Martian 'Quicksand'

[bbjohn]

This reminds of the sci-fi stories about the spaceship landing on an alien world and one of the intrepid explorers (preferably female) getting stuck in quicksand or some other interplanetary peril.

Maybe we should call on our friend from Looney Tunes, Marvin Martian. He could probably get the thing lose with his aludium Q36 explosive space modulator.

Big Bad John

[water_bug_62208]

This reminds of the sci-fi stories about the spaceship landing on an alien world and one of the intrepid explorers (preferably female) getting stuck in quicksand or some other interplanetary peril.

Maybe we should call on our friend from Looney Tunes, Marvin Martian. He could probably get the thing lose with his aludium Q36 explosive space modulator.

Big Bad John

(Marvin the Martian comes upon Spirit, its metal wheels churning up the planet surface)

"What on Mars is this?"

(With rapid footsteps he moves around to inspect the opposite side)

"Oh, my, those dreaded Earthlings have deposited one of those primitive, automated techno-geek contraptions upon MY planet! OH, this makes me ANGRY! Very, very ANGRY!"

(With rapid footsteps Marvin moves back to the other side, fuming and pissed as anger fills his eyes)

"And it's tearing up this once pristine surface! I'll fix that!"

(With rapid footsteps Marvin dashes off into the distance and vanishes over the horizon. He then quickly returns with something in his hand)

"The Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator shall do the trick!"

(Marvin places the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator upon Spirit, lights the fuse, then turns around with his eyes closed and his fingers in his ears. Soon the fuse reaches the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator and fizzles out. Marvin looks up confused at the delay of his operation)

"Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth shattering kaboom?"

(Marvin turns around and is startled by the fact that Spirit is still there intact and the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator has yet to detonate)

"The Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator! It's a dud! Delays, delays! OH, this makes me ANGRY!"

(With rapid footsteps and clenched fists, Marvin moves to the opposite side of Spirit)

"Very, very ANGRY!"

[PM2K]

Classic!

[Duncan Edwards]

You may not be aware of this - An official NASA mission patch for Mars Rover Spirit. Marvin and the nerdherd at JPL go back a long way.

[water_bug_62208]

You may not be aware of this - An official NASA mission patch for Mars Rover Spirit. Marvin and the nerdherd at JPL go back a long way.

(Marvin the Martian is having a conniption as he fumes over the failure of the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator to detonate and rid his planet of this piece of Earthling junk)

"Now I must go back and retrieve yet another Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator... and they're not cheap!"

(With rapid footsteps Marvin dashes off into the distance and vanishes over the horizon. He then quickly returns with something in his hand. Huffing and puffing, he places the new Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator upon Spirit.)

"Delays, delays! At least the expiration date on this Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator is still good."

(Marvin lights the fuse then turns around with his eyes tightly closed and his fingers in his ears. Suddenly, his eyes open wide. He spins around and takes a closer look at Spirit's surface.)

"OH MY! I must stop the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator from imminent detonation into an Earth shattering kaboom!"

(Wetting the tips of his index finger and thumb, Marvin pinches the sizzling fuse and snuffs it out, thus aborting the operation)

"Lookie here!"

(Marvin studies a round image painted upon Spirit. The image features Marvin himself.)

"It's me!"

(In the image, Marvin is standing tall at attention with a stern look in his eyes. He's rendering a salute in support of a mission. Around his likeness are the words, "Mars Exploration Rover-A *** NASA * Boeing * JPL * Cornell". A look of pleasure, graditude, and pride comes to his eyes.)

"Oh, goodie! What an honor! 'Red Planet Gladiators.' I like the sound of that!"

(Then a look of concern comes across his eyes)

"Wait a minute! I didn't authorize this! My manager never spoke to me about sponsoring a primitive, Earthling space project! How dare they put my picture on this contraption without my permission! Where are the royalties! OH, this makes me ANGRY!"

(With rapid footsteps and clenched fists, Marvin moves to the opposite side of Spirit)

"Very, very ANGRY!"

