Why Mars Is The Hardest Planet To Land On
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- Over the last 50 years, spacecraft have landed on over half a dozen worlds. But nowhere has proven more treacherous than the Red Planet - Mars.
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Following is the transcript of the video:
Landing on Mars is easier said than done. Over the last 50 years, spacecraft have landed on over half a dozen worlds. Including Venus, Saturn’s moon Titan, a comet, and more. But nowhere has proven more treacherous than the Red Planet - Mars. To date, only 40% of attempted landings have been successful. But just looking at it, Mars seems pretty harmless, right? It doesn’t have toxic clouds like Venus. And there’s plenty of flat, stable places to land, unlike a comet. But here’s the thing: It’s not what you can see that’s the problem. It’s what you can’t: The atmosphere.
Mars’ atmosphere is 100 times thinner than Earth’s. Because Mars’ atmosphere is so thin, it makes parachutes less effective. 10 times less effective, in fact. So, let’s say you could skydive on Mars, and you use the same-sized parachute as on Earth. On Earth, skydivers hit the ground running at around 20 mph. But on Mars, you’d be falling at 200 mph on impact. Not good. Now, you could make your parachute larger to slow down more. And that’s partly what NASA does. For example, its Curiosity rover used the largest supersonic parachute at the time, when it landed in 2012.
But even that couldn’t slow Curiosity down, enough. To see why let’s go back to skydiving. If you wanted to slow down to the same landing speed (20 mph) on Mars as on Earth you’d need a parachute that’s 10 times wider. Or about 110 feet in diameter. Wide enough to cover the length of 2.4 school buses. Now, here’s the catch: NASA’s Curiosity rover weighs about 13 times more than the average human. Which means, to slow down to the same speed, it would need an even bigger chute. One that was 400 feet in diameter. But, in reality, Curiosity’s parachute was nowhere near that size. It was only 70 feet in diameter.
Why? Because the bigger the chute gets, the greater the chance it will rip. In fact, the largest parachute ever built and tested was just 150 feet wide. So, in the end, it’s physically impossible to build a parachute big enough. Which makes landing on Mars risky at best. So, how do space agencies do it? Very carefully.
First, the spacecraft deploys its giant parachute to slow down as much as possible - usually to around 200 mph. Then, it fires retrorockets to take it the rest of the way.
And that might not sound so hard but if the parachute doesn’t deploy at the right time, or the rockets don’t fire at the right height, it’s all over. To date, only three space agencies have ever tried to land on Mars: NASA, the European Space Agency, and the former Soviet Union. None have a perfect record.
So, if landing on Mars is so hard, why do we keep doing it in the first place? Besides the Moon, Mars has more artificial instruments on and around it than anywhere else in the solar system. And you could say that’s because Mars is close by. Or that it might be the best spot to search for signs of alien life. Or could it be that with each successful new landing we come one step closer to the grandest ambition of all: To become the first species ever to inhabit a world beyond our own.
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Why Mars Is The Hardest Planet To Land On
Shouldn't have looked in the comments section.
@@damnpineapples8247 people call it logic, not sanity
But doesnt matter as well
Yeah it's a cesspool down here. Should've just dropped a like and moved along
You think Mars is hard?? Try to land on Jupiter
No, Jupiter is a gas giant.
Nathan Hidajat that was the point of the comment Jupiter is harder cause its made of gas and theres no surface
Never be able to land
Super
Nathan Hidajat 🤦♂️
Tell that to Mr. Musk.
Well well if it isn't Justin.
👌
Justin Y. Love you
17 likes 10 hours ago. Thats a record.
Justin have a 17 likes?
No, Uranus is hard to land on
Saturn it your Uranus but your saturn
lol, didn't you heard about jupiter?
Give it a couple margaritas and it gets easier
Saturn no, you are
You can't land on gas giant
It's gonna be harder to land if you keep using miles and feet and pound bs
Exatly, I'm brazzilian and i don't understand nothing in feet, Miles or pounds, using metric sistem and Kilogram " KG " Is so more easy to everybody understand
its not our fault your knowledge is limited to the metric system
Lol NASA uses the metric system.
Humanity will colonize the whole universe one day, mars are nothing, watch the next generation whose coming
Guero Rodriguez who is saying the imperial system is better than the metric system
1950 : "Landing on the moon is the greatest ambition of humanity"
1970 : "Landing on mars is the greatest ambition of humanity"
2020 : *Tries For the 255 Time To Land On Mars*
Ksp
Starship would do it
That first sentence got me. "Landing on Mars is easier said than done." I personally think it would be very difficult. I can't even get off Earth.
