Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

What It Will Be Like To Land On Mars

by Terrence O'Brien on July 20, 2007 at 05:09 PM

Mars Landing Site
Landing on another world seems like an equally exhilarating and terrifying proposition. Exactly 38 years ago today, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were probably shaking in their space boots saying to themselves "I hope this works," as they descended to the surface of the moon.

Well if an article in Universe Today is to be believed, landing on Mars may be an even more terrifying endeavor. It seems these pesky things called the laws of physics prevent touching down on the red planet from being as straightforward as landing on Earth or even the Moon.

The airbag method used for deploying unmanned probes won't work since we'll probably want our astronauts to avoid death or maiming. The Martian atmosphere is too thin for parachutes or aerobrakes to be effective with such a heavy payload, and the gravity on our sister planet is too strong for a powered descent like that used on the aforementioned Apollo missions.

The best bet so far is to use an inflatable donut with a skin stretched across it in a conical shape that will slow the landing craft from Mach 4 or 5 to Mach 1.

From Slashdot

Related links:

Tags: extraterrestrial, landing, mars, moon, nasa, outerspace, space

Comments

2

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular