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Just had a thought. They are looking into cold plasma magnetic shielding for shielding space craft from radiation. Would this same technolgy work on a planatary level, not the entire planet, but on the planet? Like over a crater.
I have no idea, just asking.
Also, with the dome you are talking about here. I remember reading that article on the electrostatic "shield" when it came out and I had a similar idea come to mind as you--though your drawings almost bring it to life. Question for you though. Could you use areo-gel between the membranes? It would allow light, and radient heat, to pass through but would keep the cold out. Or over that big of an area, would the addittion of it be too heavy?
At least we know that the rich guys we are always talking about, wishing they would DO something, are thinking about it. Even if it is an elaborate joke today...we may not be laughing "tomorrow".
Are they as passionate as they were saying they were? If so it could be a great thing.
Just look how much press this is going to give Google, Virgin and the Mars plan.
This is a little off the subject, but seemed relavent for how we would GET to Mars.
Suspended animation?
Zapol expects that combining hydrogen sulfide inhalation with chilling the body, another method of slowing down the body's machinery, could cut metabolism by up to 90 percent.
"Nine months in a spaceship heading out to Mars takes a lot of oxygen to burn, food and water to consume, and produces a lot of waste [carbon dioxide]," said Zapol, who is on the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Aerospace Medicine and the Medicine of Extreme Environments.
Theoretically, cutting metabolism would reduce the need for consumables and produce less waste, enabling spacecraft to travel lighter and faster.
"Wouldn't it be nice to arrest metabolism safely for long periods of time and reverse it when you wanted to?" Zapol said.
http://www.livescience.com//health/0803 … ation.html
Opinions/Comments???
I had read about it, but had not seen it in action. This along with ATHLETE and you have some great new moon toys. Probably be very useful on Mars as well.
I am sure this is posted somewhere else. But since you say Lithium Ion batteries are more efficient then compressed air--would LI Batts work on Mars? I have read other debates that it is too cold for them.
I have read about the "black holes" on Mars, when the photos were first released. any more recent news about what they are.
I think getting some BOTS into these will answer a ton of questions, but as always--generate a bunch of new ones. Those holes are very exiciting.
Buy the way, thanks for the feedback everyone.
Do we really need a Sample Return Mission. What would gain, that we couldn't achieve with robots? Would the benefits out weigh the loss?
Or do we just want to do it, to prove we can?
I am not old enough to remember the Apollo missions as I was born in 74. But I have seen and heard enough to know the media coverage around the space program was insane. I am sure every new development got some press. That is because it was new and it represented American power supremacy.
So what is wrong now. I will blame the media. There are tons of exciting things going on right now in the Altspace sector, there are currnet missions that are sending TONS or data back to Earth. But do you hear about any of this stuff in the media. No.
I live in Oklahoma. Home of Rocketplane, but when was the last time I heard anything in the local news about them. There was a very short blib on the news when they purchased Kistler. That is it. I bet most of the people in this state do not even realize this company even exists.
How can we inspire and excite people about space when it is not seen as inspiring or exciting. And the only way the brain dead American public is going to rally around something is if they are told to. And who tells us what to get excited and passionate about. The media.
Maybe if MTV (that hurt even typing that) had Real World Moon, or some crap like that, "we" would get excited.
I have as the desktop to my notebook a picture over looking Ophir Chasim at sun rise. It is an awesome sight. I can easily imagine waking every morning with a view like that from my home built into the side of the canyon walls. I can invision cities built into the canyon walls like inverse sky scrapers with a glass wall looking over the chasm. Then have Pueblo style villages built into the canyon at ground level, under escarpments. These would be protected from all the space hazards.
For the open areas, not on a canyon wall. I saw on TV not tol long ago that they are working on a robotic cement layer. Just program the robot with the floor plan, fill the machine with a cement of sorts and let it build your home. YOu could have one robot that milled the cement the convey it to the robot that made the buildings.
Hey GCN, that nut was a "Top of line" aluminium nut. Spare no expense, they did. :oops:
The grad rates for engineer numbers may be inflated, but the sad fact is, we are at the precipice of a new space race and there is not the interest in it that there was in the Apollo era. The passion for exploration seems to have died in all but a few. I do what I can by trying to encourage the youth I work with to look to the stars, to dream of Mars, and then to persue math and engineering and astronomy and astro-biology....and so on. We are not going to be the ones that touch done on the Moon, or Mars or the Asteroids, but these kids will be.
GCN, your critique of AltSpace and NASA, keep me in check when my dreams and excitement get too high, but it is this kind of passion that the Altspacers have, that needs to permeate into hearts and minds of our younger generations. So humanity can continue its quest of knowledge and exploration. Otherwise we are doomed to mediocrity on this little blue speck.
I wanted make sure everyone read this so I am copying the whole article here. Very well said I think.
Discovery's STS-121 Mission: NASA Made the Right Call
By George T. Whitesides
National Space Society
posted: 27 July 2006
02:10 pm ET
The difficult decision made recently by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin to launch the Space Shuttle Discovery, despite objections from NASA’s safety chief and top engineer, demonstrated solid leadership and the very qualities America has always embodied - boldness and daring in the face of calculated risk.
Leaders make decisions. Great leaders surround themselves with discipline specialists and rely upon their expertise to guide those decisions. Those leaders have to factor in competing recommendations of many experts, weigh the various risks and opportunities against the goals and objectives and make a choice.
