One way mars trip:

Me, I'm still harnessed/plumbed up to machines - being prepped for surgery in the morning.

What is the name of your Ox, and what are you "hitching" it to?

 

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I'd just want to make certain that humans are safe when they travel in space because there's many things out there, radioactivity and micrometeorites that will kill them as just 2 examples. The faster we can get to where we want to go the better we will be, so that's being developed today.

 

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geez mate calm down, just giving my opinion. just like you are. what makes you think that you know? and what is this stuff about a "relativistic rocket"? and looking at the graphics, puff, the habitats do not look spacious. what you describe, in some extent, is what Zubrin talks about in his book, The Case for Mars. I suggest you pull your head in a bit before attacking someone for their opinion. make the forum a lot nicer place.

 

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so they never went outside? also is that the kind of person that this mission is looking for? someone who sounds like they don't have the right stuff?

 

I'm about 65:35 for this succeeding.
So, yes, even in my Imaginative optimistic outlook, failure to even get there is well on the cards.
But even if it does fail, other attempts will be made...maybe not one way, maybe yes.
Just as in time, we will have a base/outpost on Mars as well as on the Moon, and as is currently being considered by NASA now, maybe one on an Asteroid.
It will happen. If not with this mission, then others that follow.
Just as in time, we will go to the stars.
You cannot stop progress and that unquenchable thirst of wanting to go where no one has before.

 

Seemed like they spent a few minutes each day outside, walking from their cars to work.

Depends on what else they do. Just because someone sits on the couch doesn't make him a good candidate for a Mars mission - but it does mean he can live his whole life relatively happily in a very small space.

 

i much prefer Zubrin's proposal. return trips for the astronauts. look how quickly the interest in the apollo moon landings lasted. i wouldn't want to be on mars relying on people on earth being kept interested and so funding the resupply missions.

 

Return trips certainly will take place eventually.....In the mean time though, preliminary preparations are being made for a one way trip in 2023.
I'm sure we all wish them success.

 

There are a lot of good reasons to do an Asteroid base. The gravity well for an asteroid is zilch (compared to Mars or the moon), so getting back to Earth is much less of a problem. Also, the Asteroid Belt has a lot of resources that would be relatively easy to shuttle around. Some of the asteroids are nearly pure Fe/Ni (cores of eroded planetisimals in which the sofeter mantle has been eroded away over billions of years of meteoritic impacts). And lots of the smaller ones are likely Fe/Ni chunks.

 

My brother is a recently retired aerospace engineer, and he's been talking about it for years. see: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...asteroid-million-miles-Earth--stay-MONTH.html ; also see http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/...n-base-mars-asteroid-all-part-NASA-plan-Obama

 

are you suggesting that we mine asteroids for iron and nickel? if so, why? they aren't worth anything, ~US$130 per tonne, atm. the only benefit is if you were going to use it in situ. plus we have plenty here on Earth. you want to mine high value stuff and i doubt even gold would be economic.

 

in situ use; to fabricate the asteroid colony.

 

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And the Moon colony and Mars colony.....

That's why we have forward looking companies like "Planetary Resources"
http://www.planetaryresources.com/

 

Great to see forward consideration being given by NASA for manned Asteroid landing.

