It’s shame that the Martian atmosphere is so thin, a drone airship would’ve been an interesting idea since it could operate nearly indefinitely.
Achieving buoyancy would require a gigantic lifting body, far larger than any folding body we can send up there.
An evacuated space airship might also be possible but it would require a large ridged body (tho smaller than any gas filled balloon) which would also be impractical if not impossible to currently land on Mars.
> Achieving buoyancy would require a gigantic lifting body
That's why the first manned mission should include a politician, so they could fill the thing with election promises...
Seriously though, it got me thinking about Mytbuster's lead balloon experiment. Though I guess part of the problem is having to survive the dust storms, and possibly small meteorites?
But I don’t know if even starship would be large enough to send something like that to Mars.
But when we have people there that would seem to be the most plausible means of transport. Fixed wing would be likely out of the question, rotary wing aircraft would be very weight limited so carrying cargo and people would probably not work.
So this leaves rockets and airships.
I think one of the interesting things about Mars is that if we colonize it moving on the surface of the planet would be quite a challenge.
No oceans, lands is hard to traverse over long distances due to extreme terrain features and winged flight would be impractical for anything of any substantial mass.
Wouldn't the solution be using the underground lava tubes? It would help with avoiding the radiation....also the techniques uses by the "Boring company" could come in useful....on that note seems like a good project to develop, an autonomous drone that would map out the caves...I mean isn't there supposed to be water in them?
"Mars habitats must contend with surface conditions that include almost no oxygen in the air, extreme cold, low pressure, and high radiation. Alternatively, the habitat may be placed underground"
"Large amounts of underground ice have been found on Mars; the volume of water detected is equivalent to the volume of water in Lake Superior"
Lava tubes and underground tunnels would be a much longer solution if it’s even feasible I don’t think we understand enough about the geology of Mars to plan for that.
In the “short term” once we do have continuous presence on Mars we might want to spread to a few points of interest.
Martian hyperloop is for when you have millions of people on the planet and we might never get to that point. We need something for dozens or a few 100’s too.
Achieving buoyancy would require a gigantic lifting body, far larger than any folding body we can send up there.
An evacuated space airship might also be possible but it would require a large ridged body (tho smaller than any gas filled balloon) which would also be impractical if not impossible to currently land on Mars.