3 ms·

> Other than scientific curiosity there is nothing there of value that is not 1 billion times more abundant in the belt. Gravity? Sunlight? Atmosphere acting a

• danaliv 9y ago
  > Atmosphere acting as radiation shield? Does Mars have much atmosphere to speak of? The figure on Wikipedia is that surface pressure is a measly 0.6% of mean sea level pressure on Earth. And there's no magnetosphere at all.
  • the8472 9y ago
    It's not great. But it's better than spending your time in the interplanetary vacuum. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Radiation_Environment_Experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Radiation_Environment_Exp...
    • slfnflctd 9y ago
      Another thing-- radiation shielding, once installed, has little to no continuing maintenance cost on Mars. Space borne shielding constantly requires additional fuel just to move around.
      • valuearb 9y ago
        Asteroids are free space borne shielding.