Slashdot Mirror
NASA Wants Astronauts on Mars by 2010
FeloniousPunk writes "According to
this article
in the UK Guardian, NASA intends to send a manned mission to Mars by 2010, using nuclear propulsion. President Bush may announce this project, called Project Prometheus, at the State of the Union address." Here's
good background and context;
for technical background, I recommend
Zubrin
or
Stern.
The JPL will be involved in developing the nuclear propulsion tech, intended to cut the interplanetary trip from six months to two. Apparently the theory is that this proposal won't get shot down like the last Mars proposal because the shorter mission will save money. Here's hoping public response has progressed beyond "oh no! did he say nuclear?!"
In related news,
jkcity writes:
"according to this article by the BBC, the Chinese plan to have a man in space by October 2003."
When the prez says the Mars ship uses "nukular" power, nobody will know what he's talking about. Problem solved.
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
A new strain of the flu, a new federal defecit, and a new rash of conspiracy theories is about all they're going to find up there. Oh, and a green babe for Shatner...
You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
Like most of NASA's projects, it'll go massively over budget, eat vast amounts of cash, take several times longer than anticipated and ultimately fail to deliver.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
All your Space are belong to us ;)
------- "From bored to fanboy in 3.8 asian girls" ----------
It's about advancing US nuclear reactor technology enough to replace our hydrocarbon-based power plants with generators that don't fund al Quaeda?
No, it's about funding projects which are far worse than al quaeda