The nations of Earth should establish a holiday date during which everyone would party in a non-religous, non-political and trans-cultural spirit of appreciation for the planet Mercury.

Mercury, the most energy-rich planet in the Solar System, is going to factor very importantly in Earth's future. Just how soon depends on how often people can take a moment to think about Mercury and its potential. Nothing does this better than a party. The bigger the party, the better.
-- Moonguy, Jun 02 2008

HB Uranus gag guidlines Mobile_20Snack_20Bar_20_2b_20Telescope
See [not_only_but_also]'s anno. [coprocephalous, Jun 03 2008]

Wednesday?
-- Amos Kito, Jun 02 2008


Works for me!
-- Moonguy, Jun 02 2008


+ OK, only if we can have a Pluto Party, too. I've just been missing Pluto as a planet!
-- xandram, Jun 02 2008


Well that would be Pluterday of course.

Also, would Mercury Appreciation Day last fifty-eight of our Earth days?
-- nineteenthly, Jun 02 2008


Nineteenthly: in keeping with 'the bigger the better' I would say yest tothat. Boysparks: let me know if you get that past your employer!
-- Moonguy, Jun 02 2008


Right, well in that case Friday should last thirty-four weeks.
-- nineteenthly, Jun 02 2008


Mercury already has a holiday, Mercuralia. I am to understand that you are in mercurial apostasy?
-- Laughs Last, Jun 02 2008


Never heard of 'Mercuralia'. Is it ancient Roman?
-- Moonguy, Jun 03 2008


I'm all for more holidays, but why single out Mercury? Can't we have other days to appreciate the other planets as well? And for those who really want more time off, how about a holiday for each of the objects in the asteroid belt?
-- zen_tom, Jun 03 2008


//Mercury, the most energy-rich planet in the Solar System//
Best get there before someone invades.
-- coprocephalous, Jun 03 2008


//Mercury, the most energy-rich planet in the Solar System// It depends how you define energy-rich. On a purely e=mc² basis, Jupiter must be considerably more energy rich, on account of it's greater mass.

Whereas, on a entropic level, the Earth must score highly on having clusters of highly non-entropic matter (life) for which there may be a formula. (Is there a general way to determine how much potential energy there is locked up in a system's organisation?)
-- zen_tom, Jun 03 2008


//determine how much potential energy//

Combust it and monitor the heat, light and sound energy released?

I wonder how much energy there is in [skinflaps]...
<stokes furnace> Here [flappy], [flappy], [flappy]... <baits furnace with half-croissant>
-- Jinbish, Jun 03 2008


Incredible - a whole thread of annotations about planets and no one's made a "Uranus" joke yet.
-- hippo, Jun 03 2008


You mean "Mercredi?" This holiday in France celebrates the planet Mercury with cheese, wine, and delicious snails 52 times each year.
-- GutPunchLullabies, Jun 03 2008


Good point [GPL] - m-f-d, Invented by the French?
-- coprocephalous, Jun 03 2008


(Zen-Tom) Jupiter is energy-rich in the sense that it has a lot of energy - but it is all in one form, deadly radiation. Mercury is energy-rich in the sense it has a lot of energy in several forms: solar, geothermal and helium-3 being the most obvious. There is likely to be uranium and/or thorium too, but this is unproven. Jupiter has well-established helium-3 and the sheer scale of availability is daunting - the problem is the amount of energy required to access it and economically transport it to users. Mercury has a slight edge there because solar sails enable transport of large payloads from Mercury. That particular advantage does not exist for Jupiter.

Venus is also energy-rich, but the solar power there is only about a third as strong as on Mercury and any surface energy supplies (uranium? Helium-3?) are still unassessed.

Mars has more forms of energy than Mercury, but all are much weaker than Mercury's and the wind energy there (Mars) really has to be regarded as a different form of solar power.

Perhaps I should have said 'most energy-rich planet beside the Earth'. Earth (and possibly Titan) is unique in that there are known hydrocarbon energy sources available. This gives Earth more energy forms (along with ocean currents, wind, hydro etc.) and a larger overall energy supply as compared to Mercury. The difference is that, on Earth, there are about seven billion people amongst which energy must be distributed. On Mercury, there are no people. Yet. . .

The concept of Mercury Appreciation Day looks to the time when people are living on Mercury and utilizing its many attributes to make productive lives for themselves and new opportunities for others. The same could be done for any other planet, but I would restrict it to planets we can think of as potential homeworlds. FWIW this would include extra-solar planets. . .just make a case for living on them.
-- Moonguy, Jun 03 2008



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