Could you skydive on Mars?

[faulknerwn 36]

At the dropzone tonight, discussing signing up for the Mars mission. But as far as I know, gravity on Mars is way less than on Earth - which would be good for jumping off of things. But I think the atmosphere is way thinner which would make us come down faster. So I was like - I know there are some crazy smart people on dz.com - how would skydiving ( or just base jumping) on Mars compare to Earth? Would we need parachutes? Future astronauts want to know....

[quade 3]

Even at the surface of Mars the atmospheric density is about the same as we'd have here about 116,000 feet or 22 miles above the surface of the Earth. It's enough to cause friction and slow down something entering from space, but not by much.

You'd most likely need a drogue to keep your belly pointed in the right direction.

While a round or ram-air parachute would work, it would need to be HUGE and even at that you'd be landing quite fast. Possibly too fast to be survivable either vertically or horizontally.

I'd have to dig out a book and do some math, but just going off the top of my head on that.

Here's the formulas if anybody has some spare time.
http://www.pcprg.com/rounddes.htm

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[TampaPete 35]

Yes but it takes a lot of math.

It probably boils down to use a bigger parachute and have more altitude for opening (longer snivvle).

http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission/technology/insituexploration/edl/biggerparachute/

https://www.google.com/#q=mars+atmospheric+density


https://www.google.com/#q=mars+gravity

[oldwomanc6 38]

Is this before or after terraforming?

lisa
WSCR 594
FB 1023
CBDB 9

[quade 3]

TampaPete

It probably boils down to use a bigger parachute and have more altitude for opening (longer snivvle).

Bigger for sure. The question is how big?

What would be practical in terms of being able to be carried and deployed by a person vs how slowly would you be going at touchdown.

Then there is the question of how little (for lack of a better name) wing loading would the system have and would that still be sufficient to allow the parachute to deploy properly?

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[TampaPete 35]

Agree with all.

[AlanS 1]

oldwomanc6

Is this before or after terraforming?

Read the book "Red Mars" In it they are jumping from the space elevator from low Mars orbit which linked the Mars surface with geostationary orbit.

OK, it wasn't by choice since the space elevator was falling out of the sky after being sabotaged at the start of the first Mars revolution, but if skydivers were on Mars this is what they would be doing. (Likely break some law in the process)

[Anachronist 2]

Cool off topic-ish thingie, the Russians focused on Venus during the Cold War because the US was all about Mars, anyway, they landed a probe, the atmosphere was so dense it didn't need a parachute, just a (rather small) metal disk. I read up on it a while ago so I could be a little off, but I think the density of the Venus atmosphere is closer to the density of water than it is to the atmosphere on Earth. Also there are photos from the surface, pretty cool stuff.

Skydivable if you could find a way to survive the 900 degree temp, might be able to just use a pilot chute too

[JohnMitchell 14]

oldwomanc6

Is this before or after terraforming?

"Start the reactor, Quade."

[JohnMitchell 14]

Sounds like an "atmosphere density to gravity" ratio problem. We need the moon's gravity with the Earth's atmosphere. Of course, with the Moon's gravity, the atmosphere would be soon gone. . . so, I guess I'm staying on this planet.

[turtlespeed 212]

Anachronist

Cool off topic-ish thingie, the Russians focused on Venus during the Cold War because the US was all about Mars, anyway, they landed a probe, the atmosphere was so dense it didn't need a parachute, just a (rather small) metal disk. I read up on it a while ago so I could be a little off, but I think the density of the Venus atmosphere is closer to the density of water than it is to the atmosphere on Earth. Also there are photos from the surface, pretty cool stuff.

Skydivable if you could find a way to survive the 900 degree temp, might be able to just use a pilot chute too

Makes for a long wing suit jump.

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[diablopilot 2]

Some interesting stuff here... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_aircraft

----------------------------------------------
You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[wolfriverjoe 1,340]

Well, of course you could skydive.

Even on earth, you don't need a parachute to skydive.

You need a parachute to skydive more than once.





Sorry, couldn't resist.

Seriously, they used parachutes for the descent of the Mars Rovers. It was pretty big, and wasn't able to slow it enough for a soft landing (they used rocket decellerators on one and bounced it on airbags for another). But the parachutes functioned properly.

http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/spacecraft_edl_parachute.html

"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

[jakee 1,255]

All Mars landings have used retrorockets to help slow down the probes after parachute deployment. Even with airbag systems parachutes alone have never been enough to slow a lander down to a safe landing speed.

In the case of the most recent Mars Laboratory the lander was still going 200+mph when the parachute was jettisoned and the skycrane rockets took over.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[Niki1 1]

Just keep ALL the calculations in either metric OR feet and inches. Mixing them up is a bad idea.

Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossilbe before they were done.
Louis D Brandeis

Where are we going and why are we in this basket?

[quade 3]

Niki1

Just keep ALL the calculations in either metric OR feet and inches. Mixing them up is a bad idea.

Fairly certain NASA knows that . . . NOW.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[billvon 2,400]

> how would skydiving ( or just base jumping) on Mars compare to Earth?

The air would feel "mushier." Not because the air is less dense (and it is MUCH less dense) but because gravity is a lot lower - and you will fall until gravity and drag balance, and drag is what you 'work with' during normal RW.

You'd be "on the hill" for a long time (over a minute) due to the low air density, and your terminal velocity would be faster than sound on Mars (which is about 240 meters per second.) That might feel interesting - because the shockwave from your hands would be impinging on the side of your face, for example. It wouldn't be very dangerous since air density is so low, it would just feel odd. If you could feel it through your helmet, that is.

It might be a challenge to reach terminal velocity before impact, depending on how high you jumped from. Even from 20,000 feet you'd barely reach the speed of sound before impact.

Lift goes linearly by air by density and by the square of speed. So if you had a parachute that you are used to landing at 20mph, your landing speed on Mars would be around 260 mph.

And of course you'd need a pressure suit.

[jakee 1,255]

Quote

You'd be "on the hill" for a long time...

Lift goes linearly by air by density and by the square of speed. So if you had a parachute that you are used to landing at 20mph, your landing speed on Mars would be around 260 mph.

So if, for thought experiment, you were jumping from an earth style aeroplane, how fast would that need to be flying on jumprun?

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[turtlespeed 212]

billvon

> how would skydiving ( or just base jumping) on Mars compare to Earth?

The air would feel "mushier." Not because the air is less dense (and it is MUCH less dense) but because gravity is a lot lower - and you will fall until gravity and drag balance, and drag is what you 'work with' during normal RW.

You'd be "on the hill" for a long time (over a minute) due to the low air density, and your terminal velocity would be faster than sound on Mars (which is about 240 meters per second.) That might feel interesting - because the shockwave from your hands would be impinging on the side of your face, for example. It wouldn't be very dangerous since air density is so low, it would just feel odd. If you could feel it through your helmet, that is.

It might be a challenge to reach terminal velocity before impact, depending on how high you jumped from. Even from 20,000 feet you'd barely reach the speed of sound before impact.

Lift goes linearly by air by density and by the square of speed. So if you had a parachute that you are used to landing at 20mph, your landing speed on Mars would be around 260 mph.

And of course you'd need a pressure suit.

What about really big balloon suit?

What would the inertial force be on impact?

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[RiggerLee 61]

The gravity is still like a third of earths. That isn't really low enough to be of any help. The air is closer to vacuum then it is the an atmosphere. Some one raised the question once if a wing suiter would be supersonic. Bottom line. Mars is not the place to jump. On the other hand Titan has a thick atmosphere, not enough to crush you like Venus. What is it? 1.5 atmospheres? And the surface gravity is like .15 G. It's been theorized that you could strap wings to your arms and fly like a bird. Only problem, it's kind of cold.

Lee

Lee
[email protected]
www.velocitysportswear.com

[quade 3]

turtlespeed

What would the inertial force be on impact?

F = MA

If you crater at 200 mph it's the same on Mars as it is on Earth.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[billvon 2,400]

>So if, for thought experiment, you were jumping from an earth style aeroplane, how
>fast would that need to be flying on jumprun?

Well, you'd have to make a LOT of changes to it of course, but a generally similar wingspan aircraft that flew at 80mph on Earth would have to fly at ~1100mph on Mars.

[turtlespeed 212]

billvon

>So if, for thought experiment, you were jumping from an earth style aeroplane, how
>fast would that need to be flying on jumprun?

Well, you'd have to make a LOT of changes to it of course, but a generally similar wingspan aircraft that flew at 80mph on Earth would have to fly at ~1100mph on Mars.

Probably make the skin a little warm.

Wing suiting at Mach 3 . . . Hmmmm

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[bgrozev 2]

billvon

>So if, for thought experiment, you were jumping from an earth style aeroplane, how
>fast would that need to be flying on jumprun?

Well, you'd have to make a LOT of changes to it of course, but a generally similar wingspan aircraft that flew at 80mph on Earth would have to fly at ~1100mph on Mars.

So horizontal separation between groups won't be much of a problem.

[turtlespeed 212]

bgrozev

***>So if, for thought experiment, you were jumping from an earth style aeroplane, how
>fast would that need to be flying on jumprun?

Well, you'd have to make a LOT of changes to it of course, but a generally similar wingspan aircraft that flew at 80mph on Earth would have to fly at ~1100mph on Mars.

So horizontal separation between groups won't be much of a problem.

That formation dive - would be interesting to say the least.

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun