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> in the Hellas basin (where no one particularly wants to land) Why don't people want to land down there? Is it too rough a surface, more so than at higher ele
by shortstuffsushi 4y ago
> in the Hellas basin (where no one particularly wants to land)
Why don't people want to land down there? Is it too rough a surface, more so than at higher elevation? Would it be feasible to land outside the basin and make your way down?
- idlewords 4y agoThere's a great StackExchange answer on this. Basically, both the terrain and weather are bad: "Sites of areologic interest are far apart, its seasonally induced micro-climate conditions are rough and pronounced due to somewhat larger surface atmospheric pressure, winds are stronger, dust storms longer lasting, it experiences higher seasonal and diurnal surface temperature variations, shorter days and exposure to sunlight during Southern hemisphere winters, and as a deep impact basin, terrain is fairly rugged, inclined, and often covered with deep pockets of sand.” https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/12158/why-has-no-lander-or-rover-visited-hellas-planitia-on-mars https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/12158/why-has-no-l...
- tsimionescu 4y agoThe thing is, if you intend to do something like establishing a completely self-sustaining population on Mars (one that could live indefinitely of the earth disappeared), then you need to have a presence in many many places on Mars, because you need access to numerous raw materials. For a simple visitation mission, you can pick an easy place, sure (the other reply points out why this basin is not in fact that easy). But this does nothing to prove that long-term habitation of Mars is in any way possible.