Soaring on Mars

Correction:

Before any of you nit-pick over one word, change "airspeed" to simply
"speed."

The revised text should read:

Your assumption is that the air density is adequate to provide sufficient
lift -- which it's not. The speed which would be required to produce
enough lift would be extremely fast -- well over the speed of sound (many
times over) -- which would rip a conventional glider apart.

The air density on Mars is only 1% of Earth's (1) -- at the Martian
equivalent of MSL. Just like on Earth, air density rapidly decreases with
altitude, so the air density just a few thousand feet above the Martian
surface may only be 1/10th of 1% of Earth's (I don't know the exact number,
I'm not a rocket scientist for JPL). So, as I said: you might as well be
trying to soar on the moon.

-Chris

(1)
"Bill Daniels" wrote in message
Air is about 1% as dense as on Earth