Cloud atlas of Mars reveals an atmosphere unlike our own | Hacker News Reader

Cloud atlas of Mars reveals an atmosphere unlike our own

newscientist.com

34 pointsBrajeshwar15 comments

The fourth photo is Olympus Mons, not a volcano on Mars; it is the volcano on Mars. I'm sure a lot of you know this, however reminding myself of how big this peak is is always breathtaking. A hypothetical ascent in our future would be the single largest climbing feat human kind ever could undertake in our known solar system [0].

Mt. Everest is 8,848.86 m (29,032 ft) [1].

Mauna Kea (assuming you're climbing from the local bottom of the ocean is 9,330 m (30,610 ft) [2].

Olympus Mons' prominence is 21,900 m (71,850 feet 4.724 inches) [3].

Try climbing Everest, twice, where the entire mountain (and planet) is the "death zone" and your supplies have to be flown in from one planet over.

Edit: Also! For a sense of scale, the crater in the photo is 85 km (53 miles) in diameter [4]. About the distance from the Taco Bell in Half Moon Bay to the Taco Bell just east of Santa Cruz as the crow flies [5].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_mountains_in_t...

[1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20201208113343/https://www.natio...

[2]: http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_mark.prl?PidBox=TU2314

[3]: https://tharsis.gsfc.nasa.gov/mola.summary.pdf

[4]: https://www.britannica.com/place/Olympus-Mons

[5]: https://www.gaiagps.com/map/?loc=8.6/-122.6459/37.2976&pubLi...

You also need to factor in that Mars has 1/3 of Earth gravity.

I have no experience in low gravity climbing, but it has to be a substantial help!

Interesting take! I feel like factoring that in:

- low gravity: -1 difficulty

- less traction because low gravity: +1 difficulty

- supply chain from earth: +1 difficulty

- full spacesuit in addition to supplies: +1 difficulty

So overall my pseudo math: +2 difficulty

It has a very low slope angle of about 5%, so it would be really more like a hike, esp in such low gravity.

Unlike Mt Everest, a mountain formed by a collision of tectonic plates, Olympic is a shield volcano and they are the opposite to mountains in terms of slope angles.

Considering it's a really old and wide shield volcano, the limiting factor can't be the 'climb' so to speak. Surely it's traction so perhaps lower gravity is worse? On the other hand you _can_ bound up it. Still, I can't help but think we'd be traction limited in some sense. Usain Bolt would probably be about the same time considering he can't push down enough, I imagine. Would be cool to estimate.

Are you saying the terrain is more gravel/sand than solid rock?

I was just thinking about the gravitational force providing traction to go forward.

Aha. I didn't even consider that could be a factor. You may well be right.

I do know, after having walked up many a high mountain, that a major pain point is the gained altitude. You're lifting your body weight several kilometers up! Distance walked is a much smaller factor.

Strange title, since we've known for a long time that Mars has an atmosphere unlike our own.

I think people think that living on mars would be similar to living on Earth, and weather is a good start point to educate humanity

I’m genuinely not trying to be a jerk when I say this… but I find that bewildering? I thought we all should have learned a very simplified version of this in elementary school…

People can't grasp the concept of weather on the planet they live on.

Even setting aside that it's 95% CO2 and incredibly cold, most people have no appreciation for how thin the Martian atmosphere is. Surface pressure is 0.6% that of Earth, with maximum density 2% that of Earth's. It's not like Martian explorers could get away with just a respirator.

Even with an oxygen mask, your blood starts to boil below 6.0% / 1psi

http://archive.today/35dxI

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