New Mars Forums

Thanks RobertDyck, for sending the ideas Nasa's way. The help was illustrated as always being there if they would only ask was just one of the themes that ran throughout the commissions hearings.
As for the Zvezda, was that not the module that was made by us but not flown since the Russians came though with theirs. Even if not completed it would be a good starting point to making what is needed.
Some of the many projects that have been cancelled seem to be making there way back into reality as being necessary to carrying out the Space explorations goals.

As gross as this may sound you have 6 plus months of human waste that can be used to fertilize the first fields that are planted and even if this crop is not eaten. The crop can become the compost for the next one that others will find more palatable since it will be grown more naturally(non human fertilizer).

We now have a couple of thread talking about basically Fear in one form or another. Coming, going and even of staying. This weeks sunday parade news paper ran an article Lets stop Scaring ourselves and I quite Agree that it is very easy to blow things out of proportion and that it is almost sometimes the excuse to not go and try to achieve our goals.
We have all seen the histerier that was whipped up over Y2K and now there seems to be alot of the same going around for the future of manned space travel and that needs to end if we are ever going to leave this rock.

http://www.parade.com/current/coverstory/index.html

Select first generation of each race or national that would want representation on such a mission from American citizens and be done with the whole question of international support.

But how we make things less expensively is also the issue.

example of a Student Satellite Almost Ready For Space

Well really a little off the subject but I think we can do better than the current cost development system. Volunteers are cheap and so are the unemployed.

Then we always end up talking about robotics, villages of them, tele robotics and mining or setting up the easy access approach to when man should go.

Build Your Own Borg: Sort of article gives the impression that people do not under stand space.

A lot of stuff in the article though for the future possibilities if we only open our minds and dream.

Now just think how much more these sculptors would sell for if they were authentic lunar or mars materials...

Here is some more on what started this thread.

Solar Chimney Power Station - The Future is Near

Packing so much stuff into any vehicle will make it tough for us to go so any weigh reduction can help. That include solar cells as well.
Solar cell doubles as battery

Whether we can or can land accurately may be a for gone problem with rising fear of possible bacterial contamination.
Not only of crew but also with respect to a sample return.

Will astronauts return from Mars?

Rant or not thank you,
I try to put forth the best that a common man can give in all these discussions, many of which are well over my head. I feel that the best option for lowering costs is to design one ship template to have all needs fall under for the Mars destination.

Lets look at the lander:
What is the max down mass needed to land with the end result is to aim for accuracy. I realize that the crew size, consumables will determine some of this mass and the remainder would be the fuel to land.

Now all unmanned landers must be capable but have there components turned off that would be used for a manned presence or at worst have them removed for increased down mass for the heavy cargo needs all in the same ship shell size.
This allows for lower construction costs and a ready available spare parts inventory.

Is there a need to leave anything in mars orbit like what was done for the lunar apollo missions. IMO I would say no unless the plan is to join them together to create a small orbiting work station or a resupply depo for the return home.

Another thought is since the lander must also be the launcher back to orbit using methane I think it would also be prudent to design the engines from the start to use that fuel source from earth and for its eventual landing on the martian surface.

As such as it is very expensive to go mars it would like wise be just as expensive to return.

That is a very interesting site MarsDog, could spend hours explore all those neat concepts. Magnetic motors or perceptual motion machines...
http://www.rexresearch.com