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A human Mars mission?



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 9th 03, 04:33 PM
Christopher
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Default A human Mars mission?

Has there been any proper work done for a human mission to Mars yet?

i.e. a rough design on the type of spacecraft that will be used, or
some small amount of metal being bent, or at the very least a rough
selection of who will be in the crew, or at least ANYTHING specfic
that will give some indication that NASA is serious about going to
Mars.


Christopher
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  #5  
Old August 9th 03, 10:06 PM
Christopher
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Default A human Mars mission?

On Sat, 09 Aug 2003 19:03:23 GMT, Brian Thorn
wrote:

On Sat, 09 Aug 2003 15:33:52 GMT, (Christopher)
wrote:

Has there been any proper work done for a human mission to Mars yet?


NASA has done innumerable studies on the subject, going back at least
to the Apollo era. The chances of Congress agreeing to fund any of
them are somewhere down near zero. In 1989, President Bush 41 proposed
a massive human exploration program for the solar system. It was dead
on arrival on Capitol Hill, mostly because NASA's suggestions were
outrageously expensive, even for NASA ($500 billion was the oft-cited
cost.)

i.e. a rough design on the type of spacecraft that will be used, or
some small amount of metal being bent, or at the very least a rough
selection of who will be in the crew,


NASA would be slapped down by Congress in an instant if it tried to
spend any significant funds on human exploration of Mars. Even things
that weren't really Mars-related, but would have been useful for a
Mars mission, get killed pretty quickly by Congress. See Transhab, for
example.

Ergo, no bent metal, no crew selection, etc.


Thats a sad indictment of America and it's 'frontier sprit' I bet if
our European Space Agency announced a human mission to Mars, and
started major work and had a date for the landing Congress would have
a rapid change of mind, as Americans don't like coming in second
place.

or at least ANYTHING specfic
that will give some indication that NASA is serious about going to
Mars.


See the Mars Reference Mission:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/mars/ref.../hem/hem1.html

Thanks for the url.



Christopher
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
"There's a light at the end
of the tunnel" says the optimist.
"It's probably a train coming
stright at us" responds the pessimist.

  #6  
Old August 9th 03, 10:09 PM
Rand Simberg
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Default A human Mars mission?

On Sat, 09 Aug 2003 21:02:27 GMT, in a place far, far away,
(Christopher) made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

Why should NASA be "serious about going to Mars"?


Because its there, and no human foot has yet set foot on the surface.


Then go tell your Congressman, and quite whining about NASA.

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