this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2024
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Flying on Mars is a lot harder than flying on Earth. If you don't believe me, listen to this developer of the flight sim X-Plane. The fact that they were able to get it to work at all is astounding.
So, we should fly on Jupiter instead, right?
Next flight is scheduled for Titan, which is a lot easier. The gravity is lower, but there's a lot more atmosphere, which means our helicopter can be nuclear powered!
Or leg powered. The gravity is so low and the atmosphere so thick a pilot could pedal power a Cessna Skyhawk. Until he froze to death.
That can be solved with some good leg warmer.
I mean flying on Titan would be so easily theoretically a guy with really big wings could reasonably flap himself around
Run out and find me a guy with really big wings, I've got a job for him.
Is that even possible? I mean… with how volatile and exotic the atmosphere is, wouldn’t what a craft would be doing be more akin to how a submarine travels under water? Would “flying” even be the correct term? Wouldn’t it be more like navigating violent torrents of differently-dense gaseous layers? Some of which are (sometimes) liquid?
What would one even call that?
Fucking awesome.
Atmospheric pressure changes based on altitude, so there's probably some point where Jupiter's atmosphere that's a similar pressure and temperature to earth.
I looked it up, and the region of Jupiter's atmosphere at 1 bar is -100C. So you theoretically you could fly a modified Earth plane, it would just be a bit chilly.
Interestingly, though, Venus does have a zone with Earth-like temperature and pressure.
Thanks! I did a quick search and couldn’t find it but I know that with this crowd I’ll get an answer!
What makes cold temperatures a problem on earth is ice forming frombwater wapour in the atmosphere. No idea what you're likely to get on titan, but probably not that.
Supermarine?
That was really interest.
You could hear the excitement in their post!
I think Veritasium has a video about this as well
Interesting. I was wondering how it would work at all with such a thin atmosphere. The author could chill out a bit though.