RE: Zubrin must be pleased

From: Eugen Leitl (eugen@leitl.org)
Date: Sun Jan 19 2003 - 03:35:03 MST


On Sat, 18 Jan 2003, Reason wrote:

> Mars would seem to offer us little more use than the Moon, and it's a
> lot further away. Walk before running, says I.

Mars would offer us a lot *less* than the Moon. Most of it is due to
relativistic lag, but also it has a much higher escape velocity, useless
but annoying atmosphere and the solar constant is much lower out there.

We *know* there's lots of water in the polar cryotraps. Given the source,
that's pretty dirty stuff, with ammonia, sulfur and random organics.



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