Potential landing areas already identified by Space X and NASA!

louis · 2019-08-28 06:10:07

This article is a bit of a gold mine...

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/06 … fely-back/

Seems the Arcadia, Deuteronilus, Utopia, and Phlegra regions are favoured.

As with most human settlement on Earth, it seems the availability of water is a key determinant.

I would think they would want to be close to 30 degrees latitude as that is near the optimal for solar power (I recall the optimal is 29 degrees or thereabouts, owing to Mars's wobbly rotation).

tahanson43206 · 2019-08-28 07:03:22

For Louis re #1 ...

Thanks!

SpaceX beginning to tackle some of the big challenges for a Mars journey
To survive on Mars, and return, SpaceX would gladly allow others to assist.
BEN PEARSON - 6/3/2019, 7:30 AM

(th)

SpaceNut · 2019-08-28 18:29:42

This really says it all for the plan...

SpaceX beginning to tackle some of the big challenges for a Mars journey
To survive on Mars, and return, SpaceX would gladly allow others to assist.

Since Spacex and the others are still strruggling with human flight its going to be quite awhile before I would want to flight in the BFR as they do not have any experience with the aspects to keep us alive.

planned to have a capacity of more than 100 tons to Mars. This will allow SpaceX to take a "brute force" approach, which will greatly simplify the overall logistics of the first missions. For instance, this will allow for taking more consumables instead of recycling them, more equipment and spare parts, and other infrastructure,

No recycling means huge mass penalties for Air and Water plus assumed tankage to hold the waste if we are not dumping it.

company is not as focused on other aspects of the mission, such as long-term food storage, collecting resources, and the science to be done on Mars. "SpaceX is very much a transportation company," Wooster said. Rather, SpaceX is seeking partners to help with these parts of the plan—it's just building the rocket

big problem if you are waiting for other to fix your ship before it can be used.

power requirements, estimated to be on the order of 1 megawatt over the course of a 500-day stay on Mars. Nuclear energy would be the preferred source for such power, but NASA is currently only developing space-rated nuclear power on the order of 10kW, which means that further development would be required to allow for close to what SpaceX needs.

1 megW / 500 is = 2 kw a day which means we have dead humans...when we are going to need way more energy than that constant for a 100 person population.
Nasa's 10 kilowatt plan calls for several of these units for even less than a dozen people.

Solar power is possible but would require more than 6,000 square meters of panels. SpaceX's recent launch of 60 Starlink satellites carried a lot of solar panels—enough to power the International Space Station—but that was still only 120kW.

78 x 78 panel arrangement gives just slightly more. 6000 x (1kw x .43) x .35 = 903 kw recieved in a 1 hr period and a day only gets 4hr approximate which is 3,612 Kwhr and average for the day constant is 144 kw which does get alot of power for use...and once you cover to store in batteries and them bring it back out we would be closer to the 120 Kw for use.

SpaceNut · 2019-08-28 19:08:11

Lets see what we can find on each of these Arcadia, Deuteronilus, Utopia, and Phlegra regions

Arcadia on the map: For future Mars landing sites, SpaceX thinks ice is nice in that it was a potential landing sites for the privately held company’s Red Dragon missions to Mars now cancelled.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcadia_Planitia

https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/4093/arcadia-planitia/

Deuteronilus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deuteronilus_Mensae

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space … ae_on_Mars

Utopia
Utopia the largest recognized impact basin on Mars and in the Solar System with an estimated diameter of 3,300 km.
Large Subsurface Water-Ice Deposit with an deposit that is estimated to hold about as much water as what is in Lake Superior, largest of the Great Lakes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_Planitia

https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/subsurf … itia-mars/
https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/sub … itia-mars/

Phlegra regions
radar probing indicates large volumes of water ice are hiding below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phlegra_Montes

frost covered viking images

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space … ce_on_Mars
http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/spa … tures.html

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#1 2019-08-28 06:10:07

Potential landing areas already identified by Space X and NASA!

#2 2019-08-28 07:03:22

Re: Potential landing areas already identified by Space X and NASA!

#3 2019-08-28 18:29:42

Re: Potential landing areas already identified by Space X and NASA!

#4 2019-08-28 19:08:11

Re: Potential landing areas already identified by Space X and NASA!

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