Dale wrote:

And in theory, NASA is soon to leave LEO and head to the Moon and
Mars, with various rendezvous on the way. Will this change the risk metric in a way
acceptable to both sides in this debate?



IMHO The Moon mission probably won't be much of a problem; we've done
that before, and even with a one month stay on the surface (as they are
planning in some scenarios) the overall trip isn't that long in
duration- though what exactly the astronauts are supposed to do during
the two months of lunar night is a bit beyond me, the suits are going to
need mighty good heaters if they intend long EVAs on the surface.
The Mars flight is a whole other ball of wax due to mission duration;
there could be a lot of things that could go wrong on the flight
involving life support, and if something does go wrong you may be so
far from Earth that there is no viable way of surviving.
I'll tell you one thing...whatever they do, they had better not let one
of those Russian atmosphere regenerators anywhere near the program.

Pat