[Ruatha]

Originally posted by Atrocities:

quote:

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I don´t think we´re hundreds of years from having self-sustaining colonies on other planets. All the technology that we´d possibly need has long since been invented (say 30 years ago). If they could send a man to the moon in 69 we can most surely send several to mars and have them stay there indefinately... the ony problem is the will to do so. (if you have the will you find the money and the means)

You should consider that to send a manned mission to Mars would require far more technology than we currently have. The effects of prolonged weightlessness on the human body, the micro metorites that would pummule a ship to dust, and the enormus calculations needed to get there and back, the cost, etc.

Keep in mind that NASA has stated that ships with rotating sectiosn are not fessable in any degree and the technology to create such a ship is currently not available.

The best we can hope for in the next 200 years is perhaps a small moon base or orbital facility near the moon. Nothing more.

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I think you are pretty alone in thinking that it's technology that hinders a manned mission to Mars.
Today it's mostly economics, the cost will be huge.
The problems with micro-meteroids won't be all that much bigger than when we went to the moon i'd belive, just more prolonged but not a major problem, we've sent probes much further than Mars. Yes, they get hit but it's solvable. Even I can solve that one, 1 meter of lead will stop most meteroids (Not the best solution I agree ).
Prolonged zero-g is not a hindrance either, a problem yes but not unsurmountable. The Russians have had people in space for over a year with much less training facilities than would be possible to mount inside a Mars mission.

The huge calculations is not any problem, that could be solved by most nations space agencies, even our small Swedish space agency has resources to calculate trajectories needed, fuel amount, thrust, launch dates etc..

No the problem is cost, it just costs too much and the profit isn't availible in any near future, to justify that cost will be hard.
If the motivation was right we could have had a manned mission to Mars in the 90-ies, heck, even in the early 70-ies if the motivation was STRONG enough to justify the cost in money and lifes.

Remember that it's hard to get funding for the international space station, the most expensive human space project so far, and that is much cheaper than a Mars mission I'd guess.

[ August 08, 2003, 14:52: Message edited by: Ruatha ]