Re: Space Policy: Why Mars should be our top priority.

On Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:35:26 +0000, Robert Collins wrote:

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 02:58:44PM -0700, BradGuth wrote: [Apollo]
Truth be told, we obviously can't seem to deal with Eden/Earth, much
less afford to take on Mars, and we certainly can't put any physical
claims or extract benefits from our highly unusual Selene/moon, which
makes this another highly bogus topic.

I'll say. My analysis of the situation suggests that we're all looking
at the wrong planets. A couple of years ago I was convinced that
Jupiter and Saturn (and their moons) offered the best place to situate
human habitation. Fuel and water is plentiful, and the Earth/Moon
system close enough for support operations but far enough away to offer
a degree of socio-political freedom for resident/colonists.

Energy wise & rocket wise, Mars is closer than the moon, but Jupiter is
WAY the heck out there.

It is a difficult paradigm shift; on earth the farther away things are,
the more difficult it is to get to them. Not so in astrodynamics! It has
to do with orbits and if the planet has an atmosphere that can be used to
aero-brake.

And there isn't much sunlight at Jupiter. Mars has 44% of the sunlight
that Earth gets. Mars is 1.6-1.4 AU, but Jupiter is 5-5.4 AU, so it gets
only 1/25 the sunlight. You're not going to grow plants in a greenhouse
out at Jupiter or beyond, and solar power is ruled out.

.

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