NewMars On phpBB3

For FOQ1 regarding communications topics ....

The presence of an ID of a person other than one of the Admins is precious! If you click on the Active list, it is likely you will find all messages signed by an Admin.

The Communications topic provides two benefits...

First, if provides members with a place to put things that don't fit elsewhere, or as a parking space while a suitable location is found.

Second, it provides a place for anyone to drop off a note to a member without disturbing a topic.

Housekeeping can be about almost anything, so the "preserve member ID" rule applies.

Hopefully, we'll arrive at the point where the active list shows traffic from members and only the occasional admin.

Right now, with only five or six members and only two active on any given day, most content shown by Active looks like Admins are the only ones here.

Something to think about is that when you post in a topic, you are ** publishing ** for readers who may be anywhere on Earth or in the Solar System, now that we have Artemis II in flight. Thus, the author of a topic has the opportunity to create something worth reading.

Think about online journals ... the comments from readers appear ** after ** the article. The author of a topic has the opportunity to shape the progression of the content.

The forum structure puts reader comments into the body of the topic. This is fine if reader comments are of high value, but from my observation about 1 in 100 are worth reading, let alone the author considering for the main topic.

That said, you will find that once we have other members, you won't have to worry about folks not responding in your topic, because that is what they will be doing. Go back and look at Rule #1.... a member responding to a member means we do NOT see an Admin ID.

Bring in more members, and voila! Your problem is solved.

(th)

tahanson43206 wrote: ↑Sat Apr 04, 2026 12:26 pm At this point, we have four members able to build or amend structure.

Can you perhaps upload a screenshot with a big red circle drawn on it where the command buttons to do such things are located? I have looked and cannot find a way to do that. I can create new threads at the lowest level of hierarchy but cannot create new higher level categories or forums.

Lizard King

For FOQ1...

This forum supports storage of images.

Potentially it could be tweaked to permit storage of other file types, but if we decide we want to pursue that, we need to think about security.

In the mean time, please consider saving an image in one of your posts.

The procedure is available via the "Attachments" button below the editor window.

(th)

For FOQ1 re Industry Category...

First, it is good to see that a Moderator can create new forums within a category

However, I notice that the new industry forums are arranged in chronological order and not in alphabetical order.

Let's think about the kind of structure we might wish to build.

At this point, we have four members able to build or amend structure.

SpaceNut put most of what we have in place, using the FluxBB model as a guide, but he added new elements such as Home Projects.

We are in the early stages of building the structure for this forum.

The Industries category could reasonably contain every industry that can be expected, and it will ultimately include industries we cannot imagine today, as Martians address problems we cannot anticipate.

We have a weekly Google Meeting where we might discuss the growth of the structure. That is held (for historical reasons) at 7 PM Houston time, 8 PM New Hampshire time, and 6 PM west coast. It also falls mid-morning in Australia, but so far no one from Australia has joined.

At the moment the meeting is held at 12 midnight UTC due to Daylight Savings Time in the US.

Search for: Google Meeting Collaboration for new-mars.org members

Collaboration definitely works .... Google is "too common"

***
Looking forward, we might consider inviting persons who would like to prepare to build industries of various kinds on Mars. The people who will be moving to Mars (assuming that happens at all) are alive on Earth today. The Mars Society is a natural gathering place for those folks, and the activities of the Mars Society are largely designed to serve that community. This little forum is a bit like Phobos circling Mars. For historical reasons, this little forum never became an official chapter of the Mars Society. It never required Mars Society membership for participation. I would be in favor of inviting persons who join this forum to subscribe to the Society. Membership expenses are modest. That said, it is more important that we have members at all, than that they be Mars Society financial supporters as well.

(th)

For FOQ1 re post about Carbon Monoxide as an energy storage material.

Thanks for providing compressed CO2 as an interesting possibility.

The post about CO was about Carbon Monoxide.

It seems likely that the Carbon Monoxide energy cycle will dominate Mars activities because it is so much simpler than any competing system.

The savings come in almost every aspect of application.

The lower energy storage density is compensated for by the simplicity of every part of the use cycle.

(th)

tahanson43206 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 03, 2026 11:26 pm For FOQ1 ....

This post is in response to a post in another topic...

The most essential hydrocarbon on Mars is going to be Methane (CH4). While a lot of this will likely come from the Sabatier process, material amounts will start as carbohydrates. That is, we will grow many hydrocarbons!

There are many who will agree with this statement. However, just for your awareness, CO is likely to become the most commonly used Carbon energy storage material. That is most definitely NOT in any way a criticism of your assertion. It is merely an attempt to remind you (and possible readers) that CO is the most convenient energy storage material for the Mars environment, so (I expect) is is likely to become a major part of the energy storage and conversion business there.

In the FluxBB forum archives, there were many posts and at least one topic dedicated to this very attractive energy storage material and it's many applications, from bulldozers to orbital ferries.

(th)

Nice! My understanding is (compressed) CO2 is being used an energy storage media on our current planet already. Not a hydrocarbon though.

For FOQ1 ....

This post is in response to a post in another topic...

The most essential hydrocarbon on Mars is going to be Methane (CH4). While a lot of this will likely come from the Sabatier process, material amounts will start as carbohydrates. That is, we will grow many hydrocarbons!

There are many who will agree with this statement. However, just for your awareness, CO is likely to become the most commonly used Carbon energy storage material. That is most definitely NOT in any way a criticism of your assertion. It is merely an attempt to remind you (and possible readers) that CO is the most convenient energy storage material for the Mars environment, so (I expect) is is likely to become a major part of the energy storage and conversion business there.

In the FluxBB forum archives, there were many posts and at least one topic dedicated to this very attractive energy storage material and it's many applications, from bulldozers to orbital ferries.

(th)

tahanson43206 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 03, 2026 9:53 pm FOQ1 .... I promoted you to Moderator.

We have been working together in high trust positions since 2011. Nothing has changed except to increase the trust level.

Your interest in this forum comes at a critical moment when we have a chance to keep the "NewMars" concept going and perhaps add a new member or two.

Please see what powers come with the new position.

(th)

You are all DOOMED> MWUHAHAHAHAHA!

Ok, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Fortunately, "moderator at a forum with less than a dozen members" is v.little power. It's out of my system now and I think I can resist temptation.

FOQ1 .... I promoted you to Moderator.

We have been working together in high trust positions since 2011. Nothing has changed except to increase the trust level.

Your interest in this forum comes at a critical moment when we have a chance to keep the "NewMars" concept going and perhaps add a new member or two.

Please see what powers come with the new position.

(th)

tahanson43206 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 03, 2026 9:35 pm Hi FOQ1!
I think that anyone can add a forum under a Category.
If not, please let me know.
Industries
metal, oxygen, etc, etc .... each of the industry titles ** should ** rate a forum.

A forum allows an unlimited number of topics.

Posts should relate to the topic.

In the past we've noticed that folks are inspired by a topic to think about something completely different.

Hopefully we'll be able to stay on topic in this forum.

(th)

Okie. So I went to what you call the "Category" of INDUSTRY.

If I click on the word Industry, it then declares that Industry is a "forum", and that Water etc are "sub-forums"! And I could not create a sub at the 'level' of "Water." Which I went to do with the intent of creating "MINING" as a place for multiple individual topics for Copper, Iron, NPK, etc. This seems cleaner than a top or 'high' level organizational level for every item we intend to dig up out of the ground. Would eventually be hundreds!

EDIT - noted that I can create new content at my permissions level at the "topic" level only.