NASA Unveils their new rocket that is capable of bringing humans... To Mars?

Originally posted by defcon5
The bigger problem is Mars has a substantial atmosphere and real gravity, which means you need almost as powerful of a rocket to get back off the surface as you need here on Earth. You are certainly not going to cram all of that into almost the same amount of payload that the old Saturn V could carry.

Bingo!

Wondered how long it owuld be until someone pointed out what is blindingly obvious about this.

Mars isn't the moon. Getting off the planet to come home is the big problem, not getting there.

Originally posted by defcon5
The bigger problem is Mars has a substantial atmosphere and real gravity, which means you need almost as powerful of a rocket to get back off the surface as you need here on Earth. You are certainly not going to cram all of that into almost the same amount of payload that the old Saturn V could carry.

I think we can all agree we won't get to Mars and back with just an Apollo mission on steroids.

I take it you haven't read the NASA idea about the robotic fuel factory? This is kind of old and I'm not sure what their latest thinking is, but obviously they didn't just overlook what you mentioned, even 18 years ago.

Mars Design Reference Mission 1.0 (1993)

The NASA Exploration Program Office (ExPO) at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, commenced the Mars Exploration Study Project in the summer of 1992....

NASA's first manned Mars expedition would need four flights of the uprated FLO-class heavy-lift rocket. Three heavy-lifter flights would suffice for each subsequent Mars expedition....

The first uprated FLO-class rocket would launch an unmanned Earth-Return Vehicle (ERV) Mars orbiter...

The second giant rocket would launch an unmanned fuel factory/Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) lander....

You can read the rest yourself but note the unmanned fuel factory. They realize it takes fuel to return to Earth, they're not dummies. That said, I think it takes substantially less propellant to launch from Mars than to launch from Earth since the Mars gravity is only 38% of Earth's gravity: www.amnh.org...

This is because Mars is only 53% the diameter of Earth and only 71% of Earth's density. In other words, it's a lot smaller and lighter than Earth.

I have mixed feeling about this rocket. The rocket itself will be more capable and cheaper than the shuttle, so it is a step forward. On the other hand, upgrades to existing systems (Falcon, Atlas V) are enough for all our needs, and could achieve it much cheaper. In an already launch-starved market, building yet another oversized rocket is a waste of money that could be used on actual payloads instead. Constellation 2.0?

Let's give old Wernher von Braun a rest, and try some "Extended Heim Theory" physics for a change! Or, are our astronauts afraid to travel in it's spooooky ol' hyperspace?

Can't wait!!

It'll be another Genesis in the making......

Originally posted by Soulece
The NEWS Story right here

NASA revealed its new design for its next-generation heavy-lift rocket today (Sept. 14), unveiling a giant booster that will eventually carry astronauts on future deep space missions. The new rocket, called the Space Launch System (SLS), will include hardware and technology that are legacies from the space shuttle and now-defunct Constellation programs. The $10 billion booster will use liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuel, and will have solid rocket boosters for initial tests flights, agency officials said.

So this could be the start to something very interesting. We bring humans to mars to investigate. We are already in the know of many mysterious things about Mars. Will this just be another step in the process of disclosing alien life?

That's one small step for man, one giant leap for one eyed green slobbering aliens.

edit on 15-9-2011 by Soulece because: fix spelling error

edit on 15-9-2011 by Soulece because: (no reason given)

NASA is a joke. Strapping people to a bomb and blowing them up into space is not the answer to space travel.
Their rockets are comparable to us buying a new car 40 years ago, and just adding things to it over the years instead of embracing new technologies .....

I think we can all agree that the Mars Mission details can be left up to the
imagination as much as the Moon Mission was. They will use CGI computer
programmers this time.

They had this on TV.
Made with super deluxe CGI and looked real.
They are back to the capsule method.
Don't be fooled again.
You realize of course JPL made great actual video for Jupiter and
the planets. Those that can provide real can also provide the fake.
And years after the great Moon Landing videos.

For some reason I was astonished seeing the space shuttle plans
as companies in the work would eventually see the various designs.
I must have had a saucer moment that never occurred when the moon
mission reverted back to rocket power. I didn't think we were serious
about going to the moon and not use saucers. Well now I know we
can't use any Tesla method.
like I said back here

Originally posted by VI0811
NASA is a joke. Strapping people to a bomb and blowing them up into space is not the answer to space travel.
Their rockets are comparable to us buying a new car 40 years ago, and just adding things to it over the years instead of embracing new technologies .....

Unfortunately, I don't believe that there is anything else out there that gives pound for pound, the amount of Delta-V that a rocket does, and is able to achieve escape velocity in the amount of time required to enter orbit. So it not only has to be able to produce enough thrust to lift all its weight, but I has to accelerate very quickly to escape velocity.