My plan for Venus

Culture a ton of that, load it onto a rocket with a dispersal system and disperse it into the atmosphere.
 
Better yet, set up a moon base for manufacturing rockets and helium 3 (in the soil, great rocket fuel) and send one ever 1-2 months for a decade or two, then go out to the asteroid belt and mine a ton more raw materials and get an automated production facility pumping out rockets full of that extremophile and just keep hurling them at venus... it'll eat up all the co2, and generate absurd amounts of bio-fuel... just collecting on the surface until the co2 is considerably reduced and you can just land.
 
Better yet, find/engineer one that eats up the carbon and just releases oxygen.... It'd be a super oxygen rich environment after a while (you'd have to do it way past the 20% that Earth has because you'd need to reduce the pressure and subsequent temperature the CO2 is making but meh)... Venus is 96.5% co2 and only 3.5% where Earth is 78% nitrogen 20.95% oxygen and CO2 is only .03% so you probably could go colonize it BUT if you could reduce the pressure and heat I'm sure there are depoits of all the ores you'd find on earth you'd need for construction. Also deuterium and hydrogen in the atmosphere in greater quantities than here.
 
Generate the oxygen, combine with hydrogen... water. Set up work colonies, mine, refine, fabricate metals and parts you could launch into orbit using oxygen rockets or even biofuel. Lots of sulfuric acid so you can make fertilizers for the work colonies also use it in production of explosives for the mining operations.
 
It'd give us excellent skill with working on a foreign planet, not to mention give us materials (while of course we are mining the asteroid belt too, more material out there than 100, hell 1000 earth's)... then I'm sure you find something in the soil you could convert to nitrogen and turn it into Earth 2 (if in fact Earth isn't Venus 2)... Mars will never be an option as the atmosphere is just gone.
 
As we continue to mine stuff in the asteroid field and work towards FTL propulsion or at least near speed of light (which we can already due with nukes, look at Project Orion)... we'd have materials to build massive ships, probes, sattelites etc to start spreading around our solar system and sending out of it. Not to mention we could jsut produce giant ships in orbit near Earth and the Moon, near Venus and Mars that could be life boats, as well as look like a giant navy in the event hostile ET's show up and see these massive ships parked around the planets that might make them think twice about attacking us (we could also load them with massive projectiles made from mined asteroids as massive impact weapons to use against invading enemies like in the Lost Fleet Series)...

Senator Lugar responds to PIPA and SOPA

Contacted him saying to stop them dead in their tracks... here is his reply.

 

 

Dear Mr. Mercer:

 

Thank you for sharing with me your opposition to proposals such as S. 968, the Protect IP Act of 2011, and H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act.  I share many of the concerns that were raised about this legislation.

 

As you may know, Majority Leader Reid indefinitely postponed Senate consideration of the Protect IP Act.

 

The widespread use of digital media is still a relatively new phenomenon, and the law has not caught up with all the capabilities available to anyone with a computer and Internet access.  This has prompted a vigorous debate on how digital copyrights should be protected, particularly with respect to the ongoing conflict between the rights of artists and producers to protect their intellectual property versus the recognized right of consumers to make recordings for personal use.

 

While I believe that we must ensure the continuing integrity of our important copyright laws both domestically and abroad, I agree that enforcement must take place in a manner that protects the rights of all parties involved.  I will continue to closely follow this issue.  Again, thank you for contacting me.

 


                              
                              Sincerely,


                                                            Richard G. Lugar
                                                            United States Senator

This week in space

in

New super-earth detected within the habitable zone of a nearby star

Too bad it's 22 light years away and not say 3 or 4. Project Orion could get us there well within an acceptable amount of time if it was 3-4, but nooo no one wants to do it.

An international team of scientists has discovered a potentially habitable super-Earth orbiting a nearby star. With an orbital period of about 28 days and a minimum mass 4.5 times that of the Earth, the planet orbits within the star’s “habitable zone,” where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on the planet’s surface. The researchers found evidence of at least one and possibly two or three additional planets orbiting the star, which is about 22 light-years from Earth.

Read more HERE

 

Russia sets its sights on the moon for 2020

Good, now lets start a cold war with them again so we go back too! I swear, war is the only way we will achieve more space exploration via governments, fortunately private space industry is growing ever day.

Looks like Republican Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich might have some competition if he wants to be the first to build a base on the Moon. Last week, the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos announced plans to put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade with a lunar base as its next step.  

Read more HERE

 

Classic portrait of a barred spiral galaxy

Here is your beautiful photo for the week.

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1073, which is found in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster). Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is a similar barred spiral, and the study of galaxies such as NGC 1073 helps astronomers learn more about our celestial home.

Read more HERE

Pick a Name

Vote on my hypothetical son's name. Acheron Parthenopaeus Mercer, Lorcan Ryan Mercer, Jackford Mark Mercer, Ryan Carl Mercer II, Elwood Mark Mercer, Felix Mark Mercer, Grundy Mark Mercer, Wayne Mark Mercer, Tristan Mark Mercer, Mark Tristan Mercer, Rex Mundi Mercer, Axis Mundi Mercer  (Jackford, Mark, Elwood, Felix, Wayne and Grundy are family names)

Indiana: Senate Votes Unanimously to Pass Charity Gaming Legislation Crucial to Friends of NRA Events!

Yesterday, the Indiana Senate voted unanimously to pass Senate Bill 315, authored by state Senator Randy Head (R-18).  Following the vote, this bill was sent to the state House.  SB 315 will streamline the licensing and reporting process for charity gaming events, such as Friends of NRA banquets, by:

1.  Establishing one comprehensive charity gaming license for national organizations and foundations for use by their local affiliates;

2.  Removing the current six to nine week application process and requiring in its place a 21-day notification to the Indiana Gaming Commission prior to an event; and

3.  Allowing qualified organizations and foundations to "police their own" by removing requirements to turn over volunteers' personal information to the Indiana Gaming Commission.

These policy changes would greatly improve the ability of Friends of NRA committees to comply with Indiana charitable gaming laws in a timely and less cumbersome fashion, while protecting the personal information of Friends of NRA volunteers.

As many NRA members well know, Friends of NRA banquets play a critical role in raising grant money to support education, safety, and training programs in communities across the Hoosier State, such as the Boy Scouts, 4H clubs, and local law enforcement groups. Unfortunately, some Friends of NRA chapters had difficulties holding banquets in 2011, which resulted in a net loss of approximately $100,000 in money that cannot be used for these Indiana groups.

Your NRA will keep you updated on the status of SB 315 as it moves through the House.

Please remember to send a note of thanks to Senator Randy Head for authoring this important bill, and to thank your senator for his or her support!

To contact Senator Randy Head, please click here.

 

Contact information for your senator can be found by clicking here.