Moon & Mars

[Janus]

Originally Posted by Prolu2007

Would Mars surface not be too toxic or hazardous to land on for humans though? The moon is no problem as it's not strong enough to sustain an atmosphere but Mars is, what conditions would humans be subjected to?

First off, the atmosphere is about 1/100th as thick as the Earth; too thin to breath.

Here's the composition of Mar's atmosphere, with Earth's composition listed after.

Mars
Carbon dioxide........95.32%
Nitrogen..................2.7%
Argon......................1.6%
Oxygen....................0.13%
Carbon monoxide......0.07%
Water vapor..............0.03%
Nitric oxide...............0.01%
Neon........................2.5 ppm*
Krypton....................300 ppb**
Xenon.......................80 ppb
Ozone......................30 ppb
Methane...................10.5 ppb

Earth
Nitrogen....................78.084%
Oxygen....................20.946%
water vapor...............1-4%
Argon.......................0.9340%
Carbon dioxide..........381 ppm
Neon........................18.18 ppm
Helium......................5.24 ppm
Methane....................1.745 ppm
Krypton......................1.14 ppm
Hydrogen....................0.55 ppm
nitrous oxide...............0.5 ppm
xenon.........................0.09 ppm
ozone.........................0.0 to 0.07 ppm
nitrogen dioxide...........0.02 ppm
iodine.........................0.01 ppm
carbon monoxide.........trace
ammonia.....................trace

*parts per million
**[i]parts per billion[/i}

Obviously, just bringing the thickness of Mars' atmosphere up wouldn't be enough to make it breathable. Too little Oxygen and too much Carbon Dioxide.

[Tormod]

I think the composition of the atmosphere is the least astronauts need to worry about. The lack of shielding against cosmic rays means they'll rack up the rems pretty fast. So the habitats they take with them (or build in situ) will need to protect them very well.

[Roadam]

Or should one send factories first? (talking about moon) There is a lot of solar energy altough all usable minerals are in unusable form.Still I think that remote controlled factory, even quite small should do, could provide easier way than sending whole habitats to the moon.