Part 1:A Cup of Coffee and a Light Speed Tour around the Solar System

Planet Earth is getting boring. You have seen most of the countries and most of the inhabitants and swam beneath the sea, what else is there to do? Admittedly the oceans haven’t been explored to their full extent and some intense exploration needs to be done but sitting down and watching TV you can see most of what goes on, even right at the bottom on the sea floor.

So what’s going on up there beyond the atmosphere? Well, the solar system is being explored very slowly and the stars remain out of reach for now. There is the Hubble space telescope that gives us great images and takes us further into the galaxy but wouldn’t it be nice to just hop into your personal space bubble and go and fly around the planets?

Of course our space bubble has got a light speed drive that has been newly fitted, tested and is ready to go. We have got a Twix, a ham sandwich and of course a Mars bar and a flask of coffee to keep us going so let’s go!

I have loaded the program for the solar system that gives us a guided tour and is unfortunately Windows 56 which annoyingly keeps coming up with a blue screen every so often but a quick reboot seems to solve the problem. I double-click on Mercury and the bubble shoots upwards into the atmosphere leaving the neighbour’s house demolished into a pile of rubble far behind. Two fingers solve that problem.

I start to open my lunchbox but look up and there is Mercury hanging against a black background with the sun taking up most of the other part of space. With the sun being about 5500°C at the surface and 15,000,000°C at the core  the bubble’s viewing ports have become shaded. It is still a little bit warm and I worry about the milk for my coffee. Just a quick stop here then.

Mercury

Mercury is quite a warm planet being so close to the sun as you might expect. On a glorious day on Mercury the temperature is 500°C. Unfortunately the nights are around -200°C so it’s either fry or freeze. Most of the surface is impact craters from its formation but there are a few smooth patches where it could be possible to land but I’m not really fancying it. Mercury isn’t that big either being the size of the Moon and it screams round the sun every 88 days. I would say that was a big disadvantage as Xmas would come round four times in one Earth year emptying my pockets and anything else I could find to empty.

I click on the Venus icon on the screen sit back and look out the window at something the size of Earth. Unfortunately the computer gives the information that Venus has a thick atmosphere made up of clouds of sulphuric acid and 97% carbon dioxide. It is a very cloudy planet but just about managing to take a peek between the clouds

Venus

I see a smooth surface probably caused by resurfacing which puts the age of the planet in question. Resurfacing in a process whereby volcanoes spew out lava and cover the surface of the planet in a nice smooth layer without any craters from impacts with other bodies. This takes away the evidence of the planets age which is normally taken by looking at the amount of impact craters.

Being much closer to Earth than any other planet you would have thought that it would have been explored much more than Mars but as we know that is not the case. This is probably due to the intense atmospheric pressure and its toxic atmosphere. The atmosphere gives a greenhouse effect which causes the temperatures to be similar to Mercury. Mars is obviously the most hospitable choice.

Well the next planet is boring it’s just a blue ball with white clouds so I continue on to the red planet. No time for a coffee I’m afraid on the way over. With all the stories that have been told about Mars and its little green men (or little red men is it?) I unintentionally tighten my straps. I am not quite sure why they call it the red planet as it glows orange like an orange waiting to be peeled and all its juice squeezed out.

Olympus Mons

I set up for a landing and start the descent to this planet which was probably earth like once. The atmosphere is 95% carbon dioxide but very thin and nothing like Venus. Just a bit of buffeting and I’m down near Olympus Mons which is the tallest volcano in the solar system at about 15 miles high. In 2002 water was found on Mars by the Odyssey spacecraft, enough to fill Lake Michigan twice over. It is close to the surface but in the form of water ice so I decide not to go for a swim and take a nice long sip of black coffee (yes, the milk did go off). Olympus Mons looms close by and I think about climbing it, but that will have to wait for another day…

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