Topic awaiting preservation: Proposal' For Sending Probe To Earth's Core

I'm not sure what i think about this idea - Caltech Planetary Scientist Has 'Modest Proposal' For Sending Probe To Earth's Core

I mean, it does sound interesting...and it looks feasible. I guess I'm just concerned over the idea itself - opening a crack in the Earth? Is that wise?

I mean, more than likely, we'll have a new Volcano on our hands...or something worse...or maybe I just don't understand the mechanics good enough. Anybody else?

It sounds like utter bollocks. I'm sure he has planned this meticulously but the article is a lot of vague hand waving. A probe would 'ride along' with the metal? Hmmmmmmmm. Creating a crack a few hundred metres deep with a nuke and just dropping molten iron in? Double hmmmmmmmmmm.

I assume it would be safe as the weight of the earth tends to close over holes (why deep drilling becomes difficult) are the molten metal would seal itself up as it progesses.

Its an interesting idea but even if it is low risk I'd rather he tried it on someone else's planet as I'm rather fond of this one

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

They interviewed this guy on the radio last night, heard it on my ride home from work.
The interviewer specifically asked him if this was a 'serious' plan or just a 'mental excercise'. He answered that it was, indeed, just a mental excercise. He admitted he didn't have the details worked out and that this was the roughest of rough sketches. He hoped it would inspire some scientists decades from now to contempate the issue.
Sounds kinda fun, but nothing that we're likely to see in the near future.
It was a pretty good interview.

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would inspire some scientists decades from now

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... ahh yes... reminds me of those archaic ideas of sending people to the moon in a cannon ball.

but the proposal... well yea it sounds fun. maybe we'd find some underground civilization which feeds off our energy and sends volcanos up so we dont get ideas like this one : )

One thing I missed was the sheer amount of iron they are going to use - it would require all the foundries in the world working for a week to produce that much and how exactly would you keep thousands (even millions) of tonnes of iron molten? It is supposed to fill a crack hundreds of metres deep - that is a serious volume. I can't see how it is practical.

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Now that was what I was also thinking Emps...how to keep it molten. That's one hell of a lot of iron! The energy needed to keep it in a molten state...it boogles the mind. Maybe a lot of high-powered lasers?

wait a second I just saw this movie



.:[ Never resist a perfect moment ]:.

lol, i was just about to say, right in time for the movie ...
as for how they will keep it molten:
"the molten reservoir's sheer size would stop it solidifying before it is poured into the ground"
Nature.com

the thing that scares me is this "it would take a blast equivalent to several megatonnes of TNT, an earthquake of magnitude 7 on the Richter scale, or a nuclear device".. to create the crack in the earth

what are the implications of such a large explosion in terms of the shifting crust of the earth and furthermore how would introducing all this extra iron into the core effect the planet, no one has any idea, i think the possible catastrophes created will inevitably outwiegh any possible scientific gain.

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from article - Now he has a modest proposal he'd like to swing by some government agency with a few billion dollars in available funding.

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It just sounds like some scientist trying to get grant money so he can become rich...

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Also from article - Through the sheer force of its weight, the iron will create a continuing crack that will open all the way to the planet's core 3,000 kilometers below.

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This is perhaps the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Who would ever want to do this. This will never happen anyway. What kind of idiot would think that this is safe? Hopefully the government agency will realize how idioticly dangerous this is.


.quotes.

sheer force of its weight?

it's weight really wouldnt be that much as it approached the centre of the earth....

anyways... i think a far more sensible idea would be to send some sort of probe down a live volcano... the crack in the earth is already created for you...

[This message has been edited by reitsma (edited 05-16-2003).]

"Journey to the Center of the Earth" all over again...

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"anyways... i think a far more sensible idea would be to send some sort of probe down a live volcano... the crack in the earth is already created for you..."
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sure.... do it the easy way. Just remember, nobody likes a freeloader.

I won't even touch any of the "crack" jokes.

Ok, reitsma - enough filth from you!

I don't want to hear any more about who's crack you'll be sticking probes into...

{{edit - damn you norm...slipped in just ahead of me and ruined my pre-pubescent fun =( }}

[This message has been edited by DL-44 (edited 05-16-2003).]

jamie: sure, you won't hear another thing about me and my probes.

sure, you may feel something, but that's another story altogether.

whoops! i dropped my pills - could you pick them up for me mate?

*snaps on latex gloves*

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"the molten reservoir's sheer size would stop it solidifying before it is poured into the ground"

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But it would still have to be smelted once...that's still a lot of energy...how would one do this?

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anyways... i think a far more sensible idea would be to send some sort of probe down a live volcano... the crack in the earth is already created for you...

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Unfortunately volcanos' cracks arent nearly that deep.

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But it would still have to be smelted once...that's still a lot of energy...how would one do this?

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- the dude says the technology is available for such an undertaking... why not trust his word - he's a professor after all: )

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This is perhaps the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Who would ever want to do this. This will never happen anyway. What kind of idiot would think that this is safe? Hopefully the government agency will realize how idioticly dangerous this is.

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-- didn't they say something like that every time someone came up with a revolutionary thought which would eventually change the way we live and see things? Simplest example - atoms. There was this guy, named Democritus in ancient Greece, who thought that things were composed of tiny indivisible particles, and there was another guy named Zeno, which thought you could divide matter forever... and there was yet another guy, named Aristotle (or was it Plato ? : ), who liked Zeno's idea, and for the next 2 thousand years people thought that matter is continuous, that is can be divided infinitely many times... go figure...