Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous?

Re:Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous? by mikeash on Wednesday October 03, 2012 @01:56PM (#4608724)

There is, to a first approximation, no atmosphere on Mars. To a slightly better approximation, there is an atmosphere on Mars, but only enough to cause trouble, not enough to actually be useful for anything.

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Re:Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous? by wtracy on Wednesday October 03, 2012 @02:26PM (#4608891)

There's enough atmosphere for Nasa to seriously consider deploying airplanes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_aircraft

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Re:Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous? by stephengillie on Wednesday October 03, 2012 @05:24PM (#4609728)

We've had the discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4261806

A cessna would need wings as large as a 747 and be traveling about mach 1 to take off, iirc.

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Re:Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous? by skeletonjelly on Wednesday October 03, 2012 @05:55PM (#4609831)

Thats an awesome metaphor! Going to use this one, thanks.

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Re:Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous? by DiabloD3 on Wednesday October 03, 2012 @06:18PM (#4609903)

So it would need wings that have ten? times more surface... that doesn't mean this couldn't be done using small scale drone designs.

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Re:Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous? by JonnieCache on Wednesday October 03, 2012 @06:13PM (#4609887)

Mach 1 where?

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Re:Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous? by goodcanadian on Wednesday October 03, 2012 @07:52PM (#4610221)

Mach 1 always means the speed of sound in the local environment.

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Re:Are Those Spidery Black Things On Mars Dangerous? by stephengillie on Wednesday October 03, 2012 @07:50PM (#4610213)

On Mars. Mach, the speed of sound (vibrations), varies with changes in heat, density, etc.

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