# How Long on Mars? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 28, 2014, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-on-mars/702718 "2014-10-28T04:48:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-on-mars/702718/21 "2014-10-28T17:50:50Z")
> [@Robert163](#): > > I thought this was going to be a question about David Bowie… What a god-awful small affair. ---
**Author:** ![iljitsch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/77aa72/32.png) [@iljitsch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iljitsch)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-on-mars/702718/22 "2014-10-28T19:06:47Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > Suppose you were on a spaceship where sudden catastrophic pressure loss was a possibility. You live on the ship, so wearing a suit around all the time is not feasible. You can’t reduce the risk of pressure loss to zero for \. Put a stronger spaceship inside the flimsy one? I did once hear a story about how astronauts plugged a leak in a space station simply by covering it with a hand. Things don’t always have to be very complex. If the leaks are small you have time to do something about it, flee, or put on a pressure suit. If the leaks are big you don’t have time and the air rushing out probably means you’re ending up floating in space anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-on-mars/702718/23 "2014-10-28T20:26:40Z")
> [@iljitsch](#): > > Put a stronger spaceship inside the flimsy one? In the sci-fi setting, the people working on the ship are not necessarily NASA certified technicians. It’s a world where the tools to make changes are very powerful and the people using them are amateurs at best. So someone might accidentally order a construction robot to tear out a bulkhead that is holding pressure in by mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-on-mars/702718/24 "2014-10-28T20:45:31Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > You would survive a bit longer than that. Jim Leblanc was testing a space suit for NASA in a vacuum chamber when a tube broke loose. Jim passed out after about 15 seconds or so. Sorry, yeah–I meant 20-30 s before you passed out (in the OP’s setting, passing out is as good as dying). Though even that might be an overestimate. After that depends on how good the local medical treatment is. > [@iljitsch](#): > > The difference between parts of the body covered by pressure and the exposed parts would also be quite small (0.2 atmospheres), so I’m thinking you could leave small areas exposed without trouble, as long as you use compression garments that cover the face, neck and chest/abdomen, which contain air. This is essentially true, for some definition of small. IIRC, exposed patches on the order of a square centimeter are ok. Much more than that causes bruising. Skin is pretty tough but not infinitely so. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-on-mars/702718/25 "2014-10-28T20:54:40Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > Right. I’m rather curious about this myself. Suppose you were on a spaceship where sudden catastrophic pressure loss was a possibility. You live on the ship, so wearing a suit around all the time is not feasible. You can’t reduce the risk of pressure loss to zero for \. Carry a zippered bag made of some strong polymer (kevlar, etc.) with an oxygen cylinder inside. With a great deal of practice, it should be possible to jump in the bag, zip it up, and activate the cylinder in \<15 sec. Now you’re in a 4-foot hamster ball with not too much air, but you’ll survive for a while. Make sure that someone in the station is always in a protected area (or suit) so that they can make repairs or move people to safe areas. ---
**Author:** ![iljitsch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/77aa72/32.png) [@iljitsch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iljitsch)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-on-mars/702718/26 "2014-10-28T20:57:53Z")
Not so sure… you can actually blow at about 0.15 atmospheres and 0.2 is the same as 2 meters of water = the blood pressure difference between the top of your head and the bottom of your feet if you’re a pro basket ball player. 0.2 atm is also about 150 mmHg, so only a little more than your blood pressure. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-on-mars/702718/27 "2014-10-28T21:01:46Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Carry a zippered bag made of some strong polymer (kevlar, etc.) with an oxygen cylinder inside. . NASA had a design for an emergency space suit that was basically just such an airtight hamster ball. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-on-mars/702718/28 "2014-10-28T21:15:46Z")
Cost benefit ratio says to not bother. A totally safe airplane or space craft, can not get off the ground with present tech. Remember, military or government tech is about getting the job done. Getting the pilot back is nice but secondary. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-on-mars/702718/29 "2014-10-29T01:34:40Z")
Gentlemen, be seated. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-on-mars/702718/30 "2014-10-29T03:12:39Z")
Nice Golden Age reference. Not on Mars of course, but apropos nonetheless. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-on-mars/702718/31 "2014-10-29T04:37:26Z")
Yes, I was thinking of “Gentlemen Be Seated”. Heinlein’s theory was that the fatty buttock skin layer would turn to leather from the vacuum, thus sealing the small crack. Clarke had a short story that essentially replicated the 2001 incident, where a segment of a spinning station under construction broke off; the people inside had no suits, so like 2001 and presumably based on the sort of experiments mentioned above, he suggested that people could survive long enough to blow over to the airlock and pressurize - 30 seconds to a minute. The rule of thumb I heard is that the surface of Mars is about the equivalent of 100,000 feet altitude or more… essentially vacuum for our purposes. Whether we would explode or simply mummify on exposure is an interesting argument. Presumably one thought says our skin layer would dry first and fastest, creating a leathery container layer. After that it is enough of a containment that the remainder of the interior fluids would boil out through the appropriate orifices, presumably creating an interesting pinwheel effect as you jet boiled fluids through the mouth, nose, and anal orifice. The question that needs to be answered by experimentation is whether the boiling process would create enough pressure to burst the skin layer, or are existing holes enough relief? Would pressure burst the interior membranes (colon and intestines, lungs, braincase lining, etc.) to vent, or would they contain the pressure until the skin ruptured? Inquiring minds want to know. I’m thinking we could send a pig up and dump it out an airlock (after humanely killing it) and film the result. The film then goes on YouTube as “Pigs in Space” and the carcass is retrieved to provide jerky for the ISS inhabitants. ---
**Author:** ![fridolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/85f322/32.png) [@fridolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fridolph)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-on-mars/702718/32 "2014-10-29T05:18:39Z")
Although Mars has large amount of carbon dioxide as NASA said, human needs oxygen too to breathe. In addition, year in Mars is double in Earth year. If Mars has enough supply for vegetation then rover should found even single vegetation that long ago. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-on-mars/702718/33 "2014-10-29T15:38:51Z")
Do you have any idea how small the area is that’s been visited by rovers? And do you have any idea what Martian vegetation would look like? There’s certainly not as much of it as Earth has, but it’s really difficult to rule out the possibility that it has any at all. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-on-mars/702718/34 "2014-10-29T15:55:54Z")
If you simply the total the distance covered by Curiosity, Opportunity and Spirit (~10, 8 & 40 km) and assumed a 50 m view on either side of the path the we’ve “seen” 5.8 km[sup]2[/sup]. Mars has a surface area of 144,798,500 km[sup]2[/sup] so we may have missed a few things. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-on-mars/702718.md?page=1)