New Mars Forums

Might work, especially using a spectrometer and if they find a nice reddish crater.  Still I'd be worried about the Phobos dust concealing alot of it.

Ok so a Phobos venture or SCIM are the most immediate means of aquiring a Martian sample without the hassle of either ISRU or some elaborate orbital rendevous the 'big-wig' science communities have fanned over for long enough.

Alright full speed for this mission then!  8)

Considering all the senseless debate that's holding up an actual surface mission this'd be best idea for a near-term SR mission.  If it works at Mars heck try this at Venus or even at the gas giants and Titan in another decade - the concept should work at any atmospheric planet.  Thinking about it, a Jovian orbital mission could sample Jupiter, Io, and even Europa if a sturdy-enough craft could be put together.

Definetely inticing for commercial space companies! 

I hope we soon hear from news on either Cygnus or Dragon.

Oh LORD I'd hope they'd design the rover better than THAT! 

But still lol

*stuffs gaetano into a centrifuge that simulates his own design...and watches him puke out his own guts before passing out    *

In seriousness, more motors, engines, or thrusters is not always better.  If you have an engine that has a 1 in 5 change of failing and 5 in your design...well then 1 out of those 5 will fail...but it can get worse since probability doesn't work that cleanly.  More often more engines degrade the payload capacity far far faster than safetey regulations.

NASA isn't going to install some second-hand firework into the LAS - it's going to be something powerful and from a strong rocket firm.

Considering the 'small' quirks of Phobos & Deminos I think there has to be a little more to their origins.  The capture theory works easily for those aforementioned Jovian moons and the eccentricity & out-of-aligment arrangements even scream it.  Problem is...has anyone noticed both Phobos and Deimos are in circular orbits?  More suprising still circular orbits well-aligned with the Martian equator.

I read in an Astronomy article how it can also be noted, when the clock is rewound, both moons also reach a shared orbit...and considering the huge WHAM Phobos received from its Stickney crater it isn't hard picturing a large source asteroid getting shattered with its fragments becoming the moons we know today.

Although not as extreme as Earth's moon in origin, by the same token Phobos and Deimos might have primordial Martian material mixed in them or Martian material blown off Mars might often land on them - heck one argument for returning to the moon is finding Earth rocks there! 

Anyone else take note of this with the Martian moons?

*bonks gaetanomarano on the head with a model of the Eiffel Tower for just insulting the nation of France*

Unless you want excessive wind tunnel tests, I suggest you stow that underside booster idea.

Gez Ares 1-X...already?! 

Man they are getting serious for Constellation alright.  Hopefully both the pad abort and the 1-X together will provide engineers some solid data and confirm the control/abort systems work.

It'll also be awesome to see, even if its mostly a test dummy booster, a new huge rocket come crawling out of the VAB.  8)

Question is will it be cost effective since we have to ship everything to the moon initially and there won't be a single dedicated 'launch pad' on the moon itself.

Wow I wonder how much capacity.

Assuming they just use the two Ares stages w/o the added Centaur how much can an Ares I launch into interplanetary space?  I am going to assume something like Cassini or Galileo would need a Centaur but could a smaller mission ala Pathfinder or the various Mars orbiters be possible?

Saturn V was 3000 tonne of multiple rocket stages that jettisoned - all that fuel spent ulimately sent up just the Apollo and LEM at the very tip of the whole structure!  Both combined weighed considerably LESS than 3000 tonne!  If you're talking a solid vehicle you may as well be talking about something like Star Trek Enterprises.

Whatever form a SSTO or to Moon, Mars, ect. space vehicle takes, I bet it will have one of two things:

1) In Situ Propellant Production - if it relies on chemical propulsion still it could get around weight problem by only carrying enough fuel for part of the trip.

2) Non-propellant drive - I'm talking something like solar sails or the vaguely related magnetic sail - heck even the Star Trek Warp Drive counts.  A means of propulsion that might require power but not fuel.

To fully implement either will require more technology than we have now, but of the two the first option is closer to implementing that the second (attemps to launch solar sails have been made, but sadly none have yet to actually delpoy and prove concept    ).

LAS for Orion Has Successful test

I'm suprised Cyclops or SpaceNut didn't spot this link first! 

With LAS and the dummy module cyclops posted about previously it looks like the abort test planned for end of year will be well-prepared.  What'll come out of it will be another story naturally but taken together this and cyclops' post are promising preludes.