NASA and Mars missions - what I don't understand

originally posted by: korkythecat
a reply to: FalcoFan
...anyway they had this centrifuge and I jokingly said to the only staff member I saw, could I have a go. He said sure!!! OMG you have no idea, there was a button inside to stop the thing if you had to, but the force was so much I couldn't move my arm, it was totally brutal.

The staff member's name wasn't Hugo Drax, was it?

a reply to: wmd_2008

Perhaps with quantum communication technology...

Humans are expendable. There's a lot of them too. Just keep strapping them to rockets until one of them survives.

It seems to me that International Space station Astronauts can still walk and stand and lift things when they return to earth, they still require rehabilitation and they have to take it easy. I think one of the stipulations is they don't drive for 21 days after they return.

I'm assuming the humans sent to mars would have similar side effects. They would still be able to function and move but would need to adjust to Mars Gravity for a period of a few weeks before they did heavy work.

I think all of this would be taken into consideration and that it really woudn't effect the mission negatively at all.

I would hypothesis that if we sent astronauts today, they would land on Mars, suffer no long lasting ill effects, take it easy for a few weeks, still doing science and working before really getting down to exploring the planet and setting up the colony. All of this would be taken into consideration. I think this is just scare tactic to stymie space exploration and stop Mars mission funding.

Luckily the private sector with Elon Musk and Space One and others is ramping up and it's the private companies that will put humans on Mars way before any national space agencies do.

originally posted by: MotherAnimal
Humans are expendable. There's a lot of them too. Just keep strapping them to rockets until one of them survives.

ah the kerbal space program method!!

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
a reply to: korkythecat

With VR like the Oculus Rift, maybe we'll send humanoid robots and explore from the comfort of Earth? It sure would be a lot safer to use robotic avatars than actual people.

That won't work well because of the long data transmission times.

a reply to: wmd_2008

Doesn't need to be in real time.

You gather the data, assemble it and deal with the lag. Just like robotically operating the rover.

a reply to: Maverick7

read how they move the rover. It's VERY slow, and would not work at all in a VR setting.