Europe, Japan send spacecraft on 7-year journey to Mercury

Very cool. God speed.

When I was much younger, I thought that the names of space programme missions, such as Mercury, Apollo, and Gemini actually went, with people, to the planet Mercury, Apollo (planet, constellation - wasn't sure when I was young), and the constellation Gemini. Someone corrected me and I felt like we had gone 300 years backwards.

Still waiting on that moon colony and mars colony promised for 1997 and 2012, respectively.

Looking forward to seeing the results of the mission to Mercury.

juminRheeOct. 20 07:54 pm JSTStill waiting on that moon colony and mars colony promised for 1997 and 2012, respectively.

It all takes time and we need to do more research so that when we do have colonies on the Moon and Mars, we'll be doing it right. We need to find the best places on these places to establish settlements.

'...it's going to take patience and time. Yeaa-ah, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it right!'

                                                                GEORGE HARRISON  

1glennOct. 20 09:43 pm JSTLooking forward to seeing the results of the mission to Mercury.

Many sci-fy stories and movies had romantic fantasy movies about the planet Venus - lovely exotic women and all that jive. We now know by space probes that Venus ain't a planet hospitable to Earth life at all! And Mercury has a 59-hour day and an 88-day week! There's plenty that we've learned already from this - via space probes, and there's more to learn that we can benefit from.

smithinjapanOct. 20 07:26 pm JSTVery cool. God speed.

Yes, very cool indeed. It's cool to see European nations and Japan working together on a mission like this in the interests of science which is beneficial for all. God speed!

59-hour day and an 88-day week

Blimey. That's a long week. If there's ever a Japan outpost on Mercury, you can be sure they will still need to work a lot of overtime.

Up next Venus. But Venus' surface is not only hot enough to melt lead, but it's also shrouded in sulfuric acid. So:

"NASA plan for a ‘cloud city’ made of airships floating over Venus"

https://www.yahoo.com/news/nasa-plan-cloud-city-made-airships-floating-venus-115411050.html

Yeah, this is going to be interesting. I wonder why Mercury is shrinking.

lostrune2Today 08:29 am JSTUp next Venus. But Venus' surface is not only hot enough to melt lead, but it's also shrouded in sulfuric acid. So:

"NASA plan for a ‘cloud city’ made of airships floating over Venus"

https://www.yahoo.com/news/nasa-plan-cloud-city-made-airships-floating-venus-115411050.html

That would still be a toughie because the cloud city would have to encased altogether in a hermetically sealed container containing nitrogen and oxygen. That's even harder than what we see with the Cloud City of the planet Bespin in 'The Empire Strikes Back'.