Tech Insider : Why Mars is there hardest planet to land on
Jupiter : Hold my beer
Sun: Amateurs
Earth: I’m just glad to be here
Pluto: IM A PLANET OK
@@Hola654 -- Pluto is the Tyrion Lannister of planet, merely a dwarf.
@@shreyaspatil2321 coz it's all gas
No space agency has the perfect record of reaching the mars
ISRO: Hold my fuel
It's about landing on Mars.
“Reaching THE Mars”
Yes it landed on mars
@@thepriyangshu when
In your head fool
Can you please use SI international units like the rest of the world?
@@icecap6426 7 billion people > 300 million I would think
learn imperial
Bo Sheek you dont know both?
@@strongcool I know metric
Mars: I may not be a gas planet but you can’t land on me
Venus: hold my atmosphere
True! Btw a new Tabby star has been discovered !
The Exoplanets Channel what’s a tabby star?
Whats it called
Cool!
What’s the new Starr called?
Why land on Mars when you can land on the sun? 🤷🏼♂️ There is much more to explore!
P.S. I'm getting close to 4k!!!!
No BcAusE yOU woUlD DiE R u DumB?
@@terraxgaming4117 our sun is not a rocky planet
@@terraxgaming4117 oof
@@iktbratosindaniel8672 lol
@Jumpy Cat I subbed to you too, but it doesn't look like you post any longer 😂 thanks!!
Come on guys it cant be that hard.... its not like its rocket science
Budget.
george new acount copper copper channel migration r/woooosh
*literally is rocket science*
einc70 r/whooooosh
@george new acount copper copper channel migration That's actually easy on paper lmaoooo
3:17
Elon Musk: hold my beer
I see what you did there 😂
He's the man 😂
He should put spacex there
Hold my Falcon X
You know what else is hard!
Life....
I have a really dirty mind so I thought something else
@@sacredtreasure212
Please come to my Bible study this Sunday 😊😂
😂
Thats what she said
magine being an alien on mars and seeing a thing with 6 wheels looking at you
I thought getting a good gpa was hard to land on :/
Gabrielavila Bolanos lol you still worried about a gpa?
Just for the information guys, ISRO never landed anything on Mars, it just Orbited a satellite around it. Peace out ☮️ But I hope it'll do that soon.
😃 😃 😃
Bruh yes they did
People : Mars is hard to land on
Jupiter : *HOLD MY BEER*
SonupYT Gaming try to come up with something original next time bud.
@@rainify5711 *aLrIgHt MaTe*
There are a few problems with this video:
First of all they use the imperial system which sucks.
Secondly, they didn't explain why it's harder to land on Mars than on a comet (which btw a comet is harder to land on so they were wrong). Mars' atmosphere is infinitely thicker than that of a comet's (which has none)
Third, if humans land on Mars, we wouldn't be the first species ever to land on a planet other than our own, at least we wouldn't be sure if aliens already did outside of their own planets. The ending made no sense.
1. Imperial system does suck.
2. Comets have no atmosphere, but they also have negligible gravity due to their size. In fact, a better term would be "attaching a spacecraft to a comet" rather than "landing on it".
Tell to us more about Soviet Moon Program! Thanks
Broo why did I take a closer took at your profile picture 😫😫😫
Could you use metric units please? I couldn't understand how big the parachutes are.
@Joao Rocha definitely not
@@RaphaelFassy Google the info. Knowledge is easy to obtain if you care to search.
*Saturn is the hardest planet to land on*
Not just that, Mercury doesn't have an atmosphere and we might crash without strong jets. Mercury has low gravity on its surface but, higher during landing.
Nathan Hidajat nah pretty sure saturn is harder
I think Jupiter would be harder
saturn has no surface
that’s the joke...
Because it has the high ground.
It's over humanity...
YOU WERE MY BROTHER ANAKIN!!!
You underestimate it's power...
Anakin hates sand, so throw sand at him?
Don't try it
The only thing I know about MARS is that once you get there, You become MARTIAN!
_And Mother EARTH won't accept you anymore!_
.
.
.
.
_What? I watched it in the movie!_
I've been wondering about people who want to live on planet Mars. After traveling around 9 months, how do people feel about Gravity when they arrive on Mars. I've seen video's that astronauts can't walk after 6 months in space on earth. I don't know how it works on Mars.
That last sentence dripped with ignorance bliss and arrogance
"we'll become the first species ever to inhabit a world beyond our own"
this guy has explored all galaxies through all time, impressive.
Mark Daniel not that impressive.
Plus galaxy phones can’t compare to the Sony xperia
tech insider: Mars is the hardest planet to land on
Elon Musk: Have you tried Earth?
Eman2047 *jumps* lands on earths surface...
