Messenger probe in orbit around Mercury

[Neil]

Mercury is full of interesting things as well.

[Josquius]

Wow, didn't know it would take that long to get to Mercury

[Neil]

Wow, didn't know it would take that long to get to Mercury

It's tricky.  You could get to Mercury's orbit really quickly if you wanted to, but a stable orbit around Mercury requires very precise angles and velocity, as well as a well-timed burst of thrust.  A small variance will result in your Mercury probe orbiting the Sun instead.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Why?  Isn't Pluto just gonna look like the moon (or maybe a big iceball)?

More like an iceball.

Fuck Mercury. That money could have been spent on a Europa orbiter.

What makes Europa more worthy than Mercury?

In the movie adaptation of 2010 I think it was important.

[Neil]

Why?  Isn't Pluto just gonna look like the moon (or maybe a big iceball)?

More like an iceball.

Fuck Mercury. That money could have been spent on a Europa orbiter.

What makes Europa more worthy than Mercury?

In the movie adaptation of 2010 I think it was important.

Then we definitely shouldn't go there.  All those worlds are ours, except for Europa.

[jimmy olsen]

Why?  Isn't Pluto just gonna look like the moon (or maybe a big iceball)?

More like an iceball.

Fuck Mercury. That money could have been spent on a Europa orbiter.

What makes Europa more worthy than Mercury?

Europa has a subsurface ocean, and therefore likely has life.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Why?  Isn't Pluto just gonna look like the moon (or maybe a big iceball)?

More like an iceball.

Fuck Mercury. That money could have been spent on a Europa orbiter.

What makes Europa more worthy than Mercury?

Europa has a subsurface ocean, and therefore likely has life.

What is your basis for that statement? 

[jimmy olsen]

Why?  Isn't Pluto just gonna look like the moon (or maybe a big iceball)?

More like an iceball.

Fuck Mercury. That money could have been spent on a Europa orbiter.

What makes Europa more worthy than Mercury?

Europa has a subsurface ocean, and therefore likely has life.

What is your basis for that statement?

Europa's ocean is well known, and every where on Earth where there is liquid water there is life. Earth isn't special. If something occurs on Earth, then given the same circumstances it will occur elsewhere.

[Neil]

Europa has a subsurface ocean, and therefore likely has life.

What is your basis for that statement?

Europa's ocean is well known, and every where on Earth where there is liquid water there is life. Earth isn't special. If something occurs on Earth, then given the same circumstances it will occur elsewhere.

Except circumstances on Europa are not the same as on Earth.

[jimmy olsen]

Europa has a subsurface ocean, and therefore likely has life.

What is your basis for that statement?

Europa's ocean is well known, and every where on Earth where there is liquid water there is life. Earth isn't special. If something occurs on Earth, then given the same circumstances it will occur elsewhere.

Except circumstances on Europa are not the same as on Earth.

Liquid water and energy provided due to the tidal stresses of orbiting Jupiter. Same as the deep sea vents at the bottom of the sea.

[Neil]

Liquid water and energy provided due to the tidal stresses of orbiting Jupiter. Same as the deep sea vents at the bottom of the sea.

But not exactly.  There's the cold and the radiation to contend with.

[jimmy olsen]

Liquid water and energy provided due to the tidal stresses of orbiting Jupiter. Same as the deep sea vents at the bottom of the sea.

But not exactly.  There's the cold and the radiation to contend with.

The miles of ice will protect them from the radiation. Tidal stress keeps it warm enough to be liquid, don't see the problem there.

[Tonitrus]

Meh, even if there is life under there, it would probably just be invertebrates and single-celled organisms. 

It's not like you're going to find a young Daryl Hannah under there.

The primitive lifeforms we bring back to study would probably wipe us out with some nasty alien virus.  And if there were some kind of fish, it would far too expensive for Caliga to transport his boat there.

[HisMajestyBOB]

Why?  Isn't Pluto just gonna look like the moon (or maybe a big iceball)?

More ice than the moon, so probably more like Callisto or Ganymede, perhaps.
It will be the first good photos of Pluto, and thus of Kuiper Belt Objects.

[jimmy olsen]

Meh, even if there is life under there, it would probably just be invertebrates and single-celled organisms. 
The primitive lifeforms we bring back to study would probably wipe us out with some nasty alien virus.  And if there were some kind of fish, it would far too expensive for Caliga to transport his boat there.

Recovering foreign organism, esepecially complex multicellular ones would be an incredible boon for the biological sciences even if they were limited to invertebrates.

Any diseases they had would be extremely unlikely to be adapted to attacking Earth life.