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Author Topic: World's Largest Cavern  (Read 10070 times)

Offline zorgon

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Re: World's Largest Cavern
« Reply #15 on: March 17, 2015, 07:52:05 pm »
Caves of Mars Project



Caves of Mars Project -
was a project funded by the Phase II program by the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts, with a view to selecting the best potential sites for housing and residential research modules manned mission to Mars.

Caves and other underground structures, including lava caves and canyons, and other depressions Martian would be potentially useful for manned missions, as thick rock surfaces would make it easier to check the temperature and reduce the solar radiation that could seriously jeopardize the health of astronauts. They may also offer access to minerals, gases, ice cream groundwater, and can develop underground life there, which there probably will be sought.

The program also worked on the design of inflatable modules and other similar structures that could be helpful for astronauts.




In Polish
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caves_of_Mars_Project

« Last Edit: March 17, 2015, 07:55:03 pm by zorgon »

Offline zorgon

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Re: World's Largest Cavern
« Reply #16 on: March 17, 2015, 07:56:35 pm »
January 04, 2011
NASA Mars Orbiter Spots Caves on Red Planet




Quote
Huge pits or caves pumcture a bright, dusty plain near the Martian volcano Ascraeus Mons in an image  taken between October 1 and November 1 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Caves and other underground structures, including lava tubes, and canyon overhangs would be potentially useful for manned missions to the Red Planet, providing shielding from both the elements and intense radiation that a Mars mission would expose astronauts to. They might also offer access to minerals, gases, ices, and any subterranean life that the crew of such a mission would probably be searching for.

Released in December, the image is among a series of new views snapped by MRO's HiRISE camera that show intriguing geological features on Mars. Each image covers a strip of Martian ground 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) wide and can reveal a detail about as small as a desk—and so far no sign of Star Wars monsters.

MRO's sister orbiter, Mars Odyssey, first noticed the two deep pits—which are about 590 feet (180 meters) and 1,017 feet (310 meters), —a year earlier using its infrared camera, THEMIS.

"When compared to the surrounding surface, the dark interiors of the holes gave off heat at night but were cool by day," said Alfred McEwen, principal investigator on the HiRISE camera. "So we then decided to target these with MRO because this thermal information may be evidence for these being caves—but the jury is still out on that."

The MRO has been studying Mars since 2006, beaming back more data than all other past and current missions to the planet combined.



http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/01/nasa-spots-caves-on-red-planet.html
« Last Edit: March 17, 2015, 08:01:29 pm by zorgon »

Offline zorgon

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Re: World's Largest Cavern
« Reply #17 on: March 17, 2015, 07:59:39 pm »
HiRise A Pair of Small Pit Craters
PSP_009488_1745




Quote
Pit craters exist in volcanic regions across Mars, and form when surface materials collapse into large underground cavities. Such pits are generally bowl-shaped, filled with sediment, and are relatively shallow when compared with their diameters.

Recently, a small number of anomalous pit craters were identified with strikingly different visible and thermal characteristics such as: sheer cliff walls; deep interiors that can extend out-of-sight beneath the surface; and temperature fluctuations that behave unlike any known feature on Mars.

The pair of pit craters visible here are the smallest “anomalous” pits known to exist at this time. These have either vertical or sub-vertical interior walls (not visible from a nearly overhead viewing perspective), and each pit is deep enough that sunlight does not hit the floor when it’s at the zenith. Unfortunately, the only thermal-infrared camera currently orbiting Mars cannot resolve features this small, so the temperature characteristics of these pits must remain unknown for now, underscoring the need for a high-resolution thermal instrument on future missions.

Intriguingly, when pit craters on Earth have similar characteristics to the pair shown here, they often have cave entrances in their bases connecting to large underground networks. Current investigations are determining whether the anomalous Martian pits may be shown to contain such entrances.

