Re: Mars Questions


shellys wrote:
Hi,

I've lurked on and off around here over the past few years, but never
posted. Not that I remember, anyway. But I've finished the second
draft of my first novel, a political thriller set on Mars in the
mid-2100s (possibly subject to change) and I have questions regarding
Mars itself that I don't think I can get answered at
rec.arts.sf.composition, my usual home to lurk and occasionally post.
And since my questions are rather specific, I figured a new topic
would be appropriate.

The situation: There are domed cities, but outside the domes, Mars is
pretty much the way it is now, no terraforming. The cities have an
underground component, sort of cities below the cities where life
support systems and the worker class live. Air in the underground and
under the domes approximates Earth's. People outside the dome, on the
surface, wear environment suits. I don't get technical as it's not my
specialty, but the suits have full life support to sustain them for a
few hours, with air tanks, etc., nice and lightweight.

My problem: I don't know what can or can't happen in the natural
atmosphere on Mars. Googling "blowing things up on Mars" or something
similar hasn't gotten me useful results.

The questions:

1. I have a bad guy on the surface and he needs to kill the people in
a transport carrier that is parked in Daedalia Planum. The transport
is secure and has life support. The people are probably in their
suits, but most likely don't have their helmets on. He has a weapon
that can fire rounds that will pierce the carrier. Can he blow it up?
If he shoots holes in it, what would happen?

It depends on the weapon. High velocity rounds will make holes, some
fragments inside and will go through anyone inside. Very high velocity
rounds, say from a railgun or a coilgun will add explosive and heat
effects, which will be much more likely to cause a fire or a secondary
explosions, say from fuel tanks. A laser at a high enough intensity
will move beyond thermal effects to explosive and that will have much
the same effect. A shaped charge will put a jet of molten metal and/or
jagged shards of the hull into the crew spaces. Any of the last three
will kill very efficiently given the right ratio of impacts to vehicle
size and compartmentalisation.

2. The bad guy then goes underground to destroy a partially built
underground city that had been destroyed during a cave-in. Some
tunnels remain, but most of the breathable air has been expended. The
original cave-in was caused by an explosion. I didn't specify the type
of device used, but at that time, there was Earth-like atmosphere down
there. I figured the concussive force of the charges brought down the
dirt like an avalanche. Most of the victims suffocated. And since
there was oxygen in the air, there could have been explosions and fire
damage as well as shrapnel from the metals being used in the
construction. If I'm wrong, please let me know.

For this final act of destruction, what kind of device would do the
trick, since the atmosphere is mostly gone or reverted to what's
natural for tunnels under Mars? Would it need to be some sort of pulse
device? Sonic? Something I'd never think of?

To make a big bang there is old fashioned chemical explosive. It
should work fine on Mars as it is not reliant on external atmosphere.
Or you could go for a nuke, that usually does the trick. If you want
something esoteric you could go for matter to antimatter annihilation,
lots of energy though you have to figure out a way to keep the
antimatter containment powered up but compact.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Solar Wind Rips Up Martian Atmosphere
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    (sci.space.news)
  • Re: Is it this easy to live on Mars?
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    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Improved lunar landing architecture
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    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Life on Mars ?
    ... Life on earth has been around for about 4 Billion years ... anyway) within a 150 year period, then Mars will have at most enough oil ... >>> in the atmosphere, ... >>> positive nutrients they will need accessible water. ...
    (uk.politics.misc)
  • Re: Minimum size of a Mars mission that could potentailly survive indefinately
    ... I understand that in a single year, a human on Mars might ... Humans should stay within the Earth/Moon system for the next few ... There's no comfort in the statistics for missions to Mars. ... and also in the amount of atmosphere it has then the ...
    (sci.space.policy)
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