Posted on 03/16/2018 8:16:05 AM PDT by LibWhacker
I would imagine that would be tricky in the thin atmosphere.
Elon Musks Martian colony will probably be under construction by then...
I hope whoever thought of that idiotic ‘sky crane’ concept is not designing this.
by 2020?
In the meantime Elon Musk will have a guy on the ground waving to it.
That "idiotic 'sky crane' concept" worked, and delivered a huge payload safely to the surface without requiring a bigger fairing on the launch rocket.
What's your beef with it?
I did a paper on that exact thing in school. 175 pages.
It is VERY difficult to do. The atmosphere is about 1/2 of 1% of ours. That means you need approx 200 times the lift that a earthbound helicopter needs. Ouch. Oh, and we would like to carry a bunch of instruments too to measure stuff. And then transfer that information to something that will send it to us. And then recharge our batteries and do it again. Complicated hardly describes it. Fun paper though.
I would love to ride the Rover. Smokin’ technology!
You think they did the sky crane because it was fun?
Please.
I know,that Elon works fast, but 2020 isn’t that far away.
Perhaps a balloon would be a better concept.
simpler technology with few moving parts.
of course getting it to go where you want it to go might be difficult.
but letting drift where the winds take it could bring unexpected discoveries.
Not if he's been removed from the taxpayer funded trough
Not enough ways to waste money but great idea.
Either that or musks guy will be a corpse waiting to be found.
I like your balloon idea.
Solves the vertical lift problem nicely. Directional control shouldn’t be an issue unless there are very strong winds.
I wonder if it would need to be a rigid, vacuum-filled balloon. 1/2 of 1% air density as compared to earth’s atmosphere is pretty light. Not sure helium is even that light.
How much oxygen is there in the Martian atmosphere? They could use hydrogen for lift if the threat of combustion were low. I imagine a simple chemical reaction could be performed to free hydrogen gas, when needed, on the surface.
Why wouldn't the future mission collect their own rocks? It's not like they will be somewhere with different rocks - since they have to go there to pick them up.
I really like it that somebody else used the words “vacuum balloon” It is probably the only balloon that would work.
It is VERY difficult to do. The atmosphere is about 1/2 of 1% of ours.
It’s amazing one can design aircraft to operate in what amounts to little more than a vacuum. I’ve even seen designs for gliders operating in the Martian atmosphere.
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