I can't even perfectly land on the floor when I fall from my double deck bed.
"To become the first species ever to inhabit a world besides our own"
Aliens be like: "bruh"
Unless you have self-landing rockets like SpaceX
That was good thanks. U said only 3 agencies have tried. What other ones are there? Are u counting commercial companies?
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)'s Mangalyaan is currently orbiting Mars.
Title: *Why Mars is the hardest planet to land on?*
Opportunity and spirit: *Hold my beer.*
I need metric pls
Why cant we use 4 parachutes and place the rover in a balloon that will pop open on landing?
2:17 "Ohhh booooy ! ...........400feet " Yep that is also the feeling I get when I can't understand the measurement system you are using
INDIA has the perfect landing on Mars in its FIRST ATTEMPT! All Indian like here!
India hasn't landed on mars though, they only have an orbiter
"To become the first species ever to inhabit a world beyond our own". How do you know that?
Because no other species has left earth. "Our own" not their world.
So interesting thanks for sharing yu our knowledge
My crush lands successfully as an astronaut.
Sends a message to Check if she's fine..
She replies - I need a space.
Landing on Mars requires full frame technologies and DTOL. Diagonal take off and landing. Spaceship/capsule should land horizontally/diagonally pretty much like airplanes land. Deploy the draggers behind. Draggers will slow down it. Also parachoute or actualy the umbrella will be attached on rotary joint and connected to reverse thrust turbine. And will be preopened. Ship/capsule will enter upper layers of Mars with open umbrella.
Indians please stop this !!
Don't embarrass us .
Weldone sir. Fantastic mission.
Mars: shut up human life
Earth : :(
Mars: ha ha
Earth : shut up
Mars: I’m the hardest planet to land on
Jupiter: excuse me?
Title:
Why Mars is the hardest planet to land on
Proxima Centauri b:
Hold my beer
OMG have you heard about the metric system?
Amazing! Well said. Really attractive with fantastic video clips!
USE METRIC
Or use both
stick with standerd measurments its easier
It would have been nice if you used the metric system in captions while you were mentioning the values, so that the rest of the world can understand them.
metric...
Indian space mission ISRO to Mars also was successful in the first attempt in the year 2014 . This point is missing in your video.
It still crashed landed.
Great video but it does not defend the claim in the title.... Why is it harder than other planets?
This kind of assignment would get me a c or d in high school for not answering the question. Even more so it can be considered clickbait.... I was waiting for a comparison but was cut short with the same explanation as usual....
It was pretty apparent to me... Very thin atmosphere but more massive than a comet or the moon - parachutes would be less effective and you'd need more force from retro rockets to slow down.
Then try landing om Mercury, No parachutes or aerobraking
Isro's Mars mission? You should have mentioned that
The number of Indians in the comments section who can't tell the difference between landing and orbiting...........
What if ISRO plans to burn retrograde at apogee (it still has some fuel left) and then make mars orbiter crash land on Mars? This would be a great plan once they accomplish all objectives of being in orbit :-D
@@Kn-iu4fv it would simply become a defunct satellite orbiting around Mars
@@Kn-iu4fv Depends on if it has enough fuel to make the satellite orbit a projectile. That way, it would hard land like the moon impact probe. That maybe useful or useless depending upon if the devices' in it capable of measuring anything useful while falling.
Other countries have done unwanted hard lands on many occasions.
One thing____________________On earth normal parachute _______slows from 50m/s to 5m/s which is 112miles/hr to 11.2miles/hr not 20miles/hr
So how do they do it?
"Very carefully"
I'll tell you - they move carfully
Sorry to break it out to you but ISRO(India Space Research Organisation) has also landed on Mars and has a perfect record, landed in the first time.
They can't find parking
"Mars is the hardest place to land on"
Mercury: *hold my 300+ craters*
India has also landed on mars.
It was launched on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It is India's first interplanetary mission and it made it the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after Roscosmos, NASA, and the European Space Agency. ... The launch window was approximately 20 days long and started on 28 October 2013
Not landed.. orbiting.. the only special thing about it was that ISRO able to do it cheaper and in first single try(which was like let others do the hard work and testing first)
Thats exactly what i thought but then i remember that actually, it was orbitting mars and not landed on mars
It did it in the cheapest way by the way
Don't know about Mars but something sure did hard land on your head
Delete this before 9 year olds arrives here and starts racism
Its orbiting u know its hard to land on mars
I get it. flying vertically (up) is easy on Mars. But falling is harder due lack of air resistance.
Well you know... Moon doesnt even have a Atmosphere :)
Its smaller so weaker gravity
Well, no atmo is easier then a little atmo, because on mars you still need a heatshield whicb are heavy, and tricky to decouple while descending, not on the moon.
