QUESTION:
What sort of material will hold oxygen inside of it with out letting any out
or letting any pressure from the stratosphere in? Will it be able to
withstand meteors? I am constructing a shoe factorty so that other people
can walk on Mars. I would like to know what kind of material it would take
to withstand Mars' wind storms? I have learned that there is a lot of iron
in Mars' soil and I plan to put a magnet that will sort of stick to the
iron, so it will be like gravity, but will allow men/women to walk on Mars.
What kind of magnet would I use? With what materials should I use to make
the shoes, like sewing with needle and tread, or nailing, etc.?

ANSWER from Donna Shirley on March 14, 1997:
Wow -  I have no idea how to answer most of your questions.  I think
the best idea is to try to find a cave to build your factory in because
there is danger that your shield will be punctured by meteors.  But no one
knows yet whether there are any caves on Mars.  If you just built an
inflatable plastic dome it might be o.k. if it were very large so if a
small meteor hit it you could patch it before all the air leaked out.

The wind storms on Mars are very fast, but not very strong because the air
is so thin, so I don't think your dome would have a problem with the wind.

As far as magnetic shoes:  the dust is magnetic, but Mars itself is not.
(You can't use a magnetic compass on Mars because it has hardly any
magnetic field).  So your magnetic shoes would pick up a lot of dust.
Since Mars' gravity is about 1/3 of the earth's people would have no
trouble walking on Mars.  Astronauts walked (or hopped) on the moon which
has only 1/6 of earth's gravity.

Donna Shirley
Manager, Mars Exploration Program

ANSWER from Steve Wall on March 27, 1997:
Well on Mars you would weigh about one-third what you weigh on Earth, so
probably you wouldn't need special shoes, at least not for that reason. 

On Phobos, one of Mars' two moons, though, you would - you could probably
jump yourself into orbit if you didn't!

For more information about wieghts on different planets, visit the site
http://www.astc.org/qa96/amy3