Re: Space Travel by Humans is Possible

Quadibloc <jsavard@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

:On Jan 20, 8:14 am, Einar <eina...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
:
:> You can´t solve it with reaction mass. It´s not the Moon. If Mars
:> would be like the Moon, i.e. airless, that solution would work. But as
:> Mars has got athmosphere, but rather too thin, landing like on the
:> Moon wont work.
:
:There are two reasons why using rockets to land on Mars is difficult.
:
:One is that Mars is larger, with more gravity, so more fuel is
:required.
:

This says it's more difficult than landing on the Moon but not as
difficult as landing on Earth with a 'tail sitter', which was the plan
for DC-X, DC-Y, etc.

:
:The other is that, due to Mars' atmosphere, damaging turbulence
:effects will take place if an attempt is made to use *large* rocket
:nozzles to brake the flight of a fast-moving spaceship.
:

Again, see DC-X, DC-Y, etc.

:
:And because Mars' atmosphere is very thin, using Mars' atmosphere to
:reduce the spaceship's velocity enough to allow for a safe landing is
:also difficult.
:
:One way this can be dealt with is: a) to bring the extra fuel
:required, and b) to use many small rocket nozzles instead of a few
:large ones.
:
:So we do know a *way* to land on Mars. Viking, for example, landed
:under rocket power, instead of using the bouncing-airbags technique of
:Sojourner that would be unsuitable for landing humans. (Incidentally,
:the Viking lander weighed significantly more than a human being, so
:using rocket fuel to land a Mercury-sized capsule with an astronaut on
:Mars, while supplies and a habitat had previously been landed by the
:bouncing Sojourner method seems entirely feasible.)
:

Oh, now you're going to hear about it! How dare you point out that a
little thought will solve these 'impossible' problems!


--
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,
all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
--George Bernard Shaw
.

Relevant Pages

  • Building Real Spaceships
    ... The next point is the moon. ... A similar analysis for Mars indicates that for a minimum energy ... These are minimum speeds that can only be travelled when the planets ... Which explains why vonBraun and all the other rocket guys were very ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Re: Joint Russian/Chinese manned flyby mission to Mars
    ... :>:difficult than landing on Earth and than landing on the Moon. ... :>:successful landing on Mars, with some sort of a real test. ... Others of us don't find the case for impossibility ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Joint Russian/Chinese manned flyby mission to Mars
    ... :>> Moon landing mission. ... :> prior to landing, ... :>> There is an additional thing that a flyaround mission to Mars could ... Why go that far and then not land people? ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Improved lunar landing architecture
    ... The one other close location in this solar system, ... For example, in the case of water alone, then on the Moon we do not ... On the other hand Mars has tons of water. ... >> will only become another NASA mini-disaster that will set back any ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Ice on Mars South Pole Is Deep and Wide
    ... they should be talking to us about our somewhat salty old moon that's ... life might have once upon a time existed on Mars, ... An Earth w/o magnetosphere, w/o moon is simply a much larger Mars. ... Even if we're talking 1% Earth wet, Mars is missing most of its salt. ...
    (sci.space.policy)