Surf Mars!

Surf_marsOkay, you won’t be able to do it any time soon.

I mean, Virgin Galactic and its competitors haven’t gotten off the groundplanet yet, and there’s all that terraforming that would have to be done, but it looks like the raw materials are there for a totally tubular Martian vacation.

We’ve known for some time that Mars has water on it, but until recently we haven’t known how much.

Now there are reports that Mars’ polar caps–if melted–would provide enough liquid water to cover the planet with an ocean 36 feet deep.

That would be if the planet’s surface were totally smooth, which it isn’t, of course, so what you’d get is patches of land poking up through the water–islands and stuff (Olympus Mons would probably be a continent)–and that means just one thing . . .

BEACHES!

Lots and lots of red sand beaches.

Oh, and there’s one other thing you’ll need for really good surfing on a terraformed Mars: a big moon to cause tidal forces. Phobos and Deimos just won’t cut it. So we’ll need to tow into orbit a really big hunk o’rock that some other planet isn’t using. Maybe one of the Jovian sattelites or something.

Just think of the interesting wave dynamics that would be possible with Mars’ lower gravity. I’m imagining really big curls or something.

In the meantime,

GET THE STORY.

P.S. The story also says that they’ve detected traces of possible liquid water on Mars right now–a possible habitat for microbial life, so be sure and get your shots before you go.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

37 thoughts on “Surf Mars!”

  1. Would you float better there due to the lower gravity? Or is bouyancy due to density? And how long will it be before the Martian Global Warming causes the ice caps to totally melt?

  2. “The story also says that they’ve detected traces of possible liquid water on Mars right now”
    Could this liquid be the mysterious, mind-altering substance known as… beer?

  3. And how long will it be before the Martian Global Warming causes the ice caps to totally melt?
    Just what is the ideal temperature for Mars anyway?

  4. TIMESHARE PROPERTIES ON MARS AVAILABLE
    By the way, for GW survivors, I have a few timeshares left for the fair market value price of $1.6 million Latinum. CHEAP!

  5. I wonder about surfing on mercury: the liquid metal, that is. Do we have any clever computer-game programmers here who could knock out a basic simulation of extraterrestrial surfing?

  6. Not to knock a fun post, but why are tides necessary for good surfing? Waves are created by wind (generally far off shore storms make the best surfing waves I hear).

  7. Simple, Christine tSM; global warming on Mars is caused by SUVs sent there by Halliburton.

  8. that’s Gold-Pressed Latinum!
    [slaps forehead] doh!
    (Hey, it’s been awhile since I’ve seen a ST or ST-spinoff episode!)

  9. You all are asking your Mars questions on the wrong website and to the wrong experts!
    For REAL information you need to go to http://www.arnoldswartzenegger.marsvacations.com
    He’s a Mars specialist, been there, and knows even the good vacation spots and restaurants!
    ..that is..if I’m totally recalling everything correctly!

  10. Even if you manage to melt the polar caps to make nice beaches, I think promoting Martian vacation packages will still be a very tough sell. Mars simply lacks the atmosphere that one finds at the better terrestrial vacation spots.

  11. Not a fan of Robinson’s Mars books. Whether the geology, the politics, or the sociology.

  12. Jimmy, that red stuff is basically rock flour or dried clay. The sand dunes (as opposed to dust drifts, which are yellowish-reddish) of Mars appear to be mostly blue-grey, at least in Terra Meridiani and Gusev Crater. I would expect black volcanic sands, and green olivine sands as well, and the hand lenses on the Lewis and Clarke rovers look like regular quartz sand.

  13. Atmosphere of Mars
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Carbon dioxide 95.32%
    Nitrogen 2.7%
    Argon 1.6%
    Oxygen 0.13%
    Carbon monoxide 0.07%
    Water vapor 0.03%
    Nitric oxide 0.013%
    Neon 2.5 ppm
    Krypton 300 ppb
    Formaldehyde 130 ppb[1]
    Xenon 80 ppb
    Ozone 30 ppb
    Methane 10.5 ppb
    Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has a very different atmosphere from that of Earth. There has been a lot of interest in studying its composition since the recent detection of a small amount of methane, which may signal life on Mars.
    The atmosphere of Mars is relatively thin; the atmospheric pressure on the surface varies from around 30 Pa (0.03 kPa) on Olympus Mons’s peak to over 1155 Pa (1.155 kPa) in the depths of Hellas Planitia, with a mean surface level pressure of 600 Pa (0.6 kPa), compared to Earth’s 101.3 kPa. However, the scale height of the atmosphere is about 11 km, somewhat higher than Earth’s 6 km. The atmosphere on Mars consists of 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, and contains traces of oxygen and water. The atmosphere is quite dusty, giving the Martian sky a tawny color when seen from the surface; data from the Mars Exploration Rovers indicates the suspended dust particles are roughly 1.5 micrometres across[1].

