U.S. unveils Orion spacecraft to take crew to Mars

Yahoo News ^ | 03/30/09

[GonzoGOP]

"For the love o’ pete, Please, PLEASE, go look at the mission profiles for the Constellation program. The ORion spacecraft is only part of the system. One thing ISS has taught us is that building spacecraft IN SPACE is not only feasible, but works rather well."

Obviously anything other than the 1950s Project Orion is going to have to be built in space. And nobody is crazy enough to think anyone would attempt to fly one of those today. Its fun to talk about, but nobody is going to chuck a few hundred A-Bombs into orbit.

However it doesn't matter if they build it in space or in a shipyard on the moon or buy it at the local Walmart. If its chemical rockets it has a limited ISP and you are looking at a mulit year mission in a giant fuel tank with very limited crew space. Use a NERVA and you get twice the ISP of the best chemical engine, or more assuming the designs for the reactor are better now than in the 1960s. Also as a bonus you get a power source that doesn't degrade as you get farther from the sun like solar. For the ISS or the moon chemical is all you need. But for Mars you need to go bigger and faster than any chemical reaction can throw you.

Plasma or Ion might work, but unless powered by a reactor most of your ship would just be solar panels. And you are still going to run into problems with small living space. And a ship dependent on solar power is harder, although not impossible, to spin up for gravity.

[hunter112]

Y'know what sold the Space Shuttle? Earth Day, 1970. The whole "reusable" idea was the only thing fundable at that time.

The fact that we've blown up two of the five of them should convince everyone that maybe it wasn't the best idea, only the most politically correct idea.

[Frank_Discussion]

I think you still haven’t gone to look at the information on Constellation.

As for chem rockets to Mars, I totally agree. I am putting my money (figuratively) on VASIMR. The main guy who is working on the technology, Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz, has a mission plan that takes two weeks to Mars for the crewed mission, and some months for the Cargo ship. Serious as a heart attack - two weeks, LEO to Mars Orbit.

Yes, it would take nukes. Someday, sombody is going to realize that as an inevitability.

[anymouse]

Not that the Navy isn't fully capable of doing so and has done some great space stuff in the past.

I had the pleasure of meeting the great Captain Robert C. Truax (USN) years ago.

[TheThinker]

Is that an extra-large, heavy-duty cappuccino machine?

[papasmurf]

I respectfully disagree. It was the ability to do so many things. The shuttle is a very utilitarian vehicle. Reusable was a bonus.

However, our disagreement aside, $450 million per shot for the shuttle is not sustainable.

I still think we can do better. We’ve become a lazy society, in mind and body. We need to be challenged in a motivating way again.

[papasmurf]

Kinda looks like an old Italian coffee pot I inherited, the double decker kind.

[hunter112]

I'll admit, they certainly made a Swiss Army knife out of the thing. But it also locked our space program into 1970's technology well into the 21st Century.

At some point, we will have different propulsion systems that will make the dreams of the science fiction writers come true. A hundred years ago, you had to be a mechanic to own and operate an auto, and even then, you had a limited range of decent roads to drive on. That's no longer the case.

Until we get a Zefram Cochrane to invent some sort of warp drive system, we're probably best served by using single purpose space vehicles. They got us out of the atmosphere and on to the surface of the moon in a timeframe that even the sci-fi writers couldn't have imagined.

[Harold Shea]

I`m 61 and remember Apollo quite well,remember thinking
back then we`ll have men on Mars by the time I`m 50

Have hopes that I`ll live to see this pulled off.Kinda
jealous of a boy or girl born today...the stuff they`ll
see...If we survive this Commie in Chief today

[papasmurf]

I, too, remember the Apollo landing. I was watching it with my Mom, and she started crying and saying “Oh no, God is gonna’ punish us for this”. LOL

[US_MilitaryRules]

http://objflicks.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htm

[papasmurf]

Being that I went form child to teen to adult during those times, I thought that was fantastic!

Thank you!