HAPs for Mars Simulation and Exploration
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=10762
Small balloons for low mass payloads are useless, scale them up to 200m radius however then things get interesting! Here we see that the performance of 200m radius balloons can lift up to 100 tons of payload up to the peak of Olympus Mons due to the relationship between radius and volume of a sphere and lower Martian Gravity.
Double the radius and you increase the volume by a factor of 8. So this picture of a saucer shaped Airship in Mars’ atmosphere almost hugging the ground in a crater, is not actually the best we can do! It can go all the way to the top of mountains because of it’s sheer size. The Hindenburg on Earth will do just as well in Mars! Well, the max altitude will be roughly the same but climb rate will be slower in Mars’ atmosphere.
We can do this:
Not limited to this:
For background on this topic visit:
https://lnkd.in/gW9NUjQq