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Cloud City would have no access to raw materials for ISRU, and still have to deal with (low-pressure-gradient) sealing and wind forces. In terms of engineering,
by azernik 7y ago
Cloud City would have no access to raw materials for ISRU, and still have to deal with (low-pressure-gradient) sealing and wind forces. In terms of engineering, easier to build a self-contained environment in a place where the only environmental interactions are heat loss and some dust, and where you can use local materials to make oxygen, concrete, and metals.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago> Cloud City would have no access to raw materials for ISRU Arguably, it would, it would just require the collector to take a dip in the denser parts of the atmosphere. It might be tricky though, and generally the less moving parts a misson has, the better.
- jacobush 7y agoWhat worries me about Cloud City is the sulfuric acid gas in the atmosphere. Is it so hard to handle as I imagine?
- ncmncm 7y agoConcentrated sulfuric acid is shipped freely in polyethylene bottles. Polyethylene is just carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, all available at altitude.
- ncmncm 7y agoCloud City has easy access to unlimited amounts of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and sulfur, and plenty of solar energy. Balloons dipping lower could pick up other needed trace materials. Balloons don't need to deal with wind forces. They go where the air goes. More important, though, is that on Mars you're in Nowheresville. Cold, dusty, airless, dim, with possibly unhealthily-low gravity.