NASA outlines manned mars mission

couldnt find any threads although im sure theres ine already started somewhere.

Nasa has released a stratergy for sending a human crew to mars iin the next few decades.

Highlights include

- "minimal" crew
- 30 month trip on a 400,000 kg spacecraft
-Mars ship assembled in low orit using 3 -4 ares V rockets
- could spend up to 16 months on surface
- powered by an advanced cryogenic fuel propulsion system.
- estimated cost from 20bn to 450 bn


full article here - news.bbc.co.uk...

2031 is way to far away I hope im still around to witness


[edit on 29-11-2007 by Kozz28]

Richard Hoagland said on C2C that this announcement is just a PR stunt and that it's total "bunk". He says that any technology would be so outdated by the time 2031 rolls around. I tend to believe Hoagland when he said that NASA is the false-front western town for the real space program.

reply to post by DamnedDirtyApes


The Space shuttle was designed in the 1970s and first flew 26 years ago in 1981. The F-15 fighter jet was designed in the 1960s and first flew 35 years ago, in 1972. Granted, these aircraft are getting old, And they have required updating through the years due to the advancement of computer avionics, but the basic technology concept is not outdated. In fact, the U.S. Airforce plans to keep the F-15 in service for another 15 to 20 years.

True, a Mars craft will be much more complex than an F-15, or even the Space Shuttle, but Feruary 2031 is ONLY about 23 years away. Obviously we will have advancements in technology in the next 20+ years, and I expect those advancements to be part of the Mars Spacecraft, just like advancements in computer technology have become part of the Space Shuttle over the past 26 years. However, I see no reason the say that the concepts and general technology we lay down today regarding the Mars Mission will be outdated in 23 years. History has shown us otherwise.

Plus 23 years will pass very quickly (look at the 30+ year old Shuttle Program), so we need to get started NOW with designing the Mars Mission, and NASA knows that, seeing that they started seriously considering and "schematically designing" the Mars mission several years ago.

I may be confusing this site with the Graham Hancock site, but on one of them somebody pointed out all of the problems with a manned trip to Mars and back. It had little to do with the spacecraft itself. It was all about the crew. The amount of food and water needed to feed a crew of 6 for 1.5 to 3 years, somebody said it would be like taking along 450 refrigerators of food. What about taking a shower? They'll need constant exercise to slow down atrophy and bone mass loss. There will be boredom and personality conflicts. There are problems of radiation. It just seemed almost like a logistics impossibility. What we need is much faster travel speed. That eliminates most of those problems.

And there's the end of the world and all, so I wouldn't count on it.