The ability to detect and explore Martian caves is of intense interest to many disciplines in planetary science. Caves may expose entire sets of stratigraphic layers, providing windows into Mars’ geologic and atmospheric histories.

Cave environments can also protect organic life from extremely harsh conditions on the Martian surface, and may provide future human explorers with secure habitats. Accordingly, caves are considered among the most promising locations to find preserved evidence of past or present microbial life.

Furthermore, the challenges associated with Mars cave exploration may inspire a range new technologies, such as advanced robotics and target-specific landing capabilities.

Written by: Glenn Cushing/ Circe Verba   (22 October 2008)

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_009488_1745
« Last Edit: March 17, 2015, 08:02:26 pm by zorgon »

Offline zorgon

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Re: World's Largest Cavern
« Reply #18 on: March 17, 2015, 08:04:59 pm »
Mars Caves Might Protect Microbes (or Astronauts)


A possible opening to a subsurface cave system on Mars. Scientists say these structures could be a possible safe haven for Mars-bound astronauts. They could also preserve any evidence of potentia

A series of newly discovered depressions on the Martian surface could be the entrances to a cave system on the red planet.

Hints of subsurface tunnels have been found in images of Mars before, but the new evidence is more suggestive, said Glen Cushing, a physicist with the U.S. Geological Survey who discovered the possible caves.


http://www.space.com/7440-mars-caves-protect-microbes-astronauts.html

Offline dreb13

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Re: World's Largest Cavern
« Reply #19 on: March 18, 2015, 04:58:57 am »
I'd be hesitant to investigate any caves on the Moon or Mars.

You never know, It might not end up being a cave after all


Offline Shasta56

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Re: World's Largest Cavern
« Reply #20 on: March 21, 2015, 08:43:19 pm »
Ooh!  Z's Mammoth Cave pics have me hankerin to visit Kentucky and Tennessee.   Never been to either state.  That could be a maiden voyage for my daughter,  my grandkids and me.  I have to work more and save money.

Shasta
Daughter of Sekhmet

Offline astr0144

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Re: World's Largest Cavern
« Reply #21 on: May 16, 2016, 08:44:42 pm »
A Farmer Noticed This Hole In A Rock, But What's Inside Has Astounded The Whole World




The S?n ?oòng Cave in Vietnam is the largest cave in the world. A tour inside the cave is something extraordinary; it contains a jungle, a river and it has plenty of room for a skyscraper with 40 floors!



The enormous cave is located 280 miles south of the capital Hanoi, in the Vietnamese national park Phong Nha-K? Bàng. Tag along in this underground world and be inspired by nature's beauty.

Hang S?n ?oòng translates to 'mountain river cave' in Vietnamese. It was created 2-5 million years ago by river water eroding away the limestone underneath the mountain.

It was found in 1991 by a local farmer named H? Khanh, but the first people who actually explored the cave were British experts in 2009.






It contains its own animal life, lakes, rain-forest, beaches and a river.



The cave has also rare pearls that are formed when water laden with minerals dripping from a cave's ceiling, falls too quickly to form a stalagmite. Instead, the dripping water forms a small ball of mineral deposits that grows into a small mineral pearl.











http://naijapicks.com/posts/962/a-farmer-noticed-this-hole-in-a-rock-but-whats-inside-has-astounded-the-whole-world
« Last Edit: May 16, 2016, 08:47:22 pm by astr0144 »

Offline space otter

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Re: World's Largest Cavern
« Reply #22 on: March 16, 2017, 06:16:09 pm »


humans mess up another one..sigh


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/son-doong-cave-vietnam-cable-car-plan_us_58c67dc2e4b054a0ea6ba11f?section=us_science

In Vietnam, A Rush To Save The World’s Largest Cave From The Masses
“Caves are fragile environments. They don’t regenerate very quickly, and once they’re broken, they’re broken.”



