New Mars Forums

Then we settle it. Mars is the new world.

Actually it's called the Biefeld-Brown effect because T.T. brown worked together with one Paul Biefeld on this in his early years.   However, I don't think that this effect has something to do with gravity modification. It creates some kind of propulsive force without expelling propellant, yes, but it doesn't really alter the strengh of earth's gravitational pull. Podkletnov's devices are different in that they actually seem to do just that. Some japanese company has claimed that they have successfully reproduced Podkletnov's results and that they have achieved weight losses of up to 8%.
Podkletnov continues his research and has come up with a 'gravity generator' last year (it gets also mentioned in the article) which does not only shield objects from earth's pull but does excert some gravitational-like force on them. Well, at least that's what Podkletnov says he's doing.

This may sound insane but I almost hope that it is on a direct collision course with earth. Just imagine the impact this would have on NASA's budget! We'd be out of LEO agin within three years at the latest and probably fly a lot of robotic and manned missions to that asteroid to investigate it thoroughly before making a decision about how to properly deal with it. It would certainly get the general public interested in space again!

Interesting! You seem to know quite a lot about cold fusion research so I wondered if you could point me to any good books on the subject?

I know this topic has been beaten to death and laid to rest by most people a decade ago but research is still being done by the US military (read new Navy report supporting cold fusion reasearch), by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (requires registration) and several others so I think there is something into this.
I think the scientific community rushed to judgement when the results of Pons and Fleischman couldn't be reproduced at first try 13 years ago (it is now known that reproducebility is one of the key issues with cold fusion, it's very difficult to achieve because the conditions under which the effect occurs are not well understood). In fact the results have been reproduced numerous times since then; all that is needed now is better funding.

An excellent article in Wired magazine.

ryjaz

I disagree. Desingning these space vehicles to be reusable will make their development much more expensive. So it won't lower costs (only in the very long term) but raise them. And what makes you think that a Mars program flown with reusable vehicles (at higher cost than with expendables) wouldn't end up the same way Apollo did?

Can anyone tell me what is required for a bill to get passed and how long the process usually takes? I'm not familiar with the US governmental structure but I guess such a bill had to be approved by the president in the end, no?
Another question: Does anyone know if similar bills have been introduced before and if they have succeeded?

I can't find it anywhere but I'm really interested in it. Does anyone have an idea where else I might find a transcript?

Well, I certainly hope Bush does anounce such an initiative but I won't hold my breath. What are Hoagland's sources?

Does someone know where one can download the show or a transcript of it?
  ???

Click this link and tell me what you think about it! Personally, I think it's a brilliant idea and I hope they succeed.

The Shuttle transports payloads in the 10-20 ton range while the Saturn V would need really heavy payloads (100 tons+) to be cost-efficient (cost per pound). The thing is that there are far more small payloads (satellites! ) suitable for the Shuttle than payloads which fit the Saturn's launch capacity.

The US military would hardly use the (european) Ariane and the Titan IV is the most expensive expendable launch vehicle in the world. It will be phased out soon and be replaced by the new Delta IV/Atlas V rockets. Sealaunch is certainly an option but it has a very limited payload capacity.
What do you mean by "easier to keep secret"? No launch can be kept secret, only the payload!

I think building the Shuttle was the right decision but the ISS is a pile of crap. NASA should have build an ET station.