Posted by
michael
on from the aliens-want-some-privacy dept.
GTM writes: "The surface of the Red Planet is currently hidden by the most impressive dust storm seen in decades. Mars Global Surveyor and Hubble provide us with pictures, see the press release here."
Re:lots of good stuff to learn
by
Yazeran
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Well first of all, the atmospheric pressure on Mars is a lot lower than on Earth (as i recall 5 mBar opposed to 1000 mBar) this makes the wind force much lower even for high winds. This low pressure also reduces the size of the particles that can be suspended in the Mars atmosphere and only dust can be suspended for longer periods of time. The effect of this is that wind erosion on any surface on Mars will proceed much slower than on Earth.
The aerobreaking will also not be influenced, as this takes place at the upper edge of the Mars atmosphere, where no dust particles would be. The breaking do not use a heat shield, so the effective density of the Mars atmosphere at the breaking altitude is small indeed. This is also why the breaking is scheduled to run over many orbital flybys, as a faster breaking would destroy the spacecraft.
For manned trips to Mars you would use a far lower point of entry for your breaking maneuver, so that the breaking could be achieved in a few flyby's. In that case, however, the spacecraft would have an ablative heat shield as the Apollo modules, or ceramic tiles as the Space Shuttle and even then, the breaking altitude would be far higher than the highest dust particles would reach in a storm.
Slashdot Mirror
The aerobreaking will also not be influenced, as this takes place at the upper edge of the Mars atmosphere, where no dust particles would be. The breaking do not use a heat shield, so the effective density of the Mars atmosphere at the breaking altitude is small indeed. This is also why the breaking is scheduled to run over many orbital flybys, as a faster breaking would destroy the spacecraft.
For manned trips to Mars you would use a far lower point of entry for your breaking maneuver, so that the breaking could be achieved in a few flyby's. In that case, however, the spacecraft would have an ablative heat shield as the Apollo modules, or ceramic tiles as the Space Shuttle and even then, the breaking altitude would be far higher than the highest dust particles would reach in a storm.
Yours Yazeran
Plan: To go to Mars one day with a hammer.