Spaceship! Spaceship!
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evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Tue 27 Sep 2016, 19:48,
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Looks shiny.
How do I get back to Urf?
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wheresthefish Partly filled with wrong, Tue 27 Sep 2016, 19:55,
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Wouldn't it be better to have the refueling tanker already in orbit?
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BaronMunchausen Interdimensional Demon Day Laborer, Tue 27 Sep 2016, 20:45,
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If the plan is to boost it using the same stack as the ship
then I'd rather be on the first, recently overhauled launch, than the second, recently used one.
That said, I see no reason why the fuel couldn't be punted up there months in advance.
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wheresthefish Partly filled with wrong, Tue 27 Sep 2016, 21:02,
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Why would anyone go to Mars
apart from the novelty? It looks like hell. Is there anything there that's worth the trip?
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After you my dear Alfonse No. After you., Tue 27 Sep 2016, 21:22,
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Right now, no, not while Earth is in good shape.
But that's a temporary state of affairs.
We don't know if there's going to be a nuclear war.
We don't know if there's going to be a supervolcano.
We don't know if there's going to be catastrophic climate change.
We do know that, sooner or later, a thumping big rock is going to come screaming out the sky and kill almost everything on the planet larger than a shrew. It's not an "if", it's a "when".
Right about that point, Mars will look pretty good, especially if there've been people there for a couple of decades/centuries/millenia primping the place up a bit.
(, Tue 27 Sep 2016, 23:47, Reply)
The K-T extinction event wasn't the end of the world.
Just genetically engineer people to be more crocodilian.
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Mudface The web isn't callipygian, Wed 28 Sep 2016, 6:57,
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The K-T wasn't even a particularly big one
Here's your doomsday scenario:
Permian -Triassic extinction event
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evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Wed 28 Sep 2016, 8:50,
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Presumably to get back, the tanker would need to follow them out to Mars?
Got a feeling it's never going to happen, but it's nice to dream. Presumably there's a shit-ton of minerals and that on Mars worth carting home. Not that it matters, exploration for it's own sake is a great thing, and would be something positive to see in the news. Unless it all goes horribly wrong.
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Greenbat, Tue 27 Sep 2016, 23:51,
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Nope
The plan is to synthesise fuel when at Mars from water in the sub-surface ice and the CO2 in the atmosphere.
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evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Wed 28 Sep 2016, 0:07,
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If it's possible to do that with limited resources on mars why are we not doing that here?
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Cerebus Sticky! Sticky! Stick! Stick!, Wed 28 Sep 2016, 5:58,
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Er... We are?
Or do you think rocket fuel magically rains down and is scooped up in buckets?
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evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Wed 28 Sep 2016, 7:19,
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Well I men't on a mass scale for energy use.
If you can do that on mars with very limited resources compared to earth why not here for power production?
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Cerebus Sticky! Sticky! Stick! Stick!, Wed 28 Sep 2016, 8:21,
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Because you have to pump energy in to make the fuel
The energy source on Mars is going to be solar panels (they covered that in the talk) or potentially if there's the will for it a nuclear source.
I'll leave you to figure out the source of the energy for the process on Earth.
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evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Wed 28 Sep 2016, 10:22,
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Needs more ground-based ion cannons
covering its launch.
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joefish It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks, Wed 28 Sep 2016, 15:06,
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Looks romantic
If you neglect that the round trip would be a better part of a year (and that's an optimal launch window) and you're locked in that capsule with a bunch of other people. How long before they split into two groups who worship gods that demand war and human sacrifice?
(, Wed 28 Sep 2016, 20:28, Reply)