3:29 Isro has also landed on mars and has perfect record of landing in 1st attempt
rachna singh they orbited
Why dont they just put 3 small parachutes instead one big one?
Will glasses like helium help landing? Balloons instead of chutes or chutes with helium bladders?
Because it’s colder then ummm idk? Its just super cold.
Jeff Tjebkes Umm Mars is colder than earth and Antartica what are you talking about? Mars is farther away from the sun.
@@joanne589 It was a joke
The Soviets had a parachute system for heavy drops that used little rockets to slow down the load before impact. I'm sure the Russian Airborne has continued using that and probably improved it greatly. I find it hard to believe that all the folks working this problem didn't immediately opt for a similar solution in such thin atmosphere.
What do you say an elephant on Mars????
.
.
.
.
*Mass on Mars*
Ok I'm sorry
what if your parachute is made of metal? it won’t rip..
Mars is the toughest planet to land on? Try landing on a gas giant.....
Tobblesmash Mars is the toughest
Because gas giants have no Surface so You won’t land on Anything
This video does a great job making people believe that we dont have the technology to land a multi billion dollar spacecraft on Mars.
Jupiter: *breaths*
Everyone: *dies*
You can use a Grasshopper L.F Engine to slow your fall though......
Because Elon's species already livev there
Imagine if we landed on mars and some scientists said that it was no longer a planet
I guess India landed 'mangalyaan' in one try :)
Mangalyaan is a 'satellite' orbiting Mars
@@missionaryfailed7455 oh okay ! Thanks
Nah! The one that India sent was an orbiter and not a lander. Mangalyan is there just to orbit the red planet
Its a sattelite...
Delete it bfore some racist comments comes
I don't think that mars would be ever colonized in real sense but it will become a laboratory and experimental ground for scientists on missions who would conduct experiments there and will fly out of there.
STOP NASA NEVER BEEN TO MARS
Prove it.
Carlos_A_M my comment is not For Trolls ty
@@ileenrandle3558 nasa has been to mars. Theres video and proof of it!
Interesting. I never thought about the atmosphere being so thin that a parachute would be ineffective.
What is the escape velocity on Uranus?
Please use metric system!!! You can put it on screen when you say it in audio
You think Jupiter is hard?? Try to land on The Sun
Mars: I am the hardest planet to land on!
*Uranus has joined the chat*
Uranus: u sure boi?
*Mars has left the chat*
*Jupiter has joined the chat*
Jupiter: hi
*Uranus has left the chat*
*The sun has joined the chat*
The sun: **BOI**
Couldn't they fix a foam below it? After landing the machine will remove the foam?
Neptune might be the hardest of them all hands down.
3:26 you didn't mentioned ISRO?!
Landing on every planet (and moon):
Mercury: Pretty hard- no atmosphere means no parachutes, also slowing down to orbit Mercury is just pain.
Venus: Moderately hard- It would be easy if it wasn't for the scorching temperatures.
Moon: Quite Easy- Though it has no atmosphere, it has pretty low gravity, meaning not much fuel is needed to land.
Mars: Hard- The thin atmosphere ain't very good at slowing down spacecrafts, meaning you'd need to use both parachutes and engines to slow down.
Galilean moons: Basically the same as our moon
Titan: Very easy- Not much reentry heat, low gravity and very dense atmosphere means that you only need a parachute and that's it.
The rest (except gas giants) are easier than the moon
I think you ned more pareshutes is it going to help?
Meanwhile in an alternate universe...
Year: *1832*
Galileo: I may not know anything about Jupiter but it looks solid!
Wooden door on wooden rocket: *POP*
Astronaut: lets go who-
Galileo: Hello? HELLO????? ASTRONAUT RESPOND!!!!!!
You were doing so well, right up until the end. We are not built to be a spare-faring species.
No way landing a piece of metal with lighting in it that we shot at a rock thousands of miles away in space is hard? OMG I would have never guessed
I strongly believe that landing on the sun is little bit more difficult than Mars and Jupiter. :))
Yeah this is relatable because I need to try A MILLION TIMES to land on duna
But India landed the Aircraft on Mars in the first attempt...
Proud to be Indian🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳
The Sun or Jupiter is the hardest planet to land on
"Why Mars Is The Hardest Planet To Land On" What about Saturn?
Other than Mars, Mercury can be difficult for me to land on because of high acceleration in its orbit and I need a lot of engines to land safely. I landed a rover on Mercury without it smashing onto the surface.
@@nathanhidajat8997 Do you talk about Kerbal Space Program or what?
Jupiter : No, It’s actually me.