Sea Wasp wrote:

Martin Brown wrote:

Sea Wasp wrote:

John Schilling wrote:


Your argument might as well be that wintering over at the South Pole is
as easy a trip as a weekend in the local state park, for a Boy Scout
troop. Because, see, only incompetents would make the trip without
adequate training and equipment, therefore the Boy Scouts will have
right training and equipment whether they're going to the state park
or Antarctica, therefore it's just as safe and easy either way.

Not really. It does depend on the assumptions you make, true, but
you exaggerate a number of issues. Mars offers opportunities to
support your marooned astronauts, assuming they brought the right
equipment,

Which includes a fully robotic hospital to care for the invalid humans
whilst they re-adjust to Mars gravity after 300 days weightless.

No, actually. They spend most of the trip in Mars gravity. Read The
Case For Mars.

Great science fiction and wildly optimistic. You have to admire Zubrin
but you do not have to swallow his Mars tale hook line and sinker...

Regards,
Martin Brown