Martian dust devils could hamper future manned missions

SFGate.com ^ | 1/12/04 | Keay Davidson - SF Chronicle

[ambrose]

bump

[George from New England]

Can some freeper verify the following info :

With the earths and Mars orbits taken into consideration what is the time between relatively close encounters (100 million miles).

A mars year is 686 days

Isn't is about 2 earth years ? That would mean the entire manned visit would be about that to. Six months to get there, a year there, and six months back.

I know it's alot more complicated than that, but isn't that in the ballpark?

[Rebelbase]

Is it possible that these Dust Devil tracks are what that early astromoner saw and proclaimed as "canals", evidence of intelligent life on Mars?

[Junior]

Dear God. Then let's not even go. We'll just sit here, fat dumb and happy on this insignificant little dust speck and hope the universe doesn't notice us.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

I thought it took 3 years to get there with present technology.

[RightWhale]

2 years up and back. 6 months one way, 18 the other. Short leg out or short leg back, your choice.

[chimera]

Remember that it's a moving target. You lead the target a little going out. Kepler's Laws say as you go outward you lose velocity, so you need to be out ahead a bit. Likewise, coming back, you lag just a bit, and "catch up" to the Earth as you gain speed going sunward, just like Kepler tells us. You don't necessarily have to stay at the destination for a year. You can come back anytime as long as you plot the course correctly. It's not a matter of having to jump across the shortest gap, because you aren't going to be able to do that anyway. Here is something to try:

Something fun to try and learn from.

[hattend]

Have the astronauts bring haggliders and sailplanes.

[chimera]

It is obviously more efficient to wait for the proper alignment, about a 550 day cycle, but, if something came up, you probably could leave sooner or later if you had the consumables and could execute the course properly.

If we could move beyond chemical propulsion and go with something like nuclear-ion, then a shorter trip is possible. It just goes faster and closes the gap more quickly.

[hattend]

and hanggliders...a hagglider would be Hillary's

[RightWhale]

If you could power it all the way at one gee, you might get there in a week. Not too hard to take, but it wouldn't be the Queen Mary II. :)

[antaresequity]

If we could move beyond chemical propulsion and go with something like nuclear-ion, then a shorter trip is possible. It just goes faster and closes the gap more quickly.

Correct me if I am mistaken...it takes as much energy to slow down as it does to speed up. That is to say if we were able to do a continuous 2 week burn of fuel on the way out, we would need to do a 2 week burn in the opposite direction of the trajectory to slow down on the other end. Ignoring gravity of mars and the sun of course.

[ambrose]

Please provide an explanation for the math impaired among us. Thanks.

[RightWhale]

Please provide an explanation for the math

Of what? 2 years equals 24 months?

[ambrose]

Why it is 6 months there, 18 months back

[RightWhale]

Or 18 months there and 6 months back.

It's how the planets line up as they move relative to each other. They are in the right place every two years. You could get 6 months up, 3 years there, and 6 months back, which would be two cycles or 4 years.

[William Terrell]

Problems begging for a solution.

Send a priest.

[rdbrewer]

Sounds familiar. Life was "rough, even risky", for those brave enough to venture forth into the unknown in past times. Columbus and his crew, the Pilgrims, those on the Lewis and Clark expedition, the first settlers of Jamestown, polar and undersea explorers, the first astronauts, et al., all faced a measure of risk and hardship.

Before we landed on the Moon, the naysayers predicted that the lander and the astronauts would sink into the lunar surface because of ... THE DUST.

They thought the dust was too loosely packed to support a spacecraft.

[KevinDavis]

Looks like the saganist is coming out in force now.

Space Ping! This is the space ping list! Let me know if you want on or off this list!

[demlosers]

Yawwwwn...dust devils are not going to stop Martian exploration.