Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Russians, NASA Meet to Discuss Manned Mars Mission

Posted by Roblimo on from the doing-it-in-secret dept.

Buxley writes "CBSMarketWatch is reporting that NASA quietly concluded a three-day seminar with Russian space experts Friday, to discuss better ways to send humans to Mars. Right now, there are no official NASA plans to send people to Mars, but perhaps there are some unofficial plans?"

3 of 18 comments (clear)

  1. Unofficial plans by Yet+Another+Smith · · Score: 2

    Well, the Mars Society, is all about Mars exploration and one of thier prime activists is Robert Zubrin, an engineer for Lockheed Martin who has written The Case for Mars, a book which outlines his ideas on Mars exploration. He makes a pretty convincing case, in my layman's opinion. I don't know if NASA is buying it, but its gotten a lot of grass roots support, as these things go.

    --
    if ($it != $onething) {$it = $another;}
    1. Re:Unofficial plans by Dinosaur+Neil · · Score: 2
      Actually, NASA has kinda bought it; their current plans are built around a "Mars Reference Mission", which is more grandiose than Zubrin's "Mars Direct" approach, but a great deal smaller than NASA's original "Battlestar Galactica" idea. (The fact that they originally wanted $150+ billion and the "Mars Reference" only runs $30 to $40 billion makes it a lot easier to sell. Too bad NASA is still trying to tie the mission down to the Shuttle program...)

      Zubrin's new book, Entering Space is also a good read, critically analyzing all the "Why bother?" type questions about missions to Mars and space exploration in general...

      --
      "I'm a scientist! I don't think, I observe!" - Dr. Clayton Forrester
  2. Re:Yeah, this topic really took off by bgdarnel · · Score: 2

    It's on the science page instead of the main page. Most people don't read anything that doesn't make it to the front page.