Ummm... Isn't the author overlooking an even BIGGER problem than landing on Mars which is TAKING OFF from Mars? This wasn't a big problem on the Moon since its gravity is just 1/6 that of Earth but Mars gravity is more than double that of the Moon.
So just take a Tesla car with you to drive from the rocket to the base which now can be miles apart.
If too many humans go to Mars at the same time, won’t it capsize?
Good post and comments.
Robots are definitely the way to go for the foreseeable future.
They’re not worried about taking off from Mars, because it’s understood if anyone is stupid enough to go there, it’s a one-way trip.
The crew would all die of cancer within the next few years because of exposure to cosmic rays for 12 months or more.............
The blowing soil and rocks is an issue I hadn’t thought about. The same problem exists on Earth. If you try and land a rocket in a field it will excavate a crater underneath it.
But does all of Mars have the same surface? The solution on Earth would be to find an exposed piece of bedrock or a salt flat. There must be somewhere on Mars that has a flat, hard surface.
Isn’t the author overlooking an even BIGGER problem than landing on Mars which is TAKING OFF from Mars? This wasn’t a big problem on the Moon since its gravity is just 1/6 that of Earth but Mars gravity is more than double that of the Moon.
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No, he is not.
In a lot of Scifi stories and some movies, the ships land and take off from blast pits; flying debris is not a problem.
Higher gravity just means more fuel or more efficient and powerful engines to take off.
Remind me again; why do we need to go to Mars?
The old reason “Because it’s there!’ won’t do.
We haven’t even ‘tamed’ the Moon yet.
I’m thinking this mission to Mars is mostly about keeping NASA and related manufacterers solidly employed and in the money for the next three generations. Gotta look out
for # 1., you know.
**Of course, some still wonder if we even ever went to the Moon in the first place. Seeing how relentlessly partisan the FBI, CIA, IRS and what have you can be during the Obama & Trump years, I say anything is possible. These agencies are no longer above reproach.
The article is basically anti-manned space exploration and, other than that, it is full of misleading and omitted facts.
“He ain’t heavy, he’s a Martian.”
Forget coming back. They left Mark Watney up there. If not for the Rich Purnell maneuver, he’d still be there (but dead).
Is there even one example of rocket exhaust blasting a crater in the ground? First of all, it’s not hot enough to melt rock. Second, Where would the debris go once it leaves said crater? It would have to go up, not sideways to escape, demolishing the rocket itself. And what would propel it up?
Go to any Wal Mart below 6000 feet altitude and sit in the parking lot and watch the customers come and go.
You’ll have your answer are Americans too heavy for Mars...
We’re too heavy for everything except the internet and Netflix
We aren’t going to Mars. There’s no rational reason.
Ping.
“The risks are so great, says Metzger’s team, that we should not even attempt human landings on Mars
until we have reliably demonstrated the automated construction of landing pads using robots.”
So let me get this straight, humans are too heavy, but landing a robotic Caterpillar scraper and backhoe is OK.
“They argue that the best place to practise and perfect this critical process is right on our doorstep, on the Moon.”
Seems like an even better place to practice that would be here on earth.