You may have heard about a recent book called The Martian which has a pretty accurate description of how a stranded astronaut could survive and be rescued (definitely more realistic than the movie Robinson Crusoe on Mars which although fun, was completely bunk in that regard). Im relieved to hear in this Q&A with the author that the bit about the wind on Mars that causes the initial accident was made up. Eons ago I wrote a report about the atmosphere of Mars and its effects on the surface and I was perplexed that the book would claim the wind would be strong enough to tip a spacecraft. That wasnt what my calculations suggested. For those of you that want to get more into the science of wind on Mars, I recommend starting with this fantastic piece by Carl Sagan and the father of modern wind science R.A. Bagnold. dx.doi.org/10.1016/0019-1035(75)90080-9 Otherwise click on the picture below to read the Q&A, and I recommend the book as a good fun read.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 15:45:40 +0000
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