Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to re: Why the heck would you want to dive down a gravity well in the first place?

re: Why the heck would you want to dive down a gravity well in the first place?
gbaikie — (archived)

I see Ken had same question.

Here is one reference:
"The theoretical calculations were impressive. Atmospheric density is measured in "torr"; the pressure at sea level is 760 torr, that at the shuttle's low Earth orbit is 10 -7 torr, and terrestrial vacuum chambers top out at 10 -11 torr. Ignatiev calculated that a shield-shaped spacecraft could produce an ultravacuum in its wake measuring only 10 -14 torr--a thousand times cleaner than the environment produced in the best Earthbound chamber."
http://www.airandspacemagazine.com/ASM/Mag/Index/1995/JJ/tmvc.html
So just need to know how many torr there is on the moon. I've thought that it's a better vacuum than in low earth orbit [which is actually still in Earth's atmosphere]. Though If Mars' has 1/100th of Earth atmosphere and 7.6 is 1/100th of 760 torr. Something is wrong here- Mars' atmosphere is suppose to about the same as Earth's at 100,000' not 300 miles.
I check in this more later.

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