New Mars Forums

that would be a first

If they--or Buzz Aldrin--had encountered the situations you described, survival would have been strictly a matter of luck.

I've suggested before the Biden administration is actively seeking to stymie Space X.

The tension is now out in the open. Musk has criticised "sleepy Joe" for failing to congratulate his company and people on this highly successful mission, the first of its kind, and a testimony to the US's continuing ability to make major technological advances, not least by attracting the brightest and best from all around the world (something China or Russia can never do).

https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-mu … ?r=US&IR=T

For Tmcom .... your topic here is the best match (I'm hoping) for this update....

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/sp … 06942.html

SpaceX capsule with world's first all-civilian orbital crew set for splashdown

The Dragon capsule, dubbed Resilience, is scheduled to parachute into the sea around 7 p.m. Eastern time, shortly before sunset, according to SpaceX, the private rocketry company founded by Tesla Inc electric automaker CEO Elon Musk.

According to Google, the planned landing is set for before 11 PM UTC.

I certainly hope the flight is a complete success!

There are plenty more billionaires with $200MM pocket change.

We should see many more such flights if this one goes well.

(th)

Its to bad that they did not get to get out of the capsule into another orbiting station even if it was nothing but an inflatable like BEAM  least it would have been something.

Four SpaceX space tourists set to return to Earth tonight

Billionaire Jared Isaacman financed the trip, paying SpaceX tens of millions of dollars.

Isaacman, who led the mission, offered the other three seats to strangers:
Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old nurse;
Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old professor; and
Chris Sembroski, a 42-year-old US Air Force veteran.

New ExoMars parachute ready for high altitude drophttps://www.spxdaily.com/images-hg/exomars-drop-test-parachute-hg.jpg

The 15 m-wide first stage main parachute will open while the descent module is still travelling at supersonic speeds, and the 35 m-wide second stage main parachute is deployed once at subsonic speeds.

Tmcom wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG-7J0LC8i4

It will fly, but don't get your hopes up for any breakthroughs.

Apart from the worlds most expensive selfie.

Not really a drone but yes its about to make history...

NASA's Ingenuity to attempt its first flight at 12:30pm Mars time

https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/ten … 60&o=f&l=f

Ingenuity is expected to soar Sunday, April 11 from a 33-by-33-foot piece of Martian real estate that is the first airfield on a another planet

https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/ten … 60&o=f&l=f

Look at old photos of the original Viking landings and you will find one with frost, taken early in the morning.
https://solarviews.com/cap/mars/frost.htm

As temperatures declined over night, water vapour that had evaporated from the regolith during the day, frosted out on the surface. As temperatures increased throughout the day, it sublimed. Could it melt giving rise to water droplets before it evaporated? Actually, yes. The atmospheric pressure at Curiosity's landing site was found to fluctuate between 690 and 790Pa. The vapour pressure of water at 0°C is 611Pa. If the surface of Mars rocks is contaminated with soluble salts like perchlorate, then frost could melt at temperatures as low as -40°C.

So yes, it is possible for water droplets to form on the surface of Mars. If there is sufficient salt content and the ice melts far beneath the usual freezing point of water, the vapour pressure of the brine (which declines as a function of temperature) could be substantially lower than the local atmospheric pressure on Mars. So it is possible for water droplets to hang around, without imminently freezing due to evapouration.

It doesn't take an elaborate conspiracy theory to explain this. It is plausible under established conditions. It is in fact entirely possible that parts of the Martian surface contain enough liquid water to get muddy at certain times of the year. But that mud would form from saturated brine rather from pure water. It is unlikely to contain microbes, though we won't know for sure until a visiting science team examine the mud under a microscope.

The global average atmospheric pressure on Mars is 610Pa. That is just 1Pa beneath the vapour pressure of pure water at normal freezing point. That is unlikely to be a coincidence. Carbon dioxide is highly soluble in liquid water, forming carbonic acid. Any CO2 dissolving into liquid water on Mars would react with bases in the regolith to form stable carbonates. The low pressure of the Martian atmosphere is likely the result of a long established equilibrium between the atmosphere and frozen water ice.