Once we're all on Mars

[In Vacuo Veritas]

How would the MPS work?? Will it use the same kind of satellites as GPS or can we put old LORAN beacons on Phobos and Deimos since they're so close and Mars is small? Assuming we don't dismantle Phobos and Deimos for their natural resources first.

[Whales]

How opaque is the atmosphere to light?  Would a standard camera module be able to see the planets, moons and stars?

[In Vacuo Veritas]

Good question! Is that before or after the (dead easy and super simple) terraforming has created an oxy-nitro atmosphere? Probably with a Weyland-Yutani Atmosphere Processor. I hope they worked out the bugs by then, like how a fusion reactor can undergo meltdown.

[Eka]

How would the MPS work?? Will it use the same kind of satellites as GPS or can we put old LORAN beacons on Phobos and Deimos since they're so close and Mars is small? Assuming we don't dismantle Phobos and Deimos for their natural resources first.

Last I knew the plan was a satellite GPS type system. At least one stationary base does need to be made on Mars to calibrate the system. It could be almost fully automated with minimal oversight from Earth. LORAN needs stationary transmitters.

[Bud]

Oh boy, another thread on Mars.
Have you guys paid out your mortgage yet? May be a good idea to focus on that first.

[rstofer]

I guess they will have to come up with an entirely new Almanac for Celestial Navigation.  I look forward to seeing that.

[PointyOintment]

Currently, I think they use Doppler measurements on the radio signals, either from Earth or from orbit, as the lander or rover rotates with the planet/the satellite orbits the planet. Good enough (and pretty much all you can do, short of direct imaging) with so few stations and no purpose-built timing hardware.

How opaque is the atmosphere to light?  Would a standard camera module be able to see the planets, moons and stars?

On the surface of Mars, during the daytime, you will generally see exactly one star and exactly one planet, just like on the surface of Earth.

[Echo88]

There it is again. Another thread in which you prove your intellelectual superiority. Hope your moms proud of you. But you might just ask her that, since all you need is to step out of the basement and ask her at dinnertime.

[Eka]

  Mom and dad moved in with me. Of course, they are great great grandparents. So not exactly young.

[lordvader88]

The really better get the travel time there down, and use rotating living quarters at least.

People went on crazy insane sea voyages into the unknown for 1,000s or even 10,000s of years.

But for me the idea of a 2 year trip in a little tin can to Mars.....even if a nice base was already there....I don't think I'd last the trip, unless it was like a huge spaceship/cruise liner

[PointyOintment]

There it is again. Another thread in which you prove your intellelectual superiority.

Technical people on a technical forum discussing technical things = brain-measuring contest?

[Eka]

Travel times should be well under a year each way. The efficiencies, and thus ultimate speed, of modern space tuned rocket engines are much higher than what most transit time estimates used. The killer is the time you have to wait to catch the next window for a short transit time home. That doesn't get any sooner, but your time on Mars between arrival and that window will be longer.

[Brumby]

There it is again. Another thread in which you prove your intellelectual superiority.

Technical people on a technical forum discussing technical things = brain-measuring contest?

This comment is not about who is discussing things nor where it is being discussed - but how some people conduct themselves.

[lordvader88]

Personally I don't think humans actually walked on the moon, nor did they return samples. I can buy that they landed radar reflectors, but not people, and not multiple times. They just circled the Earth. AstroNOTS. That 1st press conference with Buzz and crew, what a joke. They hated having to lie like that to the world, and they way they spoke of it was NOTHING like how anyone would describe if they went on a holiday and actually saw and did stuff.

I say it's time for someone to actually go to the moon 1st.

[Marco]

Good question!

If you are that upset about fanboy'ish speculation about space exploration that you have to spend your time making long sarcastic replies when people join in, why even start the thread?

[In Vacuo Veritas]

Personally I don't think humans actually walked on the moon, nor did they return samples. I can buy that they landed radar reflectors, but not people, and not multiple times. They just circled the Earth. AstroNOTS. That 1st press conference with Buzz and crew, what a joke. They hated having to lie like that to the world, and they way they spoke of it was NOTHING like how anyone would describe if they went on a holiday and actually saw and did stuff.

I say it's time for someone to actually go to the moon 1st.

Are you competing with Treez for the "lacked oxygen at birth" award?