Re: Burt Rutans plans for a manned mission to Mars


"steve" <stephen.colbourne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1147327895.547696.47560@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Burt gave a talk on the subject at Oshkosh and was saying that he
considered it crazy that we had made no progress in landing a man on
Mars and that it should be made a high priority. It was something he
wanted to see happen in his lifetime.
I would think that he must have at least worked out what is required
for such a mission and with his contacts I would think that if anyone
outside of government could bring this all together he would be the one.

Low launch costs would go a *long* way to making *anything* in space a
reality. Unfortunately, the US EELV's are in financial trouble, partly due
to the lack of customers. At the same time, NASA is planning on building
and flying two new shuttle derived launch vehicles (CEV and CaLV), but at
the flight rate they need for their proposed lunar missions, launch costs
won't drop by much for NASA either.

What's needed is for one of the small startup launch providers to prove
successful in lowering launch costs. Hopefully lower launch will stimulate
demand which will provide for economies of scale which will lower launch
costs even more... You get the picture. Basic economics at work.

Jeff
--
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.

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