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Mars Madness -- Or not?
TMC Net ^ | 05/20/11 | Doug Mohney

Posted on 05/22/2011 5:27:18 PM PDT by KevinDavis

Last week, long-time Mars advocate Robert Zubrin published an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal saying mankind could get to Mars on the cheap within 5 years using SpaceX (News - Alert) hardware -- but was he serious, or just fishing for a debate? Meanwhile, SpaceX continues to drop a trail of bread crumb hints that it's build up infrastructure capable of supporting a long-term commitment to Mars.

(Excerpt) Read more at satellite.tmcnet.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Miscellaneous; Science
KEYWORDS: dragon; falcon; mars; space; spacex
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1 posted on 05/22/2011 5:27:23 PM PDT by KevinDavis
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To: Jack Hydrazine; TheOldLady; Vaquero; originalbuckeye; Kevmo; LuvFreeRepublic; LittleBillyInfidel; ..



2 posted on 05/22/2011 5:29:10 PM PDT by KevinDavis (The Birthers have a TMI issue..)
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To: KevinDavis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsR4dP8PBxk&feature=related


3 posted on 05/22/2011 5:44:52 PM PDT by wally_bert (It's sheer elegance in its simplicity! - The Middleman)
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To: KevinDavis

Interesting concept, having the astronauts be paid ticket-holders.

Could work.

But not a word about the radiation exposure. Twelve-month round trip in space. Eighteen months on Mars. That’s 30 months of hard radiation... a lot harder than on ISS.

Of course, you could mitigate that by living underground on Mars part of the time. But still. It’s a lot of radiation.


4 posted on 05/22/2011 5:46:21 PM PDT by samtheman
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To: samtheman

That’s why I’m a big fan of propulsion and shielding research.

I wonder how effective it would be to mix some kind of powdered lead into the foam that inflates the Bigelow modules?


5 posted on 05/22/2011 5:59:16 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))
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To: samtheman

When VASIMIR, a plasma rocket engine, gets perfected it could get the travel time to Mars down to about 39 days. There is a prototype of VASIMIR that is supposed to be tested on the ISS pretty soon.


6 posted on 05/22/2011 6:04:13 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: KevinDavis

If SpaceX makes it to Mars first can the company name it and claim it or blab it and grab it and own the whole planet?


7 posted on 05/22/2011 6:06:40 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

Yes, Plasma rocket is the rocket for manned flight to Mars.

It’s still 39 days... times 2, plus the time on Mars... but that’s a lot better than a year.

As for the time on Mars, perhaps we could best prepare for that by landing earth-moving robots on the planet hand having them dig some big tunnels for radiation-proof living.

The story regarding radiation isn’t discussed much, because we are still so far away from an actual launch.

But it is a big, big story.


8 posted on 05/22/2011 6:11:28 PM PDT by samtheman
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To: Jack Hydrazine

True enough. Standard rockets are horse and buggy stuff.

A typical trip to the moon is a few minutes of acceleration burning massive amounts of fuel, followed by a day and a half of coasting till you start accelerating into the moon’s gravity well.


9 posted on 05/22/2011 6:12:07 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))
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To: Jack Hydrazine

http://www.universetoday.com/14979/mars-radiation/


10 posted on 05/22/2011 6:13:27 PM PDT by samtheman
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To: KevinDavis
Why not go to the moon first, and set up bases, and operations there? Exploration for minerals, and substances for creating fuel could be done. Then from there, rockets could be sent to Mars, without the need for such heavy lifting vehicles as we need now.

There's no need to rush to get to Mars. It isn't going anywhere.

11 posted on 05/22/2011 6:23:11 PM PDT by SuziQ
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To: Jack Hydrazine
If SpaceX makes it to Mars first can the company name it and claim it or blab it and grab it and own the whole planet?

No. The US and 97 other nations are signatories to the 1967 "Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies." The treaty explicitly forbids any government from claiming a celestial resource such as the Moon or a planet, since they are the Common heritage of mankind.

12 posted on 05/22/2011 6:37:20 PM PDT by buccaneer81 (ECOMCON)
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To: SuziQ

That was GWB’s vision for the Constellation/Orion program before Muslim Outreach became NASA’s primary objective.


13 posted on 05/22/2011 6:40:16 PM PDT by buccaneer81 (ECOMCON)
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To: SuziQ

Space X wont even have a manrated vehicle before 2020 much less something capable of going to the moon, Mars is totally outside their capabilities. They had pad failures that they have to fix before they can even haul cargo. I know, you haven’t heard anything about it because they are as transparent as the Obama Administration about what they are doing. If you watch a full video you will see some of the pad failures but not all that ocurred.

Ravenstar


14 posted on 05/22/2011 6:40:39 PM PDT by Ravenstar (Reinstitute the Constitution as the Ultimate Law of the Land)
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To: KevinDavis

Foolish not to go first to the moon and learn.


15 posted on 05/22/2011 6:49:56 PM PDT by NonValueAdded (I asked the bartender for a bin Ladin, she said 'what's that? I said 'two shots then a splash.')
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To: NonValueAdded

And you are 100% correct about that. It is necessary to lower the risk to acceptable levels.

Ravenstar


16 posted on 05/22/2011 7:32:19 PM PDT by Ravenstar (Reinstitute the Constitution as the Ultimate Law of the Land)
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To: buccaneer81

SpaceX isn’t a government so that means SpaceX can own it privately!


17 posted on 05/22/2011 7:55:24 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: KevinDavis

Video of Dragon landing on the surface of Mars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p6EruPdoXY


18 posted on 05/22/2011 8:30:40 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

SpaceX and its owners are subject to US laws.


19 posted on 05/22/2011 8:39:50 PM PDT by buccaneer81 (ECOMCON)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

Can you go to Antarctica and claim it for yourself?


20 posted on 05/22/2011 8:40:47 PM PDT by buccaneer81 (ECOMCON)
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