Olympos Mons - Olympos Mons

Ian · 2004-02-05 08:02:24

I wonder if any future martian colonists would want to establish a tourism industry where people would go up in space suits to get to the summit of Olympos Mons.

Rxke · 2004-02-05 15:19:43

that would be a heck of a trek... O Mons is *HUGE* it extends into the stratosphere, it would take several weeks to climb it, and that in a suit? Dunno, in rovers maybe, but not on foot...

Of course, some day, someone will do it, 'just because it is there...'

atitarev · 2004-02-05 17:27:12

It's Olympus, not Olympos.

Aetius · 2004-02-05 19:14:16

Olympus Mons has such a gradual slope, that I don't know if any good spots on the summit exist to really appreciate the view from the top.

Even the edge of its vast caldera may be less exciting than it at first seems, just because it's so HUGE, and the horizon is so close. Would the other side of the caldera be over the horizon?

I'll bet that a huge cinder cone like Pavonis would be steep enough to have some really awesome sightseeing opportunities.

However, I'm a factory worker, not an astrogeologist. I could easily be wrong.

atitarev · 2004-02-05 20:18:28

Olympus Mons has such a gradual slope, that I don't know if any good spots on the summit exist to really appreciate the view from the top.
Even the edge of its vast caldera may be less exciting than it at first seems, just because it's so HUGE, and the horizon is so close. Would the other side of the caldera be over the horizon?
I'll bet that a huge cinder cone like Pavonis would be steep enough to have some really awesome sightseeing opportunities.
However, I'm a factory worker, not an astrogeologist. I could easily be wrong.

You're right Aetius. It's only steep on the esarpment and in the caldera. You could drive a car to the edge of the caldera easily - 200 km. Even so, there will be a lot of enthusiasts to walk to the top - it's more walking than climbing. Although Olympus Mons is tall, it covers a very large area.

flashgordon · 2004-02-06 02:11:45

i can't wait till the mars express(the new european orbiter/imager) images olympus mons with that electric camera.

Shaun Barrett · 2004-02-06 03:04:34

Kim Stanley Robinson covered tourist climbs up Olympus Mons in his book "The Martians", a collection of short stories and poems. (Chapter 9)

They climb up the vertical escarpment (20,000 ft almost straight up) at the beginning of the ascent. I'm not sure what the pressure at datum is on this terraformed Mars of the future, but there is a section of the story which mentions the climbing party making history by breathing free martian air at 14 thousand metres above datum! The pressure there is 350 millibars but only by virtue of a transient massive high pressure zone over the flanks of the volcano at that particular time.

By the time they get to the caldera, the sky is almost black and they can see the stars and Jupiter.

Yes, Ian, if you can believe Kim Stanley Robinson's account of what it'll be like to climb Olympus, I think there'll be a big market for it!

Michael Bloxham · 2004-02-06 03:56:47

Could you see the curvature of Mars from the summit? Wow, if that were possible it would be like driving to Denver to see the curvature of the earth! Though you might think twice before stepping outside your car for a better look...

Mad Grad Student · 2004-02-06 20:09:21

I don't think that climbing Olympus Mons would be much of a challenge, due to the gradual slope. I've read before that it is so gradual that if you stood at the base of the volcano the summit would be over the horizon and out of view. It makes you wonder if it can even be called a mountain.

Byron · 2004-02-07 06:33:33

Could you see the curvature of Mars from the summit? Wow, if that were possible it would be like driving to Denver to see the curvature of the earth! Though you might think twice before stepping outside your car for a better look...

If you stand along the rim of the caldera on Olympus at the summit, I would think you could see the curvature of the planet, at least to some extent; KSR has one passage in "Red Mars" where looking down from a certain spot near the top of Olympus was like looking at Mars from a platform in low space. (I've heard that some of his descriptions of various features of Mars are inaccurate, however...Mad Grad is right in that you cannot see the whole mountain from any one location on the surface of Mars...Olympus is more of a sky-continent than anything.

But Michael's comment about driving to Denver to see the curvature of the Earth...that's actually happened to me...sort of. After attending the Mars Society conference in Aug 2002, I left Boulder and drove down a highway that ran along the foothills of the Rockies just to the west of Denver, to a hotel I had reserved a room in just off I-70. The air was super-clear, and not only did I have a spectacular view of Denver from this road (it was maybe 700-800 feet higher than downtown Denver) but I noticed something else too, which struck my mind as kinda odd. Far, far off to the east, lying beyond the sharp-edged horizon was this line of billowing thunderheads, the bottom halves of which were distinctly below the horizon. And they looked really far away, too.

Well, I got to the hotel a few minutes later, went up to my room, turned on the Weather Channel, and sure enough, they were displaying a line of big thunderstorms...in western Kansas, over 200 miles away(!) I never even knew that you could see that far inside Earth's atmosphere, so that surprised me. Even though I really couldn't actually "see" the curve of the Earth, it did feel like I was looking over the curve of a sphere...just on a very large scale..lol.

(Getting back to Mars), I think the best place to see the curvature of Mars would be from the northern rim of Coprates Valley (Marineris.) It being nine kilometers higher than the floor of the valley in some places, I would think you could look out over to the other side of this enormous canyon, and since you would have so much vertical space in front of you (plus Mars being so much smaller than Earth), there wouldn't be much trouble in discerning the curve of the planet itself...it'd be an awesome experience for sure..lol.

It'd be nice if they would send probes and rovers to the most "exciting" places of Mars instead of the most "boring" ones...lol...I want to see what these places really look like...hehe.

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#1 2004-02-05 08:02:24

Re: Olympos Mons - Olympos Mons

#2 2004-02-05 15:19:43

Re: Olympos Mons - Olympos Mons

#3 2004-02-05 17:27:12

Re: Olympos Mons - Olympos Mons

#4 2004-02-05 19:14:16

Re: Olympos Mons - Olympos Mons

#5 2004-02-05 20:18:28

Re: Olympos Mons - Olympos Mons

#6 2004-02-06 02:11:45

Re: Olympos Mons - Olympos Mons

#7 2004-02-06 03:04:34

Re: Olympos Mons - Olympos Mons

#8 2004-02-06 03:56:47

Re: Olympos Mons - Olympos Mons

#9 2004-02-06 20:09:21

Re: Olympos Mons - Olympos Mons

#10 2004-02-07 06:33:33

Re: Olympos Mons - Olympos Mons

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