People on Mars in 30 Years?

lucabrasi999 writes "Yahoo is running a Reuters story in which Arthur Thompson, the head of the NASA 'rover' missions, says that people could be landing on Mars in the next twenty or thirty years. If that is true, I estimate that within 50 years, Mars will need women."

Comments

Detail left out

[StevenHenderson]

There was a detail left out of the submission. The FA reads:

Asked how long it could be before astronauts land on Mars, Arthur Thompson, mission manager for MER surface operations, told Reuters in an interview in Lima, "My best guess is 20 to 30 years, if that becomes our primary priority."

If it is primary priority. Which I doubt it will be. And depending on who is our next president might affect how much funding NASA gets.

Nuclear Propulsion

[frank249]

The smallest feasible Mars expedition requires 150 or so tons in Earth orbit, which takes 5 trips on the most powerful rocket flying today, the Space Shuttle. A large nuclear powered booster could put six times that mass in orbit in one flight. According to this article, an Apollo size rocket with gas core engines would be safe, economical and would even get rid of excess nuclear waste.

This is not new. NASA tested Nuke engines in the 60's. If we are serious about going to Mars, we have to start building nuke engines.