[bbjohn]

Water Bug, I didn't realize you were such a Looney Tunes fan. I'd love to have seen what Chuck Jones, Mel Blanc, and the great layout artist, Maurice Noble, would've done with your little script. It was very imaginative and very, very funny.

Duncan, I'm glad to see the geeks at NASA have a sense of humor. It would be interesting to see a sci-fit themed quicksand scene. I did a Star Trek-themed quicksand drawing in the "Drawings" section. Maybe a sci-fi theme is something for you to consider in the future. Just a thought.

Big Bad John

[water_bug_62208]

Oh, yeah, grew up with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Marvin the Martian, Speedy Gonzales, Wile E. Coyote, and the Roadrunner back before they edited those cartoons to remove the so called "violent parts" to ensure they were "politically correct."

[Electric Katfish]

"Wait a minute! I didn't authorize this! My manager never spoke to me about sponsoring a primitive, Earthling space project! How dare they put my picture on this contraption without my permission! Where are the royalties! OH, this makes me ANGRY!"

(With rapid footsteps and clenched fists, Marvin moves to the opposite side of Spirit)

"Very, very ANGRY!"

"fre-ed! I think we have the story idea to shoot at you Studio 588 quicksand convention!!!"

[QuicksandMania]

I work in the American human space flight program and saw a presentation last month about lunar surface soil called "regolith" and its properties. Current notions hold that during solar system formation billions of years ago, a large body crashed into the forming Earth, causing part of it to detach and orbit the Earth and eventually become our Moon. Surface samples of the Moon support this hypothesis because of similar soil composition. Evidently, there are places on Earth that have soil virtually identical to regolith. Orbital mechanic also supports this hypothesis as it explains why the Moon orbits the Earth and has the orbital and rotational speeds it does. We would not be here if not for the Moon because it stabilizes the Earth's rotation and keeps its axis from "wobbling" and creating radical climate changes that would make survival of higher order life forms as we know them impossible.

The young lady giving the presentation was a very attractive American college intern of Middle Eastern descent studying civil engineering. She talked at length about the unusual properties of regolith, including its somewhat dangerous property, if not fully settled, of collapsing suddenly underfoot and swallowing a person's leg to the knee. She was on her first day with her team in the desert area where construction excavators had dumped this Earthly regolith, free for the taking. She had climbed a mound of this material and walked around a bit when it happened! She fell into the material up to her knee and got stuck, stuck, stuck. The material had gone instantly from powder loose to concrete tight like a vise. Her teammates took still photographs of others spending over twenty minutes digging her from this dry sand trap. (She made these part of her presentation.) She lost her shoe so they dug that from the remaining hole, too. Because of its action of transforming instantly from loose to tight after swallowing a leg without warning, she said it was like -- you guessed it -- "quicksand." She had some video footage of herself and another team member attempting to climb the mound and sort of getting stuck, but nothing so dramatic as the story which was not recorded live.

Apparently this had happened to a man some months earlier who was there alone. Luckily, he had his radio and was able to call for help. One of the mentors in the audience commented that it was fortunate that it only collapsed knee deep and not neck deep. (Apparently it never gets that loose.) This material has had billions of years to settle on the Moon but fresh craters may have this problem along the edges and pose a hazard for astronauts.

I knew this young lady from two summers ago when she worked in my building. So after the talk, I teased her that she should post her video to YouTube as "Cool Stuff I Do for the Space Program." But she declined, stating that she kept a healthy mistrust of the Internet in deference to her privacy -- smart girl. She said she would send her presentation to me and others who requested it but then I never saw it. My brother works as a civil engineer and is a space buff and would have enjoyed reading it. Oh, well.

Regolith can be heated to melting with large solar lenses to make fine landing pads and berms suitable for future human outposts.

[nachtjaeger]

Interesting!

BTW, in research for my second job, I came across the interesting properties of Ilmenite. It's a titanium-iron oxide ore (FeTiO3) that is found both here and on the moon. When you break it down (need lots of electricity and some fairly high-tech equipment) you get titanium, iron- and oxygen! Between that, and the water ice they found up there, no reason we humans can't live there. And now it looks like Spirit found it on Mars, also.