Re: Why NASA should focus on the Moon, not Mars - Henry Spencer

Totorkon wrote:

Think of what a lunar rover robot with solar wings or an rtg could
do. It could easily cover half the moon in a year. It could dwell at
interesting selenological sites sending back millions of pictures at a
full range of magnifications.

Perhaps with an RTG, no way with solar. A solar powered rover could not possibly survive the two-week lunar night.

> It could send back more than a ton of
samples for a landed weight equal to one lem.

Rovers don't "send back" anything.

Given a $100B pricetag for iss (closer to twice that), estimates range
up to $1T to put a crew on mars. Good luck selling that to a nation
nearing a depression.

As Brian pointed out, your numbers are bull***. Dwayne Day did a good job debunking them in a pair of articles for Space Review:

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/119/1
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/288/1
.

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