vandyl

Date: 5/17/2005 9:14:21 PM Author: toddpnewton A quick note on Martian aircraft... Unless Mars is to be terraformed (SimEarth!), aircraft flying in the Martian atmosphere will have to have huge wingspans to get enough lift to carry a significant amount of weight. The faster your craft, the less of a requirement this becomes. Dirigibles might be a good solution. If I'm not mistaken, CO2 is relatively denser than the air mixture in earth's atmosphere. IF that's correct, helium or hydrogen will be 'relatively' lighter in the martian atmosphere and therfore reasonably effective? Hydrogen-filled blimps could lend themselves to some outstanding disasters with all those other hydrogen generating plants scatterd throughout the landscape. whhhooOOOOOOOOSSSHHHH! quote> Actually, Mars exerts a lesser force of gravity as compared to earth (in fact, acceleration due to gravity on Mars is roughly 3 m/s vs the standard 9.81 m/s here on Earth) - this is the force that lift on an aircraft must overcome. However, due to the thinner atmoshere on Mars (approx 1/150th the density found on Earth), flight as we know it cannot really exist in any practical form. The hover idea that's been thrown around is the best bet - granted, any fanciful idea is applicable as this is a fantasy land - if you want X-Wings, by all means, put em in the game! But from a standpoint firmly grounded in modern physics and extraterrestrial geography, flight is an impractical method for transportation on Mars.

Just change the water transportation into super-high-capacity cargo/people mover networks.