Earth and Mars as double planet

As the title says. If we were to put Mars in place of the Moon and increased its distance enough so that it has about the same tidal effects on Earth as the Moon would, how would it affect the development of humanity and later on the Space Race?

Hell, would this celestial formation even be stable enough for neither planet to eject the other into an eccentric orbit around the Sun?

Edited by amitakartok on Jun 16th 2020 at 8:48:32 PM

All the astrophysics experts with access to advanced orbital simulation software are just leaping to answer this one, I see. Well, you could plug it into Universe Sandbox and see what happens. Lacking the desire to do that at the moment, I can only speculate...

• Our month would be a lot longer. I can't say exactly how much.
• Given how much farther away Mars would have to be to maintain the same tidal gravity, the Sun would have a lot more influence on its orbit, and it might indeed be unstable.
• Mars, being closer to the Sun, would be warmer (natch) but would also be affected more strongly by the solar wind. The internal forces sustaining its magnetic field wouldn't be any stronger, so it would be even more barren than it is today.

I wouldn't think it would have any significant effect on the development of humanity. We'd still look up and see a giant sphere in the sky, beckoning us to explore the stars. It would have made Apollo a lot harder though, both because of the increased distance and the higher gravity making landing more difficult.

Edited by Fighteer on Jun 17th 2020 at 7:51:29 AM