We are ready for Mars now?

I just came accross some documents pertaining to Nasa and missions to mars. These doc's are from March 1999. Read them and tell me what you think.
gilbreth.ecn.purdue.edu...
After you click on the link below, you will be taken to a parent directory. Click on the "BREAK-OU.DOC" link to access the doc's. They are very detailed. Here is a small excerpt:

� Major Issues and Group Opinions
- Don�t know enough about human capabilities and limitations to concur on mission length
- 3 voted for 1-month stay for first trip
- 2 voted for full 18 month stay first trip
- 5 abstentions

- Concurred more human factors, science and safety tradeoffs need to be done before mission length decided.

� Agreed on Some Issues Being Critical to Mars Mission

- Adaptation/Decrement to long duration mission Unknown
- Kinesthetic, neurovestibular, bone depletion
- Perceptual, Cognitive, Stress
- Aging, injury

- Preparedness for Self-sufficiency
- Extra knowledge, training, versatility of crew
- On-board support systems to replace ground support
- VETT for en-route simulation and training
- Intelligent agents, dynamic task allocation, are crucial
- Real-time monitoring of alertness and workload

� Must Learn from ISS

1. Corporate Memory

- Anomalies and how dealt with

- Locus of control issues: crew, ground, automation

- Intelligent database, query, presentation

� NASA Cultural Acceptance

- HFE Has tools to evaluate workload, task analysis, function allocation

- HFE Risks of mission options

- Need to work with crew to develop trust so we can get the data we need

This was almost 7 years ago. They have got to be in the final stages of preparing for this mission. 7 years of logistics and calculations. And Bush is ready to pump the economic means for space exploration into NASA. Could they be ready for this now and are just not telling any one?


Edited to add link

[edit on 1/6/05 by Kidfinger]

Could be, I sure wouldn't want any other countries getting the jump on me if I was president and beating the US to mars.

However I don't know wether or not 6 years is enough time given the enormity of the task and all the planning its going to take. They first have to design vehicle capable of making the long haul to Mars and then returning to earth. The vehicle also has to be able to sustain the crew for however long the journey takes and thats going to have to be some system, think of al the oxygen their gonna have to recycle and use on the trip. Then they have to make sure that there is a lander or some sort of craft they can use to get to the martian surface and i would imagine use as the initial frame for whatever temporary structure they would be living in. That whole structure has to be designed, tested, made to be easily/quick to assemble once the astronauts are on the surface. And I reckon that's only just scratching the surface, they need to have all the accompanying support back here on earth organised as well. And on top of all that they have to work out what they want to do when they get there, taking samples to bring back is fine but are they going to do that for a month, maybe a year? Then they have to sort out all the equipment and trainin they need to do those tasks....argh my brain hurts already and I only spent 10 minutes thinking about it. This must be giving some guyy/gals down at NASA a real headache.

Yeah, I agree that 6 years is an awfully short time to design and build a ship capable of undertaking such a mission. It is intresting though, that some of the rockets that flew our boys into space were designed in less than 6 months. I think that by now, we should have the design and are close to completion of a ship capable of making the journey.

Did you look at any of the other links in the parent directory? I think its a back door of some kind. Not sure though. There are some progress reports and such you can find if you click on some of those links.

[edit on 1/10/05 by Kidfinger]