New Mars Forums

it would help if you had a stationary parking point, like a space station, from which to put together the pieces of a spacecraft.

i think the space elevator is at least as close as a heavy manned mars mission, at this point.  We want to develop low orbit quickly.  If we can get capsules up to orbit, we can do all kinds of stuff in orbit, without really having to worry about earth landing.  if we can get to the point where all heavy cargo lugging is done outside of our atmosphere, and all we need on earth is SSTOs to pick up the cargo, that would be great.

When you plan a mission, you dont plan for something to fail, you plan for it to succeed.  There are any number of risks on a chemical spacecraft that could blow up the ship and spread waste chemicals.  Its called a necessary risk.

Nuclear fission doesnt just meltdown by itself.  It simply doesnt happen.  The whole fear of a meltdown is played up.  Neither major nuclear accident had anything to do with the actual reaction....so i really think this is a needless fear.

Nuclear is not out.  If it is built within proper containment facilities, nothing is contaminated.  At Three Mile Island, nothing was contaminated.  No, nuclear should be our primary option.

this is from another article from space.com

http://www.space.com/busines....-1.html

High-priority in-space propulsion technologies include:

    * Aerocapture:
    * Using a planet's atmosphere to slow a spacecraft. A vehicle built for aerocapture can slip into orbit in one pass through an atmosphere. No need for on-board propulsion. This saves mass and permits use of a smaller, less-expensive launcher. These technique gets a vehicle to a destination quickly, hastening start-up of science operations; Next Generation
Electric Propulsion:
    * Improve the performance of this technology, from ion engines to fission propulsion drives. High-throughput, lightweight, and more powerful ion engines, for example, enable a host of future space missions, including a Europa Lander, a Saturn Ring Observer, a Neptune Orbiter, and a Venus Surface Sample Return probe;
and Solar Sails:
Strong, lightweight composite materials fashioned into a large sail. Requiring no fuel, a solar sail relies on the steady push of photons from the Sun. A major challenge is how best to unfurl a thin sail in space, then control its direction. Sail propulsion is seen as the way to launch an interstellar precursor mission in the next decade.

We're already researching medicines that could trigger an increase in protein production-so this could even be done with pharmaceuticals soon enough.  ALl the nanobots would have to do is send signals to the chromosomes telling them to make more X protein (actually, more RNA, which codes for that protein).

no, i am saying there is no physical evidence besides a few anecdotes and postulations.  We have video of the moon.  We have samples of the moon.  We have a flag on the moon.  We have our moon landers.  Leif Ericcson left traces of Viking society in North America.  We've admitted that he got here before the rest of Europe. 

I find it rather amusing that the Chinese, who take pride in their society and dont shy away from showing their achievements, never said this before, and it is coming from an amateur historian. If you were to say, the Egyptians were the first to come to North America, I would believe you, because of the Mexican temples, which closely resemble pyramids and ziggurats.  But the Chinese?  No, I dont think so.

Or we could have immunal nanobots that fight all types of disease-even AIDS.

they are something, but they had no chemicals, and they were empty  :

ok, ill get back to you.  if i do it, itll be done by tomorrow

Except that you vote for your rulers.  And there is a big difference.  Usually, republican/democratic republican government implies a capitalist economy.  This will be necessary on early mars, because by making a profit, the colony will be able to bring in more goods. 

We could try out new economic concepts from scratch (flat tax, etc...not new economic systems ), and right the failures of our congrssional system (bills should be in plain language, with no unrelated pork, and the budget should be written in plain language for everybody to understand...congressional terms should also be limited...we dont want strom thurmond on mars.)

None.  List the few that are absolutely necessary, and then let the society decide the rest.  Certain rights (freedom of X) are obvious, but others are determined by the society. 

I say we make a loose constitution like the US, and leave the unlisted rights as subject to the interpretation of the listed rights.

Sent emails to both of my Senators.