Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to $64,000 question: why bother?

re: Atmosphere or no atmosphere
Raoul — (archived)

What's interesting is to realize not many worlds with an atmosphere are suitable for manned exploration.
The Earth, Mars and Titan.
That's about all.
The others have too thick an atmosphere or no solid surface!

With an atmosphere, it's possible to land with some kind of heat shield or protection and a parachute. But even that isn't always enough: Mars atmosphere is too thin not to require an engine for landing.
Venus atmosphere is so thick that an early Soviet probe, after deploying its parachute, never actually landed (or it took much longer than its batteries).
Actually, Titan has 1.5 times thicker an atmosphere than our own...I hope Huygens lands safely!

But the solar system has many many more airless worlds!
The US has already soft landed on 2 of them: the Moon and Eros.
If we master the technology and techniques for a return to our celestial neighbour, we'll have all the other airless worlds too.

Raoul

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (58 posts)