Mission to Mercury, volunteers wanted?

Question

I was looking at some figures about the planet Mercury, I noticed there is an enormous difference in temperature between the day and night sides due to its close proximity to the sun and lack of atmosphere. As the surface temperature varies from around 420 degrees Celsius down to minus 160 degrees would there be a Green Zone? in between where the temperature could support human life,where the day side was cooling at sundown or the night side was warming at sunrise, lets say between minus 15 degrees up to 50 degrees Celsius. If a manned mission landed in this zone could they explore the planet without being frozen or vaporized, as long as they kept moving fast enough to remain within the Green Zone?

Answer 1

There wont be a green zone actually, because mercury keeps rotating and every surface experiences both the 420 deg Celsius and the -160 deg Celsius. You knew evolution took place millions of years, how is life going to form in less than 50 days?

Answer 2

well possibily but you just missed one thing out getting there we cannot get there because it would cost money i think we should forget about money when it comes to space we could decver some of the greatest thing if we forget about money when it comes to space.

Answer 3

well, if u stayed in the twilight, it is possible, but not necisarry. space suits are already designed to withstand those temps and temp changes.

the only thing they would have to worry about is the ships systems being destroyed due to the exremely close proximity to the sun.

Answer 4

That is a fantastical idea. I quite like it though. It reminds me of a planet (Crematoria) in the movie 'The Chronicles of Riddick'. If you watch it maybe you could get a few ideas. In the film, there is a prison camp at that planet that's located deep underground(for protection from the heat). The planet has daytime surface temperatures that are scorching, while at night, it's cooler. It's scary to be on the run all the time just to look at a dead planet. I'd rather an unmanned probe be used to explore the planet. I just can't imagine volunteering under such a dangerous sitch.

My assumption is that the polar regions of the planet would be more suitable for humans or robots to land. We should perhaps develop a craft/robot that's resistant to high temperatures for long time periods, which can help us with the exploration 'on' the planet. Besides, a couple of unmanned probes have already been sent to Mercury. But there still haven't been any landings on Mercury, unlike the Mars explorations. I imagine there are loads of diamonds on Mercury.(chuckle :)

Answer 5

Anything is possible in the modern scientific research.

Answer 6

i recently did a planet project on mercury and i found myself asking the same question!

Mercury rotates once every 58.647 days, so it is relatively slow. It would be easy to stay within the "green zone".

however, there would be the problem of getting there.

At standard rocket speed, it would  take centuries to reach.

Answer 7

i don't think so

Answer 8

I see many problems, not least of which is your space ship will be directly exposed to sunlight as it approaches Mercury. And Mercury has no atmosphere, like the Moon. And as Mercury rotates the zone with a medium temperature would move. And due to an odd quirk of orbital mechanics, it actually takes more rocket power to reach Mercury than it does to reach Jupiter! That is why Only 1 space craft has ever gone there, although there is a new one on the way now.