fox@fury | ||||
Friday, Jan 16, 2004
Paul Davies makes an interesting case for a realistic mission to Mars: Make it a one-way trip (NYT registration required).
It wouldn't be the first time explorers have gone on to new lands without expectation of coming back, and the potential gain is significant. Unlike the Moon, Mars can provide a sustainable habitat, with minimal supplies sent from Earth each time the 2.2-year window opens up. Further, if we start with a crew of four, and add more people as the colony proves its viability, then this concept starts to look less and less like a suicide mission, and more like colonization. Sure, there are tons of problems, not the least of which is that so far 20 of the 36 craft sent to Mars have failed en-route, which makes gambling on the bi-annual resupply from Earth a harrowing and possibly deadly game, but improving the reliability of the one-way trips is infinitely easier than trying to engineer a round-trip with current technologies. If you like it, please share it.
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aboutme
Hi, I'm Kevin Fox. I also have a resume. electricimp
I'm co-founder in The Imp is a computer and wi-fi connection smaller and cheaper than a memory card. We're also hiring. followme
I post most frequently on Twitter as @kfury and on Google Plus. pastwork
I've led design at Mozilla Labs, designed Gmail 1.0, Google Reader 2.0, FriendFeed, and a few special projects at Facebook. ©2012 Kevin Fox |