9 ms·
I think you have that backwards? Taking off from Mars is significantly easier than earth because of lower gravity and a less-dense atmosphere.
by nbarbettini 9y ago
I think you have that backwards? Taking off from Mars is significantly easier than earth because of lower gravity and a less-dense atmosphere.
- lawpoop 9y agoHow do you fuel the rocket on Mars?
- yellowapple 9y agoAll you need is oxygen and hydrogen. Both of those are actually plentiful on Mars.
- leksak 9y agoAnd the machinery to gather them etcetera etcetera... Just because the raw material is there doesn't rocket fuel make. And I'd be hard pressed to say that oxygen is plentiful on Mars. There is some oxygen.
- yellowapple 9y ago"And the machinery to gather them" That machinery can be sent gradually and ahead-of-time. "Just because the raw material is there doesn't rocket fuel make" No, but it means that such fuel is at least possible. "I'd be hard pressed to say that oxygen is plentiful on Mars" The current understanding is that there's millions of cubic meters of water ice on or near the Martian surface (with even more suspected further beneath the surface). Sounds pretty plentiful to me.
- lawpoop 9y agoNeither of those are plentiful on Mars.
- yellowapple 9y agoMars has lots of water ice, which is made (almost) exclusively of - you guessed it - hydrogen and oxygen. So yes, both of those things are plentiful on Mars. Maybe not to Earth standards (or the standards of, say, Ceres or Enceladus), but certainly abundant compared to our own moon (at least as far as current information tells us).
- lawpoop 9y agoIt's all relative. If you already have enough energy to crack water, fueling a rocket is not a worry.