one other unpriced component
Posted by danno might on Jan 06, 2004 at 16:06
(206.50.195.194)Re: Western governments lack of vision (DA Morgan)
you need 10 mature multi-talented individuals (hopefully with a mix of females) who buy into a one way ticket...The cost goes down significantly if you don't have to transport people back. The only things on a return journey would be the specific items of extreme interest to scientist, industrialist and potential collectors.
It also greatly decreases the technological problems of relaunch and the potential of the longer (fry baby, fry) flight back to Earth from Mars.
NASA plans for a manned Mars mission include not only the heavy launchcost of the return vehicle, supplies and fuel, but it includes superflurious crap like additional building in the Space Station and further risky test on the long term effects of weightlessness.
Why not take the empty 3rd stage rocket which boost the human crews toward Mars, use a .5+ km long steel cable and make a rotational dumb-bell to provide artificial grav for at least 4 of the 6 months of flight. Sometimes the simplest answer escapes the most brilliant of minds.
Or would it be the NASA managers have their own agendas and pet projects that get in the way of such simple solutions?
thanks for reading...