Mars Landing tonight

Originally Posted by Danzig

one of the things keeping us from attempting to travel to and land on mars is water. it's a loooong trip in both directions. food is easy-you can dehydrate and carry enough food to last-but what about water? so, if there are viable sources there, you could travel there and not have to worry about pre-shipping evian!

my son wants to go to the naval academy and become a pilot, and then go to nasa from there to be an astronaut. he said the other day 'hey, maybe i could be the first guy on mars'. i told him to go for it.

Exactly.
Water is damn heavy (I should say dense because water is heavier
on the earth than on mars).
The payload to take enough water would make it
ridiculous to stay for any amount of time.

You can also turn water into O2 using electrolysis
powered by the sun. but if anyone wanted to stay
more long term... plants could solve a lot of food problems.
Problems with the winds, cold, pressure, etc... can be overcome.
We could set some telescopes up their also, the moon as well.
Im Getting way ahead again.

We also think the moon has water but mostly small crystalized
pieces in the soil.