"John Galloway" wrote in
message ...
Assuming that to qualify as terraformed the Martian
atmosphere would have to be similar to that of the
Earth then if the Martian gravity is one third of Earth's
you would be unlikely to have an atmosphere of the
same density as Earth's.


Venus, with about the same gravity as Earth, has an atmosphere 90 times as
deep and dense (With a surface pressure equal to the water pressure one
Kilometer below the Earth's ocean). Mars, even though much smaller, might
be able to hold an atmosphere with a surface pressure of 1000 mb - at least
for a reasonable time. Assuming the technology to terraform Mars in the
first place, the atmosphere could be maintained at that surface pressure.
This implies that the atmosphere would be much deeper with a surface
boundary layer measured in 10's of Kilometers. (Think really tall
thermals.)

Thinking about a theoretical terraformed Mars make you realize just how much
everything we know about terrestrial aerodynamics and weather depends on the
ICAO standard atmosphere. I guess the first step is to figure out what the
terraformed Mars equivalent of that would be.

It's interesting to think of a 15 meter glider in 1/3 gravity. At 1000 mb
the Reynolds numbers would be the same but the flying weight would be
reduced by 2/3rds. You might want to carry a LOT of ballast.

The Mars year is 687 Earth days so it would be a really long soaring season.

Bill Daniels