(Christopher) writes:

On Thu, 2 Oct 2003 20:41:12 GMT, Dick Morris
wrote:


(Above all, we should never, never, EVER design a mission based on
technology advances that are ASSUMED will be available by the time
development is complete. If the technology advances do not materialize
on time, then virtually the entire development team will be sitting
around playing computer solitair or surfing the net while technology
catches up, or the program will require a very expensive redesign.
NEVER use an operational program as a device to "push the technology".
NASA has shot itself in the head doing exactly that for the last 30
years: Shuttle, ISS, NASP, SEI, X-33, SLI.)

Going by that assumption then the VASIMR rocket won't be used for a
human Mars shot, as several concepts propose using it for a fast trip
to Mars i.e. using a plasma rocket to lessen the effects of micro g on
the crew, and cosmic and solar radiation that a more longer journey
time would have.


It is almost certainly correct that the VASIMR rocket won't be used for
a human Mars shot, and the fact that it is advertised as The One True
Technology We Need to Develop to Do Human Mars Shots Right is, as Mr.
Morris notes, precisely why not.

This is not to say that we won't use a "plasma rocket". We'll just
use a plasma rocket that isn't named VASIMR, or maybe an ion drive
that also isn't named VASIMR. Say, a descendant of one of the various
systems along those lines that has been quietly developed over the past
few decades, have over the past few years become standard on commercial
spacecraft, have gone interplanetary on technology testbed spacecraft,
and have *not* been tied to the holy grail of the Manned Mars Mission.

You want your new technologies to cut their teeth in application where
the only thing required is that they work, where no great tragedy will
befall if they fail, and where as a consequence there will never be a
flock of reporters extolling The Technology That Will Take Us to Mars.
Because a manned Mars mission, if that is your goal, requires that
*all* the new technologies work at cost of enormous tragedy if any
fail.


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