the Martian soil like a lawn dart. The tip would then open allowing the ants access beneath the surface of the planet. Climactic / atmospheric control would be provided by periodically injecting combinations of pressurized elements into a low pressure mixing chamber resting atop the thriving ant colony.

Other chambers would be present to release small amounts of fungal spores, bacteria, and maybe ant approved protein pellets. Solar windows would heat the mixture, and a solar panel would provide power to the computer controlled pressure regulators.

Ideally it would be planted within range of the Mars Rover so that the results might be observed.

Is this at all plausible? Entirely ridiculous? I invite your feedback!


1 comment:

  1. Mars can get as cold as 191 degrees below zero. In the summer, the temperature on Mars only reaches about 24 degrees below zero. You may want to design a heating system of some kind.

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