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I've been watching a lot of documentaries about Mars and the more I learn the more it seems so incredibly daunting and overwhelming. The atmosphere isn't even
by JohnJamesRambo 6y ago
I've been watching a lot of documentaries about Mars and the more I learn the more it seems so incredibly daunting and overwhelming. The atmosphere isn't even thick enough to slow down properly from the massive speed you need to get there at a time scale that works. How do you land large colonization facilities, landers, etc. in an atmosphere that is 1% as dense as Earth's? How do you then have enough fuel to leave? I know there are workarounds for everything but there are some hard physics walls here.
>The highest atmospheric density on Mars is equal to the density found 35 km above the Earth's surface.
- grey-area 6y agoHow do you land large colonization facilities, landers, etc. in an atmosphere that is 1% as dense as Earth's? With supersonic retro propulsion on a rocket that can be reused. How do you then have enough fuel to leave? You don’t, so you need to make the fuel with robots landed on one-way missions first. Luckily there are plenty of raw materials on Mars (in the atmosphere, soil and water deposits). It’s very hard but it’s certainly doable if you can do the first part.
- posix_me_less 6y agoYou have been mislead, we don't need atmosphere to slow down. We have rocket thrust for that.
- edgyquant 6y agoI don’t think colonization of Mars is the future regardless, but landing on Mars isn’t more difficult than landing on the moon.