New Mars Forums

It used to be said (mostly by Americans) that spaceflight/technology is one of the indexes of a society.

Nasa should be really proud of the twin rovers. Those two little beauties have operated near flawlessly. Russians are still havng difficulty hitting the planet.

The manned spaceflight segment needs to be completely overhauled. Its time for the Shuttles and their technology to head to museums around the World.

The USA really has no worthwhile manned flight program, but the Russians are not actually fairing much better. They still can't put more then three people up at a time, and outside of LEO Russian hardware goes all to pieces.

Don't despair at the state of America, despair at the state of Spaceflight in general. And then pin your hopes on the rising stars of the X Prize class vehicles, the dark horse Ruskie projects and most of all, Plan Bush. 

What if MD was doubled, so that you sent 4 launches every two years, and the extra two were both supllies and contruction materials... Domes, and consumables?

Also if each crew takes a pair of happy chickens and leaves them on Mars with the new crew and their chickens...

MD is not upgradeable much, but it is scaleable and would do for 20 years until second generation transport came online.

Also you don't have to bring the whole crew back...

MD is a simple way to initiate colonisation.

Low pressure normally triggers dehydration reactions.

Well for some well know plants dehydration reaction = producing volumes of THC.

Perhaps there is a cash crop that would be worth exporting then?

Definitly could not use it outside.
My thought generally orbit around getting as many domes up as fast as possible. I tend to this would be best served if the raw materials for domes could be sourced on Mars.

The more land area under cover, the more you can stabalise the regolith with consant higher pressure, steadier temperatures and occasional spraying with water. Biological elements can deal with pretty much anything Martian soil could through at them.

The big problems will occur if some crazy trace element (like cobalt or something) turns out to be unnaturally rare on Mars. A lack of tectonic activity may have left the surface with only only small portion of the perodic table.

Your seed money and then some. Even the DH-1's first major customer was the church.

Genesis-tower of Babel.... God got really annoyed because everybody hung around in the same place. Acts 8-1 God got really annoyed because everybody hung out in the same place.

You need to have a really deep motivation if you want this project to really fly. Bacteria and rocks don't spark the popular imagination.

I went to missionary school and God told me I should go to Mars with you lot.

Flight hardware is different to prototype hardware.

If it only needs to be built of titanium for weight advantage, make it out of steel and expect it to do less.

Concepts can be proved without going full scale, or getting to within specific weights.

The effects of prolonged artifical gravity could be tested on earth fairly cheaply for example. Zubrin proofed the Mars-atmosphere>propellant gizmo for a pitance.

In missionary school there was similar thread of thought... You could learn language interpretaion, translation and basic education and go into the jungle... or you could go to business school, learn entreprenurship, become uber-rich and fund other missionaries. Both were equally valued and simply applied to different people depending on their talents.

Home-grown financing isn't to hard... it just means you personally have to concentrate on Mars less and on making money for a while.

MArs direct is a go and return mission plan... But Mars direct includes the ability for the fourth mission upwards to just stay... and maybe die or maybe live.

If ou import 60 tonnes of hydrogen that plenty of water and oxygen to live on... ( Mars dirct builds huge amounts of propellant... what if you simply ate your propellant and didn't leave?)

The harder part is expansion of a serious colony. Importing materials is going to be way to expensive. What is needed is the ability to manufacture steel pipes and sheet plastic. No high quality steel or plastic, just passable and then do it en masse in situ. With this you can build an unlimited number of domes, and year by year spread crops out. Only thing to be imported is high-tech bits, people and hydrogen (possibly some nitrogen too...)

On $10 BN a year...

Firing stuff at the same site... (first few rounds is all beacons and automated dozers...)

How much stuff could you send if you spent half the budget on launch vehicles and the other half on stuff. Over a 20 year period. Also adding in not sending people during the first 10...

Would that be enough to leave someone there forever after 15 years of program.

Oh and that someone can have a really short life expectancy and enjoy tuna cans.

Skyscapers are just now hitting 0.5 - 1km in height.

A tower needs to be conical to deal with wind but its base width can be less than its height, it just needs to be rooted properly.

If you had a 20km steel cone it would likely have to go down 5 km or have a truly massive underground spread. As far as I know nobody has drilled past 2km.

I think 10Km is hitting feasible but that would be horrificaly expensive and occupy everybodies steel production for decades.

Part of the large deficeit is being spent on space.

Axing NASA would help balance the budget. Or raising taxes...

Borrowing to go to Mars on a government scale is a Bush only possibility.

You just blow the whole lot on Deltas and Titans...

Eventually after a few years you will hve landed enough stuff on the same spot to get something interesting going.

Especially if you treat the astronauts as expendable. Not deliberatley killing them, but not shutting the program down for a wonky hatch etc.