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A comment on Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin go all in on moon settlements. Parent comment

Re:Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin go all in on moon settlements by okonomiyaki3000 on Tuesday May 29, 2018 @12:25AM (#17176491)
Without enough gravity, your atmosphere leaks away into space. This may have already happened to mars once.
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Re:Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin go all in on moon settlements by sigstoat on Tuesday May 29, 2018 @12:55AM (#17176610)
happened once? because the gravity changed? it'd be an ongoing process.

and only hydrogen and helium are currently prone to jeans escape on mars. the current dominant mechanism for atmospheric loss is the solar wind. which eats away ~1/3 megaton/century. mars has teratons of atmosphere remaining. and it can be added faster than that rate of loss.

(once warmed up, oxygen may begin to escape the atmosphere again. not necessarily faster than it can be replaced, though.)

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