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That's cool! Why NASA didn't opt for a balloon too for this mission?
by madarco 6y ago
That's cool!
Why NASA didn't opt for a balloon too for this mission?
- NikolaeVarius 6y agoBecause they wanted to test a helicopter
- throwaway0a5e 6y agoAnd because anything that can float on the light martian atmosphere can be blown away by the light martian wind.
- zbrozek 6y agoMars's atmosphere is very low density, so the balloon would have to be unreasonably enormous to fly anything useful. Venus, on the other hand, has an extraordinarily dense atmosphere. So dense that folks have hypothesized floating entire cities.
- lostgame 6y agoIs this fact the inspiration behind the floating city in Star Wars V? (Serious question)
- sandworm101 6y agoThe inspiration was the gas giants, planets with no practical surface on which to land.
- Robotbeat 6y agoBecause the atmosphere on Mars is orders of magnitude thinner (depending on altitude), making balloons a bigger challenge (and less useful in some ways).
- ajuc 6y agoVenus atmosphere is so thick light beach balls pumped with regular Earth's air would floating in it. Mars atmosphere is so thin it's almost impossible to make a ballon float in it.