Whatever Happened To The Mars Network?

mhw25 writes "There is a NASA/JPL project, conceptualised back in 1999, that proposed to launch a Mars Network. It boldly projected that "Deployment of a prototype Microsat, tentatively scheduled for 2003, would be the first step in creating this Mars "Internet."" With 2003 drawing to a close and no .mars domain registration offered, perhaps it is time NASA and other space agencies to rethink and revisit this worthy project, especially in light of the recent problems faced by the Beagle2."

Comments

Irridium

[MarkusQ]

This was my favourite idea for what to do with the Iridium nodes: send up rigs to boost them into a slow (or at least low delta V/sec) orbit to Mars, to set up a communications backbone there. They were pretty much what you'd want for the job, with plenty of capacity to spare.

As a semi-aside, I get irked by the kneejerk reaction to de-orbit everything, when getting it up there is 90% or so of the cost. If there was ever an environment were recycling made sense...

-- MarkusQ

Re:Irridium

[Anonymous Coward]

I get irked by the kneejerk reaction to de-orbit everything, when getting it up there is 90% or so of the cost.

I think the bigger problem is that people don't really unstand that LEO isn't really very far into space. (no flame intended, really)

Sorry I couldn't find better numbers, but your 90% is way off. Here's the best quote I could find.

Contemporary launch vehicles have launch costs of $10,000 to $20,000 per kilogram of net payload to low Earth orbit (LEO) and $60,000 to $120,000 per kilogram of net payload to geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO).

It's probably cheaper if you don't "stop" in geosynchronous orbit, but how much is beyond my knowledge.

I get irked too!

[GPS Pilot]

The worst example of unthinking de-orbiting was Mir. There you had many, many tons of aerospace-grade titanium, aluminum, and steel in orbit. Everybody talked of either continuing to man and maintain Mir, or burning it in. No one considered the third and best option: boost it to a higher orbit where atmospheric drag is neglibile, and wait patiently until it becomes an incredibly valuable resource of raw materials for on-orbit industry.