New Mars Forums

I think a private group would have an exceedingly hard time pulling off a manned Mars mission for the simple reason that they probably wouldn't be able to cut through the red tape to build technology like nuclear engines and reactors.  I just don't see governments allowing non-government organizations to use and develop that kind of technology.  I guess a sponsor country could always get the goods together for a private group but why would they bother since they wouldn't really reap the credit for the mission and get no economic benefits out of it?  Personally I'd rather see us spend the money on developing cleaner energy systems and better public transportation systems than spend trillions to fly off to Mars or at least wait until technology develops that would lower the price of a Mars mission substantially.

With such terrible odds we should just be patient and develop the technology needed to defeat those odds.  That would be the best route in my opinion.  I personally don't see a need to rush humans to Mars.  A one way trip might work from a technical standpoint but I just don't think any of us really understands what we'd be getting ourselves into by sentencing ourselves to life on the red planet.  I remember reading somewhere that life on Mars would be about 100 times worse than living in Antartica and people in Antartica usually are all too happy to return to the "world".

I googled olivine and it does appear that there are different strains of it.  It appears there are a number of minerals that are in the "olivine" family according to this site. 

According to this site Olivine doesn't fare well when it's exposed to the elements as its usually transformed into serpentine in the presence of water.  If we can find a lot of serpentine on Mars would that be an indication that water had come in contact with olivine?

I don't think it's so much the subject you major in but the type of work you are interested in.  Practically every scientific subject can be applied to space research some how.  Are you interested in producing food in a space environment perhaps or maybe researching ways of building good radiation protection, etc?  You should ask yourself what types of things interest you and how it could apply to spacefaring and then find a relevant degree program from there.  Just my two cents.

Just found the url http://www.wired.com/news/autotech/0,2554,59220,00.html

The big variable here is how much it's going to cost to manufacture the nanotubes needed for the tether.  Right now the price of producing quality nanotubes in quantity is very expensive.  That price will have to come WAY down before the space elevator can hope to compete with rockets.  Hopefully faster and cheaper production techniques can be developed which I'm optimistic they will considering the over all usefulness of cnt materials.

Sending only a few people on a one way trip to Mars would be the height of cruelty.  Our romantic visions of things and the reality often turn out to be very different.  But if we were to sentence people to living on Mars for the rest of their lives a Mars Direct approach would be out of the question.  Something like this would be a better choice for very long stays at Mars.

I was just reading today that it might be possible to create very lightweight space craft structures from carbon nanotube composites that would not only shave off a lot of mass, but could also be impregnated with hydrogen to block cosmic rays.  Apparently carbon nanotubes and hydrogen go together like peas and carrots.    The article Super Spaceships Not Far Out has a lot of interesting ideas on features we might find on ships in the not so distant future.