So how about that Mars probe?

InSight, its assigned mission is going to be scanning Mars' interior structure. It's going to be undergoing atmospheric entry and landing in about 7 hours. For point of reference, about half of Mars probes so far have failed on entry, so this is kind of the big trial by fire for it.

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SW-User Best Comment

It's actually much easier to land on the Earth than Mars. Mars has enough atmosphere to be a problem, but not enough to be very helpful. The parachutes have to be deployed while it's still supersonic, where they tend to behave somewhat unpredictably (I think they've solved this problem now). They can't slow the lander down enough to make a safe landing on their own, so they have to use rockets at the end, which are always a bit sketchy, which is why they did the bouncy ball thing for a while. That skyhook thing for MSL was just crazy.

Come to think about it, Mars has to be the most difficult planet with a solid surface to land on.

Buttocks clenched here, I really want this to work.

SW-User

@SW-User tx for BA 🤗

UndeadPrivateer · 31-35, M

@SW-User Yeah, that is indeed the tricky bit. Mars' atmosphere is thick enough to create considerable entry heating and yet thin enough to not catch parachutes very well. Both just thick and just thin enough to be problems.

I think Venusian landings are still probably the craziest endeavor in the solar system bar probing the interior of gas giants.

UndeadPrivateer · 31-35, M

@SW-User Most welcome. 🤗

SW-User

@UndeadPrivateer I think balloon probes make a lot of sense for places like Venus and the giants.

UndeadPrivateer · 31-35, M

@SW-User Venus is tricky what with the highly corrosive atmosphere and intense electrical storms, but we shall see. I saw some interesting proposals for Venusian manned laboratories using balloon suspended observation areas. I'd think one could do that for gas giants as well(though may also be quite tricky due to the intense weather patterns.)

BigbangFACTS · M

@UndeadPrivateer I’m for the balloon labs but not to colonize the Venus atmosphere. It’s best just to study until we can really change the atmosphere significantly.

I remember Carl Sagan said something seeding to change it, although that would take a very long time to see any considerable difference.

Mars is the bet in my view, and maybe Titan afterwards.

UndeadPrivateer · 31-35, M

@BigbangFACTS Titan and Venus both have such thick and toxic atmospheres that any terraforming is going to take centuries to even have very basic habitability. Mars still ain't easy, by any means, but it would be on the scale of decades rather than centuries to get things to basic habitable status, where you could go outside without a pressure suit. Though it would still be nearly a century or more to get it to the point of not needing oxygen support for colonists. Next stop after Mars, in my opinion, should probably be Enceladus.

For me the order to make this whole transition the easiest would be Lunar colonies(for space manufacturing and deep space launches)->Mars colonies->Outer Moons. Again just my opinion though.