  14. P.S. The story also says that they’ve detected traces of possible liquid water on Mars right now–a possible habitat for microbial life, so be sure and get your shots before you go.
    IE, don’t drink the water.

  15. So we’ll need to tow into orbit a really big hunk o’rock that some other planet isn’t using.
    You wouldn’t have to go as far as Jupiter; the Asteroid Belt is close enough that you could tow a few into Mars orbit.

  16. Don’t worry. Follow God’s command and populate the Earth. It is for God to see how to hold all the children of the world. Anyways, places like China are just badly distributed.

  17. If Mars were terraformed, and the land saturated with liquid water, wouldn’t it cease to be a dust bowl? I don’t see any reason why an oceanic Mars would have a reddish haze. All that dust would presumably settle out.

  18. If Mars were terraformed, and the land saturated with liquid water, wouldn’t it cease to be a dust bowl?
    If only Steinbeck had a terraformer.

  19. Color calibration based upon the color tables and the flag on the rovers show a sky that ranges from blue to gray. It may be because of movies like Capricorn One that NASA greatly reddens the images, typically by representing the blue filter with magenta. Otherwise, Mars looks -extremely- like Earth from the surface. Enough for people to doubt that the rovers are on Mars.
    The Martian atmosphere is actually saturated with water. So much so that it is highly likely that the surface is moist in the morning hours.
    permafrost blocks groundwater from entering the atmosphere, except in the tropics, where indeed the rovers detect hardpan and sulphate salt deposits a couple inches from the surface, where the water boils away into the atmosphere, leaving the salts behind.
    You wouldn’t want to drink the water because it is not only very briny, it is probably a very acidic brine. I’m not talking lemonade here, but battery-strength stuff. That is why it can be liquid to many tens of degrees below freezing. There are Earth microbes, particularly of the kingdom archaea, which would thrive in those conditions, particularly in the aquifers and caves. Some speculate that they -came- from Mars to start out with.
    I’m very curious as to where the nitrogen went.

  20. Is it possible we are introducing microbes into the Martian environment, via the rovers? I know it’s not likely they would have survived either the trip TO Mars, or the Martian environment, itself, but…

  21. I forgot where I read or heard this (will find out) but some saint said the Moon was full of demons, in which they recomended not to stare at the Moon for extended periods of time, because it could affect us in some way because of it.
    Exorcists sometimes send demons to the Moon, because sending them to Hell is sometimes dificult, but that is the way it should be done.
    Would this apply to Mars?

  22. “I know it’s not likely they would have survived either the trip TO Mars, or the Martian environment, itself, but…”
    Tim, Archaeology magazine recently described the only known instance of interplanetary archaeology – when the Apollo 12 astronauts recovered parts of one of the Surveyor robots from the surface of the moon. Back on earth, scientists found strep on one of the solar panels. Some scientists immediately leapt to the conclusion that strep originally came from outer space; but the explanation was simpler: a tech with a sore throat had coughed onto the panel while he was assembling it.
    Now, that panel had endured temperature swings of nearly 400 degrees F, hard ultraviolet rays, and zero atmosphere for more than two years. Yet the strep were unharmed, and grew immediately when cultured. They’re tough little buggers! We can only hope that everyone who built Spirit and Opportunity covered their mouths when coughing or sneezing.

  23. I forgot where I read or heard this (will find out) but some saint said the Moon was full of demons, in which they recomended not to stare at the Moon for extended periods of time, because it could affect us in some way because of it.
    Some Day:
    Is that how the myth regarding werewolves was born?

  24. Now, that panel had endured temperature swings of nearly 400 degrees F, hard ultraviolet rays, and zero atmosphere for more than two years. Yet the strep were unharmed, and grew immediately when cultured. They’re tough little buggers!
    That bacteria was one heck of an extremophile!

  25. Could be.
    But it is true that devils inhabit the Moon.
    It is full of them. In fact, when they where on the moon, they say that they heard voices.
    Neil supposedly said that they where the muslim chants when he got to Earth.
    And you know what the Bible says:
    Omnes Dii Gentium Sum Demonae…

  26. Some Day:
    Where’d you get that exactly?
    I’m rather curious.
    Also, is:
    Omnes Dii Gentium Sum Demonae…
    correct?

  27. I’m pretty sure the Bible doesn’t say that… “sum” means “I am”. You probably mean “sunt” for “they are”.
    Although you could get some pretty funny translations if you worked with that as written, none are very flattering.

  28. So when can we sign up for the Catholic Answers Apologetics Cruise to Mars, Jimmy? And will Manhunter be one of the featured speakers?

  29. Yeah, but Leah, where’d Some Day get the stuff about demons inhabiting the moon?
    When he said:
    they recomended not to stare at the Moon for extended periods of time, because it could affect us in some way because of it.
    I thought that Some Day was only joking since this seemed to me like the stuff concerning werewolves.
    I think Some Day, from his reply, appears pretty serious about the moon being ihabited by demons though.

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