Mercury Would be a Surprising Good Location to Colonize
I am rather surprised by how much sense colonizing Mercury makes. Unlike Venus and Mars it has a natural magnetosphere. It's gravity is relatively as close to Earth's as Mars. There is plenty of raw material and energy that could be harvested. Not just the obvious solar since Mercury is close to the sun. Mercury has an active core so geothermal energy is possible and thermocouples could take advantage of the temperature differences between the day and night side. A large Stirling engine could be set up.
Most likely colonies would be set up underground but if the solar wind was blocked an atmosphere could be added to make it more like Earth. Without an atmosphere there is no aerobraking but a kind of reverse mass driver could magnetically leach out the deceleration of a craft landing along a track. Regular mass drivers could easily send out cargo.
I really hate all that sunlight but there are plenty of workarounds. Maybe I'd be a colonist on Mercury if it were done right. I wasn't expecting to have that be my takeaway when I began watching the video but I got to that point.
This report was published via Actifit app (Android | iOS). Check out the original version here on actifit.io
Comments