In the case of the latest Discovery mission, now back from a successful 13 day mission to the International Space Station (ISS), Griffin indeed relied upon a panel of leading experts. In a face-to-face flight readiness review two of his most senior experts voted against launch, doing so based on their discipline’s view of the risks for this specific mission. It was not their job to weigh the risks to the entire program. That was up to Griffin, arguably the most technically-competent administrator in NASA’s history.
Griffin had to weigh many factors pertaining to the shuttle program, ISS, and manned civil spaceflight. Another redesign of the shuttle’s fuel tank could cause the next launch to slip another year. Delaying Discovery’s launch would have brought additional risk to ISS assembly and the shuttle program. Why? A delayed launch would have forced six flights within one year before the shuttle fleet’s 2010 scheduled retirement. The shuttle program is not designed to accommodate such a packed flight rate without incurring considerable risk. Another risk factor that was key to Griffin’s decision was the possibility of the United States failing to meet its international commitments to complete the ISS.
Exploration and settlement have always entailed risk, requiring the courage of brave souls to venture forth. Nations and leaders who understand this principle prosper. Only a couple of hundred years ago the mortality rate of explorers and settlers was quite high. Dutch sailors figured that they only had an even bet of making it back home alive. In America, the first English colony, Roanoke, disappeared completely. Half the settlers in Plymouth died during their very first winter. The risks were great all across the continent. Death Valley wasn’t named after the scenic view.
Space exploration is the greatest adventure embarked on by humanity, with perhaps the greatest rewards, and its ultimate potential justifies significant risk.
Space is worth the risk because exploration excites the human soul. Because it is so exciting and hard it challenges the best of our minds. Space exploration encourages young people to study the hard subjects, like engineering, math, and the sciences, that are critical to future economies. In America only 5% of our college graduates are engineers. That number is dropping. The Chinese graduated 45% of their students as engineers. In China the number of engineering graduates is increasing. Apollo spurred tens of thousands of students to pursue engineering. These engineers had an enormous impact on the American economy. To keep up with evolving world economies America needs to do this again.
The Moon and asteroids may hold part of the key to addressing global warming and developing sustainable energy resources. Platinum group metals (abundant in asteroids) may be found on the moon at impact sites of metallic asteroids. Development of these resources may enable the world to establish a hydrogen economy, since there may not be enough platinum group metals on Earth to produce the fuel cells for all the world’s cars.
Lunar Helium-3 may enable a safe form of fusion power that could be used around the world without the risk of contributing to weapons enrichment. Helium-3 fusion does not produce the radioactive byproducts to enable weapons development. You could give Helium-3 reactors to North Korea and Iran and sleep like babies over the deal.
The members of the National Space Society believe the United States has become too risk averse. John Augustus Shedd wrote, “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." There are two roads before America: one, full of excessive caution and introspection, leads to diminishment and decline. The other, guided by visionary consideration of risk and reward, leads to a renewed sense of purpose and continued world leadership.
Space exploration and development activities are worth the risk. It is time for the nations of Earth to embrace calculated risk, risk for a purpose, risk that makes our souls sing. This mission of Discovery was a stepping stone toward our future in space. Now that she is back home and NASA back on track, let us be thankful for the brave who dare to be great. Dr. Griffin made the right call.
http://www.flightinternational.com/Arti … +Mars.html
This link is to an article about a developing Ion engine thye hjope to use eventually to transport humans to Mars.
Feedback please. I thougt Ion engines were WAY too slow for a manned mission???
Rocketplane and their reusable Leer Jet are based out of Oklahoma City and are planning to fly out of a "Space Port" about a 2 hr dirve from OKC. The concept is much simpler than SS1 or 2 or which ever number and the price will be lower. The company is not screwing over any Oklahoma tax payers either, they just received a tax break to locate in OK and they converted most of the old Burns Flat air base into a "space port"... Yes it is nothing more than a carnival ride, but if I had the $$$ I would do it. for the same reason i bungy jumped and sky dived.
What I am exicted about is the economic and scientific benefit having Rocketplane in OKC will do for this area. Oklahoma is still seen as a backwards state filled with rednecks (because it is, LOL) but hopefully a successful suborbital/space tourism company here can help to bring some enlightenment...and help secure the demise of that crazy British fellow.
My guess is that they are crazy and liars. But really smarty ones with good PR skills. Hey probably a lot like a politician or a successful lobbyist.
I am looking for an affirmative action plan, I want opinions on what people think is the best sex ratio. There are pros and cons to an even ratio, or a majority ratio of either sex. I could care less for PC or macho-ism or feminism. I want the best crew--what is it and why?
This argument makes a lot of sense to me.
Thank you for the lesson GCNRevernger, once again I learned something new. I really know/knew very little of the Klipper beside the press release and sound bytes.
I was thinking of the propossed NASA CEV that they are talking about making into a 8 person vehicle for a Mars mission.
I guess I have to research to do to learn what the DRM is.
Very good points GCNRevenger. This whole concept really puts a lot of wholes in current theories for Mars missions. The big Mars CEV sounds like it will not be feasible now.
I would like to see Klipper fly, but I just don't think that $870 in a realistic price tag. But the Russians may have more of the rest of the infastructure up and running.
Plus the Russian are able to partner with other international players. The U.S. is restricted from this because of stupid treaties... the Iran Nuclear Prolif. Act.
Go Russia
Wow pub, you shouldn't be so verbose, I barely had enough time to read that response. LOL
Wanted to get people's opinion on who you think should crew the first human mission to Mars?
I will believe that figure when I see it in reality. I do not see it happening. All they have right now is a big model.
I am pretty handy with a saw and hammer, I could build a model CEV. But what the hell good is it.
I am sure radiation does not help any, but the study was looking at the effect of microgravity specifically.