NASA is taking steps to make spacewalking on an asteroid a reality. In the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) near the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston, engineers are testing a modified version of the pumpkin-orange Advanced Crew Escape System (ACES) worn by space shuttle astronauts during launch and reentry for use by future crew in the Orion spacecraft.
As the agency plans human deep space missions, including a voyage to a relocated asteroid, care is being taken to efficiently use space inside Orion. The white Extravehicular Mobility Unit spacesuits used by crews to conducts spacewalks on the International Space Station are too bulky to carry in the spacecraft, so NASA is looking at ways to alter the ACES suits for multiple uses both inside and outside the spacecraft.
"The shell of them is very much the same, and to the casual user you may not even notice the difference, but internally we modified them to work with the plumbing inside Orion," said Dustin Gohmert, Crew Survival Systems Manager at Johnson.
Through a series of tests in the NBL, engineers are learning what features need to be included to improve the suit's mobility beyond the needs of the trip from the launch pad to space and its return to Earth, such as enhanced gloves and elbow joints with improved mobility for spacewalks.
The ACES pumpkin suit was worn by space shuttle crews beginning in 1994 and builds on the earliest spacesuit worn by Ed White during the first venture outside a spacecraft in 1965.
"We're stepping back to our heritage to be able to use one suit for multiple tasks," said Gohmert.
NASA is looking at a broad range of ideas and techniques as the agency further refines its mission design for the agency's asteroid initiative, an effort that combines human exploration, space technology and science work being done across the agency to find and redirect and asteroid to a stable orbit near the moon for exploration by astronauts.
The NBL tests are helping with the evaluation of options for spacewalking techniques like how best to get out of Orion and traverse the spacecraft toward the captured asteroid. NASA is making use of previous experience and proving designs to accelerate development, ensure crew safety and increase reliability.


http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasa-te...for-asteroid-mission-spacewalks/#.UtCe69IW2HA

 

I tried my darnedest to read and make sense of the ^^above quoted^^ Post...and Link.

I fully realize, that like always - you are right, of course - but honestly, paddoboy, did you read, and do you fully understand and agree with that "Authmintmail" article?

It seems to reference this : http://phys.org/news/2012-08-technology-rats-asteroid.html

But the "composition of the article" (or lack thereof!!??) makes parts of it somewhat incomprehensible, to me at least.

I know you will probably say that all of my Posts are like that or that it is the fact that I am in ICU/recovering from surgery - but it cannot be JUST ME that found the "Authmintmail" article somewhat incomprehensible!!

But, there again, like I said previously...you are right, of course.

 

Well in this case I agree with you...which is why I have reposted something more readable.....

ps: You still need that disprin and a lay down though...take it easy.

 

and all the best for the surgery.

 

Honestly...did you actually read it, PRIOR to cutting/pasting it?!! Honestly??!!

BTW, you seem to have accidentally used the "agree" when commenting on my Post! Maybe you should follow your own proffered asinine advice, quoted directly below:

paddoboy, you have no business proffering unrequested and unwarranted, not to mention inane, diagnoses of any kind!

During my deployments to Pine Gap, or my visit to Sylvania, I never picked up any Australian saying equivalent to : "as if you care"!
If there is an Australian equivalent - consider it stated!


Once again, paddoboy...

You are right, of course.

 

It seems a bit naive to think that a colony could exist by 2023. I wouldn't suggest any less than 50 years for a self-sustaining colony to be possible but that's mainly due to a huge number of engineering problems that need solving to make it possible.

I would suggest any colonisation plan would have to go through a number of stages and a number of development trees. For instance start with something nearer to home like placing a colony on the bottom of the ocean or in the heart of a volcano, to adapt and overcome those sort of extremes is going to be required if we intend to venture further afield. Once we've become competent in that, then it could be questioned as to if a colony could survive on the moon. The moon is again another hostile environment to adapt to, and overcome and it's in close enough proximity to our planet to launch a rescue should their be need.

Then greater distances can be aspired towards.

I'd suggest using robotics to setup the homoeostasis that would be required for living, creating automated farming systems and drones that build living environments years before anyone colonises a planet. This gives us plenty of time from remote to identify how well our systems work, if there are faults how to fix them and to make sure that in the long run any colony sent would be more capable of surviving.

There is also a whole host of technological additions that currently aren't even off the R&D board that would be a necessity to, for instance a transhumanistic usage of mnemonics through the usage of radiological latticing of the homoeostasis environment would potentially allow any colonist to access information about doing any task that is required (No implantation needed), this increases the capacity of a colony surviving the loss of a professional (medic, engineer, botanist etc) and would potentially even allow for external aid to be administered(Having a think-tank aid stepping them through a task).

The latticing also has the capacity to be used to create a realtime diagnostics of the environment, to monitor gas compositions, temperature changes and physiological stresses on materials.