Would a car with a standard combustion engine run perfectly fine on Mars?
Because there’s no ambient oxygen for the car to take in to oxidize the combustion. So that means no then right?
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answers:
Manuel say: No, it would not.
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Mike say: I doubt it would start
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Ronald 7 say: Not at all
A Car needs good old fresh air at Ground Pressure to perform
Mars has no roads anyway
Just Canals I have heard
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daniel g say: Nope, compare the atmospheric equivalent on earth to 65,000 foot altitude. Not enough oxygen to burn automotive fuel.
Lean it out to the point of combustion, it would lack the power to move a car. May not run at all.
Jet turbines flame out above 100,000 foot and they compress the air before the burning takes place.
Airliners fly above 35,000 foot, very lean to conserve fuel..
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Paula say: Correct.
Any internal combustion engine can not operate there - because of lack of oxygen.
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Jeffrey K say: That's right. It would need to have a tank of oxygen to run.
Anyways, the tolls on most roads on Mars are too high.
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Raymond say: As is? no.
You would have to feed oxygen into the pistons, for combustion (in older cars, you'd do that through the carburator). You may have to alter the cooling system (radiator) as you cannot rely on the density of outside air to carry away the heat (you could add "decorative" metal fins to carry out the heat and radiate it away).
You COULD make it run, but with critical modifications (critical = without the modifications, it will simply not run at all). As to making it run "perfectly fine", you will also need some luck.
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quantumclaustrophobe say: Nope... You'd need a minimum amount of oxygen in the atmosphere to burn the fuel; The air pressure on Mars is only about 1% that of Earth's, and - it has very little free oxygen in it - the engine couldn't turn.
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say: That's why Elon sent the electric Tesla there.
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Lôn say: Exactly...it wouldn't work without oxygen.
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Bill-M say: You answer your own question. No Oxygen, No combustion.
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poldi2 say: You answered your own question.
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Zardoz say: That means no then, right.
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Climate Realist say: Only if it had a source of oxygen.
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Liar say: No. You would have a variety of troubles; like no oxygen to create combustion, too thin of an atmosphere to cool the radiator, and no source of fuel beyond what you brought. This is why the rovers are electric/solar.
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