Quote:
Originally Posted by TheDS
…Mercury will be a lot like the moon, with heavier gravity and a higher daytime temp.
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Actually, the surface gravity on Mercury is
much heavier than Luna; almost identical to Mars, in fact: 37.8% of Earth's gravity on Mercury, as opposed to 38.03% on Mars. Luna is in the next class down, at 16.56%.
And as for the daytime temperature on Mercury, it isn't just that it's
'higher' than on Luna – it's a
Hell of a lot higher: 836°F for Mercury (which is hot enough to melt Lithium, Tin, Cadmium, Lead, and Zinc), as opposed to a mere 224°F on Luna.
Worse yet, the
nighttime temperature on Mercury is actually
colder than Luna's – -298°F on Mercury, -243°F on Luna – which gives Mercury the greatest temperature
range in the entire solar system, and such radical changes in temperature would wreak havoc on any machinery on the surface.
And then there's the deadly daytime radiation levels.
Nope — Mercury is
not a friendly place for human colonization, except on a very limited scientific scale. The only safe place you could build on it is inside a crater near one of the poles, where you'd be protected from the Sun – and you'd only be able to venture
out of your crater base at night.