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Hello,
I was wondering: In the potential colonization of Mars, would Mars' L-4 or L-5 points be active locations in Mars's development?
Cordially,
EarthWolf
" Man will not always stay on the Earth. "
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
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http://www.physics.montana.edu/faculty/ … ge.html]We see that L4 and L5 correspond to hilltops and L1, L2 and L3 correspond to saddles.
L4, L5 may not be good points to go to, but good to go from.
If you assembled something there, then perturb it to go somewhere with little energy ?
L1 may be a good waiting point, to store or exchange ?
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/lagrange.html] Interplanetary Superhighway ?
http://www.space.com/news/beyond_iss_020926-1.html] Earth-Moon Lagrange point, L1 -- a literal Gateway to the future of space exploration
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Both L4 and L5 of the Sun-Mars system have asteroids. If I remember right, L4 has Eureka, an asteroid about 2 km across, which may have been there more or less since the beginning of the solar system. But it's not clear to me these little asteroids, located 250 million kilometers from Mars (as far from Mars as the sun!) have any value.
-- RobS
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But it's not clear to me these little asteroids, located 250 million kilometers from Mars (as far from Mars as the sun!) have any value.
Could concentrations of heavier dust form, at L4 and L5,
similar to gold settling in holes at creek bottoms ?
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Heavier than what?
Eureka and such are probably carbonaceous chondrites, which means they are high (5-10%) in water. So they have that going for them. But they ARE NOT NEAR anything. You wouldn't even want to use them as a communications relay point because they're 750 light seconds (12.5 light minutes!) from Mars. When Earth is at its closest, its only 3 light minutes from Mars.
-- RobS
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Wouldn't we want to use L4 or L5 for communication relay to Earth when the sun is between their orbits?
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The Earth Sun L4 and L5 would be better places for communication relayers. The path is shorter by .52 AU. Interestingly enough the long legs for both these paths is the same: 2.2 AU. But the short legs differ, earth's being 1 AU and Mars being 1.52 AU.
The earth L4 relay could get double the solar energy with the same collector and is closer to Earth.
The only advantage I see for the Mars L4 is the Mars Trojan asteroids RobS mentioned.
Hop's [url=http://www.amazon.com/Conic-Sections-Celestial-Mechanics-Coloring/dp/1936037106]Orbital Mechanics Coloring Book[/url] - For kids from kindergarten to college.
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Even better than Earth-sun L4 and L5 would be a satellite on some sort of looping orbit that carried it a few million km from Earth when Mars was at conjunction; just far enough to receive signals from Mars, but close enough to minimze additional time delays.
-- RobS
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