The world’s largest cave, the mammoth Hong Son Doong in Vietnam, is a relative babe-in-arms when it comes to natural history: The cavern was first discovered in 1991, then lost, then found again before it was first explored in 2009. But less than a decade later, environmentalists are scrambling to save the site from thousands of tourists and a development company set on thrusting a cable car into its depths.

Located in Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Son Doong stretches more than 5.5 miles underground, reaches heights of 650 feet and is home to its own jungle, ecosystem and river. Just one tour company has a concession to venture into the cave, and only a few hundred people are allowed inside the fragile environment every year. But that could soon change.

HuffPost RYOT spoke with local activists, cavers and the spelunkers who first explored Son Doong about the local government’s secretive plans that may allow developers to build a massive cable car project that’d bring more than 1,000 people to the cave each day.


JASON SPETH/HUFFPOST RYOT
Despite its size, Son Doong wasn’t discovered until 1991. It was lost again for nearly two decades and was fully explored for the first time in 2009.
Such threats are not new.

In 2014, a group of local activists helped stave off a proposal to build a $212 million, 6.5 mile-long cable car throughout Phong Nha-Ke Bang park that would traverse parts of Son Doong. The announcement drew widespread condemnation despite assurances from the cable car company, Sun Group, that it would be an environmentally friendly way to view the park that’d bring “thousands of jobs for the poor local people.”

Any plans at Son Doong would likely echo another project, completed by another company last year, at the country’s Mount Fansipan, one of the tallest peaks in the region. The site is now home to a cable car that cut a journey that used to take three days on foot down to 20 minutes. The system can now bring 2,000 people to the summit every hour, and, like the country’s iconic Ha Long Bay, has become a hive of tourist activity.


JASON SPETH/HUFFPOST RYOT
Vietnam’s Son Doong cave, the largest in the world, could hold a 40-story skyscraper inside. The pristine ecosystem has its own river and jungle.


A Facebook group operating under the name Save Son Doong has called on the Vietnamese government to again reject the proposal, saying the “project must be stopped before it has a huge and damaging impact on the Son Doong cave and the ecosystem of the entire Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park,” a Change.org petition organized by the group says.

Those concerns were echoed by the British Cave Research Association, the group that declared Son Doong the largest of its kind and, alongside the explorer Howard Limbert, led the first expedition to the site.

“Caves are fragile environments. They don’t regenerate very quickly, and once they’re broken, they’re broken,” Deb Limbert, a team leader for the group, told HuffPost RYOT.

Government officials in the province of Quang Binh, where Son Doong is located, have told local media there are no plans to support a new cable car project.

In March, HuffPost RYOT filmed a representative of the cable car company traveling to the cave with Phong Nha-Ke Bang park employees.

Take a look at more photos of Son Doong cave below.


JASON SPETH/HUFFPOST RYOT
Environmentalists worry a cable car would damage the cave’s fragile ecosystem.





JASON SPETH/HUFFPOST RYOT
An underground river helped carve out the Son Doong cave over millions of years.






JASON SPETH/HUFFPOST RYOT
The cave has been protected from the masses by its relative inaccessibility.


CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article included two pictures of Hang En cave instead of Son Doong.

Offline zorgon

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Re: World's Largest Cavern
« Reply #23 on: March 16, 2017, 06:25:16 pm »
That is the problem with these things...  whether to lock them up so only a select few get to ever see them  or allow tourists to experience it

The Great pyramid was closed to inside visitors because of their breathing

Offline Irene

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Re: World's Largest Cavern
« Reply #24 on: March 16, 2017, 06:36:57 pm »
This kind of thing is why I stopped traveling. I was bad for the environment and traveling has become a major pain in the a**.

A cable car in a cave? Stupid.

They should limit visitors. Those that are allowed in should be fitted with rebreathers and severely penalized for touching anything. Anything.

Can't watch the video. It's in that GD 3D crap.  >:(
« Last Edit: March 16, 2017, 06:43:27 pm by Irene »
Shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.....

 


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