Tychoon wants to send married couple on Mars suicide er.. flyby mission. UPDATE

[Paratus]

If you want to "Get your ass to Mars" and live I suggest the following components:

VASIMR

Transhab

I believe Bigelow Aerospace already launched one.

A 21st century update on one of these:
TOPAZ

In-situ Resource Utilization

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-situ_resource_utilization

And a big dumb booster combined with ISS construction techniques to build the vehicle

Maybe combined with Falcon:

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

If you want to "Get your ass to Mars" and live I suggest the following components:

VASIMR

Transhab

I believe Bigelow Aerospace already launched one.

A 21st century update on one of these:
TOPAZ

In-situ Resource Utilization

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-situ_resource_utilization

And a big dumb booster combined with ISS construction techniques to build the vehicle

Maybe combined with Falcon:

That's good form a technical "get there" aspect. What about the biological?

 

[Paratus]

That's good form a technical "get there" aspect. What about the biological?

VASIMR cuts the transit time significantly so the radiation dose is cut as well. It's scalable to the point that with a large, like naval nuclear reactor sized power plant you can cut the trip time down from 6-9 months to 1-3 months.

Transhab can also cut down radiation by providing bladders in the exterior shell to hold water and other radiation shielding measures.

Determining how much shielding and getting it into orbit are the big problems. So there's still work to do.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

VASIMR cuts the transit time significantly so the radiation dose is cut as well. It's scalable to the point that with a large, like naval nuclear reactor sized power plant you can cut the trip time down from 6-9 months to 1-3 months.

Transhab can also cut down radiation by providing bladders in the exterior shell to hold water and other radiation shielding measures.

Determining how much shielding and getting it into orbit are the big problems. So there's still work to do.

That's a lot of shielding that's needed and that's a lot of weight and that's a lot of cost. Gamma rays aren't easily stopped. Is it possible? Yeah, but not for our intrepid couple, which is what I was getting at. Forget having kids, and plan on lots and lots of chemo.

 

[Rifter]

Do we even have the tech to do this?

And if we do why the hell hasnt NASA already started a program for this, manned mission to mars seems like a very logical next step now that we have done the moon and unmanned to mars.

 

[cybrsage]

More evidence we need to raise taxes on the rich.

This was Obama's plan - to have private industry fund the space industry. IMO, we need both private and public space industries. Science for the sake of knowledge is not something private industry cares to do, but is still needed.

 

[cybrsage]

Doesn't wash.

"As for why a man and a woman will be selected, "this is very symbolic and we really need it to represent humanity," MacCallum said."

Riight, yet: "We called it the Lewis and Clark trip to Mars."
Lewis and Clark were't a married man and woman. They're the classical human explorers: men. If you want it to represent humanity, that's what you send. Only an idiot anchoring on an anti-gay marriage sentiment would come up with a married couple. In a situation like a trip to Mars, you don't need "emotional support," you need someone whose skills you can rely on and who has multiple modes of interpersonal contact they can work through. A married couple is going to have more baggage and heightened emotions. The only thing they have going for them is a reason to reconcile due to history, but that's a very small thing given American self-centeredness: The divorce rate is over 50% when you don't have to spend every waking moment inches away from the other person.

It has to do with the well known fact that most humans on the planet find heterosexual marriage far more acceptable than homosexual marriage. Right or wrong is irrelevant, it is what it is. The guy funding this is a businessman. As such, he is going to make sure he sends a heterosexual married couple so that the majority of humans on Earth are not offended or upset. The couple can safely have sex without anyone threatening a boycott of his businesses, etc. Again, right or wrong is irrelevant, it is what it is.

He is not going to ignore the reality of how things happen on Earth just to make a small minority very happy, at the cost of making a large majority unhappy. That is not something a smart businessman does.

 

[cybrsage]

Do we even have the tech to do this?

And if we do why the hell hasnt NASA already started a program for this, manned mission to mars seems like a very logical next step now that we have done the moon and unmanned to mars.

Lack of funding and public desire.

 

[Brovane]

Do we even have the tech to do this?

And if we do why the hell hasnt NASA already started a program for this, manned mission to mars seems like a very logical next step now that we have done the moon and unmanned to mars.

It is all about funding. Also realistically their is still a lot of exploration and since left to do on the Moon. We should look at establishing a permanent Moon base before we go forward with go to Mars etc.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Lack of funding and public desire.

