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Any sort of balloon on Mars would have difficulty lifting much mass; what makes any balloon rise? Gas molecules from the atmosphere under the balloon do the lifting, but the Martian atmosphere is so thin that there are few of these molecules in the first place. Also, the lifting effect arises as a function of the difference in density of the gas inside the balloon and gravity. Since gravity is weaker, I bet the lifting effect would be weaker too, at least partially negating the bennefit of lower gravity. Oh, and the temperature of the Martian atmosphere drops rapidly with altitude, which could make keeping a balloon inflated problematic, particularly during the Martian night.
Good for light weight science experiments or radio antennas, bad for anything else.
There you go. That's what I thought also.
I can't think of any gas that would give significant lift in the one, one hundredth mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere on Mars.
But, I'm no expert on planetary physics.
Perhaps someone in the know is and can enlighten us if there is possibly a suitable gas to fill a dirigible that would produce lift on Mars.??? If any... . . ....
Hi! I'm new here.
I was discussing this here
http://uplink.space.com/showflat.php?Ca … o=0&fpart= and was referred to this thread.
That brings up the point I am trying to understand.
Just exactly how much lifting capacity would an airship have compared with a ship the size of an Earth dirigible?
Or in short
A hydrogen or Helium dirigible on Earth would lift so many kilograms. (Kilogram = 2,2 pounds I think)
How would that equate to the lifting capacity of the same sized ship on mars with one, one hundred atmosphere and .38 gravity.
Lets say we had a small dirigible that would lift 100 kilograms on Earth, How much would that exact same dirigible lift in the thin atmosphere of Mars in .38g and thin atmosphere?
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