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On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 14:21:41 +0000, Scott <acepilot@bloomer.net> wrote:
>DABEAR wrote:
>> It would seem to me that if there were enough atmosphere on Mars to
>> support Ultralights, an astronaut could cover greater ground in
>> exploration, especially considering the STOL capability of such an
>> aircraft. VTOL is nice, but an engine failure could cause a mission
>> abort. A dual engine failure could maroon astronauts. In regards to
>> the rovers, if the vehicle breaks down, it's a long way to walk back
>> to base camp on very little oxygen.
>
>Good idea, but they do not have any VORs there yet. ;)
Yeah, but on the plus side, there's no FAA there, either. :-)
A couple of problems. First, Mars' gravity is about 38% of Earth's, but its
atmospheric density is less than 1% of ours. You'll end up needing a very large
wing to carry an astronaut, especially when you consider that our intrepid Mars
explorer has to wear a pressure suit and carry sufficient air for his sojourn.
Plus the fact that the air is so thin the vehicle's engine probably won't be
able to use it to oxidize the fuel, so the vehicle must carry both fuel and
oxidizer.
The whole problem is not THAT much different from the "Lunar Buggy" discussion we
had about two years back. Here's one of my write-ups on that:
http://tinyurl.com/2kwjhe
Ron Wanttaja
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Re: Ultralights in Space?
