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Possible Mars Launch 2018?
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Spaceflight Participant  
Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2011 9:01 pm
Posts: 74 
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 Re: Possible Mars Launch 2018? Posted on: Fri Mar 01, 2013 6:17 am500 days of radiation and cramped living. I hope they manage it and all goes well although for the money I'd rather see a 100% reusable launch vehicle where only the fuel needs replacing after every flight and a flight is only $100,000 per seat.
Can't wait till I make my first 30 million. I will be doing the latter.  |
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Space Walker  
Joined: Sat Jul 01, 2006 12:18 am
Posts: 198
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Re: Possible Mars Launch 2018? Posted on: Sat Mar 02, 2013 12:39 pm Lourens wrote: Ah, looks like they're planning a single Falcon Heavy with a Dragon on top and two crew, using the Falcon second stage for the injection into the free return orbit to Mars, and aerobraking the Dragon on return. Here's a PDF with a fairly extensive description. Reading it I have to say that this seems like one of those NASA mission proposals that are littering their archives by the hundreds, except that this time there's someone making a lot of noise in the media about it. Then again, Dennis Tito is apparently a funds manager these days, so he must know some people with deep pockets. And anyway the technologies developed for this will be useful. On the other hand, I don't see why this project should succeed where all those others never got off the drawing board... Thanks for the link to the article. I definitely think it is technically doable. About the cost, making a comparison to Apollo the biggest costs were development of the launcher and launch costs. But for this case SpaceX is already paying for the development of the Falcon Heavy, and their quoted price for the launch is only $120 million. This majorly reduces the cost of such a mission. Bob Clark _________________ Single-stage-to-orbit was already shown possible 50 years ago with the Titan II first stage. Contrary to popular belief, SSTO's in fact are actually easy. Just use the most efficient engines and stages at the same time, and the result will automatically be SSTO. Blog: http://exoscientist.blogspot.com Last edited by RGClark on Sat Mar 02, 2013 12:41 pm, edited 1 time in total. |
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Space Station Commander 
Joined: Thu Oct 27, 2005 7:44 am
Posts: 626 Location: Haarlem, The Netherlands
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Re: Possible Mars Launch 2018? Posted on: Sun Mar 03, 2013 1:43 pm Well, IIRC the lunar lander also cost a billion dollars in 1960's money, but you're right that that is a lot less than Saturn V's 6.5 billion, and of course these guys are not landing.
The goal of SpaceX is to revolutionise the space industry by making access dramatically cheaper. Looks like they're succeeding . Now they just need to build a few more pads and ramp up production. I want to see Proton-like launch frequencies!_________________ Say, can you feel the thunder in the air? Just like the moment ’fore it hits – then it’s everywhere What is this spell we’re under, do you care? The might to rise above it is now within your sphere Machinae Supremacy – Sid Icarus |
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