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Having two planets with launch capability makes resupplying, servicing, and responding to emergencies for eventual facilities in the belt would make logistics a
by sfRattan 9y ago
Having two planets with launch capability makes resupplying, servicing, and responding to emergencies for eventual facilities in the belt would make logistics across the solar system an order of magnitude easier. Suddenly, you have twice as many launch windows over the course of a year to any given point as well as two 'ports' to return to if something goes seriously wrong.
- kitsunesoba 9y agoLaunching from the surface of Mars takes a lot less fuel, too. Martian gravity also happens to be high enough for earth manufacturing machinery to mostly work as it does here on earth, meaning that we can mostly reuse the systems we're using today. These two factors combine to make Mars quite ideal for building and launching staggeringly huge space vehicles, habitats, and mining machinery which in turn makes bootstrapping a human presence in the asteroid belt and other locations in the solar system a lot easier than if we were to just start at those destinations.
- valuearb 9y agoYou have it backwards. Mars is a deep gravity well that adds huge energy costs to both landing and return trips. You don't want to build anything on Mars. Asteroids are much less costly to reach, offer better living environments and far more resources. You want to build out a few asteroids with fuel depots, ship construction/maintenance equipment, and mine cheap extra delta V to spend on mars.