2 replies to this topic

[renyold]

Also, is it possible to land a spaceship on the surface and walk around without a spacesuit such as we do here on Earth? I heard that Mars atmosphere is almost similar to Earth because it's mostly made up of Carbon Dioxide.

[Jimbo]

Astronomy is one of the reasons why I got into cartography. If I'm correct based on our limited technology I think it takes 8-10 months using some sort of nuclear engines. Mars has an atmosphere unsafe to humans, it has trace amounts of oxygen & water vapor. It's believed that millions of years ago some sort of major disaster may have impacted the marshian surface so bad that the water that did exist was ejected into space. Now I'm not an expert on the topic but KI can say that at this point in the time line humans would die if we to breath the atmosphere. However millions of years ago Mars could have been breathable & one day whether through years of evolution or human terror-forming it could one day be breathable or even become our home. You can research Mars on the internet, we are cartographers on this site & though many of us study geography we can not pretend to be inter planetary geographers, or in short we are Earth geographers.

[Hans van der Maarel]

In addition to what Hasdrubal has said, I can highly recommend the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. Pretty darn accurate science-content (or so I'm told) and a good story too.