John Doe wrote:
If you're planning on long duration space flights, you first have to get such
basic systems to work reliably and that means doing a proper shakedown of all
those technologies on the space station.

Yes, it always astonishes me that people seem to think that a
multi-year mission to Mars will be no more trouble plagued than a
typical Apollo mission. (For that matter, many of those folks are
ignorant of the problems on the various missions other than 13 and
17's very visible launch delay.)

Exactly how we are supposed to build such a trouble free Mars craft,
when we cannot do so with ISS escapes me.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.