Talk:Mars

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Future Missions, last paragraph:

"Mars Direct, an extremely low-cost human mission proposed by Bob Zubrin, a founder of the Mars Society, uses heavy-lift Saturn V class rockets, such as the Space X Falcon 9, or, the Ares V, to skip orbital construction, LEO rendezvous, and lunar fuel depots..."

Please do not state that the Falcon 9 is a Saturn V class rocket. The Saturn V was able to get appr. 100 tons into LEO. As currently (Nov 18, 2009) planned, the Falcon 9 will be able to get 10,450 kg into LEO (http://www.spacex.com/falcon9.php), the Falcon 9 heavy 29,610 kg (http://www.spacex.com/falcon9_heavy.php). This would mean about 10 tons to a Mars transit trajectory with chemical propulsion. Very difficult to see how a spacecraft of this size would have the capability to support a manned crew for the duration of the voyage (>6 months), let alone to get them down to the surface of Mars. While I'm a big fan of Elon Musk and SpaceX and believe they have the potential to make a decisive contribution to manned space missions, including those to Mars, it is quite difficult to send a direct mission to Mars without assembly and/or fueling in Earth orbit using his current launcher designs.

Thfledrich (talk) 02:12, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

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Vandalism in the Geography section

"On September 18, 2009, powerful telescopes from a spacecraft orbiting Mars took pictures of nine pyramids on the surface of Mars. The pyramids, as it seems, are not of the natural origin. The images include striking statues of human and animal faces, clearly visible from space, as well as large drawings featuring the profiles of primates and canines."

This sounds totally legit, guys.

18.248.6.245 (talk) 09:09, 25 September 2009 (UTC)

Taken care of by Kwamikagami with this edit. ~ Amory (user • talk • contribs) 13:16, 25 September 2009 (UTC)

Mars/Earth Collision

Is there a tiny solid possibility or not enough information?

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/2803/when-worlds-collide-earth-mars-impact-possible

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8094088.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8093962.stm

--Rent A Troop (talk) 09:14, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes, the possibility is there. In billions of years, Mercury may crash into Venus, or Venus into Earth, or Mars into Earth. -- Kheider (talk) 10:11, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Climate

Small note: under Climate it says "Of all the planets, Mars's seasons are the most Earth-like". I think everyone (including me) understands the meaning, but I think it sounds a little funny nevertheless. If it said "Of all the planets in the solar system", it would perhaps be a bit more accurate? The alternative is of course that it means that it is the most earth-like planet "we" have found, although I strongly doubt that it is? 84.215.121.104 (talk) 21:48, 13 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes, limiting the comparison to just the Solar System would make sense. I think it is also assumed that means "at present".—RJH (talk) 22:00, 13 November 2009 (UTC)

Atmospheric details

All of the planetary data, where there is an atmosphere, should contain fields for estimated total volume and not simply the adiabetic pressure. --Slamlander (talk) 17:10, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

FAR needed

This FA has been listed at Wikipedia:Featured articles/Cleanup listing for a very long time; if not cleaned up soon, it should go to WP:FAR. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 22:12, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

Consistency

The body of the article describes Olympus Mons as 26 km in height. The photo caption describes Olympus Mons as 27 km in height. The Wikipedia entry on Olympus Mons also describes it as 27 km in height. 76.23.157.102 (talk) 18:25, 25 December 2009 (UTC)