NASA is part scientific organization and political football. Their mandate changes with every administration, funding is always uncertain and consequently they are inefficient and unfocused. They are the party piece of science, and it's not the fault of the people working for it.

 

[cybrsage]

NASA is part scientific organization and political football. Their mandate changes with every administration, funding is always uncertain and consequently they are inefficient and unfocused. They are the party piece of science, and it's not the fault of the people working for it.

Agreed.

 

[DrPizza]

NASA is part scientific organization and political football. Their mandate changes with every administration, funding is always uncertain and consequently they are inefficient and unfocused. They are the party piece of science, and it's not the fault of the people working for it.

To an extent, but not completely. Another part of the problem is the public relations & how NASA presents itself to Congress.

 

[sao123]

Me my wife and a NES / Blu Ray player? I think we could make this happen.

tho I might get bored without some internet service...


Strike that... this mission will need a stone pizza oven on board.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Me my wife and a NES / Blu Ray player? I think we could make this happen.

tho I might get bored without some internet service...


Strike that... this mission will need a stone pizza oven on board.

Hell of a long ping time.

 

[UberNeuman]

If Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are married before the project begins, then I don't see a problem....

\i'll even chip in a fiver...

"Kim and Kanye - this is Mission Control: We have a problem. Your ship has slipped out of its flight path and will overshoot Mars. You will however plunge directly into the Sun. Have a nice day."

 

[Double Trouble]

If Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are married before the project begins, then I don't see a problem....

\i'll even chip in a fiver...

"Kim and Kanye - this is Mission Control: We have a problem. Your ship has slipped out of its flight path and will overshoot Mars. You will however plunge directly into the Sun. Have a nice day."

:biggrin:

The world would be much better off with those two somewhere in deep space never to return.

 

[davmat787]

nm

 

[werepossum]

If Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are married before the project begins, then I don't see a problem....

\i'll even chip in a fiver...

"Kim and Kanye - this is Mission Control: We have a problem. Your ship has slipped out of its flight path and will overshoot Mars. You will however plunge directly into the Sun. Have a nice day."

I can't get too pissed at Kanye - he might think he's Jesus, but I rarely see him and he did have that one song that was funny and clever. As for Kim - well, sending one Kardashian off the planet just means they'll awaken another clone, inflate its ass, and send it off to an E reality show. First you have to take out Hot Mom and Zombie Bruce Jenner, THEN you go after the clones.

501 days of zero gravity sex and no shower strikes me as a very poorly thought-out idea. I suggest that the module will return with one dead astronaut and one very fragrant and insane astronaut.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Ok problem of dying solved

Get old people who are going to die anyway!

Should make the Boomer haters happy.

 

[slightlyhuman]

...Says the person with nintendo in his handle and raccoon mario as his avatar. Yeah, geeks throwing insults are always so credible. ...Not to mention hilarious.

Who pissed in your cornflakes this morning anyway for you to come in swinging this way? Is it how you always talk to strangers? If so, do they keep you in a padded room at all times or do they let you out sometimes to use a computer?

You are a f'ving retard bud. So because he has nintendo-related nick/avatar his posts are moot?

LOL. Hurry guys, look! Grade A moron in this thread!

:thumbsup:

 

[Darwin333]

...Says the person with nintendo in his handle and raccoon mario as his avatar. Yeah, geeks throwing insults are always so credible. ...Not to mention hilarious.

Who pissed in your cornflakes this morning anyway for you to come in swinging this way? Is it how you always talk to strangers? If so, do they keep you in a padded room at all times or do they let you out sometimes to use a computer?

I assume that is how he generally speaks to people who appear to be willfully ignorant or simply trolling.

 

[Darwin333]

Yup things have been bad every since they decided to shutdown the Saturn V production line. We can thank Richard Nixon for that one. So now if we want to leave LEO we have to re-do all that development work from the 1960's. At least it looks like the Falcon Heavy will have some type of reasonable payload for a TLI or something beyond LEO.

Funny how the reason that we successfully completed one of our greatest scientific explorations of all times was because of war. Actually, sadly, no it isn't. War has pushed most of America's greatest scientific achievements. Check out the periodic table of elements when you get a chance, see all those elements we discovered (and therefore got to name)? We discovered them because at the time we were the cutting edge of particle science, wanna guess why?

We haven't left LEO since because there was, and is, no military reason to do so anymore which just flat sucks but it is what it is I guess.